A new history of identity : a sociology of medical knowledge

Medical texts provide a powerful means of accessing contemporary perceptions of illness and through them assumptions about the nature of the body and identity. By mapping these perceptions, from their 19th century focus on illness located in a biological body through to their 'discovery' of the psycho-social patient of the late 20th century, a history of identity, both physical and psychological, is revealed. "This book maps the emergence of the figure of the modern 'person' from its anatomical origins in the nineteenth century to its psychological and reflexive individuality in the early twenty-first century. Using medical texts as a means of accessing contemporary perceptions of the patient - for example, through changing conceptualizations of illnesses, modes of treatment, techniques of examination and patterns of health care - the text provides a history of the process of identity construction. The result is an account of the invention of Man - physical, mental and behavioural - over the last century or so, together with an examination of the changing ways in which knowledge of Man's identity has become established."--Jacket Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 10 1 Prologue......Page 12 2 Constructing the Body......Page 16 3 Negotiating Death......Page 28 4 Discovering Origins......Page 36 5 Making the Body Move......Page 48 6 Creating a Social Identity......Page 58 7 Invoking Subjectivity......Page 68 8 Instilling Agency......Page 82 9 Confessing Death......Page 96 10 Dimensionalizing Identity......Page 110 11 Becoming at Risk......Page 120 12 Death of the Old Hospital......Page 128 13 Birth of Primary Care......Page 144 14 Ecce homo......Page 158 15 Identity of the Observer......Page 170 16 The Subject of Knowledge......Page 186 17 A Note on Methodology......Page 198 References......Page 210 Index......Page 222

armstrong (sociology Of Medicine, King's College London) De-emphasizes Individuals And Social Groups As Agents Of History—indeed Does Away With Actors And Agents Entirely—to Allow The Anonymous Eye Of Medicine To Tell Its Own Story Of The Past 150 Years. He Also Sets Out A Creation Story For Man, Using Medical Texts To Map His Mutating Identity. He Did Run Into Trouble Identifying The Object Of Medicine, Which In Another Framework Would Be Merely People, But Adopts The Term Identity For Later Periods, And Man For The Earlier To Preserve The Biblical And Anthropological Sense Of Differentness From Nature. Annotation C. Book News, Inc., Portland, Or

Medical texts provide a powerful means of accessing contemporary perceptions of illness and through them assumptions about the nature of the body and identity. By mapping these perceptions, from their nineteenth-century focus on illness located in a biological body through to their 'discovery' of the psycho-social patient of the late twentieth century, a history of identity, both physical and psychological, is revealed. In the beginning there was no Man.