Dictionary

medicalization en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *med- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Italic *medos Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Italic *-ējō Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ēō Latin -eō Latin medeor Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icus Latin medicus Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Medieval Latin medicālisbor. French médicalbor. English medical Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin -ātiōlbor. Old French -ationbor. Middle English -acioun English -ation English -ization English medicalization From medical + -ization.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The act or process of medicalizing.
   • The medicalization of neurodiversity is complex; psychiatric nosology attempts to draw appropriate lines according to functional impairment or distress, but the concept of functional impairment sometimes relies on enculturated requirements.
   • Near-synonym: pathologization
   • Identity of Neurology Social Media and the Politician versus Medicalization of Trans People [title] 2013, Alexander Wijnants, “Identity of Neurology Social Media and the Politician versus Medicalization of Trans People”, in Synaesthesia: Communication Across Cultures, volume 1, number 4, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10 Sep 2015, page 131:
   • Once we begin to ask questions about medicalization, the entire framing of the mental health toll of the Covid crisis — an “epidemic” of mental illness, as various publications have called it, rather than a political crisis with medical effects — begins to seem inadequate. 2022 September 20, Danielle Carr, “Mental Health Is Political”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms

Deriveds

biomedicalization · overmedicalization · demedicalization · paramedicalization · antimedicalization

Relateds

underdiagnosis · overdiagnosis

Synonyms

pathologization

Translations (8)

pt medicalização (the act or process of medicalizing) · gl medicalización (the act or process of medicalizing) · fr médicalisation (the act or process of medicalizing) · pl medykalizacja (the act or process of medicalizing) · fi medikalisointi (the act or process of medicalizing) · de Medikalisierung (the act or process of medicalizing) · es medicalización (the act or process of medicalizing) · fi medikalisoituminen (the act or process of medicalizing)