3.0

Average Course Rating

This course will cover questions about how we came to think about various aspects of our identity in medical terms, and what the ramifications of this process have been. While the field of genetics is especially well positioned to define who we are, we will look well beyond it as we tackle topics such as the construction of mental illness and how “traditional” medicine has shaped national character. We will discuss what role medicine should play in aspects of our identity which seem more proximal to and readily identifiable with the medical field, and those that at first glance may seem quite removed from medicine. We will also seek to define what we mean by “identity,” a ubiquitous, personal, and at times charged term. Medicalization has the allure of providing seemingly unassailable evidence in service of answering long held, fundamental questions, but at what cost?