Chronic illness as transformative activity

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7202990
AutoresVinod K Paul (University of Southern Denmark, autor correspondente), Victoria Paul (0009-0004-1142-6637)
Ano2025
Volume28
Fascículo2
Páginas177-184
Data de publicação2025-03-17
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoMedicine Health Care and Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1386-7423 • E-ISSN: 1572-8633
EditoraSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11019-025-10260-z
PMID40097799
OpenAlexW4408519084
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas26

Laurie A. Paul (2014) developed the concept of transformative experience. In describing transformative experience as an experience that is both epistemically and personally transformative, she argues that transformative experience challenges the traditional model of rational decision making. Her concept of transformative experiences has been expanded to the field of illness. It has been argued that illness is a transformative experience because it fulfills Paul’s criteria for a transformative experience (Carel et al. 2016; Carel and Kidd 2020). Conceptualizing illness as a transformative experience would have far-reaching implications for the agency and for the rational decision-making process of ill persons. In considering these implications, this article questions the assumption that illness is a transformative experience and proposes that illness, especially when it is chronic, can be a transformative activity, in the sense that Agnes Callard (2020), introduced us to the concept of transformative activity. The article argues that conceptualizing (chronic) illness as a transformative activity strengthens the ill person’s agency and ability to learn to live with the illness

Agency (philosophy · Epistemology · Pedagogy · Sense of agency · Social science · Sociology · Transformative learning · Empathy and Medical Education · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Optimism, Hope, and Well-being · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology