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Medicine Out of Control pp 173–227Cite as

Patientization of the Population

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Abstract

The contemporary medical establishment appears bent on converting the entire population of the industrialized countries into patients. This is notwithstanding the fact that most of us are normal and healthy most of the time, and that most of the illnesses we suffer from are trivial and self-limited and would recover without medical treatment. Rather than concentrate on the grave environmental, economic and social causes of the serious diseases which do afflict modern man, the medical establishment have, because of their clinical and scientific orientation, turned these diseases into individual biological and psychological problems which are destined to be dealt with on a one-to-one basis within the doctor-patient relationship.

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Authors
  1. Richard Taylor
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© 1979 Richard Taylor

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Taylor, R. (1979). Patientization of the Population. In: Medicine Out of Control. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05776-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05776-4_8

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-333-30623-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-05776-4

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