pathologize

Pathologize is a verb meaning to characterize something as pathological or to treat it as a disease or disorder. The term draws from Greek elements associated with disease (pathos) and the suffix -logize, which implies treating or speaking about something as a pathology.

In practice, pathologizing involves framing a phenomenon, behavior, or condition in medical or pathological terms. It is often linked to medicalization, where social or psychological issues are understood primarily through the lens of illness and addressed with medical or therapeutic interventions. The concept is used across disciplines, including medicine, psychology, psychiatry, and social sciences, and can apply to both symptoms and whole groups or identities.

Examples of pathologizing include treating normal emotional responses to stress as clinical depression, labeling unconventional or non-normative behavior as a disorder, or interpreting social or cultural differences as signs of pathology rather than differences or variations of human experience.

Critics of pathologizing argue that it can stigmatize individuals, obscure social determinants of distress, and justify coercive or paternalistic interventions. They warn that medicalization of normal variation can override personal autonomy and marginalize minority or dissenting perspectives. Proponents may contend that recognizing genuine pathology enables appropriate care and reduces suffering, though they often emphasize careful distinctions between medical conditions and culturally normative judgments.

See also: medicalization, stigma, pathology, diagnostic criteria, cultural psychiatry.