The Medicalization of Life

Is an unruly child a sick child? To feel a sense of shyness when meeting new people is a sign of depression? Being sometimes very glad and feeling sometimes sad implies bipolarism? Should small breasts be “cured”? Why should a man of seventy have the sexuality of a teenager? In order to be more concetrated in our jobs should we use amphetamins? Many affluent societies, and expecially the American one, are experiencing a growing medicalization of everyday life. Some human conditions, once considered as normal, are now labelled as pathological. Moreover, many Western countries witness a huge increase of mental disorders (social anxiety, ADHD, depression, bipolarism) which raises suspects on the diagnostic criteria on which pharmaceuticals are prescribed. But we have also the “real” illnesses: the level upon which someone is considered at risk of cholesterol and hypertension have been lowered. Thus, the number of “pre-sicks” has grown astonishly (medicalization of prevention). Also the shift from cure to optimization which characterizes some bioeconomic strategies are adressed in this volume. The possibility to modify genetics as contributed to blurr the borders between pathology and normality. This volume, based on contributions from scholars of different nationalities, gives the more updated answers to the dilemmas emerging from the ongoing medicalization of everyday life.