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Glite Dictionary
to medicalize

to medicalize

1 7.2
To treat a normal feeling or behavior as a health problem needing care
  • verb
  • /ˈmɛdɪkəˌlaɪz/
  • Specialized
: medicalizar
  • Many believe we should not medicalize natural aging processes, but rather accept them as a part of life.
  • medicalize and pathologize

And I totally understand that because it, it medicalizes their identity.

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Examples

  • You know, it's medicalizing these things to pretend reading disability is a real thing.

  • As payers seek to demedicalize conditions, providers (especially emerging alternative care providers or traditionally marginal providers) will step up efforts to medicalize their conditions of interest.

    Academic text (1997)

  • So I just think that our society in general it it's too much of A push to medicalize as a fix it.

    Megyn Kelly

  • Just no reason to medicalize a perfect process.

    Grace (2009)

  • Birth and death should not and cannot be medicalized.

    Academic text (1997)

  • He argues against medicalizing a 'normal' human condition like back pain.

    Blog text (34)

  • During the "cult wars" of the 1970s, there was an attempt to medicalize new religious movements such as the Hare Krishnas and the Children of God.

    Blog text (21)

  • He suggests that it is another case of 'disease mongering'—to medicalize the normal life of the vast majority of healthy people, which results in unnecessary over-treatment and waste of resources.

    Academic text (2012)

  • Doctors often tend to medicalize normal behaviors, viewing them as conditions that require treatment.

  • Critics argue that the tendency to medicalize life experiences oversimplifies complex human emotions.

Synonyms

to pathologize
vsto medicalize
  • US
1 9.5

Treat normal feelings or actions as medical problems

treats any condition or behaviour as requiring diagnosis or treatment

How Medicalized

to pathologize
  • US
1 9.5
to medicalize
  • Specialized
1 7.2

Surface Forms

medicalize infinitive
medicalized past
medicalized past participle
medicalizing present participle
medicalizes third person singular

Morphology

medicalize = medical (transparent) = medical + ize

Formed by the adjective 'medical' plus the productive verb-forming suffix '-ize', giving the clear meaning 'to make or treat as medical'.

Etymology

The word medicalize comes from medical, the same root as medicine and medic, which goes back to a word meaning 'to heal', and the ending -ize, which means 'to make'. So to medicalize something is to make it a medical problem, to treat it as needing a doctor or treatment.