RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Illness as a condition of our existence in the world: on illness and pathic existence
JF Medical Humanities
JO J Med Humanit
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 44
OP 49
DO 10.1136/medhum-2011-010108
VO 38
IS 1
A1 Elin Håkonsen Martinsen
A1 Jan Helge Solbakk
YR 2012
UL http://mh.bmj.com/content/38/1/44.abstract
AB This paper seeks to find different ways of addressing illness as an experience essential to the understanding of being a human being. As a conceptual point of departure, we suggest the notion of ‘pathic existence’ as developed by the German physician and philosopher Viktor von Weizsäcker (1886–1957). Through an analysis of his conceptualisation of the pathic and of pathic categories, we demonstrate how this auxiliary typology may be of help in unveiling different modes of ill-being, or Kranksein. Furthermore, we show how illness plays a paradigmatic role in this type of existence. We discuss how von Weizsäcker's claim of illness as “a way of being human” indicates how such a view of the illness existence both differs from and touches upon other streams of thought within the philosophy of medicine and medical ethics. Finally, we highlight some of the normative implications emerging from this perspective of relevance in today's medicine.