Caring, education, healing: Georges Canguilhem and the medical-pedagogical approach

Abstract

This paper proposes a reinterpretation of the medical-pedagogical paradigm in the educational sciences, drawing on the thought of Georges Canguilhem and, in particular, his essay ‘Is a pedagogy of healing possible?’, included in the collection On Medicine: Writings 1955-1989. A theoretical-hermeneutic reading of the text reveals that the central issue lies not in the opposition between medicine and pedagogy, but rather in the critique of a conception of care understood as the mere restoration of a previous condition. In this sense, healing takes on a profoundly pedagogical significance: it is not mere repair, but an opening up to new possibilities of existence, learning and transformation.