[The transparent body: medical imaging and popular culture in the twentieth century].
In today's societies, successful new medical imaging technologies have focused unprecedented attention on the inside of the human body. These techniques have jumped the walls of the biomedical field per se, penetrating the fields of culture and law. The article traces a genealogy of twentieth-century medical techniques used to visualize the human body and brain, from X-rays to the more sophisticated CTs, MRIs, and PET scans. It explores the changes that these ever more numerous visualization techniques have occasioned in our corporality and examines how these technologies have been received in the courtroom and in popular culture, especially in literature, movies, and magazines.
Ortega
Francisco
F
Instituto de Medicina Social da Uerj, Rua São Francisco Xavier, 524, 7o andar, Bloco B, 20599-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. fjortega@uol.com.br
D003469:Culture; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000266:history; D053443:Visible Human Projects / Q000266:history