Hermeneutics and Experiences of the Body. the Case of Low Back Pain
Creator
Dekkers, Wim
Bibliographic Citation
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. 1998 Jun; 19(3): 277-293.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the notion of clinical medicine as a hermeneutical enterprise and to bridge the gap between the general perspectives of hermeneutics and the particularities of medical practice. The case of a patient with low back pain is analyzed. The discussion centers around the metaphor of "the patient as a text" and a model of five social discourses about low back pain. The problems addressed are: (1) the nature of a moral experience, (2) the variety of available texts, (3) the difference between the doctor's and patient's narratives, and (4) the patient's and doctor's responsibility regarding the existential, biographical meaning of an illness. Although many problems are left unsolved, it is argued that from a philosophical point of view the notion of medicine as a hermeneutical enterprise opens up the possibility of gaining insight in the foundations of the clinical encounter.
Permanent Link
Find in a Libraryhttp://hdl.handle.net/10822/758225
Date
1998-06Subject
Beneficence; Bioethics; Case Studies; Chronically Ill; Diagnosis; Disease; Ethics; Human Body; Illness; Medical Ethics; Medicine; Metaphor; Narrative Ethics; Nature; Pain; Paternalism; Philosophy; Physician Patient Relationship; Psychiatric Diagnosis; Psychological Stress; Self Concept; Suffering; Theoretical Models;
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Hermeneutics and Experiences of the Body. the Case of Low Back Pain
Dekkers, Wim (1998-06)