The Life-World and Its Multiple Realities: Alfred Schütz's Contribution to the Understanding of the Experience of Illness

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Version: Final published version
Serval ID
serval:BIB_7078AE88AAD3
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
The Life-World and Its Multiple Realities: Alfred Schütz's Contribution to the Understanding of the Experience of Illness
Journal
Psychology
Author(s)
Santiago-Delefosse M., del Rio Carral M.
ISSN
1265-1276
Publication state
Published
Issued date
08/2015
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
6
Pages
1265-1276
Language
english
Abstract
Alfred Schütz original contribution to the social sciences refers to his analysis of the structure of the "life-world". This article aims to invigorate interest in the work of this author, little known in the field of health psychology. Key concepts of Schütz' approach will be presented in relation to their potential interest to the understanding of the experience of illness. In particular, we develop the main characteristics of the everyday life and its cognitive style, that is, its finite province of meaning. We propose to adopt this notion to define the experience of chronic or serious illness when the individual is confronted to the medical world. By articulating this analysis with literature in health psychology, we argue that Schütz's perspective brings useful insight to the field, namely because of its ability to study meaning constructions by overcoming the trap of solipsism by embracing intersubjectivity. The article concludes by outlining both, the limitations and research perspectives brought by this phenomenological analysis of the experiences of health and illness.
Keywords
Alfred Schütz, Health Psychology, Critical Psychology, Finite Provinces of Meaning, Qualitative Methods, Experience of Illness
Open Access
Yes
Create date
19/08/2015 11:12
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:29
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