In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.
Ivan IllichRead
Modern medicine is a negation of health. It isn't organised to serve human health, but only itself, as an institution. It makes more people sick than it heals.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques modern medicine for prioritizing its own institutional interests over actual patient health.
Ivan Illich's quote highlights a critical view of modern medicine, suggesting that it has become an institution that prioritizes its own operational needs rather than genuinely promoting the health of individuals. He argues that the system, as it stands, may cause more harm than good, reflecting a need to reevaluate the principles and practices of healthcare to ensure they truly benefit patients.
Themes
HealthMedical SystemIllnessCritiqueMedicine
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a health seminar to encourage discussion about the shortcomings of modern healthcare.
More from Ivan Illich
All quotes βSchool is the advertising agency which makes you believe that you need the society as it is.
Ivan IllichRead
School prepares for the alienating institutionalization of life by teaching the need to be taught. Once this lesson is learned, people lose their incentive to grow in independence; they no longer find relatedness attractive, and close themselves off to the surprises which life offers when it is not predetermined by institutional definition.
Ivan IllichRead
The pupil is ... 'schooled' to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.
Ivan IllichRead
The myth of unending consumption has taken the place of the belief in life everlasting.
Ivan IllichRead
Effective health care depends on self-care; this fact is currently heralded as if it were a discovery.
Ivan IllichRead
Similar quotes
The way I treat my body is not disconnected from the way I treat my family or the commitment I have to peace on our earth.
Jack KornfieldRead
Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.
John F. KennedyRead
We are all dietetic sinners; only a small percent of what we eat nourishes us; the balance goes to waste and loss of energy.
William OslerRead
I'm a realist and I always have been. Quality training is what I do now; before it was a combination of both quality and quantity. Now I'm not trying to be a world-class athlete, I don't need to train at that level. It's about being fit, fit for life.
Jackie Joyner-KerseeRead
Asanas maintain the strength and health of the body, without which little progress can be made. Asanas keep the body in harmony with nature
B.K.S. IyengarRead
We spend billions on marginal and often unnecessary procedures on people who are in the final dying process, yet we leave millions of Americans out of the health insurance system, and America's kids have the worst dental health in the developed world.
Richard LammRead