The use of Valium as a form of social control

Abstract

How is the use of Valium, an anti-anxiety drug, a form of social control? This paper describes how drug treatment of anxiety is a process which redefines social problems as medical problems and, by providing symptomatic relief from stress, discourages approaches which attempt to make more structural changes in society. A major cause of this ‘medicalization’ of anxiety and tension is attributed to attitudes and beliefs which support the use of Valium. These attitudes and beliefs are presented as: (1) the individualization of anxiety. (2) a reductional view of non-specific or psychosomatic symptoms, and (3) a belief that Valium has a specific effect in reducing anxiety without inducing any significantly undesirable changes in physiology, social interaction or subjective experience. Drug companies and the conditions of modern medical practice are examined as two factors which may promote these beliefs.