May Focus

[摘要] It's time for the BJGP to come out of the closet. We have a list of words that are banned, or rather strongly discouraged. These are not the ugly neologisms of modern speech, such as ‘appraisee’ or ‘fit for purpose’, which we try to keep out of the Journal anyway. They are the words like the Prime Minister's ‘modernisation’, intended to elicit approval (or opprobrium) in the hearer without having to explain what, precisely, they mean. In February's BJGP Josh Freeman wrote about the multiple understandings of ‘holism’, which practitioners use when they want to lay claim to the moral high ground of good medicine. In the letter on page 393, responding to the trial reported in March's BJGP, Moore and colleagues talk about a ‘medicalising effect’. ‘Medicalising’ isn't ambiguous: it's the process whereby something that might otherwise be thought of as simply part of the human condition is turned into a medical matter. A recent example is discussed on page 406, in a review of Prozac as a Way of Life. The worry is the way we equate ‘it's a medical problem’ with ‘taking it the doctor’. Getting people to treat their own sore throats, with or without a trip to the pharmacist, rather than come to a doctor, may be a good idea, but they may not see the problem as any less of a medical problem. So ‘medicalise’ is out, too.

[学科分类] 卫生学