Term Papers on History And Philosophy Of Medicine: Bodies In History

Term Paper Title	History And Philosophy Of Medicine: Bodies In History
# of Words	2878
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	11.51

History and Philosophy of Medicine: Bodies in History

Examine the ways in which psycho-social and sexual problems became medicalised in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Were men and women affected differently by this process?

     A typical approach to the examination of the history of medicine involves constructing a time line upon which are placed a series of ‘breakthroughs’ which are judged for their contribution to current knowledge. This purely technical rationale does not provide the insight that a social history can, in which the events of the time are firmly framed and discussed in light of the prevailing social, political and economic circumstances. The medicalisation of psycho-social and sexual problems by western medicine in the broad timespan between 1800 and 1930 is an ideal situation through which to examine this concept. To medicalise something is to label it a disease or a disorder, and the implication then is that this can be cured by the knowledgable treatment of a physician.  It will be shown that the way a number of social, sexual and psychological disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, masturbation, homosexuality and suicide were medicalised was as much a result of social framing as !
scientific progress. Under this system legitimacy and institutionalisation is given to the prevailing social order. Further weight will be added to the case by examining how the medicalisation of women’s problems closely relates to the standing they held in Victorian society.
     Homosexuality is a kind of behaviour which is highly amenable to examination as an example of psycho-social and sexual medicalisation. It was first detailed in American and European physician’s case studies in the late nineteenth century (Hansen, 1992). Throughout history homosexual behaviour had been regarded as deviant, and was firmly in the sphere of morality. At different times it was viewed with bemusement, for example a scot named Lithgow wrote “Sodomy...a monstrous filthiness, and yet to them a pleasant pastime, making songs and singing Sonets of the beauty and the pleasure of their Bardassi, or buggerd boys” (Taylor, 1953:150), or disgust as an unnatural vice. The most common approach throughout the medieval years was that it was a mortal sin. The medicalisation of this condition involved conceptualising homosexuality as a blameless disease. This necessitated a shift in its definition, whereby a homosexual was defined not as one who had performed sexual acts with a me!
mber of the same sex, but as someone possessing an underlying or innate sickness. Hansen’s (1992) reproduction of a case study of “Mr.X” by a physician at a New York lunatic asylum provides a good source to demonstrate this. Mr. X is described as never having had a homosexual encounter, but of exhibiting cross gender tendencies, such as nibbling food, dressing stylishly, admiring men and discussing women’s dress. These characteristics were evidence enough to pronounce that the patient exhibited evidence of “contrary sexual instinct” (Hansen, 1992:109). When gender is considered some interesting points emerge. The majority of diagnosed cases were male, and this may have contributed to the transformation of homosexuality into a guiltless condition, whereby its sufferers were offered social justification for their feelings. As will be discussed later in this paper, conditions which predominantly affected females often had a more oppressive outcome when medicalised.
     The medicalisation of suicide follows broadly similar lines to that of homosexuality, with several important exceptions. It was regarded as a mortal sin in England in the seventeenth century, arguably because the crown could then confiscate the deceased’s property and because it was the view of the Protestant religion. MacDonald (1992) argues convincingly that the social perception of suicide, as measured through the decision of juries on suicide trials, altered dramatically over the next two centuries to the point were a complete turnaround had occurred. Initially, the great majority of juries rule...

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