Illness as a phenomenon of being-in-the-world with others
Plato’s Charmides , Kleinman and Merleau-Ponty
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12692245 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susan Bredlau (0000-0002-3456-2875, Emory University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 20-26 |
| Publication date | 2018-12-11 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-215X • E-ISSN: 1473-4265 |
| Publisher | BMJ (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1136/medhum-2018-011572 |
| PMID | 30538154 |
| OpenAlex | W2904084905 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 15 |
Plato's Charmides , I argue, is a remarkably productive text for confronting and questioning some common presuppositions about the body and illness, particularly when we take seriously Socrates' claim that healing Charmides' headaches requires first examining-and perhaps healing-his soul. I begin by turning to the work of the psychiatrist and medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman to argue that even if the pain Charmides experiences is more 'physical'than 'mental', a physical exam and physical intervention alone will not necessarily be effective in treating his headaches. Next, I turn to the work of the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty and his discussion of the phenomenon of the 'phantom limb' to argue that the body, rather than simply being a physical object is, instead, primarily an experiencing subject; the body is fundamentally our way of having a world. Furthermore, illness, rather than being conceived of as either a physical or mental disorder, should instead be understood in terms of a person's being-in-the-world with others. Finally, I return to Plato's Charmides and argue that, just as the phantom limb reflects the destruction of a specific way of being-in-the-world with others, Charmides' headaches reflect the construction of a specific way of being-in-the-world with others
Aesthetics · Epistemology · Headaches · Object (grammar · Phenomenon · Physical body · Presupposition · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Sociology · SOCRATES · Soul · Subject (documents · Empathy and Medical Education · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |