A New Era of Medical Consumption: Medicalisation Revisited

Abstract

After Ivan Illich produced his critique of the medical establishment, medicalisation became a synonym for a perverse evolution in Western health care. Since then, the concept has often been used to critique the perceived oppression of subjects by the health establishment, culminating in a call for resistance against this system. The world, including that of medicine, has changed profoundly since Illich launched his attack, and, consequently, so must our analysis of it. Today, instead of resisting medicine or medicalisation, most of us do everything we can to participate in it. Unless our governments prevent us, we consume medicine as much as possible, and thus overuse the system. Medicalisation is, therefore, at a turning point. In this article, we wish to unravel its current analytical potential, and attempt to renew the analysis in contemporary society. If social critique is still to be of importance in tomorrow.s medicine, much will depend upon the way in which we deal with this crucial question.