在保羅·卡拉尼提《當呼吸化為空氣》的文本分析中，主要討論「同理心」、「生命政治」和「生命形式」三個議題，以及這些觀念對醫病關係造成的影響。「同理心」的關鍵主題討論醫病關係中因缺乏同理心而導致對病人不夠理解所帶來的醫病失衡，以及提倡同理心於醫療人文領域的重要性。「生命政治」探討醫生透過知識、醫療等方式來治理生命與死亡以及治療疾病。「生命形式」指病人受到知識和疾病之苦而受制於醫療社會的管控後，藉由自由意志去探索生命價值，進而尋回病人的主體性及生命的意義。在本論文中，作者保羅·卡拉尼提（Paul Kalanithi）以自身罹患癌症的經驗來捍衛病人的權力，以及討論醫病關係在醫療社會中不平等的議題。這些議題說明「病人聲音的消失」以及「主體性的喪失」與生命政治的管控有關。因此病人可藉自由意志抵抗並發展一個新的生命形式，進而找尋自我的生命意義。

本論文共分三章：第一章處理夏隆的理論中所定義的敘述醫療，並與「同理心」在醫療人文的重要性作對話。第二章則於用傅柯的理論來討論權力在醫療社會中運作的機制及其邏輯。此外，我也輔以「生命政治」的視角來看待醫生與病人間的關係。第三章探討阿岡本的生命形式，指出病人因罹病使其生命可被生命政治管控及影響；因此，本章強調「生命形式」可以讓處於弱勢的病人找回自身的主體性和生命意義的可能性。

The thesis attempts to analyze Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air in terms of empathy, biopolitics, and the meaning of life. The key theme of the patient–doctor relationship addressed here revolves around the illness experience. The principal concept of empathy focuses primarily on the conflict and misunderstanding between doctors and patients during the discussion of diagnosis. As for biopolitics, the sovereign has the right to decide life and death through knowledge, medicine, and medical techniques. The meaning of life focuses on patients who rely on free will through the form of life against the biopower, thereby regaining the value of life. Paul Kalanithi takes his experience of suffering lung cancer to defend patients’ rights and represent the imbalance issue in the patient–doctor relationship in the medical society. These issues illustrate that the missing patients’ voices and subjectivity are related to the control of biopolitics. Therefore, patients depend on free will to resist the disciplinary power and create a new form of life in order to search for the value of life. 

The thesis consists of three chapters. In Chapter One, I apply Rita Charon and Caroline Wellbery’s theory to illustrate the significance of empathy in medical humanities. In Chapter Two, I take Michel Foucault’s theory to discuss how the power of discipline in pathography influences patients and doctors. Here biopolitics is used to cast a fresh look at the patient–doctor relationship. In Chapter Three, I connect with Giorgio Agamben’s theory of form of life to elucidate the meaning of life. Due to the suffering of disease, patients are controlled by biopolitics. They must resist biopower through “form of life” to discover their meaning and use the “meaning of life” to guide them to redefine themselves; and furthermore, they can realize their own value of life.

Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Empathy 20
Chapter 2: Biopolitics 36
Chapter 3: Meaning of Life 50
Conclusion 62
Works Cited 68

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