Existential Medicine

Essays on Health and Illness

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eText | 23 April 2018 | Edition Number 1

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Existential Medicine explores the recent impact that the philosophies of existentialism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics have had on the health care professions. A growing body of scholarship drawing primarily on the work of Martin Heidegger and other influential twentieth-century figures such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Hans-Georg Gadamer has shaped contemporary research in the fields of bioethics, narrative medicine, gerontology, enhancement medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy, and palliative care, among others. By regarding the human body as a decontextualized object, the prevailing paradigm of medical science often overlooks the body as it is lived. As a result, it fails to critically engage the experience of illness and the core questions of ‘what it means’ and ‘what it feels like’ to be ill. With work from emerging and renowned scholars in the field, this collection aims to shed light on these issues and the crucial need for clinicians to situate the experience of illness within the context of a patient’s life-world. To this end, Existential Medicine offers a valuable resource for philosophers and medical humanists as well as health care practitioners.

Industry Reviews

Kevin Aho has brought together a unique and valuable collection of new essays by leading authorities in existential, phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches to medicine. This collection provides state-of-the-art work on such phenomena as anxiety, authenticity, aging, pain, medical ethics and the limits of medicalization. It is a must-read for anyone interested in what philosophy can contribute to the health sciences.