This essay focuses on the social phenomenon of medicalisation practices conceived as practices of power. Already at the outset, it is worth noting the fact that the medicalisation processes of Western society were of interest to Michel Foucault primarily for ethical reasons. The French researcher was preoccupied with the question of how we ourselves, contemporary human beings, have been changed by the fact that we have 'exposed ourselves to the public gaze' of the human sciences (not only
medicine, but also psychiatry, psychology, sexology, criminology and pedagogy) and their coupled institutions. The critical sense of Foucault's thought is that his analyses act against the enslavement of both individuals and marginalised social groups. This enslavement can be served by discourses accompanying social practices, for example various types of medical knowledge.
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