Avatars of Power in the Lands of Surgery
Currently, surgeons feel disillusioned. This is partly due to their cultural identity patterns getting confused, particularly in public hospitals. In spite of an overall belittled socio-professional status from the 15th to the 18th century, the phenomenological characteristics of surgical practice has given to these craftsmen a feeling of omnipotence and a taste for miracle which are not necessarily linked with their skills or the state of art at their own time. At the very beginning of her fieldwork, the author has been at first faced up with power matters. The topic here is the tangled web of mental pictures and behaviours typical of this corporate body, which from now on is wondering about its fate.