The lived experience of disability
Human Studies 18 (1):9 - 23 (1995)
| Abstract | In this paper I reflect upon my personal experience of chronic progressive multiple sclerosis in order to provide a phenomenological account of the human experience of disability. In particular, I argue that the phenomenological notion of lived body provides important insights into the profound disruptions of space and time that are an integral element of changed physical capacities such as loss of mobility. In addition, phenomenology discloses the emotional dimension of physical disorder. The lived body disruption engendered by loss of mobility includes a change in the character of surrounding space, an alteration in one's taken-for-granted awareness of (and interaction with) objects, the disruption of corporeal identity, a disturbance in one's relations with others, and a change in the character of temporal experience. The loss of upright posture is of particular significance since it not only concretely diminishes autonomy but affects the way one is treated by others. Such a change in posture is, therefore, particularly disruptive in the social world of everyday life. An understanding of the lived body disruption engendered by disability has important applications for the clinical context in devising effective therapies, as well as for the social arena in determining how best to resolve the various challenges posed by chronic disabling disorders. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,672 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesJeremy H. Smith (2006). Michel Henry's Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience and Husserlian Intentionality. International Journal of Philosophical Studies 14 (2):191 – 219.
Christina Papadimitriou (2008). The 'I' of the Beholder: Phenomenological Seeing in Disability Research. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy 2 (2):216 – 233.
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2011). Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept. Hypatia 26 (3):591-609.
Helena Sunvisson, Barbara Habermann, Sara Weiss & Patricia Benner (2009). Augmenting the Cartesian Medical Discourse with an Understanding of the Person's Lifeworld, Lived Body, Life Story and Social Identity. Nursing Philosophy 10 (4):241-252.
Stacey Irwin (2005). Technological Other/Quasi Other: Reflection on Lived Experience. Human Studies 28 (4):453 - 467.
Havi Carel (2007). Can I Be Ill and Happy? Philosophia 35 (2):95-110.
Vittorio Gallese (2005). Embodied Simulation: From Neurons to Phenomenal Experience. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 4 (1):23-48.
Gesa Lindemann & Millay Hyatt (2011). The Lived Human Body From the Perspective of the Shared World (Mitwelt). Journal of Speculative Philosophy 24 (3):275-291.
William L. McBride (1981). Sartre and Lived Experience. Research in Phenomenology 11 (1):75-89.
S. Kay Toombs (1988). Illness and the Paradigm of Lived Body. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 9 (2).
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads87 ( #8,282 of 549,065 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,185 of 549,065 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
