From Occupational Pluralism to Professional Unity: The Rise of Medical Professionalization from the Ancient World to the Mid-20th Century

By Adam J. Pearson The history of the professionalization of medicine from the ancient world to the mid-20th century represents a process of gradual evolution from competitive occupational pluralism to a unified medical profession with a legal monopoly, powerful authority, and collective solidarity. To begin, medical practitioners in the Ancient World operated in the context…