Merleau-Ponty on Emboided Cognition: A Phenomenological Interpretation of Spinal Cord Epidural Stimulation and Paralysis

Bahler, Brock

doi:10.7710/1526-0569.1557

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

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“…15 The habituated and unconscious activities we perform throughout the day without thinking reflect a form of body intelligence or embodied know-how, suggesting that the body is as "smart" as the brain. 16 Embodiment is essential in QoL discussions. We don't just have hands like we have a tool; we identify with them, and seeing a transplanted hand as part of oneself is critical.…”

Section: Embodimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Hand Transplantation Teaches Us About Embodiment

Bahler

2019

AMA Journal of Ethics

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While stakeholders in hand transplantation (HTx) recognize the importance of assessing quality of life (QoL), QoL has historically been inadequately defined and measured in such assessment procedures. Current conversations related to QoL in HTx could be enhanced by a phenomenological account of the lived body-namely, by illuminating the ways in which humans develop a holistic QoL through meaningful orientation in their interactions with the world and others. This meaningful orientation involves many factors; this essay considers how QoL is shaped by temporality (how past and future inform present satisfaction), embodiment (habituated, generally unconscious, meaningful attunement to the world), and intersubjectivity (how our identity as selves is constructed through social relationships). Hands-on PhenomenologyStakeholders in vascularized composite allotransplantation-specifically, hand transplantation (HTx)-acknowledge that standard assessment of quality of life (QoL) and providing long-term enhancement of QoL to hand transplant recipients is essential for the future of HTx. 1,2 However, there is ongoing debate regarding how QoL is to be defined and measured in such assessment procedures and, furthermore, how assessments can be standardized across the unique circumstances of individual transplant recipients. 2,3 Concerns over how to assess QoL are magnified by the tendency among stakeholders and the media to overemphasize cases that have been particularly successful and without incident. 2,3 For example, the website for the Louisville program 4 provides links to the success stories of its 10 HTx patients but does not mention that one recipient completed suicide, 2 have had their hand transplants removed, or that another feels that his hand transplant is effectively useless. 2,3 Furthermore, current tools that are used to track the progress of HTx patients (Carroll; Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand, or DASH; and Hand Transplantation Score System, or HTSS, which still needs validation 1,5 ) are primarily concerned with functionality of the hand and lack adequate metrics for evaluating QoL.Current QoL assessments of hand transplant recipients fail to appreciate how our habituated, multifaceted, and generally unconscious facilitation of our Citation

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Section: Embodimentmentioning

confidence: 99%