ABSTRACT
The seemingly inexorable process of pharmaceuticalisation produces a range of forms of resistance. This chapter explores resistance at the individual, institutional and ideological levels. At an individual level people can reject or modify pharmaceutical regimes. The examples of resistance to psychotropic medications and the responses of patients diagnosed with cancer are used to highlight various dimensions of resistance at this individual level. Drug regulatory agencies provide a point of resistance at an institutional or governmental level. The forms of drug regulation in the United Kingdom (UK) and in New Zealand are used to identify possibilities of resistance at this level, with New Zealand taking a more adversarial stance to pharmaceutical companies, while the UK is compromised by corporate bias. At an ideological level, alternative therapeutic approaches provide a form of resistance, and the example of homeopathy is used to illustrate the extent and possibilities of ideological resistance. Resistance to pharmaceuticalised governance is common, but I argue that resistance, at most, tempers processes of pharmaceuticalisation, yet provides no strong counter to it.
