Medicalisation: the definition of disease and the role of tomorrow’s doctors

Abstract

Medicalisation transforms formerly non-medical aspects of human life, bringing them under what Foucault called ‘the medical gaze’. Physicians, the definers of disease and gatekeepers of diagnosis, have traditionally held the sole power to medicalise. However, as the patient-doctor dynamic and medical training continues to shift away from a paternalistic model towards holism, and we enter an era where personalised medicine is becoming more prominent, medicalisation is increasingly driven by external forces. These forces range from pharmaceutical companies to socio-political movements to patients themselves. Medical students and physicians have a responsibility to understand these forces and how they influence the practise and scope of medicine.