Body Matters: A Phenomenology of Sickness, Disease, and Illness

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Following the core principle of phenomenology as a return "to the things themselves," Body Matters attends to the phenomena of bodily afflictions and examines them from three different standpoints: from society in general that interprets them as "sicknesses," from the medical professions that interpret them as "diseases," and from the patients themselves who interpret them as "illnesses." By drawing on a crucial distinction in German phenomenology between two senses of the bodythe quantifiable, material body (Krper) and the lived-body(Leib)the authors explore the ways in which sickness, disease, and illness are socially and historically experienced and constructed.

To make their case, they draw on examples from a multiplicity of disciplines and cultures as well as a number of cases from Euro-American history. The intent is to unsettle taken-for-granted assumptions that readers may have about body troubles. These are assumptions widely held as well by medical and allied health professionals, in addition to many sociologists and philosophers of health and illness. To this end, Body Matters does not simply deconstruct prejudices of mainstream biomedicine; it also constructively envisions more humane and artful forms of therapy.

Reviews

Body Matters is a unique and fascinating account of human afflictions in a world dominated by biomedical notions of disease and illness. In a truly interdisciplinary collaboration between philosophy and sociology, James and Kevin Aho use the insights of phenomenology to help us see ourselves and our afflictions in a more thoughtful way. -- Gesine Hearn, Idaho State University
James and Kevin Aho have written an important book. * Metapsychology Online *
The Ahos accomplish a remarkable feat. Their writing is lively and engaging while their observations are deep and important. This is the most insightful study of today's experience of health matters I have yet seen. -- Charles Guignon, University of South Florida
The book is a great contribution to the critical literature on health and illnesses. It is unique in its attempt to apply Husserl and Heidegger to health and illness.It is elegantly written and filled with numerous examples illustrating the argumentation. * Springer Science and Business Media *
This book should be especially welcomed by those working within medical humanities, though not so much by philosophers and others interested in phenomenology...It brings together, even if in a much simplified way, a set of intuitions originating mainly in Edmund Husserls phenomenology, neatly synthesizes and applies them to modern biomedicine with a critical intent. The outcome is comprehensive as far as the phenomenologically inspired divergent conceptualizations of pathological states of mind and body are concerned, and it is also often thought-provoking, well written and accessible to newcomers to the field. * The European Legacy Toward New Paradigms *

Author Bio

James Aho is professor of sociology at Idaho State University. Kevin Aho is assistant professor of philosophy at Florida Gulf Coast University.