Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Existential Medicine: Essays on Health and Illness (New Heidegger Research)

Existential Medicine explores the recent impact that the philosophies of existentialism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics have had on the health care professions. A growing body of scholarship drawing primarily on the work of Martin Heidegger and other influential twentieth-century figures such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Hans-Georg Gadamer has shaped contemporary research in the fields of bioethics, narrative medicine, gerontology, enhancement medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy, and palliative care, among others. By regarding the human body as a decontextualized object, the prevailing paradigm of medical science often overlooks the body as it is lived. As a result, it fails to critically engage the experience of illness and the core questions of 'what it means' and 'what it feels like' to be ill. With work from emerging and renowned scholars in the field, this collection aims to shed light on these issues and the crucial need for clinicians to situate the experience of illness within the context of a patient's life-world. To this end, Existential Medicine offers a valuable resource for philosophers and medical humanists, as well as health care practitioners. Review ... the collection of essays in Kevin Aho's inspiring publication is an invitation to join the exploration of phenomenology and existential medicine and find new potentials for philosophy of medicine within these traditions. Existential Medicine is a well-balanced but also composite collection of essays, a rhizome of Heidegger-medicine-hybrids that cover a remarkable amount of ground within the medical sphere. We join the many skillful thinkers who have contributed to the volume in an exploration of the possibilities for phenomenology--and particularly Heideggerian thought--to contribute in manifold ways and in a variety of debates within philosophy of medicine. ... For the essay collection Aho has managed to curate a book that touches upon an impressive range of philosophical and medical fields. Particularly it is enjoyable that the collection has such a strong emphasis on illnesses that are typically considered somatic, thus succeeding in moving existential medicine beyond the psychiatric realm within which the use of philosophy--and particularly the use of existential philosophy--in medicine is sometimes stuck.-- "Phenomenological Reviews, 30 January 2019" [...] remind[s] the readers of this society of an important area where humanistic practitioners, scholars and researchers -- those who are sensitive to the existential dimension of human being -- are needed today.-- "Journal of the Society for Humanistic Psychology" Kevin Aho's masterfully selected collection is an excellent showcase of the contributions that phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism can make to medicine. The volume features insights by major contributors to the field of medical humanities, inspired by the work of Heidegger and Gadamer, among others.-- "Gatherings" Existential Medicine is a stellar collection of philosophical essays, written by the leading scholars in the field. The volume draws on the phenomenological-existential tradition, and addresses contemporary issues in medical practice, including themes such as psychiatry, embodiment, death and pain, health, and technology. Illness stands at the intersection of biology and natural science on one hand and personal meaning and subjective experience on the other - the previously transparent body and homeliness of the world profoundly altered by ageing, illness, suffering and pain. This edited volume will be a superb resource for health care practitioners, philosophers, and wider colleagues in policy and academia.--Matthew Broome, Director of the Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, UK Kevin Aho has brought together a unique and valuable collection of new essays by leading authorities in existential, phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches to medicine. This c