According to Gadamer, engaging with a work of art arrests our time and attention, suspends our will, and compels our participation in its unfolding. Time in prison is also arrested time, when our will is suspended and we are compelled to submit to another’s authority. Time inside is often described as an endless present, without meaningful relation to the past or future. The experience of tarrying with art, on the other hand, offers a moment of absolute presentness. This paper explores (...) how these two temporalities differ and overlap in the context of prison theater, namely Shakespeare Behind Bars. Participating in and celebrating the temporality of the work of art allows us to experience the fullness of time and an intensification of being that are absent from a prison temporality characterized as an interminable present. Involvement with art can return us to ourselves and a continuity with our world that imprisonment severs. (shrink)

This paper is an exploration of the experience of re-gaining a measure of well-being. New hearing aids helped me recognize and elaborate anew aspects of the art of interpretation and how it relies on noticing the unnoticed. Gadamer's The Enigma of Health also provides hints as to the troubles with the idea of ecological well-being being unnoticeable. Keywords: Hermeneutics, health, hearing-loss.

Touch is central to clinical practice but can be a “touchy subject” in medical education, simultaneously associated with care, and risk. In the clinical literature, touch is typically categorised as communicative or procedural, with an emphasis on touch as behavioural. Philosophically, touch is also a subject of consideration, yet this literature remains relatively unfamiliar to clinicians. In this essay, I reflect on touch in healthcare and medical education, as explored in my PhD studies, drawing on the work of hermeneutic philosophers, (...) particularly Merleau-Ponty. Interpreting touch, I propose, is inherently hermeneutic, offering many possibilities to deepen our understanding of human interaction and clinical practice. Touch embodies the clinician-patient relationship as a holistic encounter. In high intensity interactions, touch orientates expression of empathy “beyond words". I present the significance of hermeneutics for clinical education, to richly re-imagine, and challenge, the concept of patient-centredness. (shrink)

Impostor phenomenon is faced by most people at some point in their lives. In this editorial a seasoned nurse and novice academic offers her interpretation of imposter phenomenon as experienced at different points in her life. The editorial navigates personal story, related literature, and hermeneutic interpretation on a topic that is relateable to most.

As a response to the opioid epidemic in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in 2016. This document served as a means to reduce risks and address harms of opioid use by recommending that clinicians conduct periodic urine drug testing for patients on chronic opioid therapy. As an unintended result of this recommendation, providers began using unexpected urine drug test results as a reason to dismiss (...) patients from practice, both out of concern for their patients’ wellbeing as well as their own legal risks. Using Husserl’s and Heidegger’s phenomenology, we argue that this science-based, black-and-white practice does not heed the patient as a whole person. Instead, we recommend a more contextual, patient-centered approach that can help us to better understand and manage patient needs in such contexts. Keywords: Martin Heidegger, Edmund Husserl, Opioid Epidemic, Medical Ethics, Chronic Pain. (shrink)

As a response to the opioid epidemic in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain in 2016. This document served as a means to reduce risks and address harms of opioid use by recommending that clinicians conduct periodic urine drug testing for patients on chronic opioid therapy. As an unintended result of this recommendation, providers began using unexpected urine drug test results as a reason to dismiss (...) patients from practice, both out of concern for their patients’ wellbeing as well as their own legal risks. Using Husserl’s and Heidegger’s phenomenology, we argue that this science-based, black-and-white practice does not heed the patient as a whole person. Instead, we recommend a more contextual, patient-centered approach that can help us to better understand and manage patient needs in such contexts. (shrink)