Becoming at Risk

Abstract

As the multi-dimensional space of identity unfolded, medicine maintained its watchful eye over the new spaces — physical, psychological, social, pathological, normal, etc. — that presented themselves to surveillance. Perhaps this elaborated and multi-faceted framework of medical observation can be seen as an outgrowth of the nineteenth century clinical examination: as the object of clinical attention was transformed so were the principles and practice of medical work, both locked in a dialectic and creative process. Alternatively, the cumulative effect of these changes might be judged as so profound as to warrant labelling as a qualitatively different system of medicine quite divorced from its nineteenth century roots. In other words, in retrospect, these various changes can be synthesized into a new model of medicine that placed the process of surveillance rather than the identification of the pathological lesion at its core.