Читать книгу In situ. El cáncer como injusticia social - Natalia Luxardo - Страница 38

“Virchow is always with us” was the statement of a leading German physician during a podium discussion, when asked by the author of this article about how social inequities may play out in rural health care. I use this piece on Virchow and his influence in Germany as a think piece, and sketch to begin reflections on social medicine in Germany. I think of this as a series of thoughts that is not – yet – an attempt of an academic analysis.

In this trail of thought I follow the idea that the above anecdote reveals something profound about the relationship between clinical medicine and social medicine in Germany, and perhaps in Europe more generally. These thoughts should not be misunderstood as an attempt to be a comprehensive investigation of Rudolph Virchow’s ongoing influence in medicine, nor does it aim to provide a deep analysis of social medicine in Germany. Rather, it takes as its point of departure the aim of putting forth some sketchy reflections on how Rudolf Virchow’s legacy may in fact be hindering a more profound spread and influence of social medicine in the 21^st century and its eventful history (Porter, 2006; Adams et al., 2019).

In what follows, I do not claim to be scientifically sound. In fact, I admit that I use the broadest of brushes to paint but a simplistic picture of the history of science and medicine. The effort comes, however, from a feeling of unease that social medicine seems to be lingering with (some of) Rudolf Virchow’s ideas, and has therefore missed the influence of more contemporary critical social sciences and lacks behind in an academia of social medicine. For example, the profound engagement in rethinking relations and connections of concepts such as nature and culture, and a focus on the deep intertwinement of the social in the natural and the individual in the social web of significance are a few of the theoretical strands that seem curiously absent in academic social medicine. Thus, what follows is a re-reading of some of Rudolf Virchow’s thoughts, and their connection to current research activities in medicine. What it is not – yet – is a research program into social medicine in the 21^st century (in Germany).