The Death of the Clinic: Benoît Loiseau in conversation with Alice Blackhurst

Very glad to host a conversation between Benoît Loiseau and Alice Blackhurst for the launch of Loiseau’s book, The Death of the Clinic, published by Fitzcarraldo —

The Death of the Clinic: Radical Experiments in the Art of Medicine weaves together biography, history and personal reflection in a groundbreaking exploration of 5 experimental clinics in recent Western history. 
Each of these clinics emerged in response to seismic political shifts and era-defining global events – yet at
their heart lie the stories of extraordinary individuals who dared to reimagine how we care for one another. Loiseau’s investigation is anchored in his own encounters with medical care and in the quiet influence of one health worker who shaped his life: his mother. In moving and reflective interludes addressed to her, Loiseau illuminates the emotional and ethical stakes of medicine today. Reframing Michel Foucault’s seminal text, The Death of the Clinic is a radical invitation to reimagine the clinic – not as a fixed institution, but as a living, evolving practice rooted in care, resistance and collective imagination.

Purchase here ! 

· Benoît Loiseau is a Belgian-born, Franco-British writer, critic and scholar based in Brooklyn and Paris. A founding editor of queer anthology The BitterSweet Review, his writing has appeared in Art Review, Frieze, The Guardian, and The White Review. 

·· Alice Blackhurst is a Paris-based writer and critic. Her essays and criticism have been published in The Paris Review, The Observer, The Guardian, The New Left Review, and the Times Literary Supplement. She is the author of and the author of Luxury, Sensation and the Moving Image (2021).