“You Are a Number, Not a Human Being”: Israeli Breast Cancer Patients' Experiences with the Medical Establishment

Abstract

In the course of interviews with Israeli women who had recently been treated for breast cancer, we found that our informants tended to offer us "treatment narratives" rather than, or sometimes in addition to, the "illness narratives" made famous by Arthur Kleinman. For the women we interviewed, treatment narratives constitute verbal platforms on which to explore what it means to be human during a period in which one's body, spirit, and social identity are undergoing intense transformations. A central theme in these narratives is the Hebrew word yachas, loosely translated as "attitude," "attention," or "relationship." The women consistently contrasted the good yachas of medical staff who treated them "like humans" or like "real friends" with the bad yachas of staff who treated them like numbers, machines, or strangers. We argue that the women used language (in various contexts) as a means of resisting the medical culture's pattern of treating patients as "nonhumans."

Spirituality in general practice: a qualitative evidence synthesis

“…35,36 Strengths and limitations This qualitative evidence synthesis is the first to collect and summarise the existing qualitative research about GPs' views on their role as spiritual care givers.…”

Doctor-patient interaction in Finnish primary health care as perceived by first year medical students

“…Evidently, the early pre-clinical contact of medical students with the real general practice helps students adopt a holistic approach in their future clinical work. As a result, they treat patients like human beings or real friends, and not like numbers, machines or strangers [15]. …”

Integriranje kulturne antropologije u kliničku praksu. Kulturna značenja i odnos liječnika i pacijenta

“…Ona traži redefiniranje specifične zapadne medicinske kulture što počiva na znanstvenoj, biomedicinskoj paradigmi (s epitetima objektivne, empirijske, pozitivističke i racionalne) i ideji vrijednosno neutralnoga objektivnog znanja, isključujući emocionalnost, osobnost, duhovnost, subjektivnost i psihosocijalno stanje oboljele osobe iz medicinskog tretmana (Kleinman 1980;Sered i Tabory 1999;Saunders 2000). Budući da je u osnovi konstrukcije kliničkog problema i nalaženju odluke kako ga tretirati ljudski odnos, a bolest i patnja postavljaju moralna i egzistencijalna pitanja, istinska je "kulturna zagonetka" da se biomedicinska praksa oslanja isključivo na znanstvenu racionalnost i objektivnost utjelovljenu 1 Rad je nastao za potrebe priručnika za dodiplomski kolegij na Medicinskom fakultetu u Zagrebu "Elementi naracije o medicini i u medicini" koji je 2014. koncipirala i vodi dr. sc.…”