An accessible yet nuanced introduction to a fascinating and important topic. Readers do not need any background in medicine or academic sociology to appreciate Conrad's inquiry, and the experience of living in the 21st century United States is enough to understand what he's talking about.
Benjamin J. Lovett
Metapsychology
Conrad's fine work investigates and illuminates this baleful ... Read morephenomenon.
A. Mark Clarfield, MD, FRCPC
JAMA
This is an enjoyable and thought-provoking book.
H. Russell Searight
PsycCRITIQUES
The text is useful, especially for medical students.
Choice
Recommended reading for practicing physicians, or better yet, for physicians in training. The so-called gatekeepers need to be reminded (or initially trained to understand) that reductionist medical perspectives are problematic and that the best solutions account for the social complexity that is inherent in the human condition.
Michael Fendrich, Ph.D.
New England Journal of Medicine
An invaluable synopsis of 30 years' scholarship... Clearly written and presented so that it should be accessible to students in both sociology and health studies... An immense contribution to medical sociology.
Robert Dingwall
Society
Conrad's accomplishment is significant. The Medicalization of Society is simply the most lucid treatise on the patterns and consequences of medicalization to date. It is also a much needed warning about the darker side of medicalization.
Regina Smardon
Culture
This is an extremely interesting, timely and thought-provoking book, which will have a wide appeal amongst academics. Medical sociologists will welcome the opportunity to see Conrad's various writings brought together in one volume, and will appreciate the way he has revisited and updated his own work.
Susie Scott
Health Sociology Review
The issues raised by this monograph are important, complex, and increasingly relevant for all of us who live in the modern world.
S. Elizabeth Whitmore
Themelios
Peter Conrad's book is largely comprised of a series of case studies used to illustrate the changing nature of medicalization... With his 30-year history of studying this topic, Conrad is just the right person to take on the task, and this book represents a significant contribution to the area.
Heather Hartley
Contemporary Sociology
Peter Conrad is the doyen of studies in medicalization. From his work on hyperactivity in the 1970s to his more recent research on 'geniticization' Conrad has documented the twists and turns of medical involvement in an ever increasing range of human problems. In this new book he does more than offer a reprise of his work or of the field. Rather, he sets out an illustrated framework for understanding and studying medicalization, with a view to future possible developments as well as current debates.
Mike Bury
Sociology of Health and Illness
This short, tightly written, highly readable book deals with issues, often previously regarded as normal aging or personality flaws, that have moved under the domain of medicine... An important book that will find many readers among the general public as well as among physicians... highly recommended as required reading for medical school courses.
Charles V. Ford
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
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