A New Time of Reckoning, a Time for New Reckoning: Views on Health and Society, Tensions between Medicine and the Social Sciences, and the Process of Medicalization

Diogo Silva da Cunha () and Hélder Raposo
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Diogo Silva da Cunha: Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Av. Prof. Aníbal Bettencourt 9, 1600-189 Lisbon, Portugal
Hélder Raposo: Lisbon School of Health Technology, Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, Av. D. João II, Lote 4.69.01, 1990-096 Lisboa, Portugal

Societies, 2022, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-51

Abstract: This article seeks to capture variations and tensions in the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society. It presents several theoretical reconstructions, established theses and arguments are reassessed and criticized, known perspectives are realigned according to a new theorizing narrative, and some new notions are proposed. In the first part, we argue that relations between the medical complex and society are neither formal–abstract nor historically necessary. In the second part, we take the concept of medicalization and the development of medicalization critique as an important example of the difficult coalescence between health and society, but also as an alternative to guide the treatment of these relationships. Returning to the medicalization studies, we suggest a new synthesis, reconceptualizing it as a set of modalities, including medical imperialism. In the third part, we endorse replacing a profession-based approach to medicalization with a knowledge-based approach. However, we argue that such an approach should include varieties of sociological knowledge. In this context, we propose an enlarged knowledge-based orientation for standardizing the relationships between the health–illness–medicine complex and society.

Keywords: medicalization; knowledge-based approach; medical dogmatism; medical skepticism; medical imperialism; sociological imperialism; sociological objectivism; sociological subjectivism; pharmaceuticalization; therapeuticalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:4:p:119-:d:887369

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