Good in How medicine constructs its objects explains the importance of “seeing” patients as “medical bodies” (Good 72) to practice good clinical medicine. Structural reinforcement of discrimination and disparities, both in the US and other parts of the world, makes the process of “seeing” (Good 71) and being “seen” complex and requires creativity. The manipulation of objects according to the structure and situation of the region to enhance or obscure visibility of bodies becomes a large part of medicine. In this paper, I argue that there is a constant battle between how the patients want to be seen and the lenses through with doctors actually see them. Using examples from Street’s Biomedicine in an Unstable Place: Infrastructure and
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This brings disparities in the level of patient care. There is a long history of manipulating the image of “bodies” (Good 72) of minority groups through the use of media to make the wrong things visible and mask the real problems of the patients. The “overdiagnosis” (Metzl and Roberts 675) of schizophrenia in white housewives then African American males serves as good examples of how what is “seen” can be manipulated. During the 1970s, schizophrenia was largely associated with rage and aggressiveness. However, the medical community failed to see that the anger felt by African American males was not pathological but due to the frustration displayed was caused by the assassination of Martin L. King and the unstable politics at the time. The propaganda of medical advertisements like the poster for Haldol made the discriminations faced by African Americans invisible. Their image was manipulated to convince the general public that an entire could be race “assaultive and belligerent” (Metzl and Roberts 677). In the 1980’s, during the “crack epidemic” (Metzl and Roberts 679), similar methods were used by the media and doctors when they portrayed pregnant crack addicts as “the iconography of depraved black maternity” (Metzl and Roberts 680). Headlines like “Crack Babies: The Worst Threat is Mom Herself” (Metzl …show more content…
In many situations, the patient’s ability to make oneself seen is literally a question of like or death. First comes the struggle to be seen as a patient who needs to be admitted by the hospital then comes the need to be seen by doctors as a patient who can be cured. The decision of whether or not to admit a patient, the sorting of patients into the medical or surgical ward is made subsequent but he has total clerk Fran and the health extension officer, Harry. Largely consequential decisions are make by the clerks based on how sick the patient looks. once admitted to a ward, patients want to bee seen as “medical objects” (Good 72) and feel very marginalized when they are simply grouped with all the “generally sick” (Street 94)patients. The believe that if they can make themselves visible enough to get "patient charts, X-rays, blood tests, and other forms of diagnostic evidence” their chances of being cured are higher. Street portrays this through Michael, who feels unseen because that doctors hadn’t found a “found a name” (Street 119) for his disease. Patients relentlessly push to get an X-ray or “name” (Street 119) their sickness for assurance that their illness has been recognized as treatable by the doctors not because they understand the “meaning of the X-ray” (Street 131). Another way they get recognized is by
This brings disparities in the level of patient care. There is a long history of manipulating the image of “bodies” (Good 72) of minority groups through the use of media to make the wrong things visible and mask the real problems of the patients. The “overdiagnosis” (Metzl and Roberts 675) of schizophrenia in white housewives then African American males serves as good examples of how what is “seen” can be manipulated. During the 1970s, schizophrenia was largely associated with rage and aggressiveness. However, the medical community failed to see that the anger felt by African American males was not pathological but due to the frustration displayed was caused by the assassination of Martin L. King and the unstable politics at the time. The propaganda of medical advertisements like the poster for Haldol made the discriminations faced by African Americans invisible. Their image was manipulated to convince the general public that an entire could be race “assaultive and belligerent” (Metzl and Roberts 677). In the 1980’s, during the “crack epidemic” (Metzl and Roberts 679), similar methods were used by the media and doctors when they portrayed pregnant crack addicts as “the iconography of depraved black maternity” (Metzl and Roberts 680). Headlines like “Crack Babies: The Worst Threat is Mom Herself” (Metzl …show more content…
In many situations, the patient’s ability to make oneself seen is literally a question of like or death. First comes the struggle to be seen as a patient who needs to be admitted by the hospital then comes the need to be seen by doctors as a patient who can be cured. The decision of whether or not to admit a patient, the sorting of patients into the medical or surgical ward is made subsequent but he has total clerk Fran and the health extension officer, Harry. Largely consequential decisions are make by the clerks based on how sick the patient looks. once admitted to a ward, patients want to bee seen as “medical objects” (Good 72) and feel very marginalized when they are simply grouped with all the “generally sick” (Street 94)patients. The believe that if they can make themselves visible enough to get "patient charts, X-rays, blood tests, and other forms of diagnostic evidence” their chances of being cured are higher. Street portrays this through Michael, who feels unseen because that doctors hadn’t found a “found a name” (Street 119) for his disease. Patients relentlessly push to get an X-ray or “name” (Street 119) their sickness for assurance that their illness has been recognized as treatable by the doctors not because they understand the “meaning of the X-ray” (Street 131). Another way they get recognized is by