Medicine under the lens of history: theoretical and methodological reflections

Abstract

The need for studies in the field of health to be based on a historical perspective has opened up new horizons for the analysis of the conditions for the creation of a body of knowledge aimed at explaining the role of social elements in determining pathological processes and health practices. The purpose of this paper is to examine how historical science, with its methodological aspects of analysis, has contributed to the physician's practice, especially raising broader critical aspects of the issues related to the field of health care. It is based on dialogues between culture and society molded around a discursive order to act not just as a language, but in its effective implementation within a medical rationale, with attention to the ruptures and continuities of a scientific discourse.