Lived body and experience of illness: a phenomenological approach

Abstract

This article aims to show how the development of a phenomenology of the lived body is of special interest for a philosophical elucidation of the illness that takes charge of the patient’s perspective in its specific theoretical relevance. Starting from a critique of the Cartesian paradigm of the body-machine and the consequent de-emphasis of the personal experience of the disease, it will be shown how the phenomenological perspective allows us to account for the constituent elements of the illness experienced in the first person, such as alteration or disintegration of the link I-body-world-others. Finally, the question of the physical, emotional and cognitive response to the disease and how phenomenological reflections on the disease converge in a reflection on identity, vulnerability, and recognition will be addressed.