title: Ability, dis-ability and rehabilitation: a phenomenological description.
abstract: " Uprightness " was termed the " leitmotive in the formation of the human organism" by Erwin Straus (1966, p. 139). He felt that without it the human being was certainly doomed to die. Yet, what happens with those who are deprived of their " uprightness " in either the literal or moral sense (as in "not to stoop to anything"), through becoming Dis- abled ? Getting up, rising in opposition to the "other" ( Allon ) implies a moral dimension in the case of human Dis-ability which is tied to the leitmotiv established by the upright posture of anthropos . The suggestion that there is a moral dimension to Dis-ability is a radical notion in a culture whose health professionals have become very sensitive to any idea that suggests we are blaming those who through no fault of their own have become in some way disadvantaged as compared to the mainstream of society. Although the importance of rising in opposition to the world ( Allon ) was perhaps originally established upon the upright posture quite literally, because man is a sense-making and sense-giving creature , this primordial act which establishes our full humanity may itself be represented and re-enacted in a variety of ways which can and should become the central project of rehabilitation of the body, as opposed to the current emphasis on technique and technological innovation. It is in the changing physiognomy of the Dis- abled person's ruptured world that we may discover the phenomenological sense of Dis-ability.
mesh_terms: D001076:Aptitude; D001828:Body Image; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D011187:Posture; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000523:psychology*; D012803:Sick Role; D012938:Social Perception