The Birth of the Clinic

The book by French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926–1984) is dedicated to a period in the history of medicine when clinical thinking replaced the old knowledge of surgeons and healers. The transformation of medical theory and practice, the search for new relationships between doctors and patients, the reform of medical faculties, and the fates of doctors against the backdrop of the dramatic events of the French Revolution—all of this provides Foucault with a rich material for constructing his own concept of knowledge, which will ultimately be shaped in the book "Words and Things." In "The Birth of the Clinic," the process of Foucault's thought development is traced, gradually formulating his own vision of the history of ideas: from early insights inspired by the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Binswanger to a refined structuralist analysis of texts and postmodern criticism of metaphysics. This makes the book interesting for both doctors and philosophers, but first and foremost it is addressed to readers interested in the history of thought.