Anne Figert - Böcker

This is the first book-length account of the controversy preceding and following the APA’s decision in 1986 to include a premenstrually related diagnosis in its revised diagnostic manual, DSM III-R. Figert examines why the decision was controversial and consequential in three main domains where people, their interests, and claims to ownership coincide: the Health and Mental Health Domain, the Woman Domain, and the Science Domain.

In recent years medicalization, the process of making something medical, has gained considerable ground and a position in everyday discourse. In this multidisciplinary collection of original essays, the authors expertly consider how issues around medicalization have developed, ways in which it is changing, and the potential shapes it will take in the future. They develop a unique argument that medicalization, biomedicalization, pharmaceuticalization and geneticization are related and co-evolving processes, present throughout the globe. This is an ideal addition to anthropology, sociology and STS courses about medicine and health.