Medical gaze

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The medical gaze is a term coined by French philosopher and critic, Michel Foucault in his 1963 book, The Birth of the Clinic (translated to English in 1973), to denote the often-dehumanizing method by which medical professionals separate the body from the person (see mind-body dualism). Foucault uses the term as part of a genealogy attempt to describe the creation of a field of knowledge concerning the body. According to him, the material and intellectual structures which gave rise to the possibility of carrying on an analysis of the body was mixed with power interests: entering the field of knowledge, the individual human body also entered the field of power, becoming a possible target for manipulation. The term was originally confined to postmodern and poststructuralist academics, but is now frequently found in post baccalaureate classes on medicine and social work.^[1]

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.

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.

[edit] 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 ineffective 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.

On television, some medical dramas depict doctors struggling against the gaze's propensity to dehumanize; a prime example is House, where the titular character sometimes finds himself running awry of the non-bodily causes of disease. Another example is, Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm (and Seinfeld, which he co-created) often shows medical dehumanization in a satirical fashion.

[edit] References