Abstract
Scientific medicine has been successful by ways of an ever more detailed understanding and mastering of bodily functions and dysfunctions. Biomedical research promises new triumphs, but discontent with medical practice is all around. Since several decades this has been acknowledged and discussed. The philosophical traditions of phenomenology and hermeneutics have been proposed as promising ways to approach medical practice, by ways of a richer understanding of the meaning structures of health and illness. In 2000, Swedish philosopher Fredrik Svenaeus published a book where he proposes that the phenomenological hermeneutics of Martin Heidegger and also the reflections on health and illness of Hans-Georg Gadamer offer important ways to approach the nature of medicine. In particular, Svenaeus argues that the goal of medicine is to promote and restore health, and that health ought to be seen as “homelike being-in-the-world”. Unhealth, illness, consequently should be understood as a situation where a person’s “being-in-the-world” in characterized by that lack of the rhythm, balance and “tune” of everyday living that characterizes not “being at home”. In this article, Svenaeus’ position is briefly outlined. Questions are raised whether “unhomelikeness” is to be seen as a metaphor, and, if so, if it is a fruitful such. Furthermore, I discuss whether or not a discourse on health and illness in these terms may be misleading in a situation where the ontological presuppositions of Heidegger are lost out of sight and the popular understanding of health psychology predominates. I also approach the question whether Svenaeus’ assumptions may inadvertently lead us to an unjustifiably broad understanding of the tasks of medicine. It is finally concluded that Svenaeus phenomenological and hermeneutical approach is both interesting and promising. There are, however, several questions that ought to be pursued further, and the step from philosophical analysis to everyday clinical discourse may be unexpectedly long and risky.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Boorse, C. 1977. Health as a theoretical concept. Philosophy of Science 44: 542–557.
Dekkers, W. 2009. On the notion of home and the goals of palliative care. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 30: 336–348.
Faber, K. 1923. Nosography in modern internal medicine. New York: Paul B. Hoeber.
Gadamer, H.-G. 1996. The enigma of health: The art of healing in a scientific age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Good, B.J. 1990. Medicine, rationality, and experience: An anthropological perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Heidegger, M. (1927, 1996). Being and time. New York: State University of New York Press.
Kleinman, A. 1998. The illness narratives: Suffering, healing and the human condition. New York: Basic Books.
Lakoff, G., and M. Johnson. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Megone, C. 1998. Aristotle’s function argument and the concept of mental illness. Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 5: 187–201.
Nordenfeldt, L. 1995. On the nature of health. An action-theoretic approach, 2nd edn. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Reiser, S. 1978. Medicine and the reign of technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Reznek, L. 1991. The philosophical defense of psychiatry. New York: Routledge.
Sacks, O. 1984. A leg to stand on. New York: Summit Books.
Svenaeus, F. 1999. The hermeneutics of medicine and the phenomenology of health. Linköping: Linköping Studies in Arts and Science.
Svenaeus, F. 2000. The hermeneutics of medicine and the phenomenology of health. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Svenaeus, F. 2003. Sjukdomens mening: Det medicinska motets fenomenologi och hermeneutik. Stockholm: NaturKultur.
Toombs, Kay. 1993. The meaning of illness: A phenomenological account of the different perspectives of physician and patient. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic publications.
Toulmin, S. 1993. Knowledge and art in the practice of medicine: Clinical judgement and historical reconstruction. In Science, technology, and the Art of Medicine, ed. C. Delkeskamp-Hayes and M. A. Gardell Cutter, 231–249. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Zaner, R. 1988. The ethics of the clinical encounter. Engelwood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahlzén, R. Illness as unhomelike being-in-the-world? Phenomenology and medical practice. Med Health Care and Philos 14, 323–331 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-011-9311-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-011-9311-6