Alienation Theory In Health Care
Given the fundamental interconnectedness of the mind and body, the understanding of how we are bodies (how we are embodied) is essential in any healthcare endeavour. It is my belief that one of the theories which will have the most significant impact on my future as a healthcare professional is that of embodiment. In the following essay I will elucidate the connection between my future healthcare practice and this ethical theory through drawing on important concepts and relating them to the healthcare setting. In the first half of this section, I will use this theory to explain how we are bodies, our bodies as our point of contact, and the concept of habituation in functional perfection. Later I will discuss the concepts of alienation and
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Whereas habituation may be used to integrate a patient into a function, disintegration is inevitable and alienation common throughout life. As aforementioned, the body provides our understanding of the world, if a portion of the body suffers, as does our ability to experience. Moreover, our mind may become alienated with parts of our body. Our body may no longer “listen” to our will and when this occurs, whole sections of our lives . Remembering that a patient’s illness or injury goes beyond the physiological state into the social and psychological ability to interact with the world is imperative. Further, disintegration of the body cannot be stopped, only delayed, and this concept may provide some solace when having to deal with the inevitable death of a patient. We are fundamentally social beings, constantly in the world, constantly open to public interaction. Our bodies cannot be removed from the world, only can they be hidden. This leaves us continually open to the involvement of others, their praise and their judgement. Care, then, goes beyond treating the physiological or even psychological, it is a fundamentally ethical endeavour . For how a patient is cared will impact their personhood—all their future interactions with the world. Medical and nursing practices deal with how people are embodied. Consider a patient who has received facial surgery, if people were not social beings, the scar left would not be of issue. However, our faces are not for ourselves, but for others. And off this scar others will create judgements that will impact every future interaction of said patient. Treatment goes so far beyond dealing with the immediate ailment, as shown, it will trickle into all aspects of this patient’s
Whereas habituation may be used to integrate a patient into a function, disintegration is inevitable and alienation common throughout life. As aforementioned, the body provides our understanding of the world, if a portion of the body suffers, as does our ability to experience. Moreover, our mind may become alienated with parts of our body. Our body may no longer “listen” to our will and when this occurs, whole sections of our lives . Remembering that a patient’s illness or injury goes beyond the physiological state into the social and psychological ability to interact with the world is imperative. Further, disintegration of the body cannot be stopped, only delayed, and this concept may provide some solace when having to deal with the inevitable death of a patient. We are fundamentally social beings, constantly in the world, constantly open to public interaction. Our bodies cannot be removed from the world, only can they be hidden. This leaves us continually open to the involvement of others, their praise and their judgement. Care, then, goes beyond treating the physiological or even psychological, it is a fundamentally ethical endeavour . For how a patient is cared will impact their personhood—all their future interactions with the world. Medical and nursing practices deal with how people are embodied. Consider a patient who has received facial surgery, if people were not social beings, the scar left would not be of issue. However, our faces are not for ourselves, but for others. And off this scar others will create judgements that will impact every future interaction of said patient. Treatment goes so far beyond dealing with the immediate ailment, as shown, it will trickle into all aspects of this patient’s