MEDICALIZATION AND BIOLOGICAL REDUCTION IN PSYCHIATRIC DISCOURSE

Authors

  • DEBORAH UHR

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12957/polemica.2012.3730

Abstract

This article presents the ideas of four contemporary authors on medicalization in contemporary society: Conrad (1992), Rose (2003), Ehrenberg (2004) e Rosenberg (2006). It showcases the authors' critical analysis of the biomedical approach to health and illness. In the mental health field, this approach has sought to unify neurology and psychiatry, and to reduce mental phenomena to brain mechanisms. In their analysis, notions of somatic individuality and cerebral subject emerge as central to the understanding of the social and subjective effects of reductionist physicalism.

Key-words: medicalization, biological reductionism, psychiatry, mental health, depression.

Author Biography

DEBORAH UHR

Psicóloga e psicanalista, mestre em Saúde Coletiva (IMS/UERJ), doutoranda em Psicologia Clínica (Puc-Rio), supervisora clínico-institucional da rede de saúde mental da Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro, professora do Instituto Brasileiro de Medicina e Reabilitação.

Published

2012-08-31

How to Cite

UHR, D. (2012). MEDICALIZATION AND BIOLOGICAL REDUCTION IN PSYCHIATRIC DISCOURSE. POLÊM!CA, 11(3), 396 a 103. https://doi.org/10.12957/polemica.2012.3730

Issue

Section

LIPIS - Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa e Intervenção Social