Objects of safety and imprisonment: Breathless patients’ use of medical objects in a palliative setting
In this article, the authors consider breathless adults with advanced non-malignant lung disease and their relationship with health objects. This issue is especially relevant now during the Covid-19 pandemic, where the experiences of breathlessness and dependence on related medical objects have sudd...
Authors: | ; ; |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Sage Publ.
2021
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In: |
Journal of material culture
Year: 2021, Volume: 26, Issue: 2, Pages: 122-141 |
RelBib Classification: | ZA Social sciences ZD Psychology |
Further subjects: | B
medical objects
B end of life B Technology B medical oxygen B Attachment B breathlessness B phenomenology of illness |
Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
Summary: | In this article, the authors consider breathless adults with advanced non-malignant lung disease and their relationship with health objects. This issue is especially relevant now during the Covid-19 pandemic, where the experiences of breathlessness and dependence on related medical objects have sudden and global relevance. These objects include ambulatory oxygen, oxygen concentrators and inhalers, and non-pharmacological objects such as self-monitoring devices and self-management technologies. The authors consider this relationship between things and people using an interdisciplinary approach employing psychoanalytic theory (in particular Winnicott’s theory of object relations and object use), Science and Technology Studies (STS) and phenomenology. This collaborative approach allows them to relate patient use of health objects to ways of thinking about the body, dependency, autonomy, safety and sense-making within the context of palliative care. The authors illustrate the theoretical discussion with three reflective vignettes from therapeutic practice and conclude by suggesting further interdisciplinary research to develop the conceptual and practice-based links between psychoanalytic theory, STS and phenomenology to better understand individual embodied experiences of breathlessness. They call for palliative care-infused, psychoanalytically informed interventions that acknowledge breathless patients’ dependence on things and people, concomitant with the need for autonomy in being-towards-dying. |
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ISSN: | 1460-3586 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of material culture
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/1359183520931900 |