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<p>This study scrutinizes the memoir <i>And Finally: Matters of Life and Death</i> (2022) by the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh as an archetypal representation of ‘epistemic metamorphosis’ which is the radical transformation of a physician’s epistemic experience and interpretation of knowledge when they become a terminal patient․ Drawing on Foucault’s (1973) concept of the medical gaze‚ autobiographical memory theory (Conway &amp; Pleydell-Pearce 2000; Fivush et al․ 2020) and professional identity theory (Cruess et al․ 2019)‚ the article offers three assertions based on qualitative narrative analysis and close reading․ First‚ the internalized medical gaze turns on its own agent‚ producing a type of physician-patient ‘epistemic entrapment’ in which medical knowledge strengthens rather than reduces suffering․Second‚ autobiographical memory acts as a self-aware counter-discourse to biomedical reductionism․ Marsh argues that stories of biographical selfhood can serve to resist reductionist clinical discourse․ Third‚ Marsh’s experience of terminal disease acts as a means to investigate the irrevocable dissolution of professional selfhood‚ without reconstruction‚ something currently under-theorized in the existing literature․ This‚ in turn‚ contributes new insights to recent practice-based studies of the medical gaze by recognizing that it is neither monolithic nor regularly stable and that it is grounded in the neurosurgical formation in a historically unique manner․ It concludes with implications for medical education in keeping with Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 4 .</p>

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Medical Gaze‚ Memory‚ and Epistemic Metamorphosis of Professional Identity in Henry Marsh’s Memoir And Finally

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月6日

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  • Immaculate Catherine Anitha C,
  • R. K. Jaishree Karthiga

摘要

This study scrutinizes the memoir And Finally: Matters of Life and Death (2022) by the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh as an archetypal representation of ‘epistemic metamorphosis’ which is the radical transformation of a physician’s epistemic experience and interpretation of knowledge when they become a terminal patient․ Drawing on Foucault’s (1973) concept of the medical gaze‚ autobiographical memory theory (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce 2000; Fivush et al․ 2020) and professional identity theory (Cruess et al․ 2019)‚ the article offers three assertions based on qualitative narrative analysis and close reading․ First‚ the internalized medical gaze turns on its own agent‚ producing a type of physician-patient ‘epistemic entrapment’ in which medical knowledge strengthens rather than reduces suffering․Second‚ autobiographical memory acts as a self-aware counter-discourse to biomedical reductionism․ Marsh argues that stories of biographical selfhood can serve to resist reductionist clinical discourse․ Third‚ Marsh’s experience of terminal disease acts as a means to investigate the irrevocable dissolution of professional selfhood‚ without reconstruction‚ something currently under-theorized in the existing literature․ This‚ in turn‚ contributes new insights to recent practice-based studies of the medical gaze by recognizing that it is neither monolithic nor regularly stable and that it is grounded in the neurosurgical formation in a historically unique manner․ It concludes with implications for medical education in keeping with Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 4 .