Sharon Kaufman
From masculinity to underperformance, from the surge in psychotropic drugs for children to the rise of adult ADHD and more, Peter Conrad takes readers on a welcome and necessary tour of the spread of medicalization. His cogent analysis of changing objects of knowledge and transformed identity is an essential guide to shifting ideas about normal and pathological, health and disease.
Sharon Kaufman
From masculinity to underperformance, from the surge in psychotropic drugs for children to the rise of adult ADHD and more, Peter Conrad takes readers on a welcome and necessary tour of the spread of medicalization. His cogent analysis of changing objects of knowledge and transformed identity is an essential guide to shifting ideas about normal and pathological, health and disease.
Sharon Kaufman, University of California, San Francisco
Elizabeth Armstrong
Peter Conrad is one of the leading scholars of medicalization today. He mines a deep, rich vein of modern American society; his efforts yield pure sociological gold. This engaging and comprehensive book will endure not only as the intellectual foundation on which future generations of sociologists will build but also as a shining exemplar of lucid theory and the highest sociological craft.
Elizabeth Armstrong, Princeton University
Steven Epstein
A lucid overview of a complex field that astutely recounts and analyzes the latest twists and turns in the long saga of our love/hate relationship with the health professions, the pharmaceutical industry, and the corporate organization of health care. I prescribe this book for anyone who has ever seen a doctor or popped a pill.
Steven Epstein, author of Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge
Carl Elliott
No one in America brings more insight to the thorny issue of medicalization than Peter Conrad. The Medicalization of Society is a deeply impressive summation of more than thirty years of work.
Carl Elliott, University of Minnesota, author of Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream
From the Publisher
From masculinity to underperformance, from the surge in psychotropic drugs for children to the rise of adult ADHD and more, Peter Conrad takes readers on a welcome and necessary tour of the spread of medicalization. His cogent analysis of changing objects of knowledge and transformed identity is an essential guide to shifting ideas about normal and pathological, health and disease.—Sharon Kaufman, University of California, San Francisco
A lucid overview of a complex field that astutely recounts and analyzes the latest twists and turns in the long saga of our love/hate relationship with the health professions, the pharmaceutical industry, and the corporate organization of health care. I prescribe this book for anyone who has ever seen a doctor or popped a pill.—Steven Epstein, author of Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge
Peter Conrad is one of the leading scholars of medicalization today. He mines a deep, rich vein of modern American society; his efforts yield pure sociological gold. This engaging and comprehensive book will endure not only as the intellectual foundation on which future generations of sociologists will build but also as a shining exemplar of lucid theory and the highest sociological craft.—Elizabeth Armstrong, Princeton University
No one in America brings more insight to the thorny issue of medicalization than Peter Conrad. The Medicalization of Society is a deeply impressive summation of more than thirty years of work.—Carl Elliott, University of Minnesota, author of Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream