hospital ; philosophy ; medicalization of hospital ; hospitalization of medicine
Abstract
Hospital is a social institution which was designed for treating patients. Social institutions for caring the sick could be found almost every part of the world throughout the ages. However, ‘the hospital in the modern sense’ is an unique invention. The emergence of hospital became possible through the conceptual turn of the traditional institutions for caring the sick. Its process can be summarized as ‘medicalization of hospital.’ Initially, medical care was not an essential part of hospitals. Hospitals were the institutions for general help for the poor including the sick. The main focus of the service was to provide them with the basic necessaries such as food and bedding. The conceptual turn of hospital could take place when medical service became the essential part of the hospitals around the end of the 18th century. The medicalization of hospitals could be carried out by the following changes in three aspects. Firstly, the change of function: from caring for poor to caring for the sick. Secondly, the change of the running subject: from the churches to the laic government. Lastly, the change of the users: from the poor to the civilians. After the medicalization of the hospitals, the new conceptual turn is taking place: hospitalization of the medicine. All the medical activities are centralized around the hospitals and every important moment of human life cycle is captured in the hospitals. These conceptual change of hospitals makes hospitals a unique invention in history.