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The patient experience of medically unexplained symptoms: an existentialist analysis

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Abstract

This article explores the patient experience of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) from an existentialist standpoint. Drawing on the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, I explore their concepts of existential situation, existential project, authenticity, and praxis. I then analyze the situation of MUS patients in the current cultural and institutional context, elucidating that a lack of explanation for their symptoms puts MUS patients in an existential bind. I illustrate the effects of the experience of MUS on patients’ existential projects. Last, I develop an ethical response in the existentialist tradition from the perspective of patients, providers, and society at large. I argue that there is a collective responsibility to foster conditions more conducive to authentic patient well-being and to improve the experience of patients with medically unexplained symptoms.

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Notes

  1. There is much debate amongst Sartrean and Beauvorian scholarship as to whether these terms are equivalent. While there are subtle differences to be noted, both terms signify a flight or denial from either one’s facticity or transcendence. For my purposes I will use the two terms interchangeably.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to extend gratitude to Thomas C. Anderson, for his helpful work on Sartre’s later ethics and his willingness to discuss it with me. I would also like to thank the reviewers for their helpful feedback, which greatly improved this article.

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  1. Molloy University, Rockville Centre, NY, USA

    Kimberly S. Engels

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  1. Kimberly S. Engels
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Correspondence to Kimberly S. Engels.

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Engels, K.S. The patient experience of medically unexplained symptoms: an existentialist analysis. Theor Med Bioeth 43, 355–373 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-022-09587-y

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