Paul Komesaroff

The secret worlds of life experience, culture, sexuality and emotions are often expressed through physical “symptoms”. The lived body becomes the entry point for professionals to enter the world of the patient. This article, arising out of a study of the experiences of Greek women at menopause, discusses the story of one woman and interprets the cultural and emotional inscriptions that are carried into the clinical setting. It illustrates the multiple layers of corporeal meaning engendered by menopause and the clinical interactions surrounding it. It argues that the bodies that present themselves for consultation and examination are phenomenological memoirs of suffering, struggle and illness. Even in its most technical aspects medical practice cannot ignore the philosophies, values, goals and cultural experiences of those who seek its assistance

Originally published in 1986. This work remains of compelling interest to those concerned with the natural sciences and their social problems. It puts forward original and unorthodox ideas about the philosophy of and sociology of science, starting from the conviction that modern societies face deep problems arising from unresolved dilemmas about the meaning, content and technical applications of the theories of nature they employ. The book draws on insights developed within a variety of traditions to explore these problems, especially the work of Edmund Husserl and modern critical theory.

This chapter talks about Australian bioethics and highlights the argument that bioethics have never been above the political struggle for power and influence in the public marketplace of ideas. It describes the Australasian Bioethics Association, as it purposely moves bioethics discourse beyond philosophical or theological inquiry. The chapter concludes with an analysis of bioethics, as it functions as a political field through which the Christian right competes against secular science, bioethics, and liberal ideology in order to amplify religious doctrines, traditional family values and ethics, and social order in Australian society and politics.