Medicalization of Social Policies: Defining Health, Defining Illness

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines the process of medicalization as it relates to both social policies implemented during the Nazi regime and contemporary social policies. Medicalization is the process of framing a social problem as a medical condition, thereby identifying the source of the problem as one of individual accountability and emphasizes the need to treat or cure the individual. When applied to social policies, this framework perpetuates dividing practices that create categories of social health and social sickness and allow for the control of individuals and groups of individuals. Nazi social policies were grounded in their racial hygiene agenda, which meant medicalizing individuals who participated in so-called deviant behavior, who contributed, or failed to contribute, to the nation’s welfare, and who were considered a threat to the citizenry and the health of the nation. This same medicalization of social policies is evident today in countries’ approaches to regulating sexual and criminal behavior, limiting government assistance, and restricting borders.