| Medical Gaze |
Article Index for Medical |
Website Links For Medical |
Information AboutMedical Gaze |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MEDICAL GAZE | |
| philosophy of mind | |
|
According to Foucault, the French and American Revolutions that spawned Modernity also created a "metanarrative" of scientific Discourse that held scientists, and specifically, doctors, as sages who would, in time, solve all of humanity's problems by abolishing sickness. For the 19th Century moderns, doctors in a way replaced the increasingly-discredited Medieval Clergy ; instead of saving souls, medical professionals saved the body. This myth, according to Foucault, was part of a larger discourse of the Humanist and Enlightenment schools of thought that believed the human body to be the sum of a person. This notion, known as Biological Reductionism , became a powerful tool of the new sages: Through thorough examination (or gazing) of a body, a doctor deduces symptom, illness, and cause, therefore reaching an unparalleled understanding of the patient. The doctor's analytic gaze was thought to penetrate surface illusions in a near-mystical discovery of hidden truths. With this gaze came tremendous power that ultimately reduced to political Hegemony over those considered ill. This is due to the medical gaze's tendency to Objectify the patient. By reducing a person to his or her body, the medical gaze removes a person's humanity. While today biological reductionism has fallen out of favor with most doctors in lieu of a combination of psychology and biology, the medical gaze is still pervasive as a form of power between doctor and patient. Foucault, who was strongly critical of all forms of power, believed newer forms of medicine such as Psychiatry to be outgrowths of the two-hundred year old gaze and to be equally (if not to a greater extent) flawed. A broad range of academics have co-opted the term and applied to various fields. For example, Jacques Lacan appropriated the term Gaze for a number of situations, while many Feminist academics have discussed the Male Gaze as the method by which men objectify women. THE MEDICAL GAZE IN MEDIA Some believe that many of the films of the Postmodern era that show the medical profession in a realistic light have demonstrated how the gaze may operate. In the film, Requiem For A Dream , Ellen Burstyn's character is humiliated and ultimately ignored by her General Practitioner as she slowly succumbs to an Amphetamine Addiction . In Fight Club , Edward Norton's character, suffering from insomnia and begging for help from his doctor, is referred to a number of uneffective placebo remedies. Both films may be read as texts in which the "expert" doctor fails to note the human dimensions of illness and instead prescribes remedies based on objectifying gaze. FOR THIS ANALYSIS? On television, some medical dramas depict doctors struggling against the gaze's propensity to dehumanize. For example, Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm often shows medical dehumanization in a Satirical fashion. FOR THIS ANALYSIS??? |
|
|