Medicalization and linguistic agency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21379262 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ashley Feinsinger (0000-0002-0251-8810, Department of Medicine David Geffen School of Medicine University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles CA 90095 USA, corresponding author), David Friedell (0000-0002-1965-5707, Department of Philosophy University of British Columbia Vancouver BC V6T 1Z1 Canada) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 232-242 |
| Publication date | 2020-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ratio (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-0006 • E-ISSN: 1467-9329 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/rati.12264 |
| OpenAlex | W3011611653 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
Medicalization is the process by which conditions, for example, intellectual disability, hyperactivity in children, and posttraumatic stress disorder, become understood as medical disorders. During this process, the medical community often collectively assigns a label to a condition and consequently to those who would be said to have the disorder. We argue that there are at least two previously overlooked ways in which this linguistic practice may be wrongful, and sometimes, unjust: first, when the initial introduction of a medical label is done without the participation of those individuals who are being labelled, and second, when attempts by those individuals to renegotiate the labels are thwarted or otherwise rendered ineffective. In both cases, we argue, individuals are unfairly excluded from a linguistic practice that would be valuable for them to participate in. Furthermore, we argue that their exclusion depends in part on the authority of the medical institution to ignore their demands for participation. In making this case, we will propose the more general claim that participating in the linguistic processes of determining and renegotiating the words that will be used to describe oneself is an exercise of linguistic agency , a capacity that has both instrumental and intrinsic value
Agency (philosophy) · Epistemology · Linguistics · Medicalization · Process (computing) · Psychiatry · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Highly cited | No |
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