On a Slippery Slope: The Medicalization of Grief January 26, 2012

In the U.S. today, there is a movement to transform the normal life cycle experience of “grief following a death” into a psychiatric illness. This shift is part of the larger phenomenon of the medicalization of human experience. My presentation will illustrate how grief is framed increasingly in the language of illness and will discuss the consequences of this move. The following quote by famed sociologist Elliot Friedson will be my starting point: “A pathology arises …when the only legitimate spokesperson on an issue relevant to all must be someone who is officially certified” (1970). Sponsored by Women's Studies Research Center