[A reading of Foucault's "The Birth of the Clinic"].

Abstract

The starting point for Foucault's book was his wide reading of French medical literature from late 18th and early 19th centuries. He showed how the concept of disease changed profoundly during that period of great societal changes. Foucault's protagonists in the book were the French doctors Pinel, Bichat, Laënnec and Broussais. Here, short biographies and summaries of their works will be presented in the medical and historical context and together with extracts of Foucault's text.