What does the term 'medicalization' refer to in psychological and social contexts?

The term 'medicalization' refers to the recategorization of conditions as medical issues, indicating that certain behaviors, experiences, or conditions that may have previously been understood in non-medical terms are now viewed within a medical framework. This shift often involves defining various social or psychological issues as diseases or disorders that require medical treatment or intervention.

By reclassifying these conditions, the medical community may demand therapeutic or pharmaceutical responses, effectively changing the societal perception of certain behaviors or states of being. For example, conditions such as anxiety or fatigue could be seen not just as challenges to be managed through lifestyle changes but as disorders that necessitate clinical diagnosis and treatment. This process impacts how individuals understand their own experiences and the resources available to them for addressing those conditions.

While the classification of health conditions, promotion of wellness initiatives, and improvement of public health standards are important in their own right, they do not capture the essence of medicalization, which focuses specifically on the transformation of perceptions and treatments of various issues into medical concerns.