The medicalization of everyday life in terms of Michel Foucault's Approach to Biopolitics

The use of medical elements, medical technologies and health-related production activities in non-illness situations is called medicalization. The concept of medicalization emerged on the axis of the concepts of biopolitics and biopower developed by Michel Foucault. The concept of biopower, which is based on the idea that there is a manager or governing bodies at the center and that it emerged as a result of the change in the traditional type of power based on a certain legal form and the classical state structure type and became widespread over time, means that the power now spreads the generally accepted assumptions to the whole social field in a softer way. As a result, it is a model of establishing a control mechanism at every moment of social life. Medical practices are one of the control mechanisms used in this new type of power, which is based on uninterrupted control for the continuity of power and being involved in the whole action, replacing the post-action form of sanction that existed in the classical periods. Many practices related to health begin to be shaped accordingly. Health activities are now transformed into a form that aims to keep the human body fit, healthy, flamboyant and well-groomed, and to ensure its continuity, rather than the treatment methods that occur after an existing disease. Concepts such as death, illness, body are subject to changes in this regard. The continuity of power depends on the fact that the individual, who is now instilled with a hidden consciousness of necessity, unwittingly adopts this new norm framework created for him. For the continuity of power, it is important that the individual who accepts the new norms and is involved in an unlimited consumption process should not serve industrial medicine continuously.