Birth of the Clinic (Feb 13-15)
by Prof. Hangen - February 9th, 2017
Update: Class is cancelled on Monday, Feb 13 due to snow. This week’s readings will BOTH be discussed in Wednesday’s class (Foucault, “Birth of the Clinic” and Burnham, Ch 3). Reminder: Diagnosis: History paper is due on Wednesday, Feb 15.
For Wednesday, Feb 15, please read Burnham Chapter 3 and an essay from The Birth of the Clinic by Michel Foucault. It’s posted on Blackboard. Fair warning: it’s challenging reading, so set aside time to really read it closely, probably several times over.
I’ve also put up on Blackboard my own “Cliff Notes” (Ok, “Hangen Notes”) to the Foucault reading, to help you read your way through it. Also, this movie clip from the 1993 Harrison Ford film The Fugitive applies – I mention it in my notes.
For our discussion in class, consider:
Whether the “discourses” Foucault talks about were necessary or simply incidental to the development of the health care systems he describes.
How the health care settings you are familiar with now are similar to / different than the ones Foucault writes about. Are they all “clinics” in Foucault’s terms? Why or why not?
Examples you are familiar with, about how “the medical gaze” informs modern health care practice.
Whether electronic medical records (which of course Foucalt had no experience with) are an entirely new system of medical explanation, or are they just a digital version of the modern explanatory systems we already have?
Likewise, does today’s technological interface that comes between doctors/nurses and patients (things like electronic monitors, thermometers, even gloves) help or hinder their trained ability to “discover†the disease? What are some ways that 21st century clinical technologies are an advantage and/or a disadvantage in diagnosing and treating patients? In other words, how has technology altered “the gaze†(and therefore, medical thought/discourse itself)?
Regarding Chapter 3 in Burnham’s book, “Changing Ideas and Practices:” How does Foucault’s essay help frame or illuminate Burnham’s description of what happened to make medicine more “modern”?
