Medicalizzazione della devianza, controllo sociale e social work

[Machine translation] In recent decades, the process through which a non-medical problem is treated as if it were a medical problem, a process that is defined as “medicalization”, has expanded so significantly in our societies that now there are many areas of human experience that are interpreted in the light of the medical paradigm: both behaviors that in the past were labeled as deviant (alcoholism, gambling, etc.) and events and processes that in the past were considered natural phenomena (pregnancy, aging, etc.). Among the non-medical problems that are defined and treated as if they were emotional disorders or illnesses, there are many that fall within the scope of intervention of Social Workers. The tendency to medicalize problems that fall within the areas of intervention of social workers poses a series of relevant questions. The article focuses on a central issue for the institutional and professional mandate of the social worker: how does medicalization (of deviance) influence the forms in which social control is exercised? To answer this question, first of all, the ways in which medicalization regulates deviant behavior are analyzed. Subsequently, the 'positive' consequences and the 'latent' aspects ('darker sides') of medicalization as a mechanism for regulating deviance are described. Finally, it should be noted that the medicalization of deviance, promoting a clinical approach aimed at “correcting” deviants rather than “reevaluating” them (Matza), is hardly compatible with a professional practice based, as indicated in the Social Worker's Code of Ethics, “on the value, dignity and uniqueness of all people, on respect for their universally recognized rights and their original qualities, such as freedom, equality, sociality, solidarity, participation, as well as on affirmation of the principles of social justice and equity.” Therefore, professional practices must be promoted that, avoiding the logic of the medicalization of deviance, make power relationships in the field of social work potentially transformative, that is, able to give power to the subjects who are “subject” of social intervention.