Feminist Phenomenology and Medicine

Phenomenological insights into health issues relating to bodily self-experience, normality and deviance, self-alienation, and objectification.

Situated at the intersection of phenomenology of medicine and feminist phenomenology, this volume provides insights into medical practices such as surgical operations, organ transplants, dentistry, midwifery, and psychiatry. The contributors make clear the relevance of feminist phenomenology to the fields of medicine and health by highlighting difference, vulnerability, and volatility as central dimensions of human experience rather than deviations. It also further vitalizes the field of phenomenology by bringing it into conversation with a range of different materials—including case studies, fiction, and other forms of narrative—and shedding new light on issues like bodily self-experience, normality and deviance, self-alienation, and objectification. The volume’s focus on concrete experience develops and sharpens the methodological tools and conceptual framework of phenomenology and makes it an excellent resource for scholars, students, and medical practitioners alike.

“…this book is a significant and original contribution to both feminist theory and phenomenology. The volume bridges a range of fields of inquiry, filling a gap in the feminist scholarship on medicine while, at the same time, providing theoretical insights that will inform conceptual and practical concerns within biomedicine.” — Hypatia

“…the breadth and uniqueness of topics should interest anyone who works within the fields of philosophy of medicine and medical ethics … the collection is breaking new ground in a positive way … bringing a feminist phenomenological lens to the philosophy of medicine makes salient the many ways in which a variety of different kinds of oppressions are manifest within our medical systems and practices. The hope is that practitioners, theorists, and activists in the field read this book, and are moved to not only think in new directions but to act upon their thoughts.” — Bioethics.net

“Though this volume is best suited to those interested in phenomenology, a few articles, particularly Käll’s article on Wit, a film used in many bioethics courses, have a more general appeal and would be well worth reading by bioethicists.” — CHOICE