Handbook of Phenomenology and Medicine

by Toombs, S. Kay

• ISBN13: 9781402001512
• ISBN10: 1402001517
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

As the fields of philosophy of medicine and bioethics have developed in the United States, the philosophical perspective of phenomenology has been largely ignored. Yet, the central conviction that informs this volume is that phenomenology provides extraordinary insights into many of the issues that are directly addressed within the world of medicine. Such issues include: the nature of medicine itself; the distinction between immediate experience and scientific conceptualization; the nature of the body - and the implications of embodiment in the realm of clinical practice; the meaning of health, illness and disease; the problem of intersubjectivity - particularly with respect to achieving successful communication with another; the complexity of decision-making in the clinical context (and in the realm of medical ethics); the possibility of empathic understanding; the theory and method of clinical practice; and the essential characteristics of the therapeutic relationship - i.e. the relationship between the sick person and the one who professes to help. Some of the authors who have contributed to this volume are philosophers, some are engaged in other academic disciplines, and several are practicing healthcare professionals. Their essays demonstrate that phenomenology can be an invaluable practical tool, not only for those who are interested in the philosophy of medicine, but for all healthcare professionals who are actively engaged in the care of the sick.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Introduction: Phenomenology and Medicine	1	(28)
S. Kay Toombs
SECTION ONE / PHENOMENOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Temporality and Illness: A Phenomenological Perspective	29	(18)
John B. Brough
The Lifeworld and Scientific Interpretation	47	(20)
Patrick A. Heelan
Medicine and the Phenomenological Method	67	(20)
Frances Chaput Waksler
The Phenomenology of Health and Illness	87	(22)
Fredrik Svenaeus
Disease: The Phenomenological and Conceptual Center of Practical-Clinical Medicine	109	(18)
Per Sundstrom
Thinking About Medicine	127	(20)
Richard M. Zaner
SECTION TWO / THE BODY
Dimensions of Embodiment: Body Image and Body Schema in Medical Contexts	147	(30)
Shaun Gallagher
Female Embodiment and Clinical Practice	177	(20)
Maureen Connolly
Emotion and Embodiment Within the Medical World	197	(18)
Glen A. Mazis
The Body, Music, and Healing	215	(14)
Bruce Wilshire
SECTION THREE / LIVED EXPERIENCE
Experiencing Illness Through Storytelling	229	(18)
Arthur W. Frank
Reflections on Bodily Change: The Lived Experience of Disability	247	(16)
S. Kay Toombs
The Lived Experience of Pain in the Context of Clinical Practice	263	(16)
Irena Madjar
The Lived Experience of Mental Illness	279	(18)
Jo Ann Walton
SECTION FOUR / CLINICAL PRACTICE
Grasping the Existential Anatomy: The Role of Bodily Empathy in Clinical Communication	297	(20)
Carl Edvard Rudebeck
The Many Faces of the Clinic: A Levinasian View	317	(14)
Paul Komesaroff
Focusing on Lived Experience: The Evolution of Clinical Method in Western Medicine	331	(20)
Ian R. McWhinney
The Phenomenon of Care	351	(20)
Patricia Benner
The Phenomenon of Suffering and its Relationship to Pain	371	(22)
Eric J. Cassell
SECTION FIVE / MEDICAL ETHICS
Imagining a Fetus: Insights From Talking With Pregnant Women About Their Decisions To Undergo Open-Uterine Fetal Surgery	393	(24)
Mark J. Bliton
On Bodily Autonomy	417	(24)
Catriona Mackenzie
Medical Feeding: Applying Husserl and Merleau-Ponty	441	(16)
Michael C. Brannigan
SECTION SIX / RESEARCH
Professional Practice and `Doing Phenomenology'	457	(18)
Max van Manen
From Dis-ability to Difference: Conceptual and Methodological Issues in the Study of Physical Disability	475	(18)
Christina Papadimitriou
Notes on Contributors	493	(2)
Index	495