Technology as Disease: The Diagnosis of Our Times

• In Event: Cutting Edge Research I: Competitive Papers in the Rhetoric of Science and Technology

Abstract

Physicians have long been portrayed as extraordinary, even heroic, beings—individuals devoted to erasing the pain and suffering of others, often at great personal sacrifice to themselves. But Alan Lightman’s The Diagnosis purges any hint of the idealistic, concerned medical practitioner. Lightman’s contemporary physician is the antithesis of the heroic character who sublimates his or her own well-being for the welfare of the patient. The kindly country doctor is replaced in Lightman’s searing novel with techno-demons obsessed with tools and technology.

Author

• Rhonda D Herb, University of Phoenix