Body Matters: A Phenomenology of Sickness, Disease, and Illness

207 Pages·2008·1.68 MB·English

by  James Aho

BODY MATTERS

BODY MATTERS
A Phenomenology of Sickness,
Disease, and Illness
James Aho and Kevin Aho
LEXINGTON BOOKS
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ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
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Copyright © 2008 by Lexington Books
First paperback edition 2009
All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aho, James Alfred, 1942–
Body matters : a phenomenology of sickness, disease, and illness / James
Aho and Kevin Aho.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Medicine—Philosophy. 2. Phenomenology. 3. Social medicine. 4.
Medical anthropology. I. Aho, Kevin, 1969– II. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Existentialism. 2. Sociology, Medical. 3. Disease—psychology.
4. Philosophy. WA31 A286b 2008]
R723.A375 2008
610—dc22 2008012060
ISBN: 978-0-7391-2698-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-0-7391-2699-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-0-7391-3821-2 (electronic)
Printed in the United States of America
(cid:2)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Foundations 1
2 The Lived-Body 15
3 The Accelerated Body and Its Pathologies 33
4 The Sicknesses of Society 55
5 The Diseases of Medicine 77
6 The Agonies of Illness 103
7 Medicine and Phenomenology 129
8 Recovering Therapy 145
9 Conclusion 157
v
vi / Table of Contents
Appendix: The Phenomenon of Phenomenology 165
References 173
Index 189
Preface
This project grows out of conversations held over many years
between its authors, father and son, occasionally beneath the
night stars of Idaho’s backcountry, or while free-heeling
through its powder snows. What originally inspired our talk—
probably underscored by the startling contrast to it of the wild
Rocky Mountains—was a conviction that the instrumentalist
technology of modernity harbors a profound menace. Exactly
what kind of danger, we could not at first say. But its manifes-
tations were visible everywhere, first and most obviously in
the housing developments and roads creeping into the moun-
tains with a kind of tragic inevitability, threatening the possi-
bility of solitude and adventure. More distantly, the menace
could be witnessed in weapons of mass destruction and in in-
dustrialized death camps, the global conglomerate, and the
sciences of public surveillance and penology. Most perversely
it was visible in what has come to be known as the “industry”
of health care. It did not take us long to learn that our concern
was and is shared by an immense citizen’s movement that
goes by many names, both in and outside of academia, one
arm of which titles itself “phenomenology.” To participate
more intelligently in this movement and to articulate our
shared problematic, Kevin became a trained phenomenologist
with an interest in social theory; James, already a trained social
vii
viii / Preface
theorist, developed an interest in phenomenology. The prod-
uct of our joint pursuits is this book.
Body Mattersis a truly interdisciplinary enterprise, not just an
ad hoc nod to a nice idea. Both of us co-wrote and amended
every chapter, ironically using (to our mutual benefit) one of the
signal technologies of modernity, the Internet. Neither Kevin nor
James can boast of certified expertise in the phenomenology of
the body. What may at first glance be considered a disadvantage,
however, may actually be an asset, given what seems to us to be
the almost willful opaqueness of so much writing on this subject.
In this book we have made a concerted effort to avoid the kinds
of obscure neologisms that many phenomenologists succumb to.
This lack of clarity often conceals and distorts the thing that is
closest and most dear to us all: our very own flesh. Our hope is
that this book will be accessible to any literate layperson who
wishes to learn about the powerful and, we think, liberating in-
sights of phenomenology.
Acknowledgments
Academic writing is very much a collaborative effort. Although
we alone take credit for the final product, we are aware of the
debts we owe to our family and colleagues. We thank Kyle and
Margaret Aho for their incisive readings of early drafts of the
book, their enthusiasm about it, and the recommendations they
gently urged on us to make it more understandable. Ken Aho
and Jessica Fultz alerted us to literature of bio-fiction that stimu-
lated our imagination. Special thanks also go to Elena Ruiz-Aho
and Charles Guignon for their unwavering support and com-
mentary, and to Richard Hearn and Gesine Hearn, who pored
over the manuscript for days and made countless suggestions to
improve its accuracy and scholarship. Kevin’s colleagues at
Florida Gulf Coast University, especially Glenn Whitehouse,
Sean Kelly, Maria Roca, Jim Wohlpart, and Donna Henry, all
played vital roles in seeing this project come to fruition. Our re-
spective universities, Idaho State University and FGCU, both
helped underwrite this book; ISU, in the form of a glorious sab-
batical leave awarded to James, during which this project was
conceived. In addition, both universities generously allotted us
dissemination grants, without which this work would never
have seen print. We are especially thankful to Ariel Ruiz i Altaba
for the powerful image that graces the book’s cover.
ix