Healthism

Healthism, sometimes called public-healthism, is a neologism to describe a variety of ideological constructs concerning health and medicine. The term "healthism" was most likely first used by the political economist Robert Crawford, whose article "Healthism and the medicalization of everyday life"[1] was published in 1980. In this article Crawford describes how the new political ideology, which emerged in the US during the 1970s, "[situated] the problem of health and disease at the level of the individual." The term is also known for its use in the 1994 book The Death of Humane Medicine and the Rise of Coercive Healthism by Petr Skrabanek. Skrabanek's use of "healthism", and most subsequent uses, are pejorative in intent. However, there is also a growing movement in the 21st century which see healthism as a positive empowering phenomenon which is not inherently coercive. This is exemplified through its popular uptake in the form of preventive medicine, yoga, meditation, fitness regimes, diets and the emphasis on lifestyle changes in Western society.[1]