¹Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 136, Syggrou Avenue, Kallithea, Athens 176 71, Greece. E-mail: galexias@panteion.gr

¹The time line that scientific medical discourse follows for the presentation of dominating reconstruction of time deliberately does not follow a linear course - from the past then at the present and finally into the future. On the contrary, it follows the time line according to the chronological reconstruction of these dimensions from the scientific discourse, first the present, then the future and finally the past. The past constitutes the last dimension that the medical discourse dominatingly reconstructs, producing finally an overall and absolute concept of time, always having illness in mind.

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present the process of constructing new objects of medical intervention. Analysis of reconstructing the past as a medical object offers the possibility of a more complete comprehension of the expansive character of medical power, since this is extended beyond space (present) into time (past, future). The thematic of this article is placed in the context of social constructionist theory and is based on the reasoning of the work of M Foucault about appearance and the way scientific medical discourse functions as a technique of surveillance and exercise of power and control, both on the individual subject and on the whole of the population (bio-power). In the process of expansion of medical discourse, the notion of time plays an important role as it gives a dynamic dimension to social analysis. Defining past and future as medical fields, as medicalized objects, composes in a critical way Foucault's work and the wider questioning of social constructionist theory, while giving it a dynamic quality.