Towards a phenomenology of disease

Abstract

Modern medicine has given a marginal and passive character to the body and, therefore, has relegated it to absence. In this perspective, human beings are made of an organic reality that becomes a thing, another object of nature that can be controlled. In the same way as everything temporary and perishable, the body is despised. Attempts to prolong life, to escape from death are an indication of the eagerness to maintain the body within artificial indicators of normality. To make a phenomenology of disease involves taking into account the matters of the body. Through phenomenology, it is possible to verify an issue that was essential in the ancient world, namely: that human beings are mortal; consequently, it is necessary that they take care of themselves, that they cultivate themselves, that they look for a true cure.