Problems of norm and pathology in the sociology of health

Abstract

Currently, the norm is usually understood as a certain average, the most common indicator in society. The concept of norm changed and as a result, different standards of health (ancient, adaptive, anthropocentric) were distinguished in different time periods. In the modern postmodern world, there is an intensive reassessment of norms, individual and social consciousness is changing, the concepts of good and evil, norms and pathology are blurring, where the old norm, which contradicts the new views on success, can be canceled and introduced into the status of pathology. The changes also affected medical practice. So, the reforms of F. Pinel (1793) imbues insanity with a certain medical meaning, the condition or behavior begins to be defined as a medical problem requiring medical intervention. Psychiatry gains professional power over the patient, and the psychiatrist gains control over the soul and body of the patient. A psychiatrist, remaining the ultimate truth, determines a person's place in the structure of society through diagnosis and stigmatization mechanisms. In addition, new risks are being created in the company. Biomedical technologies regulating the processes of birth, prolongation of human life and death are being developed.