Help me understand the Birth of the Clinic
November 1, 2010 3:18 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking for a specific sort of secondary source pertaining to Foucault's The Birth of the Clinic.

I'm struggling to understand The Birth of the Clinic, one of Foucault's more recondite works. In the past, when attempting to read really difficult continental philosophy, I've reading found guidebooks and SEP entries to be quite profitable.

However, I want something reasonably in-depth, and I particularly want something that goes through BofC chapter by chapter. I don't want something that just briefly overviews the book's general themes. I've found many examples of the latter, and none of the former - is my google-fu impaired, or has no one written a comprehensive summary yet?
posted by mellifluous to Religion & Philosophy (2 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Not quite what you're looking for, but this article by Chris Philo offers an interesting reading of The Birth of the Clinic in terms of medical geography, and the references include other interpretive works.

I don't expect you'll find what you're looking for, though. I wouldn't classify Naissance de la clinique as a work of philosophy. If I had to put it in a genre, it would be history of medicine, informed by philosophy of science. It's not the kind of book about which one would write a comprehensive summary in the same way one might write a commentary on Kant's First Critique.
posted by brianogilvie at 7:42 AM on November 1, 2010


Best answer: While I haven't read this specific book, Gary Gutting is an excellent resource on Foucault, and this book has a few chapters specifically detailing The Birth of the Clinic.

Google Books has the text here.
posted by Lifeson at 7:58 AM on November 1, 2010


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