The Antropological Dimension of Terminal Diseases: The Illness of the Patient

Abstract: The trend to 'alternative' medical forms signals a discontent in general with scientificbiomedicine and points to the necessity of widening the concept of the biomedicalmodel. As has been suggested by first attempts the reasons for the vague feelings ofgeneral discontent could be found in the illness part of a sick person. Medicalanthropological studies make it possible to analyse the reasons for illness as well asto show methods to cure the culture-based illness feelings. As a base for the study ofcultural components of illness images, 'classic biomedicine' is compared to 'alterna-tive medical forms' in order to find out why the 'other' curing methods are in greatdemand. From the results the aims of three projects assume concrete forms. For theirexact specification three categories are introduced and discussed: subjective theoryof sickness, subjective context of meaning and subjective treatment expectations.Within the three proposed projects the emphasis is put on the introduced categories.The data for the above mentioned aspects should be collected in two different cul-tures. This way culture-bound characteristics can be outlined and differentiated. Themethods to be used are introduced and described.

Keyword(s): Medizinisch-anthropologischer Ansatz

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