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Heidegger, communication, and healthcare

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Abstract

Communication between medical professionals and patients is an important aspect of therapy and patient satisfaction. Common barriers that get in the way of effective communication in this sphere include: (1) gender, age, and cultural differences; (2) physical or psychological discomfort or pain; (3) medical literacy; and (4) distraction due to technological factors or simply being overworked. The author examines these communicative barriers from a philosophical lens and then utilizes Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology and hermeneutics to provide guidance for medical professional–patient interactions. The phenomenological approach espoused emphasizes the particular, contextual nature of such interactions, and thus is opposed to abstract, theoretical principles. Heidegger’s hermeneutics provides a philosophical approach to communication that may guide the back-and-forth interpretation that should happen between medical professionals and patients to achieve effective communication.

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Notes

  1. For an excellent commentary on Plato’s thoughts on medical practice, see Stempsey (2001).

  2. For Gadamerian approaches to the hermeneutics of medicine, see Svenaeus (2000b), Svenaeus (2003), and Landes (2015).

  3. As Porter (1998) notes, however, nursing research under the title “interpretive phenomenology” often pays lip service to Husserl and Heidegger without actually engaging in their philosophies at any depth. Indeed, Crotty (1996) has argued that much of this research misinterprets the philosophy.

  4. Those who are quick to accuse Heidegger of racism due to his connection with National Socialism (Faye 2009) or of sexism due to his treatment of women (Maier-Katkin 2010) should keep in mind that failures in a philosopher’s personal life do not take away from the legitimacy of his or her philosophy.

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  1. Bellin College, 3201 Eaton Rd., Green Bay, WI, 54311, USA

    Casey Rentmeester

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Rentmeester, C. Heidegger, communication, and healthcare. Med Health Care and Philos 21, 431–437 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-018-9823-4

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