Citation

Easterling CH. J. Relig. Health 2000; 39(1): 43-49.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Academy of Religion and Mental Health, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1023/A:1004690725027

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The medicalization of deviance refers to the identification as diseases or illnesses of patterns of behavior that were previously considered in moral terms. Herbert Spencer viewed society as analogous to a living organism. A problem or "disease" in one part of the organism affects the entire organism. Early sociologists built on this idea and arrived at the conclusion that deviant behavior could be thought of as "social disease" and "social pathology." The early social pathologists were concerned with crime, mental illness, drug abuse, and suicide. There is a tendency to treat such "ailments" in a hospital or clinical setting. The medicalization of deviance removes responsibility from the individual as well as from the society which continues to produce the problem. Treatment programs give the false impression that something worthwhile is being done about society's "behavioral problems" and turn the individuals "treated" back into the same social milieu in which the problem was incubated in the first place. The medicalization of deviance creates a vested-interest industry dependent upon the treatment of individuals. It has constructed a system of individualized microlevel treatment programs that can be beneficial on a limited basis for a few individuals and their families, but it tends to treat only the symptoms but not change the society of which they are but emanations.

Language: en