title: Medicalisation by non-medical personnel in English literature.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether English literature contains depictions of medicalisation by non-medical people.
  
  
  METHODS
  English literature was examined by us and skilled readers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified four examples: two from Macbeth and two from Vanity Fair. Not only were non-medical people the instigators, but in each publication there is one example of the advice of a medical professional (whom denied the existence of a medical problem) opinion being rejected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Evidence from the work of respected authors indicates that medicalisation was practiced long before it was described in the 1970s, that it may be instigated by non-medical people, and that it may continue after medical professionals deny the existence of medical problems.
authors.affiliation: Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia S.Pridmore@utas.edu.au.
authors.forename: Saxby
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pridmore
authors.affiliation: Consultant Psychiatrist, Southern District Health Board, Otago and Southland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Garcia
mesh_terms: D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D062528:Medicalization; D008513:Medicine in Literature
keywords: English literature; medicalisation; non-medical problems; novels; plays; sociology; terminology; word origins; word usage