The Phenomenology of Objectification in and Through Medical Practice and Technology Development

• Published in: The Journal of medicine and philosophy Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 141 - 150
• Main Author: Svenaeus, Fredrik
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: US Oxford University Press 20.04.2023
• Subjects: Critical and Cultural Theory; Dehumanization; Emotions; genetic diagnosis; Humans; Industrial Development; Kritisk kulturteori; lived body; medical hermeneutics; objectification; phenomenology of medicine; quantified self; Self Concept; quantified self; objectification; lived body; genetic diagnosis; phenomenology of medicine; medical hermeneutics
• ISSN: 0360-5310; 1744-5019; 1744-5019
• DOI: 10.1093/jmp/jhad007

Abstract Objectification is a real problem in medicine that can lead to bad medical practice or, in the worst case, dehumanization of the patient. Nevertheless, objectification also plays a major and necessary role in medicine: the patient’s body should be viewed as a biological organism in order to find diseases and be able to cure them. Listening to the patient’s illness story should not be replaced, but, indeed, developed by the physical examination of his body searching for the causes of his complaints. Whereas phenomenologists have so far mainly been identifying the back sides of objectification in medicine, in this paper the aim is to analyze differences between detrimental objectifications and objectifications that do not deprive the patient of his subjectivity but, rather, at least in some cases, may lead the patient to feel more at home with his body.