1) Choose a concept, 2) Briefly explain the concept, 3) Draw a connection between the concept and a reading by Mira Guth

Empathic witnessing

2024-10-25 14:17:55 UTC

Definition: to bear witness to a patient's experience, to listen to and process their illness narrative, perhaps to even represent it

Connection to reading: Davenport's article on the homeless clinic discusses the balance they find between empathic witnessing and more traditional clinical diagnosis.

2024-10-25 14:18:08 UTC

Surfacing the body: medical students are taught to understand anatomy and think of patients in terms of their anatomy. Doctors are able to cross physical boundaries when touching and assessing patients which is outside of usual social boundaries. From the reading about Medical Training in Mexico.

Medical Gaze

2024-10-25 14:18:38 UTC

The medical gaze is a skill taught to med students about how they view their patients. Medical students are taught to view the patients’ bodies visually and inwardly so they can help find a diagnosis. This can be connected to the reading about medical students in a homeless clinic (Davenport).

Somatic translation

2024-10-25 14:18:47 UTC

definition: the internalization of medical knowledge through embodied process of learning and repeating

connection to reading: in “crossing bodily, social, intimate boundaries…”, the interns in Mexico had their bodies changed and shaped through learning specifically through ‘manitas’

2024-10-25 14:19:05 UTC

The medical gaze refers to how physicians tend to reduce their patients to symptoms and diseases. In the "Witnessing and the Medical Gaze" reading, the medical gaze is described as objectifying the patient and maintaining a power and knowledge balance between the physician and patient.

Hierarchies of Transgression

2024-10-25 14:19:06 UTC

Doctors may learn that they an transgress some bodies more easily than others.

In the reading about medical training in Mexico, it mentioned how female/darker/poorer bodies are transgressed more than male/whiter/wealthier bodies.

Somatic Translation

2024-10-25 14:19:31 UTC

The process of embodied learning and making the body legible.

In “How Class, Ethnic, and Gender Differences are Reproduced in Medical Training in Mexico,” Smith-Oka discusses how manitas is used by medical students in Mexico to learn medicine through touching the body (hands-on approach).

Medical Gaze

2024-10-25 14:19:52 UTC

The medical gaze is the concept of medical professionals viewing their patients objectively with the purpose of making a diagnosis. This ideas contrasts with the concept of witnessing—where patients are viewed as whole individuals, not just subjects. This idea of further witnessing patients was explored in the article by Beverly Ann Davenport where medical students had greater empathy for patients at a free clinic for the homeless. In this scenario, the use of the medical gaze is limited in order to form a deeper patient-healer relationship.

Hiearchies of Transgression

2024-10-25 14:20:09 UTC

Hierarchies of transgression are the different levels of respect given to different patients autonomy. Smith-Oka found that poorer and darker doctors in Mexico are more easily transgressed than light and wealthier doctors.

Surfacing the body

2024-10-25 14:20:29 UTC

tethering the boundary btwn the inside and outside of the body —> bringing what’s hidden (inside) into sight: connects to the “Trauma of Medical Training in Two Webcomics:A call for MultiModal Citation” which speaks to how medical interns learn a form of boundary crossing that’s is usually embedded with social hierarchies and inequalities —> seeing vulnerable populations as having more “breathable” boundaries

medical gaze

2024-10-25 14:20:37 UTC

The medical gaze is the concept that doctors separate the patient's body from their identity, and rather see them as medical objects. This can be connected to the reading on abortion, where many conflicts arise from doctors who act on the principle of the situation, rather than looking at their patient's identity (such as, refusing to provide care to someone whose infant has spina bifida because they cannot terminate the baby)

biological reductionism

2024-10-25 14:20:40 UTC

Biological reductionism is the idea that all disease is explainable and addressable by finding what is “wrong” or “abnormal” in the body. It reduces the patient down to its biological functions.

Doctors are responsible for making the body’s biology in an effective manner, but patients are also more receptive when they are treated holistically as a person (as seen in the Davenport reading). When is biological reductionism useful, and when is it necessary to think past the biological aspects? How do we teach doctors to treat the biological abnormalities while also seeing the patient as a whole?

Medical Gaze

2024-10-25 14:20:58 UTC

Medical gaze is a way of approaching patients with a detached, symptom-focused mindset that prioritizes the physicality and anatomy of the body to create a diagnosis. This connects to the Davenport reading based on Davenport's work at a free clinic for the homeless.

hierarchies of transgression

2024-10-25 14:21:54 UTC

There are differences in the ways physical and social boundaries are crossed by physicians among different class, ethnic, and gender groups. This is shown in “Crossing Bodily, Social, and Intimate Boundaries: How Class, Ethnic, and Gender Differences Are Reproduced in Medical Training in Mexico.” Specifically, the authors described how public hospitals were seen as better for “hands-on” training of medical students and physicians there more readily use their abilities to cross boundaries of poorer patients.

applied & activist anthropology

2024-10-25 14:22:07 UTC

Applied is the use of anthropological methods to solve real-world problems. And activist anthropology combines research with advocacy to promote social justice and talk about systemic inequalities. Bridges writes a bit about this by examining medical practices and how interactions around pregnancy play into racial stereotypes in healthcare.