Medicalization of deviations as a tool of social control

The purpose of this study was to comprehend the phenomenon of medicalization of deviations as an instrument of social control in the context of liberalization of all spheres of society. In the course of the study, an analytical method was used in combination with a scientific-theoretical approach, materials from 56 sources of literature were analyzed. In modern society, there is more and more a tendency towards the spread of cruelty, crime, promiscuity, drug addiction. All these are the consequences of the fall of human spirituality, when not only the main human values, but also human life itself, are devalued. Against this background, discussions about the impact of medicine on people’s lives are increasinglyarising. The medical style of thinking is formed on a subconscious level. In a person’s daily life, his dependence on medicine increases and even medical “labels” are attached to certain patterns of behavior. This situation has received the definition of “medicalization”. The phenomenon of medicalization of deviations has a contradictory nature, which consists in the presence of both negative and positive social and medical meanings. On the one hand, its negative impact on people’s daily life lies in the real ability of doctors to control the social behavior of people. The medical profession has a preferential right to exercise the social control function, owing to their professional powers to define and designate illness. As a result, they can subjugate the management of social processes, expanding their medical recommendations and prescriptions. On the other hand, the positive impact of the medicalization process lies in the prevalence of social control on the part of medical workers and, as a consequence, the replacement of open forms of violence with milder forms of coercion.