TY - JOUR T1 - May Focus JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 338 LP - 338 VL - 55 IS - 514 AU - David Jewell Y1 - 2005/05/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/55/514/338.abstract N2 - It's time for the BJGP to come out of the closet. We have a list of words that are banned, or rather strongly discouraged. These are not the ugly neologisms of modern speech, such as ‘appraisee’ or ‘fit for purpose’, which we try to keep out of the Journal anyway. They are the words like the Prime Minister's ‘modernisation’, intended to elicit approval (or opprobrium) in the hearer without having to explain what, precisely, they mean. In February's BJGP Josh Freeman wrote about the multiple understandings of ‘holism’, which practitioners use when they want to lay claim to the moral high ground of good medicine. In the letter on page 393, responding to the trial reported in March's BJGP, Moore and colleagues talk about a ‘medicalising effect’. ‘Medicalising’ isn't ambiguous: it's the process whereby something … ER -