What is called symptom?

Eriksen, Thor Eirik; Risør, Mette Bech

doi:10.1007/s11019-013-9501-5

Cited by 30 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…One of the aims of our analysis of the potentiality of sensations is to contribute to contemporary critical writings on 'symptoms' in the health sciences as well as the social sciences. In particular, we are inspired by a growing interest in sensations within medical anthropology, which calls for a more comprehensive questioning of the idea of the symptom based on phenomenological, philosophical, and semiotic perspectives (Hay 2008;Eriksen and Risør 2014;Staiano-Ross 2011). In line with this, our analysis explores the 'coming into being' of symptoms in terms of the concept of potentiality of sensations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Am I fine?

Offersen¹,

Risør²,

Vedsted³

et al. 2020

MAT

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Woven into the fabric of human existence is the possibility of death and suffering from disease. This essential vulnerability calls forth processes of meaning making, of grappling with uncertainty and morality. In this article we explore the uncertainty and ambiguity that exists in the space between bodily sensations and symptoms of illness. Bodily sensations have the potential to become symptoms of disease or to be absorbed into ordinariness, prompting the question: how do we ascribe meaning to sensations? In the context of middle-class everyday life in Denmark, we show how different potentialities of ambiguous sensations are weighed against each other on a culturally and morally contingent continuum between normal and not normal, uncovering the complex interplay between the body, everyday life, and pervasive biomedical discourses focusing on health promotion, symptom awareness, and care seeking.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Am I fine?

Offersen¹,

Risør²,

Vedsted³

et al. 2020

MAT

Self Cite

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“…Instead of simply asking how meaning and signifi cance is att ributed to symptom experiences, it asks how embodied sensations are evoked and become endowed with signifi cance as symptoms in the fi rst place and how shared cultural templates on 'what counts as symptoms' evolve, mediate and feed into this process (Lock 1993;Nichter 2008). As we have suggested elsewhere, this may revive 'symptoms' as a powerful analytic trope for the exploration of the interface between biomedicine and society and for tracing how social change adds to the building of disease sensibilities in diverse social sett ings (Andersen, in press;Eriksen and Risør 2014). As stated by Andersen (in press), studies of symptom categories may fi nd inspiration in critical approaches to the study of diagnostic categories as deep seated, cultural assumptions about what it means to know the body in the context of (bio)medicine (cf.…”

Section: Rikke Sand Andersen Mark Nichter and Mette Bech Risørmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensations, Symptoms and Healthcare Seeking

Andersen

Nichter²,

Risør

2017

Anthropology in Action

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“…The omnipresence of the symptom seems, however, not to be reflected by an equally prominent curiosity aimed at investigating this concept as a phenomenon [2]. A symptom is an indication or a signal of something that is already happening or is going to happen in the future.…”

Section: What Is a Symptom And What Does It Mean?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Is The Meaning of Symptoms the Same in Women And Men?

Turabián¹

2017

J Women's Health Care

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The author hypothesize that patient gender could have an effect on expression and communication of symptoms. Symptoms may be defined as "any subjective evidence of a health problem as perceived by the patient". Symptoms are the result of an interpretation process. Symptom experiences are embedded in a complex interplay between biological, psychological and cultural factors. The expression of symptoms depends more on psychosocial aspects than biological. In consequence there must be a variety of interpretations of sensations, which are not equivalent to expressions of underlying disease. Moreover, this interpretation of sensations, being fundamentally of a psychosocial character, must be different according to the gender of the patient. So, symptoms of the same disease could differ between women and men, and the same symptom could have different meanings in females and males. If diagnosis of disease is based exclusively on the presence of specific symptom characteristics, we may risk not take into account the different meanings by reason of gender, and give rise to misinterpretations and misdiagnoses. The implications of this perspective are immense. There is a need for developing research designs that test alternative conceptions of symptoms as a complexity phenomenon, with gender/sex differences in health, more rigorously.

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What is called symptom?

Cited by 30 publications

References 54 publications

Am I fine?

Am I fine?

Sensations, Symptoms and Healthcare Seeking

Is The Meaning of Symptoms the Same in Women And Men?

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