Svetlichnaya T.G., Smirnova E.A. Medicalization of Deviations as a Tool of Social Control
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2022.2.10
Tatyana G. Svetlichnaya
Doctor of Sciences (Medicine), Professor, Department of Public Health, Health Care and Social Work, Northern State Medical University
Prosp. Troitsky, 51, 163000 Arkhangelsk, Russian Federation
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6563-9604
Elena A. Smirnova
Candidate of Sciences (Sociology), Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Technologies, Cherepovets State University
Prosp. Sovetskiy, 8, 162600 Cherepovets, Russian Federation
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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9383-0649
Abstract. The purpose of this study was to comprehend the phenomenon of medicalization of deviations as an instrument of social control in the context of liberalization of all spheres of society. In the course of the study, an analytical method was used in combination with a scientific-theoretical approach, materials from 56 sources of literature were analyzed. In modern society, there is more and more a tendency towards the spread of cruelty, crime, promiscuity, drug addiction. All these are the consequences of the fall of human spirituality, when not only the main human values, but also human life itself, are devalued. Against this background, discussions about the impact of medicine on people's lives are increasingly arising. The medical style of thinking is formed on a subconscious level. In a person's daily life, his dependence on medicine increases and even medical "labels" are attached to certain patterns of behavior. This situation has received the definition of "medicalization". The phenomenon of medicalization of deviations has a contradictory nature, which consists in the presence of both negative and positive social and medical meanings. On the one hand, its negative impact on people's daily life lies in the real ability of doctors to control the social behavior of people. The medical profession has a preferential right to exercise the social control function, owing to their professional powers to define and designate illness. As a result, they can subjugate the management of social processes, expanding their medical recommendations and prescriptions. On the other hand, the positive impact of the medicalization process lies in the prevalence of social control on the part of medical workers and, as a consequence, the replacement of open forms of violence with milder forms of coercion.
Key words: medicalization, social control, doctor, patient, socially dangerous action, psychiatry.
Citation. Svetlichnaya T.G., Smirnova E.A. Medicalization of Deviations as a Tool of Social Control. Logos et Praxis, 2022, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 91-103. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2022.2.10
Medicalization of Deviations as a Tool of Social Control by Svetlichnaya T.G., Smirnova E.A. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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