GOODBYE TO THE BODY AND THE SOUND OF SILENCE IN THE EXAMPLE OF THE MOVIE SOUND OF METAL

Abstract

In this text, the movie "Sound of Metal" is discussed in terms of body philosophy, body anthropology, and health sociology. Sound of Metal is about the experiences of a person and couple after hearing loss. This film has been examined especially with reference to David Le Breton's important works titled Goodbye to the Body, Anthropology of Pain and Ivan Illich's Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health. In the film, Ruben's focus on bodily loss and the process of not being able to cope with it are actually discussed through the mind-body distinction of the modern age, the desire of man to transform into a mind or a machine, and the social and cultural iatrogenesis that Illich mentions. It is also emphasized in the text that health, illness, physical "losses" are cultural, political or sociological phenomena rather than individual, physiological, medical issues and that they should be approached differently. In addition, it has been argued that human ontologically is an ear/hearing/speech/language/meaning entity, but modern scientific, medical and technological culture imprisons humans in a mechanical, visual and technical world. The result of such a culture is undoubtedly the loss of meaning that many thinkers bring to the agenda in their criticism of modernity. Therefore, the scientific, technological, medical culture we live in has to be re-evaluated based on these philosophical and sociological criticism points.