Das unheimliche--towards a phenomenology of illness.
In this article I aim at developing a phenomenology of illness through a critical interpretation of the works of Sigmund Freud and Martin Heidegger. The phenomenon of "Unheimlichkeit"--uncanniness and unhomelikeness--is demonstrated not only to play a key role in the theories of Freud and Heidegger, but also to constitute the essence of the experience of illness. Two different modes of unhomelikeness--"The mind uncanny" and "The world uncanny"--are in this connection explored as constitutive parts of the phenomenon of illness. The consequence I draw from this analysis is that the mission of health care professionals must be not only to cure diseases, but actually, through devoting attention to the being-in-the-world of the patient, also to open up possible paths back to homelikeness. This mission can only be carried out if medicine acknowledges the basic importance of the meaning-realm of the patient's life--his or her life-world characteristics.
Svenaeus
F
F
Department of Health and Society, University of Linköping, Sweden. fres@tcma.liu.se
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000523:psychology; D004194:Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D004485:Eczema / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000523:psychology