Bodies emptied by the biomedical paradigm

Abstract

The premise of this article is that the mechanistic epistemology that posits the body as a factor of individualization opens the way for a positive biology and medicine that brings as a consequence a dualism between the body, which will represent the material, measurable and objectivable and the person, associated with the spiritual, social and psychological. From there, the foundations are established for a biomedical practice in tension between the body and the subject that requires mechanisms of control, regulation and normalization where bodies must be disciplined. Through the metaphor of the emptied participle and the application of the concept as an empty signifier in different communicative situations linked to medicine -from dental practice to hysterectomy- the polysemy of the word is investigated and the manipulation of bodies is questioned Objective fragments available for intervention. For this, oral testimonies are used in the way that oral historians do. That is, through orality, the memory is triggered to build a source that is a contribution to be able to understand social processes in a more finished way.