Abstract
Recent discussions about medical discourse seek to demonstrate the apparent and progressive oblivion of the subject as well as the notion of subjectivity in the development of modern medicine - in its foundations in clinical practice and basic theoretical framework. As a result, they show that medicine has evolved in the understanding of the disease, while still keeping the experience of suffering as a blind spot. The response is to carry out countless attempts to restore subjectivity in the therapeutic process and medical discourse, aiming at an integral and humanized care in contrast to what we might call an exteriority discourse. Having as reference the analytical psychology of Jung and based on observations made in the public health service (HUPAA/AL), we analyze how the experience of suffering is present in clinical practice and its consequences as expression of subjectivity to theoretical and practical fields.
A previous version of this work was published in Portuguese in Ciência & Saúde coletiva, n. 8, v. 23, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232018238.15842016.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In Brazil there is debate on whether to call service users ‘patients’ (pacientes), ‘clients’ (clientes) or simply ‘users’ (usuários), as part of an on-going dialogue centred on empowering health service users and stimulating their active participation on the management and structuration of healthcare services. While all three of those terms are equally present in the clinical practice, the traditional ‘patient ’ is perceived as too passive, ‘client’ seems to hold a business undertone. In that sense, public healthcare professionals tend to prefer the term ‘users’.
- 2.
The acronym SUS refers to Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System), the public health system in Brazil. It was created in 1989 and offers coverage free of charge to the entire brazilian population. For further information see: https://pensesus.fiocruz.br/sus
Bibliography
Canguilhem, Georges. 1991. The Normal and the Pathological. New York: Zone Books.
Cunningham, Thomas V. 2015. Objectivity, Scientificity, and the Dualist Epistemology of Medicine. In Classification, Disease and Evidence: New Essays in the Philosophy of Medicine, ed. Philippe Huneman, Gérard Lambert, and Marc Silberstein, 1–17. New York: Springer.
Desgroseilliers, Valérie, and Nicolas Vonarx. 2014. Retrouver la complexité du réel dans les approches théoriques de promotion de la santé: transiter par l’identité du sujet. Santé Publique 26 (1): 17–31.
Dunker, Christian Ingo Lenz, and Fuad Kyrillos Neto. 2004. Sobre a retórica da exclusão: a incidência do discurso ideológico em serviços substitutivos de cuidado a psicóticos. Psicologia: ciência e profissão 24 (1): 116–125.
Fiocruz. Pense SUS. https://pensesus.fiocruz.br/sus. Accessed 28 Oct 2020.
Fonseca, Angélica, and Anakeila de Barros Stauffer. 2007. O processo histórico do trabalho em saúde. In Educação profissional e docência em saúde: a formação e o trabalho do agente comunitário de saúde, ed. Márcia Valéria Guimarães Cardoso Morosini, 5th ed. Rio de Janeiro: Epsjv/fiocruz.
Guerra, Giovanni. 2010. La place de la subjectivité dans le champ de la médecine. Cliniques Méditerranéennes 82 (2): 73–85.
Jung, Carl Gustav. 1969. Conscious, Unconscious and Individuation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
———. 1985. Medicine and Psychotherapy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
———. 1954. Psychology of the Transference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
———. 1976. The Tavistock Lectures. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mann, Thomas. 1952. Der Zauberberg. Berlin: S. Fisher Verlag.
Nader, André Ricardo. 2016. Manicômios, prisões e liberdade: entre o pessimismo da razão e o ideal de igualdade. Lacuna: uma revista de psicanálise. https://revistalacuna.com/2016/05/22/manicomios-prisoes-e-liberdade/. Accessed 02 Dec 2015.
Nascimento, Marilene Cabral do, et al. 2013. A categoria racionalidade médica e uma nova epistemologia em saúde. Ciênc. saúde coletiva 18 (12): 3595–3604.
Nettleton, Sarah. 1995. The Sociology of Health & Illness. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Pigeaud, Jackie. 2010. Folie e cure de la folie chez les médecins de l’antiquité gréco-romaine: La manie. Paris: Les belles lettres.
Tesser, Charles Dalcanale, and Madel Therezinha Luz. 2008. Racionalidades médicas e integralidade. Ciênc. saúde coletiva 13 (1): 195–206.
Whatley, Shawn D. 2014. Borrowed Philosophy: Bedside Physicalism and the Need for a sui generis Metaphysic of Medicine. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 20: 961–964.
Young, A. 1980. The Discourse on Stress and the Reproduction of Conventional Knowledge. Social Science and Medicine 14 (3): 133–146.
Zamagni, Maria Paola. 2014. La malattia nella narrazione del medico e del paziente. Psychofenia 30: 17–32.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Palmeira, A.B.P., Gewehr, R.B. (2021). The Place of the Experience of Illness in the Understanding of Disease: Medical Discourse and Subjectivity. In: Braga, J., Santiago de Carvalho, M. (eds) Philosophy of Care. Advancing Global Bioethics, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75478-5_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75478-5_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-71240-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-75478-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)