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Modern medicine and the "uncertain body": From corporeality to hyperreality?

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  • Williams, Simon J.

Abstract

This paper (re)considers the role of medical technology at three interrelated levels: first, the extent to which medical technology renders our bodies increasingly "uncertain" at the turn of the century; second, the analytical purchase which the notion of the (medical) cyborg provides regarding contemporary forms of human embodiment; and finally, at a broader level, the issues this raises in relation to a (late) modernist or postmodernist reading of contemporary medical practice. Key themes here include the plastic body, the bionic body, communal/interchangeable bodies, (genetically) engineered/chosen bodies, and virtual bodies. The paper concludes with a critical appraisal of these themes and issues, arguing for a late modernist position on medical technology as both a positive and negative rationalising force, and a "life political agenda" in which the "all-too-human" quality of human nature is seen as inviolable.

Suggested Citation

  • Williams, Simon J., 1997. "Modern medicine and the "uncertain body": From corporeality to hyperreality?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1041-1049, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:45:y:1997:i:7:p:1041-1049
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    Cited by:

    1. Bailey, Phillippa K. & Ben-Shlomo, Yoav & de Salis, Isabel & Tomson, Charles & Owen-Smith, Amanda, 2016. "Better the donor you know? A qualitative study of renal patients' views on ‘altruistic’ live-donor kidney transplantation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 104-111.
    2. Simon Williams & Ellen Annandale & Jonathan Tritter, 1998. "The Sociology of Health and Illness at the Turn of the Century: Back to the Future?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 3(4), pages 64-79, December.
    3. Lucia Cervi & Joanna Brewis, 2022. "Fertility treatment and organizational discourses of the non‐reproductive female body," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 8-27, January.

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