The Medicalization of Deviance as an Interactive Achievement: The Construction of Compulsive Gambling

This article joins two lines of research from distinct areas in sociology to illuminate the mechanisms through which the meaning of “compulsive gambling” and what it means to be “a compulsive gambler” are cooperatively constructed in interaction at meetings of the fellowship group Gamblers Anonymous (GA). Combining Conrad's work on the medicalization of deviance with a social psychological focus on support group interaction, I demonstrate how individuals' experiences and identities come to be imbued with a medical vocabulary through the homogenization of the initial diversity among members. This analysis contributes to conceptualizations of the medicalization of deviance as well as to interactionist interests in the social construction of reality.