1. treated or regarded as a disease or disorder; classified as abnormal or unhealthy
Usage: past tense and past participle of pathologize; commonly used in medical, psychological, and social contexts

Examples

• The condition was pathologized by early psychiatrists, though modern research suggests it is a normal variation.
• Grief was pathologized in the DSM-5, leading to debate among mental health professionals.
• Certain behaviors that were once pathologized are now understood as cultural differences.
• The study examined how anxiety disorders have been pathologized over the past century.
• Critics argue that shyness has been unfairly pathologized as a social disorder.
• Medical historians showed how menopause was pathologized in the twentieth century.