ABSTRACT
Illich has argued that the history of industrial society falls into two phases. In the first phase, the application of science to age old problems produces a string of successes and a rapidly rising general standard of living. In the second phase, the achievements of science begin to turn sour and the benefits accrue to certain elite groups rather than to the population at large. Illich applies this analysis to a number of specific institutions of industrial society most notably to the school and the health care industry (1975b, p. 8). He also applies it generally to the professions, arguing that they must now be regarded as an institution of dubious value in modern society.
