The science of the humane and the humanism of science

A response to Robert L. Martensen's narrative on the changing politics of medical investigation & Lisa Herschbach's discussion of transformations in the medical gaze as chronicled in literary narrative (see abstracts of both in SA 44:2). Martensen's exposition is a brilliant depiction of the relationship between changes in description of the body & changes in theories of human nature, but his conclusion that philosophical & scientific theories are driven by an ideology of the politics of power is not warranted. Narrative & explanatory genres cannot be equated with universalist vs culturally sensitive perspectives. Herschbach appropriately lauds the use of the perspectives of many different genres in approaching medicine, but her contention that the genre of realist novels provides direct access to the real is not warranted. Medical fiction can convey real suffering & engender empathy, but it can also be used as an instrument of power & control. Analytic writing, as well as narrative, can be liberating. D. Generoli