The Aging Body Trapped Between Biomedicine and Sociality of Aging: An Evaluation from the Perspectives of Foucault and Bourdieu
Berfin VarışlıAging is a social as well as biological process. The physical and physiological changes that occur in the aging body are followed by changes in the individual’s social position. The aging body is an agent, is unique, and has identity. However, biomedicine as the director of Western medicine puts these features of the aging body into the background and examines the aging body in two states: healthy or ill. Experts adopt a medical view when examining and treating the aging body. With this medical view, a specialist then examines the aging body by focusing only on the disease without considering the social, cultural, or economic aspects of the aging body. This also means ignoring the sociality of the aging body. Meanwhile, the medical view also creates a distance between the medical professional and the aging body that leads to the medical professional’s dominance over the aging body. This study examines the aging body as trapped between biomedicine and sociality in light of Foucault’s and Bourdieu’s theories. The aging body is also a product and field of power, where the physically changing body additionally transforms both socially and culturally. Therefore, the aging body should be studied as a social entity, because as the body transforms while aging, so do changes occur regarding habitus and capital types, as well as transformations in the individual’s agency and identity.
Biyotıp ve Yaşlılığın Toplumsallığı Arasında Sıkışan Yaşlanan Beden: Foucault ve Bourdieu Perspektifinden Bir Değerlendirme
Berfin VarışlıYaşlanma biyolojik olduğu kadar toplumsal bir süreçtir. Yaşlanan bedende meydana gelen fiziksel ve fizyolojik değişimleri, bireyin toplumsal konumlanışımdaki değişimler izler. Yaşlanan beden faildir, biriciktir ve kimliklidir. Ancak Batı tıbbına yön veren biyotıp, yaşlanan bedenin bu özelliklerini geri plana atarak yaşlanan bedeni sağlıklı ya da hasta olmak üzere iki durumda inceler. Tıp uzmanları yaşlı bedenin muayenesinde ve tedavisinde bir tıbbi bakış benimserler. Bu tıbbi bakışla tıp uzmanı, yaşlanan bedenin toplumsal, kültürel ve ekonomik yanını ön plana almayarak ve sadece hastalığa odaklanarak yaşlanan bedeni muayene eder. Bu durum aynı zamanda yaşlanan bedenin toplumsallığını da göz ardı etmek anlamına gelir. Öte yandan tıbbi bakış, tıp uzmanı ve yaşlanan beden arasında bir mesafe oluşmasına ve tıp uzmanının yaşlanan beden üzerinde tahakküm kurmasına neden olur. Bu çalışma biyotıp ve bedenin toplumsallığı arasında sıkışan yaşlanan bedeni Foucault’nun ve Bourdieu’nün kuramı ışığında incelemektedir. Yaşlanan beden aynı zamanda iktidarın bir ürünü ve bir iktidar alanıdır. Fiziksel olarak değişen beden aynı zamanda sosyal ve kültürel anlamda da dönüşmektedir. Dolayısıyla yaşlanan beden toplumsal bir varlık olarak incelenmelidir. Çünkü yaşlılık sürecinde beden dönüştükçe ve habitus ve sermaye türleri değiştikçe bireyin failliği ve kimliği de dönüşür.
The subject of aging is one of the most studied subjects in a number of scientific fields such as medicine, sociology, psychology, philosophy, economics, and political science, and the reason is that the world population is rapidly aging. Aging is a subject that is studied at macro and micro levels and can be addressed individually and socially, with the social positioning of the physically and physiologically aging body being of interest to many social scientists, especially sociologists. Age represents two basic processes in the lives of elderly people. First of all, age reflects the physiological aging process. Certain chronic health problems occur with advancing age, and many activities decline with age due to increased frailty. Secondly, aging is associated with various social, cultural, and economic changes. Changes in social roles with advancing age are mainly due to social, cultural, and economic changes rather than just physiological. The habitus also transforms in the aging body, which is faced with social, economic, cultural, and physical losses. For this reason, how the aging body is perceived by the elderly individual and society also shapes the individual’s sense of self. This study discusses the approaches of biomedicine and the sociality of aging, two areas that have adopt opposing approaches to the aging body, and what these two approaches’ positions are regarding the aging body. The study will firstly address the biomedical approach in light of Michel Foucault’s criticisms of it, then it will examine the body as an agent and identity as well as its sociality through Bourdieu’s basic concepts of habitus, types of capital, and field. The study centers on the following argument: The aging body, which in a sense needs biomedicine to maintain life and diagnose and treat diseases, is trapped between biomedicine and the sociality of the body.
Biomedicine studies the body in terms of two states: healthy or ill. In parallel with this, the aging body according to biomedicine is seen as a machine in need of correction. Things exist that medical professionals need to do for the aging body, just like how a machine that does not work properly needs to be repaired. Professionals have adopted a medical view that allows them to be objective when examining and treating patients (Giddens, 2012). However, this medical view also has its drawbacks. First of all, biomedicine considers aging as a pathological problem and ignores the basic social and behavioral processes of aging. Therefore, biomedicine does not fully consider the individual’s culture, socio-economic status, social position, gender, or values. Michel Foucault criticized biomedicine’s approach to the body and the aging body. According to Foucault (1977), the body is not natural but is produced and reproduced through medical knowledge. The discourse of medical power plays a dominant role in managing social relations and medical power, which allows individuals to be categorized as ill or healthy. Medical power is produced and reproduced by medical knowledge during every diagnosis and treatment. On the other hand, medical professionals as the subjects of biomedicine manage power relations using established discourses in their own language. Foucault’s criticisms of biomedicine also focus on this point. Foucault questioned how the power inherent in scientific discourse shapes how one sees the world and how people relate to others and themselves. He criticized the way bio-power (or bio-politics) directs societies with the help of technology. He also problematized the power of having a say in matters such as birth, death, reproduction, fertility, and life span, as well as in the regulatory and controlling power of society.
According to Bourdieu’s (1986, 1997, 2005) point of view, the habitus of the individual and one’s types of capital become resources in the social struggles carried out in different social areas. One of these struggles is aging. Individuals can overcome the disadvantages of old age that result from society’s negative view toward old age by using their habitus and cultural, economic, social, and symbolic capital. However, the opposite is also possible. While aging, an individual may experience a decrease in these types of capital. A decrease in economic capital due to increased poverty, as well as a decrease in social capital due to loneliness and exclusion are both possible. In addition to these and in connection with the four types of capital, habitus also determines the place of the individual in society within the aging process. Habitus also changes through the new experiences gained with old age and the increase in cultural capital, and biomedicine needs to consider all these changes in its approach to the aging body.
