Fiche du document
1988
Copyright PERSEE 2003-2023. Works reproduced on the PERSEE website are protected by the general rules of the Code of Intellectual Property. For strictly private, scientific or teaching purposes excluding all commercial use, reproduction and communication to the public of this document is permitted on condition that its origin and copyright are clearly mentionned.
Sujets proches
Ill personsCiter ce document
Michel Péronnet, « Discours ecclésial, monarchique et médical sur la maladie », Dix-Huitième Siècle, ID : 10.3406/dhs.1988.2877
Métriques
Partage / Export
Résumé
In the West, the earliest view of illness was that of the Church, for whom it was a divine warning and epidemics a divine punishment. The royal point of view added a practical application of this esoteric conception, as the state tried to help the sick and, in particular, to stop the spread of epidemics. This, however, implied a contradiction as, if one believed that the epidemic was the expression of the wrath of God, one should not attempt to halt it. A third attitude appeared with the development of medical knowledge, as medicine became an independent discipline only concerned with the sick individual. These three attitudes can be summed up as follows : the sick man is, first, a soul to be saved, then a subject to be treated, and finally a human being to be cared for.