"Next to Sartre's Search for a Method and in direct opposition to it, Foucault's work is the most noteworthy effort at a theory of history in the last 50 years." -- Library Journal.

This dissertation is a philosophical analysis of the discourse of nursing diagnosis in nursing literature. It is the general claim that the use of nursing diagnosis extends and reproduces conditions of social domination in our society. Specifically, its use functions in a way that constitutes individuals for themselves and others in an oppressive manner according to race, gender, and class. It is further claimed that the discourse of nursing diagnosis is based on social notions of normality, value and expertise that (...) reflect unfounded notions of science, professionalism, and social agency. ;Evidence is provided to support these claims based on the power perspective of discourse analysis from the work of Michel Foucault, and modified with reference to contemporary postmodern critical feminism. The source of text for this analysis is the body of nursing literature concerning nursing diagnosis since 1950. (shrink)

Death, as a social ritual, is one of the great turning points in human existence, but prior to this classic work, it had been subjected to little scientific study. American perspectives on death seem strangely paradoxical - the brutal fact of death is confronted daily in our newspapers yet Americans are unwilling to talk openly about the process of dying itself. Awareness of Dying, using a highly original theory of awareness, examines the dying patient and those about him in social (...) interaction. It gives readers a language and tools of analysis for understanding who knows what about dying, under what circumstances, and what difference it makes. (shrink)