[Has medical discourse changed?].

Abstract

On occasion of a Historic Medico-Surgical Exhibition. The A. analyses the evolution of medical discourse: in the early phases considering the patient as an object of charity (humanistic concept); later as a biological subject (scientific concept) and, finally, in our days, as an object of analysis (technological concept forgetting the human being and his personality). The big scientific-technological advance in individual medicine contrasts, nevertheless, with its incapacity to solve the major social problems of our time (AIDS, drugs) and to maintain a reliable organization in regional wars (Yugoslavia, Africa). Keeping this background in mind, the A. comments on the evolution of Portuguese medicine and some of it traits.