The Medicalized Society

Abstract

This article develops the thesis that modern American society has become increasingly medicalized, reflected in the growth of a vast medical-pharmaceutical complex that is commodified, technocratic, and iatrogenic (creating more harm than good) as one function of modernity in the fields of health care, drugs, food, and agriculture. A focus of this treatment is the heavy reliance on drugs as medicalized forms of treatment for a wide variety of health conditions, both real and contrived. Medicalization is a process that extends to virtually every realm of American society today. Its hegemonic position is derived from the power of science, technology, and professionalism within the health and medical spheres.