Anthropology Health, Essay Example

The current system of medicine in this country would not benefit from adding certain aspects of the personalistic medical system to its structure. The personalisitic medical sysem, according to Geest & Rienks, explains disease as resulting from purposeful intervention from any entity, human, nonhuman or supernatural. The concept of this system recognizes the sick as victims that are being punished for some reason. This view also denounces the possibility of accident or chance playing a role in a person’s health condition. This is in stark contrast to the naturalistic medical system that bases medical practices on explaining illness in systemic terms. Disease and illness is seen as stemming from natural sources, instead of being curses or vexes from some entity (Geest & Rienks).

In response to the Murphy’s reference to the “damaged self,” I believe him when he says that he feels somewhat ashamed and guilty for being disabled. That’s because people make the disabled feel that way at times when they stare at them or say or do something rude to them. The damaged self, as explained by Murphy, causes those with disabilities to feel like outcasts in a society that seems to care little about them. If I were in this type of a situation, I would feel disgruntled, and mostly likely, angry at those who chose not to understand, but rather chose to judge and criticize that which they do not understand. A physically disabled (“damaged”) person is still a person who is whole on the inside. We are not our bodies, but we are who we are because of what we are inside.

For example, a beautiful model who also has a beautiful personality could become disfigured in a fire and lose her outward beauty. Is this person still not the person inside that she was prior to being burned? The outward self is damaged, but her inward spirit is still the same being.

References

Murphy, R. F. The Body Silent: The Different World of the Disabled. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. Print. 15 February 2013.

Geest, S.D., & Rienks, A. The Art of Medial Anthropology: Readings. Aksank Academic Publishers, 2000. Print. 16 February 2013.