Re:visit. Humanities & Medicine in Dialogue (Journal)
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Doctors Tell Stories Too: Medical Knowledge and Narration in Blogs and Podcasts"
No full textDespite the generally low status of narratives in mainstream medical practice, it is more widespread than one might think, for example in doctor-patient communication and medical case histories. Furthermore, the usage of new media in medical training and public communication has called for a reconsideration of the value of narratives. Against this background, the present article explores doctors’ and other medical professionals’ storytelling practices in the context of weblogs and podcasts. The examples show that narratives can be employed for a range of reasons, including making the medical profession more accessible but also as an indirect means of criticizing bureaucratic processes. All the examples show that the narratives aim at involving the respective audiences and therefore often show a great degree of creativity and unexpected complexity.Despite the generally low status of narratives in mainstream medical practice, it is more widespread than one might think, for example in doctor-patient communication and medical case histories. Furthermore, the usage of new media in medical training and public communication has called for a reconsideration of the value of narratives. Against this background, the present article explores doctors’ and other medical professionals’ storytelling practices in the context of weblogs and podcasts. The examples show that narratives can be employed for a range of reasons, including making the medical profession more accessible but also as an indirect means of criticizing bureaucratic processes. All the examples show that the narratives aim at involving the respective audiences and therefore often show a great degree of creativity and unexpected complexity
„Dennoch darf Selbsttötung nicht zum gesellschaftlichen Normalfall werden“: Menschenwürde als Norm in Argumentationen zur Sterbehilfe in Deutschland
Full text linkHuman dignity is a central concept in bioethical and biomedical issues and, as a norm engrained in the German Basic Law (‘Grundgesetz’), plays an important role in the assessment of potential biomedical procedures. The term can already be found in Christian-Jewish-Biblical contexts as well as in Ancient times, where different dimensions of meaning focus on the social position of humans on the one hand and the differentiation of humans from non-human beings on the other, which is justified by Cicero, among others, with the rationality of humans. The philosopher Immanuel Kant also significantly shaped the concept of human dignity in the modern era and the Enlightenment with his moral principle of the Categorical Imperative. To this day, human dignity is generally referred to in positive terms. As a semantically vague high-value word, the term human dignity is used within the analyzed plenary debates of the German Bundestag from 2021-2023 to present one\u27s own position on assisted suicide. In this study, we examine the use of the term human dignity within arguments and conclude that the term is used without further definition in some, but not all cases. Among other things, it is used within topoi (argumentative patterns) that refer to collective knowledge. Different topoi are used in different ways depending on the position on assisted suicide. A closer look at selected individual argumentations according to the Toulmin scheme suggests that the concept of human dignity frequently takes on the role of supporting the rule of reason within the argumentation, thus reinforcing the justification of the thesis by the argument based on socially established concepts (such as laws or religious commandments).Human dignity is a central concept in bioethical and biomedical issues and, as a norm engrained in the German Basic Law (‘Grundgesetz’), plays an important role in the assessment of potential biomedical procedures. The term can already be found in Christian-Jewish-Biblical contexts as well as in Ancient times, where different dimensions of meaning focus on the social position of humans on the one hand and the differentiation of humans from non-human beings on the other, which is justified by Cicero, among others, with the rationality of humans. The philosopher Immanuel Kant also significantly shaped the concept of human dignity in the modern era and the Enlightenment with his moral principle of the Categorical Imperative. To this day, human dignity is generally referred to in positive terms. As a semantically vague high-value word, the term human dignity is used within the analyzed plenary debates of the German Bundestag from 2021-2023 to present one\u27s own position on assisted suicide. In this study, we examine the use of the term human dignity within arguments and conclude that the term is used without further definition in some, but not all cases. Among other things, it is used within topoi (argumentative patterns) that refer to collective knowledge. Different topoi are used in different ways depending on the position on assisted suicide. A closer look at selected individual argumentations according to the Toulmin scheme suggests that the concept of human dignity frequently takes on the role of supporting the rule of reason within the argumentation, thus reinforcing the justification of the thesis by the argument based on socially established concepts (such as laws or religious commandments)
From “Objective and very competent!! …Just as a doctor should be!!” to “An insult! Never again and not recommended.”: Linguistic insights into communicative actions in online doctor reviews: A German-Spanish language comparison
No full textThe subject of this article is the communicative acting in the text type online doctor’s assessments from a linguistic and cultural comparative perspective. On the basis of a primarily qualitative study of 70 German and Spanish (peninsular) examples, insights into the macro- and microstructure of this text type will be provided on the one hand, and the linguistic design of the speech act of evaluation, which is constitutive for the text type, will be examined on the other. Furthermore, the linguistic configuration of the assessment of specific criteria such as competence and professionalism or empathy and friendliness of the staff of the surgery visited will be examined by applying corpus linguistic methods. In this context, insights will also be provided. Into the speech act types in which the evaluative verbal actions are embedded, as well as into the weighting of the respective criteria with additional consideration of further linguistic approaches, e.g. the functional sentence perspective. From a theoretical point of view, the article is thus committed to pragmalinguistic approaches of text linguistics as well as theoretical models such as the linguistic theory of politeness. The primarily qualitative study will be supplemented by occasional quantitative analyses in order to provide insights into the frequency and representativeness of the linguistic phenomena and strategies discussed.The subject of this article is the communicative acting in the text type online doctor’s assessments from a linguistic and cultural comparative perspective. On the basis of a primarily qualitative study of 70 German and Spanish (peninsular) examples, insights into the macro- and microstructure of this text type will be provided on the one hand, and the linguistic design of the speech act of evaluation, which is constitutive for the text type, will be examined on the other. Furthermore, the linguistic configuration of the assessment of specific criteria such as competence and professionalism or empathy and friendliness of the staff of the surgery visited will be examined by applying corpus linguistic methods. In this context, insights will also be provided. Into the speech act types in which the evaluative verbal actions are embedded, as well as into the weighting of the respective criteria with additional consideration of further linguistic approaches, e.g. the functional sentence perspective. From a theoretical point of view, the article is thus committed to pragmalinguistic approaches of text linguistics as well as theoretical models such as the linguistic theory of politeness. The primarily qualitative study will be supplemented by occasional quantitative analyses in order to provide insights into the frequency and representativeness of the linguistic phenomena and strategies discussed
In conversation with ... Arno Görgen
No full textArno Görgen ist Kulturhistoriker. An der Hochschule der Künste in Bern ist er Co-Lead des SNF- Sinergia-Projekts „Confoederatio Ludens: Swiss History of Games, Play and Game Design 1968-2000“. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Gesundheit und Medizin, die Medikalisierung digitaler Spiele, Systemtheorie und Ideengeschichte sowie popkulturelle Repräsentation von Krankheit. In diesem Kontext hat er 2024 zusammen mit Tobias Eichinger und Eugen Pfister den Sammelband „Superspreader – Popkultur und mediale Diskurse im Angesicht der Pandemie“ veröffentlicht. Der Sammelband ist in der Reihe Medical Humanities im transcript Verlag erschienen. Über dieses Buch führen Christoph Singer, Leiter des Forschungszentrums Medical Humanities an der Universität Innsbruck, und Arno Görgen folgendes Gespräch.Arno Görgen is a cultural historian. At the Bern University of the Arts, he is the co-lead of the SNSF Sinergia project "Confoederatio Ludens: Swiss History of Games, Play, and Game Design 1968–2000." His research focuses on health and medicine, the medicalization of digital games, systems theory and intellectual history, as well as the pop-cultural representation of illness. In this context, he published the anthology "Superspreader – Pop Culture and Media Discourses in the Face of the Pandemic" in 2024, together with Tobias Eichinger and Eugen Pfister. The anthology was released as part of the Medical Humanities series by transcript Verlag. Christoph Singer, head of the Research Center for Medical Humanities at the University of Innsbruck, and Arno Görgen discuss this book in the following interview
Discursive Practices of Human-Machine Relations in Diabetes Management
Full text linkRecent post-humanist theories challenge the notion of human superiority and see hu-mans in constant interaction with and dependence on their material and natural environments. Part of these material environments are rapidly developing new technologies, such as AI-supported medical engineering, and biotechnology. They are blurring the lines between the human and the non-human and put anthropocentric thinking up for debate as technology increasingly shapes the way we think about, feel, and speak about the world. This relation of humans with their technological environments is especially striking and essential in medical contexts: Medical diagnoses nowadays can hardly do without technical equipment, mini-robots assist in surgical procedures, organ and limb functions are supported or controlled by machines and their associated algorithms, such as cardiac and brain pacemakers, dialysis or diabetes management. Technologies are radically changing the way medical professionals think about and interact with patients’ bodies; they are also drastically changing the way how people who use the technologies perceive their own bodies and interact with the devices in their daily lives. Engaging with medical technologies therefore has not only health-related but also social and cultural implications.Recent post-humanist theories challenge the notion of human superiority and see hu-mans in constant interaction with and dependence on their material and natural environments. Part of these material environments are rapidly developing new technologies, such as AI-supported medical engineering, and biotechnology. They are blurring the lines between the human and the non-human and put anthropocentric thinking up for debate as technology increasingly shapes the way we think about, feel, and speak about the world. This relation of humans with their technological environments is especially striking and essential in medical contexts: Medical diagnoses nowadays can hardly do without technical equipment, mini-robots assist in surgical procedures, organ and limb functions are supported or controlled by machines and their associated algorithms, such as cardiac and brain pacemakers, dialysis or diabetes management. Technologies are radically changing the way medical professionals think about and interact with patients’ bodies; they are also drastically changing the way how people who use the technologies perceive their own bodies and interact with the devices in their daily lives. Engaging with medical technologies therefore has not only health-related but also social and cultural implications
Editorial
Full text linkDie dritte Sonderausgabe des Journals Re:visit. Humanities & Medicine in Dialog widmet sich, in Zusammenarbeit mit Gastherausgeberin Marina Iakushevich, dem Thema Medizin medial / Medizin digital.
Neben sechs Originalartikeln beleuchten wir dieses Schwerpunktthema in Form von zwei Interviews und zwei Berichten. The third special issue of the journal Re:visit. Humanities & Medicine in Dialog, in collaboration with guest editor Marina Iakushevich, is dedicated to the theme "Medicine in Media / Medicine Digital."
In addition to six original articles, we explore this main topic through two interviews and two reports
Embodying the Pain of Others: The Shared Pain Model in Catholicism of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Full text linkScholars working on Catholic conceptions of pain have primarily emphasized that pain is meaningful according to Catholic teachings. Pain and ailments can be salutary or soul-cleansing illness and injury have meaning; and physical and emotional suffering could be God-given and an opportunity for the soul to grow. Rather than focusing on the individual benefits to be gained through suffering, this article focuses on the intersubjective aspect of Catholic conceptions of pain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Analysing the shared pain model in Catholicism, we show that this social aspect went beyond merely communicating about and perceiving pain: it also included suffering on behalf of others. We explore three case studies of apparent vicarious suffering, focusing on women bearing the wounds of Christ: Walburga Zentner, Marie Jalhay-Munzbach and Therese Neumann. In doing so, we gain a more nuanced understanding of what that shared pain model entailed. More specifically, we will see that this notion of suffering ‘on behalf of others’ not only concerned the latter’s spiritual well-being, with the sufferer atoning for the sins of others. It could also refer to their physical well-being, where the suffering was seen as a means to alleviate the pain of others, with the mystic becoming the substitute for someone else – entailing a transfer of pain. Thus, instead of studying the efforts these women were thought to be making for society as a whole as new Christs, we explore the more intimate social exchange between these women and the people, dead or alive, for whom they suffered.Scholars working on Catholic conceptions of pain have primarily emphasized that pain is meaningful according to Catholic teachings. Pain and ailments can be salutary or soul-cleansing illness and injury have meaning; and physical and emotional suffering could be God-given and an opportunity for the soul to grow. Rather than focusing on the individual benefits to be gained through suffering, this article focuses on the intersubjective aspect of Catholic conceptions of pain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Analysing the shared pain model in Catholicism, we show that this social aspect went beyond merely communicating about and perceiving pain: it also included suffering on behalf of others. We explore three case studies of apparent vicarious suffering, focusing on women bearing the wounds of Christ: Walburga Zentner, Marie Jalhay-Munzbach and Therese Neumann. In doing so, we gain a more nuanced understanding of what that shared pain model entailed. More specifically, we will see that this notion of suffering ‘on behalf of others’ not only concerned the latter’s spiritual well-being, with the sufferer atoning for the sins of others. It could also refer to their physical well-being, where the suffering was seen as a means to alleviate the pain of others, with the mystic becoming the substitute for someone else – entailing a transfer of pain. Thus, instead of studying the efforts these women were thought to be making for society as a whole as new Christs, we explore the more intimate social exchange between these women and the people, dead or alive, for whom they suffered
Aestheticizing Pain: (Re-)Claiming Identity through Music, Literature, and Landscape
Full text linkOn July 12, 1947, the Icelandic composer J.n Leifs (1899–1968) was shattered by the news that his 17-year-old daughter, L.f, had perished in the freezing cold waters off the coast of Sweden. Leifs turned to composing as a means of processing his pain. In a matter of weeks, he completed several monumental works that he dedicated to her memory. A little more than sixty years later, the glaciologist M. Jackson was devastated by the loss of her parents, who died within a two-year period due to terminal cancer. Amid her grief, she turned to writing and eventually published two books in a single year (2019): The Secret Lives of Glaciers and While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in a Time of Climate Change. While these accounts may seem disparate on the surface, on closer inspection, they share several similarities. Both figures not only witnessed the pain of their family members, but also experienced intense levels of pain after their deaths. In their attempts to cope with the devastation, they both turned to aestheticizing their pain. In doing so, they found solace in nature, particularly the icy mantles of Iceland’s glaciers. Most significantly, both suffered in ways that transcended mere physical sensation: they struggled to find meaning for their pain and recover from a loss of identity. Consequently, these case studies reveal challenges to biomedical approaches to measuring and managing pain. Despite many groundbreaking achievements in these areas, the shift in authority to biomedicine over the past century has not been accompanied by an equally extensive gain in our understanding of pain’s many meanings and their relevance to one’s quality of life. Moreover, the use of personal narrative and aesthetics to gain access to this knowledge remains underutilized.
Therefore, in this article, I argue that some of the most deleterious effects of pain result not just from physical sensations alone, but from the experience of pain without meaning. In doing so, I demonstrate how the process of aestheticizing pain is helpful to granting meaning and ultimately sharing forms of suffering in cases ranging from the mid-twentieth century to the recent past. By exploring Jackson’s use of metaphor to scaffold my analysis of Leifs’ use of juxtaposition in his Requiem, Op. 33b, I reveal the ways Leifs and Jackson utilized the natural environment to help mediate their pain and thus fill the knowledge gap left by biomedical science. Collectively, by framing my analysis with recent studies by Sara Ahmed, Joel Michael Reynolds, and others, I illustrate that their techniques convey the lasting importance of shared spaces of dwelling for the unending cultural co-construction of pain – a process that enabled them to reclaim identity using music, literature, and landscape.On July 12, 1947, the Icelandic composer J.n Leifs (1899–1968) was shattered by the news that his 17-year-old daughter, L.f, had perished in the freezing cold waters off the coast of Sweden. Leifs turned to composing as a means of processing his pain. In a matter of weeks, he completed several monumental works that he dedicated to her memory. A little more than sixty years later, the glaciologist M. Jackson was devastated by the loss of her parents, who died within a two-year period due to terminal cancer. Amid her grief, she turned to writing and eventually published two books in a single year (2019): The Secret Lives of Glaciers and While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in a Time of Climate Change. While these accounts may seem disparate on the surface, on closer inspection, they share several similarities. Both figures not only witnessed the pain of their family members, but also experienced intense levels of pain after their deaths. In their attempts to cope with the devastation, they both turned to aestheticizing their pain. In doing so, they found solace in nature, particularly the icy mantles of Iceland’s glaciers. Most significantly, both suffered in ways that transcended mere physical sensation: they struggled to find meaning for their pain and recover from a loss of identity. Consequently, these case studies reveal challenges to biomedical approaches to measuring and managing pain. Despite many groundbreaking achievements in these areas, the shift in authority to biomedicine over the past century has not been accompanied by an equally extensive gain in our understanding of pain’s many meanings and their relevance to one’s quality of life. Moreover, the use of personal narrative and aesthetics to gain access to this knowledge remains underutilized.
Therefore, in this article, I argue that some of the most deleterious effects of pain result not just from physical sensations alone, but from the experience of pain without meaning. In doing so, I demonstrate how the process of aestheticizing pain is helpful to granting meaning and ultimately sharing forms of suffering in cases ranging from the mid-twentieth century to the recent past. By exploring Jackson’s use of metaphor to scaffold my analysis of Leifs’ use of juxtaposition in his Requiem, Op. 33b, I reveal the ways Leifs and Jackson utilized the natural environment to help mediate their pain and thus fill the knowledge gap left by biomedical science. Collectively, by framing my analysis with recent studies by Sara Ahmed, Joel Michael Reynolds, and others, I illustrate that their techniques convey the lasting importance of shared spaces of dwelling for the unending cultural co-construction of pain – a process that enabled them to reclaim identity using music, literature, and landscape
Total Pain - the Holistic Pain at the End of Life: The Tension Field \u27suffering\u27 in the Hospice Movement and in Palliative Care
No full textElisabeth Medicus diskutiert total pain, ein Konzept, dass in der Tradition der Hospiz- und Palliativbetreuung die überwältigende Erfahrung von Leiden am Lebensende bezeichnet, verkörpert im Schmerz, erschwert und verstärkt durch den Schmerz.Elisabeth Medicus discusses total pain, a concept that in the tradition of hospice and Palliative Care refers to the overwhelming experience of suffering at the end of life, embodied in pain, compounded and intensified by the anguish
The Potential of the \u27Compassionate Gaze\u27 against Epistemic Injustice in the Patient-Physician Relationship
No full textNot only Alok Vaid-Menon criticized the prevailing societal approach to encountering others with comprehension rather than compassion during their visit to the Man Enough podcast – this discrepancy is also frequently discussed in a medical context. One group of people regularly confronted by others\u27 failing attempts at comprehension are those whose gender does not align with their assigned gender at birth or whose presentation does not conform to it. The shift in perspective proposed by Alok Vaid-Menon, from comprehension to compassion, primarily addressed the everyday interactions with trans and gender-nonconforming individuals and went viral on social media shortly after the podcast\u27s release. However, what could such a shift in perspective mean for medical care? How can healthcare professionals and patients benefit from it? Based on the preliminary study of my dissertation project, I have gathered initial insights to address these questions, which I will present in the following and explore further in subsequent project phases.Den dominierenden gesellschaftlichen Fokus auf den Versuch des geistigen Verstehens anstatt des Mitfühlens monierte nicht nur Alok Vaid-Menon beim Besuch im Man Enough-Podcast, auch im medizinischen Kontext wird diese Diskrepanz immer wieder diskutiert. Eine Gruppe Menschen, die regelmäßig von anderen mit deren scheiternden Versuchen des Verstehens konfrontiert wird, sind Menschen, deren Geschlecht nicht dem ihnen bei der Geburt Zugewiesenen entspricht, oder deren Auftreten mit diesem nicht konform geht. Der von Alok Vaid-Menon vorgeschlagene Perspektivenwechsel vom geistigen Verstehen zum Mitfühlen bezog sich vorrangig auf den alltäglichen Umgang mit eben jenen trans und gender-non-konformen Personen und wurde nur wenige Tage nach Ausstrahlung des Podcasts viral auf Social Media geteilt. Doch was könnte ein solcher Perspektivenwechsel für die medizinische Versorgung bedeuten? Wie können Mediziner*innen und Patient*innen, ob gender-konform oder nicht, davon profitieren? Auf Basis der Vorstudie meines Dissertationsprojekts habe ich erste Hinweise gesammelt, um diese Fragen zu beantworten, welche ich im Folgenden vorstellen und in weiteren Projektschritten vertiefen werde