«Is it possible to understand illness and suffering?» (original) (raw)
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2007 Is it possible to understand illness and suffering? Medische Antropologie 19 (1): 9-22.
The research approach of participant observation implies constant self-reflection. Subjectivity in that context is not seen as a hindrance but as an indispensable tool to understand the other. The sharing of subjectivity -intersubjectivity -creates moments of recognition and the intuition that we have 'grasped' the other's point of view, but those moments cannot be proved right or wrong; they remain contestable. The paper discusses successes and failures of anthropological interpretation using ethnographic examples of illness and suffering. It concludes with a plea for permanent sensitivity.
While anthropology and other social sciences have long explored the social and cultural shaping of the self and personhood, many scholars have recently employed the rubric of “subjectivity” to articulate the links between collective phenomena and the subjective lives of individuals. This graduate seminar will examine “subjectivity”—and related concepts—focusing on topics where such ideas have been particularly fruitful: illness, pathology and suffering. Throughout the course we will critically examine the terms “self,” “personhood” and “subjectivity”—and their relationship to one another. Each week we will discuss a mix of conceptual and ethnographic readings which draw on some common analytical frameworks and categories, including narrative theory, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, biopower and science and technology studies.
Understanding the suffering of a patient with an illness: signs, context and strategies
The aim of this study is to understand the suffering of a patient with an illness, by using a secondary research method, that is, a qualitative meta-study. The primary data source of the meta-study includes "biographical reports". This project is based on a case study, in which the first-hand experiences of a patient with an illness were collected. The findings of the reports were compiled using the Archivos de la Memoria collection of the Index Foundation (Granada, Spain) and journals specialized in editing these materials. A selection of 20 biographical reports was targeted. The results of the meta-study show that suffering is a multidimensional process within a framework of ambiguous feelings. The suffering involves family and social network participation. Patients develop a range of strategies to overcome the illness. One of the effects is the fear of illness relapse or worsening. Descriptors: Qualitative Research; Life Change Events; Biography as Topic. 1 Paper extracted from Doctoral Dissertation "El padecimiento de la persona ante la enfermedad. Metaestudio cualitativo a través del relato biográfico" presented to Universidad de Alicante, Spain. 620 Compreendendo o sofrimento humano frente à doença: manifestações, contexto e estratégias O objetivo deste estudo foi compreender a experiência do sofrimento frente à doença, utilizando um método de pesquisa secundário, metaestudo qualitativo. A principal fonte de dados foi o relato biográfico, baseado em estudo de caso que reflete a experiência narrada em primeira pessoa, nesse caso, frente à doença. A localização dos relatos foi feita através de pesquisa nos Arquivos de Memória da Fundação Index e em revistas especializadas na publicação desses materiais. Foram selecionados 20 relatos biográficos. Os resultados do estudo mostram que o sofrimento é um processo multidimensional, caracterizado pela ambiguidade de sentimentos. É fenômeno que envolve a família e a rede social. Os indivíduos doentes desenvolvem diferentes estratégias de enfrentamento e é evidente o medo de recaída ou deterioração. Descritores: Pesquisa Qualitativa; Acontecimentos que Mudam a Vida; Biografia como Assunto.
Lived Lives and Social Suffering: Problems and Concerns in Medical Anthropology
Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 1998
W ar, violence, and repression remain a way of life for many women, men, and children in the world today. The articles in this special issue of MAQ relate poignant stories of violence and suffering in multiple geographical and cultural locations including Nicaragua, Palestine, Mozambique, Tibet, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. These articles focus on examining the meanings and complexities of the lived experience of repression and terror and reveal the extraordinary and subtle means by which people subvert, contest, and appropriate violence. They also question the common perception that political violence and repression operate in the same way everywhere. Medical anthropologists have begun to pay closer attention to war, conflict, and human aggression and also to how everyday forms of violence and suffering (Das 1996; Farmer 1996; Kleinman 1996; Scheper-Hughes 1992, 1996) structure people's everyday reality and social relations. As a collective effort, the articles presented here pay close attention to quotidian life-the humble, familiar, and mundane aspects of everyday experience, what Henri Lefebvre (1991) has called the "revolution of everyday life." In doing so, these articles reveal not only the suffering and alienation that violence and warfare produce, but also the human possibilities that violence and warfare engender. This human potential is optimistically demonstrated in Carolyn Nordstrom's article about the recent war in Mozambique, which illuminates the creative ways in which people unmake violence. And it is tragically described in Linda Pitcher's portrayal of the intentional death of the Palestinian shaheed, or martyr. Bodies and Embodiment Although medical anthropology has long been concerned with the physical and emotional suffering of the body that results from illness, disease, and death, the
Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 2018
This article analyses some of the emerging problems in the field of social studies at the juncture of the domains of health and science. Building on critical perspectives, namely those hailing from social history, postcolonial studies and collaborative research, it argues for the need to ground investigation on concrete historical forms of social suffering. This implies a multi ‑scale approach which considers: 1) individual suffering and illness experienced in social interactions; 2) the institutionalised expert translations of suf‑ fering into disease; and 3) the political rationales, developed by both local and global stakeholders, which assist in the creation of social environments of health and illness. While illustrations of the theoretical proposals derive mostly from the particular field of mental health, it is argued that their implications may apply to a wider range of themes dealing with health and science issues. The fields of health and science studies, respectively, have vast sets of problems, the exploration of which has developed from various disci‑ plinary and methodological traditions, involving different epistemologies
Giving an Account of One’s Pain in the Anthropological Interview
In this paper, I analyze the illness stories narrated by a mother and her 13-year-old son as part of an ethnographic study of child chronic pain sufferers and their families. In examining some of the moral, relational and communicative challenges of giving an account of one’s pain, I focus on what is left out of some accounts of illness and suffering and explore some possible reasons for these elisions. Drawing on recent work by Judith Butler (Giving an Account of Oneself, 2005), I investigate how the pragmatic context of interviews can introduce a form of symbolic violence to narrative accounts. Specifically, I use the term “genre of complaint” to highlight how anthropological research interviews in biomedical settings invoke certain typified forms of suffering that call for the rectification of perceived injustices. Interview narratives articulated in the genre of complaint privilege specific types of pain and suffering and cast others into the background. Giving an account of one’s pain is thus a strategic and selective process, creating interruptions and silences as much as moments of clarity. Therefore, I argue that medical anthropologists ought to attend more closely to the institutional structures and relations that shape the production of illness narratives in interview encounters.