Abstract

The Nazis hijacked Germany’s medical establishment and appropriated medical language to hegemonize their ideology. In White Noise, shifting medical information stifles the public into docility. In Nazi Germany the primacy of language and medical authority magnified the importance of academic doctors. The muddling of identities caused complex insecurities and the need for psychological doubles. In White Noise, Professor Gladney is driven by professional insecurities to enact a double in Murray. Through the manipulation of language and medical overreach the U.S., exemplified in the novel White Noise, has become a hypermedicalized society where the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath has eroded.