Objective: To determine whether English literature contains depictions of medicalisation by non-medical people.

Method: English literature was examined by us and skilled readers.

Results: We identified four examples: two from Macbeth and two from Vanity Fair. Not only were non-medical people the instigators, but in each publication there is one example of the advice of a medical professional (whom denied the existence of a medical problem) opinion being rejected.

Conclusions: Evidence from the work of respected authors indicates that medicalisation was practiced long before it was described in the 1970s, that it may be instigated by non-medical people, and that it may continue after medical professionals deny the existence of medical problems.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	English literature, medicalisation, non-medical problems, novels, plays, sociology, terminology, word origins, word usage
Research Division:	Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:	Clinical sciences
Research Field:	Clinical sciences not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Clinical health
Objective Field:	Clinical health not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Pridmore, S (Professor Saxby Pridmore)
ID Code:	96112
Year Published:	2014
Web of Science® Times Cited:	1
Deposited By:	Medicine
Deposited On:	2014-10-20
Last Modified:	2017-11-02
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