Lytninger i alternativ behandling: en fænomenologisk analyse

TY - JOUR

T1 - Lytninger i alternativ behandling

T2 - en fænomenologisk analyse

AU - Pedersen, Inge Kryger

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - In the era of evidence based medicine, technical skills, standardization and healthcare tested by research are at a premium to help determine the effectiveness of caring and healing practice. However, alternative medicine, which is less rule-bound than official bio-medicine and based on very limited scientific evidence, represents an increasingly popular medical option for many Danes. In this article, which is based on in-depth ethnographic research on three of the most popular forms of session-based alternative medicine in Denmark the phenomenon of listening is highlighted to make this popularity intelligible. Different forms of listening as a phenomenological and intersubjective process are explored: practitioners' listening to their clients, clients' listening to their practitioners as well as to their own body and finally the researcher's listening as a phenomenological analytical practice and strategy. Listening has been a much neglected area compared to the gaze (for example the medical or clinical gaze) in healthcare research. In the scarce literature on listening within healthcare, only few studies have explored patients' perception of listening. Drawing on a concept of listening that distinguishes listening from hearing as a physiological process this article argues in favor of another element of listening, namely the practitioner's involvement that gives the client a sensation of being understood (or listened to). The true listener uses all the senses and listening is more than conversation. Users of alternative treatments benefit when practitioners in their listening draw on the context, i.e. the practitioner-client relationship, and not only on physiological data. Addressing the users' as well as the researcher's perspective, this article demonstrates the value of paying more attention to different forms of listening, both in healthcare and in ethnographic research.

AB - In the era of evidence based medicine, technical skills, standardization and healthcare tested by research are at a premium to help determine the effectiveness of caring and healing practice. However, alternative medicine, which is less rule-bound than official bio-medicine and based on very limited scientific evidence, represents an increasingly popular medical option for many Danes. In this article, which is based on in-depth ethnographic research on three of the most popular forms of session-based alternative medicine in Denmark the phenomenon of listening is highlighted to make this popularity intelligible. Different forms of listening as a phenomenological and intersubjective process are explored: practitioners' listening to their clients, clients' listening to their practitioners as well as to their own body and finally the researcher's listening as a phenomenological analytical practice and strategy. Listening has been a much neglected area compared to the gaze (for example the medical or clinical gaze) in healthcare research. In the scarce literature on listening within healthcare, only few studies have explored patients' perception of listening. Drawing on a concept of listening that distinguishes listening from hearing as a physiological process this article argues in favor of another element of listening, namely the practitioner's involvement that gives the client a sensation of being understood (or listened to). The true listener uses all the senses and listening is more than conversation. Users of alternative treatments benefit when practitioners in their listening draw on the context, i.e. the practitioner-client relationship, and not only on physiological data. Addressing the users' as well as the researcher's perspective, this article demonstrates the value of paying more attention to different forms of listening, both in healthcare and in ethnographic research.

M3 - Tidsskriftartikel

SN - 0906-3021

SP - 45

EP - 63

JO - Tidsskriftet Antropologi

JF - Tidsskriftet Antropologi

IS - 69

ER -