Seekers and providers: medicalization of circumstantial sadness and fear

Medicalization of circumstantial sadness or fear is a complex and uneven social process that blurs the boundaries between intense, yet non-disordered emotions, on the one hand, and depression or anxiety disorders, on the other. A range of macro-level mechanisms intervene and interact in this process, such as symptom-based psychiatric classification systems or the promotional apparatus of the pharmaceutical industry. Diagnosis and treatment nevertheless are enacted in a clinical encounter between an individual, who seeks healthcare, and a mental health specialist, who decides upon it. Thus, employing in-depth interviews conducted in Spain, the aim of this chapter is to shed some light on the medicalization of ordinary sadness and everyday anxiety by focusing on healthcare seekers and providers. Building upon the work of Jürgen Habermas, I analyze medicalization as the colonization of the lifeworld by the system and reveal processes on both sides of the provider-user dyad that (re)produce it.