The Concept of Medicalisation Reassessed

Medicalisation has been an important concept in sociological discussions of medicine since the term?s adoption by medical sociologists in the early 1970s. Yet arguably it has somewhat fallen out of fashion amongst sociologists, attacked by some, not least because it seems to be too critical of medicine, and modified or replaced by others with concepts deemed more relevant, such as biomedicalisation and pharmaceuticalisation. My aim in this paper is to reassess the concept and consider whether it still has value in exploring certain aspects of the changing role of medicine in present-day society. I start with an archaeology of the concept?s development and the different ways it has been used. This is essential to the main task: examining criticisms of the concept and assessing its value.