The Hermeneutics of Medicine and the Phenomenology of Health

Fredrik Svenaeus' book is a delight to read. Not only does he exhibit keen understanding of a wide range of topics and figures in both medicine and philosophy, but he manages to bring them together in an innovative manner that convincingly demonstrates how deeply these two significant fields can be and, in the end, must be mutually enlightening. Medicine, Svenaeus suggests, reveals deep but rarely explicit themes whose proper comprehension invites a careful phenomenological and hermeneutical explication. Certain philosophical approaches, on the other hand - specifically, Heidegger's phenomenology and Gadamer's hermeneutics - are shown to have a hitherto unrealized potential for making sense of those themes long buried within Western medicine. Richard M. Zaner, Ann Geddes Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics, Vanderbilt University

Contenu

Preface. Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part 1: The Clinical Encounter. 1.1. The Rise of a Western Tradition of Medicine. 1.2. The Doctor-Patient Relationship in Pre-Modern Western Medicine. 1.3. The Birth of Modern Medicine. 1.4. Medical Technology. 1.5. The Modern Medical Meeting - Success and Crisis. 1.6. Research on the Clinical Encounter in the Twentieth Century. 1.7. The Social and Cultural Background. 1.8. Philosophy of Medicine. Part 2: The Phenomenology of Health and Illness. 2.1. The Ancient Tradition. 2.2. The Biostatistical Theory - Boorse. 2.3. The Holistic Theory - Nordenfelt. 2.4. Husserl's Phenomenology. 2.5. The Phenomena of Health and Illness. 2.6. Heidegger's Phenomenology. 2.7. Health as Homelike Being-in-the-World. 2.8. Homelikeness as the Rhythm of Life. 2.9. Ability to Act and Attuned Understanding. 2.10. The Lived Body and the Broken Tool. 2.11. Health and Phenomenology - Medicine and Hermeneutics. Part 3: The Hermeneutics of Medicine. 3.1. Explanation and Understanding. 3.2. Hermeneutics - The Choice of Gadamer. 3.3. Medicine and Hermeneutics. 3.4. Ricoeur - Textuality and Narrativity in Medicine. 3.5. The Medical Meeting - Interpretation Through Dialogue. 3.6. Lifeworlds and Horizons in the Medical Meeting. 3.7. The Goal of the Medical Meeting(s). 3.8. The Hermeneutics of Medicine - A Recapitulation and Discussion. 3.9. Between Facts and Norms - Descriptive and Normative Analysis in the Philosophy of Medicine. 3.10. Concluding Remarks and Future Projects &endash; To Approach Medical Ethics from Attunement. Summary. References. Index of Names. Index of Subjects.