SPECTACLE OF ILLNESS. ON THE ROLE OF MEDICAL SCIENCE IN LIFE OF CONTEMPORARY MAN

Text topic: Cultures of Rhythms and Spectacle

Text author: Tomislav Krznar

In this paper the author tries to analyze some aspects of the relation between contemporary human and health. The central problem is transformation from the individual health care, which every human has towards his/her own health, to the system health care. This process is conducted in its social, cultural, economic, media and technological surroundings that we call spectacle. Essentially, this paper is based on the work of Ivan Illich, Guy Debord and Lidia Gajski. Each of these authors has contributed to the inquiry of the problems that we try to show in the given context. Firstly, Ivan Illich, criticises the institutions of industrial society which make enormous harm to the people because they transform subject from human to system. Secondly, Guy Debord makes a profound analysis of the spectacle as a creator of false consciousness of the human life. Thirdly, Lidija Gajski, gives us a brilliant analysis of contemporary health system that shows us the role of profit in the healthcare. The other dimension of this paper is connected to the problems of science and its role in the life of contemporary human. Central point of our critique is to show the reductive dimension of contemporary science which ignores other aspects of human spirituality in search for truth. The problem of the role of science in the medical care has two dimensions. The first one is connected to the problem of financing scientific researches while the second describes the problem of reduction of rational reasoning in the process of healing, in which the science disappears and the profit takes its place. The problems of the spectacle therefore attain a central position for the following interpretation.