Passivity, being-with and being-there: care during birth

This paper examines how to best be with women during birth, based on a phenomenological description of the birth experience. The first part of the paper establishes birth as an uncanny experience, that is, an experience that is not only entirely unfamiliar, but even unimaginable. The way in which birth happens under unknowable circumstances (in terms of when, how, with whom…) creates a set of anxieties on top of the fundamental anxiety that emerges from the existential paradox by which it does not seem possible for a body to give birth to another body. Would homebirth provide a remedy to the uncanniness? The result yielded by medical studies is confirmed by the phenomenological perspective taken here: homebirth might be reassuring for some, but not for everybody; choice of birth place is important. Once the birth process starts happening, another layer of strangeness is added: it turns out to be an experience of radical passivity and waiting, normally. The question thus becomes how to best care for somebody who is exposed to uncanniness, passivity, and waiting. Martin Heidegger’s concepts of care and discourse prove useful in examining how to facilitate rather than interrupt this process. It becomes necessary to think beyond verbal communication towards a wider concept of communication that involves silence and intercorporeality. Birth requires a special kind of being-with as being-there

Socio-phenomenology and conversation analysis: interpreting video lifeworld healthcare interactions

This article uses a socio-phenomenological methodology to develop knowledge and understanding of the healthcare consultation based on the concept of the lifeworld. It concentrates its attention on social action rather than strategic action and a systems approach. This article argues that patient-centred care is more effective when it is informed through a lifeworld conception of human mutual shared interaction. Videos offer an opportunity for a wide audience to experience the many kinds of conversations and dynamics that take place in consultations. Visual sociology used in this article provides a method to organize video emotional, knowledge and action conversations as well as dynamic typical consultation situations. These interactions are experienced through the video materials themselves unlike conversation analysis where video materials are first transcribed and then analysed. Both approaches have the potential to support intersubjective learning but this article argues that a video lifeworld schema is more accessible to health professionals and the general public. The typical interaction situations are constructed through the analysis of video materials of consultations in a London walk-in centre. Further studies are planned in the future to extend and replicate results in other healthcare services. This method of analysis focuses on the ways in which the everyday lifeworld informs face-to-face person-centred health care and supports social action as a significant factor underpinning strategic action and a systems approach to consultation practice

Healing the body or the whole world? A reading of Drew Leder’s recent moves in the phenomenology of medicine

Abstract: In this article I take a look at Drew Leder’s recent book The healing body: Creative responses to illness, aging, and affliction in view of his earlier scholarship and try to understand in what ways the author’s explorations of bodily phenomenology have developed and changed. I argue that Leder is attempting to cross breed phenomenology with critical theory (intersectionality studies) in a way that will appeal to many readers but is ultimately flawed. His attempts to marry phenomenology with eastern religious movements are also scrutinized and found more original and less problematic, although they are hard to evaluate from a secular point of view. Despite this critique, the way the book identifies various healing strategies by highlighting a number of bodily attitudes is found rewarding and helpful for persons suffering from chronic pain.Keywords: Phenomenology of the Body; Suffering; Chronic Pain; Critical Theory; Objectification; Eastern Philosophy Guarire il corpo o il mondo intero? Un’interpretazione delle ultime proposte di Drew Leder per la fenomenologia della medicinaRiassunto: In questo lavoro prenderò in esame il volume The healing body: Creative responses to illness, aging, and affliction di Drew Leder alla luce delle sue precedenti opere accademiche per comprendere sono nate le sue indagini sulla fenomenologia della corporeità e come sono cambiate. Credo che Leder stia tentando di combinare fenomenologia e teoria critica (studi sull’intersezionalità) in un modo che può sembrare accattivante per molti lettori, ma che risulta, in ultima analisi, difettoso. Prenderò anche in considerazione i suoi tentativi di combinare fenomenologia e religioni orientali, che mi paiono più originali e meno problematici, anche se sono difficili da valutare da un punto di vista laico. Nonostante questi aspetti critici, il modo in cui questo volume identifica diverse strategie di guarigione, focalizzandosi su una serie di atteggiamenti corporei, risulta gratificante e utile per le persone che soffrono di dolore cronico.Parole chiave: Fenomenologia della corporeità; Sofferenza; Dolore cronico; Teoria critica; Oggettivazione; Filosofia oriental

A video life-world approach to consultation practice: The relevance of a socio-phenomenological approach

This article discusses the [development and] use of a video life-world schema to explore alternative orientations to the shared health consultation. It is anticipated that this schema can be used by practitioners and consumers alike to understand the dynamics of videoed health consultations, the role of the participants within it and the potential to consciously alter the outcome by altering behaviour during the process of interaction. The study examines health consultation participation and develops an interpretative method of analysis that includes image elicitation (via videos), phenomenology (to identify the components of the analytic framework), narrative (to depict the stories of interactions) and a reflexive mode (to develop shared meaning through a conceptual framework for analysis). The analytic framework is derived from a life-world conception of human mutual shared interaction which is presented here as a novel approach to understanding patient-centred care. The video materials used in this study were derived from consultations in a Walk-in Centre (WiC) in East London. The conceptual framework produced through the process of video analysis is comprised of different combinations of movement, knowledge and emotional conversations that are used to classify objective or engaged WiC health care interactions. The videoed interactions organise along an active or passive, facilitative or directive typical situation continuum illustrating different kinds of textual approaches to practice that are in tension or harmony. The schema demonstrates how practitioners and consumers interact to produce these outcomes and indicates the potential for both consumers and practitioners to be educated to develop practice dynamics that support patient-centred care and impact on health outcomes

Phenomenology of Pregnancy and the Ethics of Abortion

In this article I investigate the ways in which phenomenology could guide our views on the rights and/or wrongs of abortion. To my knowledge, very few phenomenologists have directed their attention to this issue, although quite a few have strived to better understand and articulate the strongly related themes of pregnancy and birth, most often in the context of feminist philosophy. After introducing the ethical and political contemporary debate concerning abortion, I introduce phenomenology in the context of medicine, and the way phenomenologists have understood the human body as lived and experienced by its owner. I turn then to the issue of pregnancy and discuss how the embryo or foetus could appear for us, particularly from the perspective of the pregnant woman, and what such showing up would mean from an ethical perspective. The way medical technology has changed the experience of pregnancy –for the pregnant woman, as well as for the father and/or other close ones– is discussed, particularly the implementation of early obstetric ultra-sound screening and blood test (NIPT) for Down’s syndrome and other medical defects. I conclude the article by suggesting that phenomenology can help us to negotiate a higher time-limit for legal abortion and, also, provide ways to determine which embryo-foetus defects to look for, and in which cases these should be looked upon as good reasons for performing an abortion.En este artículo investigo las maneras en que la fenomenología podría guiar nuestros puntos de vista sobre los puntos a favor y/o en contra del aborto. Por lo que sé, muy pocos fenomenólogos han dirigido su atención hacia este tema, aun cuando algunos se hayan esforzado en comprender y articular mejor los temas estrechamente relacionados al embarazo y al nacimiento, particularmente en el contexto de la filosofía feminista. Después de presentar el debate ético-político actual sobre el aborto, introduzco a la fenomenología en el contexto de la medicina y examino cómo los fenomenólogos han considerado al cuerpo humano como un cuerpo vivido en primera persona por su portador. Luego, me refiero al tema del embarazo y discuto cómo podría aparecer el embrión o el feto para nosotros, particularmente desde la perspectiva de la mujer embarazada, y qué es lo que tal aparecer podría significar desde una perspectiva ética. Se discute cómo la tecnología médica ha transformado la experiencia del embarazo –tanto para la mujer embarazada como para el padre u otras personas cercanas–, particularmente a través la implementación de tempranas detecciones obstétricas de ultrasonido y pruebas de sangre (NIPT) para el síndrome de Down y otros defectos médicos. Concluyo el artículo sugiriendo que la fenomenología puede ayudarnos a negociar un tiempo límite mayor para el aborto legal y, además, proporcionar formas de determinar cuáles son los defectos de embrión-feto que se deben buscar y en qué casos estos deben considerarse como razones suficientes para realizar un aborto

Dwelling, house and home: towards a home-led perspective on dementia care

“Home” is well known from everyday experience, plays a crucial role in all kinds of narratives about human life, but is hardly ever systematically dealt with in the philosophy of medicine and health care. The notion of home is ambiguous, is often used in a metaphorical way, and is closely related to concepts such as house and dwelling. In this paper the phenomenon of home is explored by means of some phenomenological writings of Heidegger, Bollnow, Bachelard and Levinas. Common in their views is that being at home and dwelling mean something more fundamental than an activity we do along with other activities, such as working and travelling. Dwelling, building a house and being at home are fundamental aspects of human existence. Being human is dwelling. While exploring the relevance of this phenomenological perspective for medical theory and practice, the focus is on the care of people suffering from dementia

Depression, possibilities, and competence: A phenomenological perspective

Competent decision-making is required for informed consent. In this paper, I aim, from a phenomenological perspective, to identify the specific facets of competent decision-making that may form a challenge to depressed patients. On a phenomenological account, mood and emotions are crucial to the way in which human beings encounter the world. More precisely, mood is intimately related to the options and future possibilities we perceive in the world around us. I examine how possibilities should be understood in this context, and how, in depression, decision-making might be compromised. I suggest that, based on this analysis, a specific emphasis and alertness in assessments of competence in depressed patients is called for. In fact, close attention should be paid to the range of future possibilities depressed patients are able to perceive. In addition, providing environmental cues to these patients might be one way of enhancing their decision-making capacity. The practical suggestions arrived at are open to empirical research

On the notion of home and the goals of palliative care

The notion of home is well known from our everyday experience, and plays a crucial role in all kinds of narratives about human life, but is hardly ever systematically dealt with in the philosophy of medicine and health care. This paper is based upon the intuitively positive connotation of the term “home.” By metaphorically describing the goal of palliative care as “the patient’s coming home,” it wants to contribute to a medical humanities approach of medicine. It is argued that this metaphor can enrich our understanding of the goals of palliative care and its proper objectives. Four interpretations of “home” and “coming home” are explored: (1) one’s own house or homelike environment, (2) one’s own body, (3) the psychosocial environment, and (4) the spiritual dimension, in particular, the origin of human existence. Thinking in terms of coming home implies a normative point of view. It represents central human values and refers not only to the medical-technical and care aspects of health care, but also to the moral context

“Dwelling-mobility”: An existential theory of well-being

In this article we offer an existential theory of well-being that is guided by Heidegger's later writings on “homecoming”. We approach the question of what it is about the essence of well-being that makes all kinds of well-being possible. Consistent with a phenomenological approach, well-being is both a way of being-in-the-world, as well as a felt sense of what this is like as an experience. Drawing on Heidegger's notion of Gegnet (abiding expanse), we characterise the deepest possibility of existential well-being as “dwelling-mobility”. This term indicates both the “adventure” of being called into expansive existential possibilities, as well as “being-at-home-with” what has been given. This deepest possibility of well-being carries with it a feeling of rootedness and flow, peace and possibility. However, we also consider how the separate notions of existential mobility and existential dwelling as discrete emphases can be developed to describe multiple variations of well-being possibilities