HIV Transitions: Consequences for Self in an Era of Medicalisation

Abstract

In the West the normalisation of HIV has crystallised a singular, dominant, medical construction of HIV infection. Of course medical constructions of HIV have always been present and central to understanding HIV, yet recently, in conjunction with the advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART), they have become far more salient. This chapter, with an exploration of the experiences of people living with HIV in the UK, seeks to refocus the reader upon a range of psychosocial issues which can sometimes be overlooked, or overshadowed, when faced with the brightness and clarity of the biomedical narrative of HIV. Through drawing on a range of positive people’s experiences the chapter tentatively explores how processes of HIV normalisation rely upon the medicalisation of HIV and a concomitant process of the minimisation of psychosocial issues. In the global context of difficulties accessing treatments and care, these psychosocial concerns may indeed appear minor, yet sometimes, and often in surprising ways, the biomedical depends upon the psychosocial to function.