Analysis of Medicalization of Health and Illness and Mental Illness

This assignment examines the medicalization of health and illness, focusing on how non-medical problems are treated as medical issues. It explores the role of healthcare, the impact of social context, and the influence of sociological perspectives. The assignment also delves into the social construction of mental illness, highlighting how societal and cultural factors shape our understanding of mental health. It references key academic sources to support the analysis, providing a comprehensive understanding of these complex issues within a sociological framework. The assignment emphasizes the influence of social and cultural perspectives on mental health issues. The assignment is designed to enhance understanding of contemporary health factors, the role of medical providers, and the complexity of these processes in the modern world.

What is the medicalization of health and illness? Additionally, what is the social
construction of mental illness?
The medicalization of health and illness is the process where the non-medical problems are
defined easily and then treated as medical problems, in terms of the illness or any type of the
disorder. The global health issues overemphasize the roles of the health care to health. It is one
of the factor where the human conditions and the problems are defined and treated as medical
conditions with subject to medical study, diagnosis and the prevention. The sociological
perspectives are defined through handling the professionals, and the corporation, which is
considered as a major implication for the ordinary people1. The medicalization process includes
the subject of social context, which is related to the biomedical ideology and generally results in
disregarding any of the social causes. The example is the unequal distribution of the power and
resources. The process analyses roots in sociology with critical understanding about
contemporary health factors. It is about understanding how the different agents need to be set to
work as medical providers. It is seen as contemporary sociological analysis to recognize the
complexity which is a process and not an outcome.
The social construction of mental illness highlights about the work which is extremely
influenced by the social and cultural perspectives2. The face of deep cultural framgnetation in
1 Hofmann, Bjørn. "Medicalization and overdiagnosis: different but alike." Medicine, Health
Care and Philosophy 19.2 (2016): 253-264.
2 Vogt, Henrik, Bjørn Hofmann, and Linn Getz. "The new holism: P4 systems medicine and the
medicalization of health and life itself." Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 19.2 (2016): 307-
323.

western societies have to face divided public opinion on different mental health issues. The
individuals adapt a wider range of positions which range from lobbying to the oppostition of the
mental health services.
References
Hofmann, Bjørn. "Medicalization and overdiagnosis: different but alike." Medicine, Health Care
and Philosophy 19.2 (2016): 253-264.
Vogt, Henrik, Bjørn Hofmann, and Linn Getz. "The new holism: P4 systems medicine and the
medicalization of health and life itself." Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 19.2 (2016): 307-
323.