The medicalization of family judicial conflicts: A path towards normalization
Keywords:
medicalization, normalization, regulation of parental responsibilities, medicalización, normalización, regulación de responsabilidades parentalesAbstract
This article aims to provide a critical reflection on the process of medicalization of judicial family and children conflicts, exploring how the medical and social science (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers) discourses and professionals are mingled in Portuguese civil guardianship proceedings. Through the content analysis of a set of judicial processes, we conclude that not only do medical assumptions resonate in the rules of child custody, but there is a tendency in these processes to reduce family conflicts to and treat them as pathological problems and to adopt medical and/or therapeutic and not “exclusively” judicial solutions. The aim is to normalize family and parental relationships that are outside the norm.
Este artículo pretende ofrecer una reflexión crítica sobre el proceso de medicalización de los conflictos judiciales de la familia y la infancia, explorando cómo se mezclan los discursos y los profesionales de la medicina y las ciencias sociales (psicólogos, psiquiatras, trabajadores sociales) en los procesos de tutela civil portugueses. A través del análisis de contenido de un conjunto de procesos judiciales, concluimos que no sólo resuenan los supuestos médicos en las normas de custodia de los hijos, sino que existe una tendencia, en estos procesos, a reducir los conflictos familiares y tratarlos como problemas patológicos y a adoptar soluciones médicas y/o terapéuticas y no “exclusivamente” judiciales. El objetivo es normalizar las relaciones familiares y parentales que están fuera de la norma.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1255
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Copyright (c) 2022 Paula Casaleiro

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