The dialectic of health and suffering: An ontological perspective on young people's health

Author(s): Eriksson, K.

Journal/Book: Qual Health Res. 1998; 8: 2455 Teller Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Sage Publications Inc. 513-525.

Abstract: This study's aim is to understand the health of young people (ages 23 to 19) from an ontological perspective. The authors take an abductive research approach to understand the experience of health. Fifteen interviews are analyzed and interpreted by a hermeneutic method. Front the viewpoint of the young, health is a process of becoming, which can be identified as a dialectic alternation between opposites: the experiences of having and not having something valuable, of being and not being somebody, and of becoming and not becoming an integral human being. Health as a dialectic alternation presupposes awareness, freedom, and different forms of strengths. Awareness of suffering gives depth to health. In the ontological sense, health and suffering reflect the dialectic between good and evil and between life and death.

Note: Article Lindholm L, ABO Akad Univ, Dept Caring Sci, Vaasa, FINLAND

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