The Medicalization of Intention

• In Event: 30668 - New Boundaries and Jurisdictions

Abstract

Prior research has explored how people interpret and use the nebulous dichotomies of intention that characterize health experience. However, there has not yet been a deep investigation into how intention itself has become medicalized as a way for medical practitioners to exert medical authority. The purpose of this paper is to understand how a psychological concept such as intention is clinically relevant in assessing health. Through several case studies of conditions that are dependent on the intention of the patient (self-injury, weight loss, infertility, pregnancy, and pregnancy termination), I explore how intention has become medicalized. My focus is not just on whether intention is relevant. The medicalization of intention means that some conditions may only be considered medical problems because they were intended or unintended. I argue that intention is medicalized in order to decrease medical uncertainty, increase physician authority and control, and reinforce the moral economy of science and medicine. This paper advances studies of the social construction of health and illness, the relationship between moralism and health, and questions of how to evaluate medical knowledge, authority, and decision-making.

Author

• Cynthia Beavin, University of Cincinnati