Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the notion of clinical medicine as a hermeneutical enterprise and to bridge the gap between the general perspectives of hermeneutics and the particularities of medical practice. The case of a patient with low back pain is analyzed. The discussion centers around the metaphor of “the patient as a text” and a model of five social discourses about low back pain. The problems addressed are: (1) the nature of a moral experience, (2) the variety of available texts, (3) the difference between the doctor's and patient's narratives, and (4) the patient's and doctor's responsibility regarding the existential, biographical meaning of an illness. Although many problems are left unsolved, it is argued that from a philosophical point of view the notion of medicine as a hermeneutical enterprise opens up the possibility of gaining insight in the foundations of the clinical encounter.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Gillon R, ed. Principles of Health Care Ethics, Chicester etc.: John Wiley, 1994.
Merlaeu-Ponty M. Phenomenology of Perception. London and New York: Routledge, 1962: xix.
Ricoeur P. The task of hermeneutics. Philosophy Today 1973; 17: 112–128.
Thomasma DC. Clinical ethics as medical hermeneutics. Theor Med 1994; 15: 93–111.
Spiegelberg H. The Phenomenological Movement. A Historical Introduction. 3rd revised and enlarged edition. The Hague etc: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1982: 104–105.
Thomasma 1994 (see note 4): 95–96.
Tongeren P van. Moral philosophy as a hermeneutics of moral experience. Int Philos Quarterly 1994; 34: 199–214; Tongeren P van. The relation of narrativity and hermeneutics to an adequate practical ethic. Ethical Perspectives 1994; 1: 57–70.
Thomasma 1994 (see note 4); Carson RA. Interpretive bioethics: The way of discernment. Theor Med 1990; 11: 51–59.
Have HAMJ ten. The hyperreality of clinical ethics: A unitary theory and hermeneutics. Theor Med 1994; 15: 113–131.
Daniel SL. Hermeneutical clinical ethics: A commentary. Theor Med 1994; 15: 133–139; see p. 136.
Daniel SL. The patient as a text: a model of clinical hermeneutics. Theor Med 1986; 7: 195–210.
Potter RL. The hermeneutical process and clinical ethics. J Clin Ethics 1995; 6: 88–91.
Have HAMJ ten. The anthropological tradition in the philosophy of medicine. Theor Med 1995; 16: 3–14; Dekkers WJM. F.J.J. Buytendijk's concept of an anthropological physiology. Theor Med 1995; 16: 15–39.
Leder D. Clinical interpretation: The hermeneutics of medicine. Theor Med 1990; 11: 9–24.
Have HAMJ ten 1994 (see note 13): 120.
Leder 1990 Clinical interpretation: The hermeneutics of medicine. Theor Med 1990; 11: (see note): 14.
Ibid: 14.
Ibid: 12.
Nijhof G. Towards a sociological hypothesis on the accounting for chronicity. Int J Health Sciences 1992; 3: 3–11.
Quotations in Nijhof 1992 (see note 19): 6.
Pellegrino ED, Thomasma DC. For The Patient's Good: The Restoration of Benificence in Health Care. New York etc.: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Engelhardt HT Jr. Introduction. In: Peset JL, Gracia D, eds. The Ethics of Diagnosis. Dordrecht etc: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992: 1–9.
Nelson JB. Body Theology. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox press, 1992.
Ibid: 42.
Quotations by van Tongeren, Moral Philosophy (see note 7): 203.
Ricoeur P. Time and Narrative. Volume I. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1984: 31.
Hunter KM. Doctors' Stories. The Narrative Structure of Medical Knowledge. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Toombs SK. The Meaning of Illness. The Phenomenological Account of the Different Perspectives of Physician and Patient. Dordrecht etc.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992: 10.
Tsouyopoulos N. Postmodernist theory and the physician-patient relationship. Theor Med 1994; 15: 267–275.
Leder 1990 (see note 14): 17.
Welie JVM. In the Face of Suffering. Prolegomena to a Philosophical Foundation of Clinical Ethics [Diss]. Nijmegen: Catholic University, 1994.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dekkers, W. Hermeneutics and Experiences of the Body. The Case of Low Back Pain. Theor Med Bioeth 19, 277–293 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009922217656
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009922217656