Clinical examination

an essay from Foucault

Abstract

According to Foucault’s thought, history of knowledge is not continuous, and the changes in what he names épistemê do not happen in a continuous manner, but rather through gaps. In two of his works, Foucault offers material of great interest for a non-conventional analysis concerning changes in human knowledge and the pattern of thought that have had influence on the standards of medical practice and clinical examination, which, in a way, have reached our days. These two texts are: The Order of the Things: An Archaelogy of Human Sciences and Birth of the Clinic: An Archaelogy of Medical Perception. During the analysis of the subject “clinical examination”, we have decided to observe Foucault’s thought in order to follow the transformations occurred in scientific thought from Renaissance, as well as the development of clinical methodology during the XVIII and XIX centuries. As a conclusion of this work, we have discussed the influence that the standards of clinical examination described by this French philosopher have brought to the way we practice Medicine at the present time.