HEALTHCARE, HEALING, AND PERSONHOOD: A CASE STUDY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS.
Contributors: University of Pittsburgh.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 178
Subjects: Anthropology, Cultural.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The focus of this dissertation is to examine the concept of healing. The inquiry was conducted in two areas: (1) identification of perceptions of healing among the Gnau of New Guinea, the Yoruba of Nigeria, within Chinese culture, and in American culture; (2) the application of the concept of healing, as established cross-culturally, in practice within the American context.

A descriptive investigation was most appropriate for this study because it observes and discloses relevant factors or relationships in a problematic situation which were previously undetected. The research was conducted in the Middle Atlantic region of the United States. The ethnographic community consisted of a support group and the spouse of a member from this group who was experiencing pseudocoma as a result of neurologic insult. Ethnographic results suggest healing is an element central to client care. It is a process which includes treating the whole person instead of or in addition to the symptoms, recognizing the concept of caring as equally or more important than curing, and focusing on individuals within the context of family and community.

As evidenced by findings in the study there was no singular definition or agreement as to what comprised healing. But there appeared to be theoretical support for an emerging orientation of healing as a wholeness of one's being. Further exploration revealed an essential or inherent element in the healing process to be the recognition of each individual as a person. The concept of person or personhood in healing requires conceptualizing the human being as an irreducible whole, a dynamic composite of interrelationships between physiological, psychological, and sociocultural factors. Person is understood as a totality which cannot be reduced to particulars.

This study was undertaken in an effort to operationalize the concept of healing. The researcher suggests the findings of the study have implications for anthropology and nursing and should empower people in these fields to promote greater synergy in the development of a more holistic model of healing.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-01, Section: A, page: 0301.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, 1995.

School code: 0178.