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The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception
In the eighteenth century, medicine underwent a mutation. For the first time, medical knowledge took on precision that had formerly belonged only to mathematics. The body became something that could be mapped. In this book, the author charts a dramatic transformation of medical knowledge. His book sheds new light on the origins of our current notions of health and sickness...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
December 12th 1974
by Vintage
(first published 1963)
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I finished this on the bus the other day and a couple things come to mind:
1. It's one of his most approachable, even if it is a bit clunky in spots.
2. I'd recommend reading it before On the Order of Things as it's a good introduction to his study of epistemological change.
3. There's some very sharp reminders in here of why Foucault is considered a descendent of Nietzsche. The one most important for me is that, unlike most philosophers, he's a damn good writer. His love of...more
1. It's one of his most approachable, even if it is a bit clunky in spots.
2. I'd recommend reading it before On the Order of Things as it's a good introduction to his study of epistemological change.
3. There's some very sharp reminders in here of why Foucault is considered a descendent of Nietzsche. The one most important for me is that, unlike most philosophers, he's a damn good writer. His love of...more
This short but dense text should be read in conjunction with Discipline and Punish and Madness and Civilization. More specifically, it should probably be read after them, given how complicated and important (as well as "important") it is. Here we have Foucault's account of a series of "scientific revolutions" (although he would not use the term as such) in which the nature of discourse-derived "scientificity" changed for the field of clinical medicine on account ...more
I have a very complicated relationship with this man. He is both my inspiration and subject of intense scrutiny. Foucault is the author that I love to hate and cannot escape. Despite all of the criticism, Foucault is an extremely important philosopher and even if you do not agree with his theoretical position, particularly his concept of decentralized power, his discussion of institutional power and knowledge production is insurmountable.
I have read most of Foucault's major works a...more
I have read most of Foucault's major works a...more
Foucault was predominantly immersed in the late 18th century, or early Modernism (The Enlightenment) when he wrote this book. How did the schematic behind the perfect prison (the Panopticon) become used in the logic of the University, the Clinic, etc. How do populations become disciplined, manipulated, transformed into healthy, productive, docile bodies? Is it a coincidence that the advent of so-called "Modern" medicine occurred at a time when Western Culture was rapidly Capitalizing? ...more
My knowledge of the history of medical theory is practically non-existent, and I'm embarrassed to say that I know next to nothing about the French Revolution, so large sections of this book didn't really register with me. It seems like Foucault is using a slightly more direct style than is his wont, but this effect is largely eliminated by the obscurity of his historical references. As with much of his writing, I felt that I understood the beginning and end of the narrative arc pretty well wit...more
I've accepted that most things are rarely clear after reading Michel Foucault--its fine. Foucault is super ambitious and sharp in this one. Medical perception is a hard one to transform, let alone from a historical standpoint and beginning in the 18th century period (i.e. French Revolution and on). Similar to History of Sexuality, the 18th century is a pivotal time for changing European social and cultural attitudes. These changing social and cultural attitudes lend themselves to power relations...more
In "Reading Capital" Althusser defines philosophical work as an intervention in science, an exposing of what the object of a science is. "The Birth of the Clinic" is a philosophical work in this sense.
"The Birth of the Clinic" does not make as clear use of the power/knowledge paradigm that characterizes Foucault's other work. Modern medicine is hardly some absolute, objective science that we, after years of struggling with medieval medicines, happened to...more
"The Birth of the Clinic" does not make as clear use of the power/knowledge paradigm that characterizes Foucault's other work. Modern medicine is hardly some absolute, objective science that we, after years of struggling with medieval medicines, happened to...more
Been working on this on and off for four years. I read it for a couple reasons. One, because there seems to me to be a glut of writings and rantings about "postmodernism" bogeymen, but I do not sense there is much reading of the primary sources themselves - Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard, et al. Second, this book exposes the structures of knowledge used in medical practice, and because my own life has been invaded by cancer, I desire to be able to get "outside" the typical sto...more
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Read as part of my new and surely healthy obsession with sickness and medicalization. Would like to reread thiswhile rereading Tory Dent's HIV, Mon Amour.
In the end I got into it. Pretty good, just really dense. Interesting subject matter though, and useful for my dissertation project stuff.
Great, if you are interested in the suppressive powers of of the viewer.
This is one of the most formative books I ever read.
to be added at a future date
This book is more about the history of knowledge than the history of clinics. Specifically, Foucault, a historian of knowledge (which latter is sometimes termed “episteme” in his work) analyzes the changes in the way medical and clinical knowledge was organized in the modern era (beginning with the Enlightenment). He discusses texts of the period to show how theorists and clinicians of the day interpreted disease and its relation to symptoms and to causes.
This book is phenomenal for Foucault's in-depth discussion on the entanglement of language and death from a sometimes biased observation of medical history. Highly recommend this book to those who are interested in the formation of modernity, which I think highly involved with the transformation of death that brings totally distinguished structure of perception from early modern period.
Like Foucault, it all begins with Descartes, and how Enlightenment casts out and "others" the mentally ill. Unfortunately, I discovered that the French edition is more complete, and most English translations are abridged, particularly in the second chapter which really digs into Decartes' Cogito and the effects of "cogito ergo sum" on madmen.
reading this has been surreal. could understand not a single sentence in the preface. haven't read anything by him before. is there some help? been putting the book to some use though. getting my friends to read some paragraphs from the book at random. the looks of bemusement, incomprehension, bewilderment, etc. amuse both parties.
this is the earliest of foucault's work i've ever read. it's organizationally more whimsical than, say, "Discipline and Punish", and the ideas are clearly precursors to his later social and political theories on especially Biopower, but also Power/Knowledge and general governance.
I read this as part of a course on Foucault. As a person who loves definition / classification as a mental exercise, I found it interesting to read Foucault's history / analysis of how modern medical practices came into formation.
Hudi
added it
Buku ini bercerita tentang sejarah penguasaan atas tubuh manusia. Sungguh memakau kemampuan memaparkan data dan analisis filosofis mengenai hal-hal yang terjadi pada masa pertengahan di Eropa.
Adam Z
marked it as to-read
medicine is a huge part of our culture, and i think it's important we learn about the role it plays in our lives, and how it came about
Skip the first section unless you're interested in 18th century French health politics
I think I need to spend more time with this one to appreciate it more fully.
entertaining analysis, but the language is a bit dry and hard to work through.
a must read for all the medical folk... :)
Re-reading this one...
Nate Favini
marked it as to-read
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Michel Foucault's student years seem to have been psychologically tormented, but were intellectually brilliant. He became academically established during the 1960s, when he held a series of positions at French universities, before his election in 1969 to the ultra-prestigious Collège de France, where he was Professor of the History of Systems of Thought until his death. From the 1970s on, Foucault...more
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“Death left its old tragic heaven and became the lyrical core of man: his invisible truth, his visible secret.”
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“The first task of the doctor is ... political: the struggle against disease must begin with a war against bad government." Man will be totally and definitively cured only if he is first liberated...”
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6 people liked it
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