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'The Birth of the Clinic repeatedly allows us to glimpse the face, the personal and distinctive features of a philosopher-historian whose declared aim is nevertheless to get rid of the subject and subjectivity, to disappear in his own discourse and to leave the way open for a formulation of the anonymous rules which govern human knowledge and behavior.' - New York Review of Books; 'Foucault has re-launched philosophy in France single-handed.' - The Times Literary Supplement; 'Michel Foucault is a very brilliant writer, he has a remarkable angle of vision, a highly disciplined and coherent one, that informs his work to such a high degree as to make the work sui generis original.' - Edward W. Said
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In this remarkable book Michel Foucault, one of the most influential thinkers of recent times, calls us to look critically at specific historical events in order to uncover new layers of significance. In doing so, he challenges our assumptions not only about history, but also about the nature of language and reason, even of truth. The scope of such an undertaking is vast, but by means of his uniquely engaging narrative style, Foucault’s penetrating gaze is skilfully able to confront our own. After reading his words our perceptions are never quite the same again.
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This book is about space, about language, and about death; it is about the act of seeing, the gaze. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This book is about space, about language, and about death; it is about the act of seeing, the gaze. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'The Birth of the Clinic' is one of four major works by Foucault during his 'archeaological' period. The works are 'archeaological' in the sense that they dig beneath the surface of history; beneath the major events, discoveries and key figures, in order to locate the effect of shifts in discourse and how these transformations in ways of thinking and speaking provide the condition by which the surrounding world and goings-on are made sense of.
This book is very difficult to read. Only those who are familiar with Foucault beforehand should consider reading this book; it requires being familiar with structuralist lingo and ideally some knowledge of medical terminology beforehand. The book takes you on a journey, moving from France and its medical discourse during the 1600s, through to the 1900s and glimpses at the 20th century in its conclusion.
It is effectively a book about how the subject of medicine and clinical practice has undergone certain perceptual transformations in relation to changes in discursive practice (ways of speaking, thinking and accordingly, performing). Questions such as what is the ideal environment for the patient to recover from illness, and what is the fundamental nature of disease have been answered very differently in differing periods. Foucault tries to identify 'the gaze'; the way that the object in question (the patient, disease etc) is treated, and the varying modes of classifying, ordering, relating, distinguishing and so forth are used in address of this object, and how each gaze transforms, opening the possiblity for another to take it's place as a dominant discourse for clinical practice. To this extent it is a challenge to positivism, and modern attempts to stabilise the core of 'man' as an object of enquiry with a fixed identifiable nature (e.g. as in psychoanalysis).
If this seems a bit heavy going, believe me, you will not want to read the book without delving into a book or website about Foucault's thought first. If you're willing to dig through this often heavy going, but not especially long book (about 250 pages), you may well get some interesting insights out of this work.
To summarise then, this is a very thorough work, well researched, but it is difficult, so be well prepared. Read if you are interested in Foucault's methodology, but don't start here, start with an intro to Foucault. The stanford uni press webpage has a good intro to Foucault's thought by Gary Gutting. Barry Smart has written a good intro too.
This book is very difficult to read. Only those who are familiar with Foucault beforehand should consider reading this book; it requires being familiar with structuralist lingo and ideally some knowledge of medical terminology beforehand. The book takes you on a journey, moving from France and its medical discourse during the 1600s, through to the 1900s and glimpses at the 20th century in its conclusion.
It is effectively a book about how the subject of medicine and clinical practice has undergone certain perceptual transformations in relation to changes in discursive practice (ways of speaking, thinking and accordingly, performing). Questions such as what is the ideal environment for the patient to recover from illness, and what is the fundamental nature of disease have been answered very differently in differing periods. Foucault tries to identify 'the gaze'; the way that the object in question (the patient, disease etc) is treated, and the varying modes of classifying, ordering, relating, distinguishing and so forth are used in address of this object, and how each gaze transforms, opening the possiblity for another to take it's place as a dominant discourse for clinical practice. To this extent it is a challenge to positivism, and modern attempts to stabilise the core of 'man' as an object of enquiry with a fixed identifiable nature (e.g. as in psychoanalysis).
If this seems a bit heavy going, believe me, you will not want to read the book without delving into a book or website about Foucault's thought first. If you're willing to dig through this often heavy going, but not especially long book (about 250 pages), you may well get some interesting insights out of this work.
To summarise then, this is a very thorough work, well researched, but it is difficult, so be well prepared. Read if you are interested in Foucault's methodology, but don't start here, start with an intro to Foucault. The stanford uni press webpage has a good intro to Foucault's thought by Gary Gutting. Barry Smart has written a good intro too.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Foucault manages to impress again with his unique viewpoint on this crucial period of medical history. He challenges the reader to consider the traditional way in which the birth of modern medicine is perceived, and succeeds in changing your outlook, if not always in agreement with him. His writing style remains difficult and it takes a while to get used to his very literary and often metaphorical style - but it really is worth the effort.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
a very hard book to read.. would not recommend it unless you have the time to decode everything that is being said so that you can work out what points are being made.
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