What's in a name? : Alcohol and drug treatment and the politics of confusion

• Aims The aim of this article is to investigate the use of a rather vague medical conceptual framework within the compulsory treatment of alcohol and drug users in Sweden during the 20th century. Focus lies on exploring how a phenomenon come to be described as pathological, what the causes are for certain actions all of a sudden being interpreted in medical terms, and what consequences that might lead to. Design Supported by theoretical speculations on medicalization processes and conceptual history, two empirical cases (the compulsory care of alcohol abusers in the 1950’s and the legislative process leading to psychiatric compulsory care of drug users in the late 1960’s) are investigated. The first case draws mainly upon official reports and archive material from alcohol treatment institutions, whilst the second case is built from reading official reports and parliamentary material. The research task for the two empirical cases has not quite been the same: whereas the first case is illustrated by the discrepancies between the labelling of treatment activities and the treatment actually carried out, the second case rather draws upon the enlargement of the field of signification of the disease concept to cover most aspects of drug use. Results A medicalization process on different levels is traced both in the post-war compulsory treatment of alcohol abusers as well as being a part of the launching of compulsory psychiatric care of drug abusers from the late 1960’s onwards. Conclusion The investigated cases shows how the medicalization processes gained from a conceptual vagueness, a widening of the conceptual dimensions of both the treatment and disease concepts. In this, the medicalization of alcohol abuse in the 1950’s and drug abuse in the 1960’s made way for a paternalistic justification of compulsory care measures that might otherwise have become politically troublesome.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Idé- och lärdomshistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- History of Ideas (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Omvårdnad (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Nursing (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Work (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Compulsory care

alcohol abusers

drug abusers

medicalizaltion

conceptual history

key concepts

basic concepts

fat words

paternalism

history

20th century

Sweden

History

Historia

History of science and ideas

Idé- o lärdomshistoria

Legal history

Rättshistoria

Caring sciences

Vårdvetenskap

Social work

Socialt arbete

History

historia

idé- och lärdomshistoria

History Of Sciences and Ideas

Legal History

rättshistoria

Social Work

socialt arbete

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)