Medicine in France is currently undergoing a crisis, with respect to its established references and values, as a result of the major technical, sociological and scientific changes undergone in the twentieth century. This thesis aims to explore the ins and outs of this crisis through an historical and philosophical study of the emergence and development of modern and contemporary French medicine as a profession, scientific discourse and social practice. From the forming of the medical body to the emergence of an autonomous non-professional discourse, we defend the idea following which the genesis and evolution of medical discourse, from the eighteenth century to the present day, rests on its ability to answer the foundational problem of the possibility a scientific and technical objectivation of the human subjectivity. Originally of an epistemological nature, this problem reveals itself, through our genealogy, to be rather of a philosophical, ethical and sociopolitical nature, which leads us to conceive a frame of reference by means of which to better understand the contemporary crisis underlying the modern doctor-patient relation. Finally, a case study of the correspondence of Enlightenment's medical doctor Samuel-Auguste Tissot (1728-1797) offers an essential viewpoint from which to reflect on the possibility and conditions of a medical epistemology that ensures the respect of the autonomy and identity of all subjects, patients and practitioners alike.
