Reflections on Healthism and Medicalization 45 Years Later

This reflective essay revisits the key interpretive concepts of 'medicalization' and 'healthism' that I employed in 'Healthism and the Medicalization of Everyday Life', published in 1980. The original article addressed the emergence in the United States of 'a new health consciousness' and related holistic health and self-help movements in the late 1970s. I clarify and extend my use of the concept of medicalization, supplementing my original discussion with insights from other scholars. Given that these concepts have been widely utilised in interpretations of health cultures in other countries, the specific historical location of the original work is further elaborated. The relevance of the larger historical contexts at work have also become more apparent with time. The essay concludes with a few brief observations about present developments in the United States and the continuing relevance of the concept of healthism for interpretation of contemporary health culture.