Worries of a Human Person at the Turn of the Century in the Light of the History of Medicine

Abstract

The medicine we know today developed in the past century when physicians started to examine systematically the structure and functions of the human organism — both when healthy and during an illness. The so-called mechanical model of illness became an essential paradigm of clinical thinking in the period which — using Kuhn’s terminology — we could call a period of normal science. For several years, however, we have been aware that the established paradigm of medicine has been questioned from various points of view. The increase of interest in clinical investigation (the critical clinical school) and in medical ethics has been a response to the uncontrolled introduction of new therapeutic techniques to medical practice. This has been closely connected with the fact that physicians have come to understand not only that clinical practice is an applied natural science, but also that clinical decisions always refer to value judgements. This explains why modern physicians discuss more and more often not only methods of treatment and prognoses, but also the patient’s quality of life.¹