A Larger Perspective on the Flexner Report

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to place the Flexner Report of 1910 in the larger perspective of dynamics of American society in the years surrounding the turn of the 19th century. It looks at medicine as an integral part of society affected by the contradictions affecting the larger society. The Flexner Report is viewed as an attempt by the capitalist class to ameliorate those contradictions affecting medicine. The events preceding the publication of the Flexner Report are described in detail, and some problems with conventional accounts of the origins of the Flexner Report are discussed. In addition, the paradigm of medicine that was institutionalized with the acceptance and implementation of the Flexnerian recommendations is discussed.