Medicine, Psychology, and the Welfare State

Abstract

AbstractHow does a welfare state develop into a biopsychosocial welfare state? Ariaans, Bleckmann, and Reibling ask this question and provide a much-needed theoretical construct of the medicalization and psychologizations processes that take place within the welfare state. Although medicine and psychology are disciplines that have always been discussed as parts of the healthcare system of welfare states, the link of both disciplines to other areas of the welfare state is unclear, and we still lack an overall theoretical idea as to how the processes of medicalization and psychologization are embedded in the welfare state. By linking dimensions (ideas, institutions, actors) and levels (macro, meso, and micro), Ariaans et al. provide theoretical examples of how the move toward a biopsychosocial welfare state unfolds.