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Is Medicine Altered ( Wo ) Man? Essay

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Medicine altered (wo)man in many different ways and changed the views upon the clinical gaze. Foucault explained the word "gaze," in the book. He called it an "clinical gaze" at times, and an "observing gaze" at others. The people of modernity thought that with this powerful gaze the physician could penetrate illusion and see through the reality that the physician had the power to see the hidden truth. Once the doctors got the ability to look with a clinical gaze the doctors could not diagnose the problem the patient is having and possibly find a solution and being able to speak about all things wisely. There wasn’t any possible way the doctors can be second-guessed with is experience. The doctors now could only tell you what to do and only the truth. There is a big historical switched with could be identifies with this quote. Foucault said “Knowledge linked to power, not only assumes the authority of ‘the truth’ but has power to make itself true’”. The clinical gaze is discourse that separates the individual’s identity from the individual’s body. ‘What is the matter with you?’, with which the eighteenth-century dialogue between doctor and patient began (a dialogue possessing its own grammar and style), was replaced by that other question: ‘Where does it hurt?’, in which we recognize the operation of the clinic and the principle of its entire discourse. “ ( xviii preface ) further on in the book we see that the medical field start to change. Medical language gave this so

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