Search

THE WOUNDED SELF AND THE DISMEMBERED FLESH: ANTHROPOLOGICAL SENSE OF COMMUNICATION DYSFUNCTIONS // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2021. Issue 3 (29). P. 176-194

The article analyzes communication dysfunctions between patients, consulting geneticists and doctors in the practice of medical genetic counseling. Despite the obvious usefulness of genetic advice for the counseled and their family members, as well as the fact that patients pay for counseling services, they (the counseled) often do not follow these recommendations, putting both their own lives and the lives of the loved ones at risk. How to understand this oddity? As a virtual participation in a hybrid forum, two cases from the practice of genetic counseling are discussed, which, with a significant similarity of the situation, differ from each other in the presence or absence of patient confidence in the scientific knowledge and expert judgments of the geneticist. In order to theoretically interpret the problem posed, an assumption is introduced about the self as a communication dysfunction, which is diagnosed in various value coordinates either as noncompliance in directive models of counseling, or as nonadherence in non-directive ones. If we consider that medicine as a cultural practice is based on a sense of solidarity in the face of bodily suffering, then, in this regard, the patient’s strange, counterproductive behavior may indicate the presence of deep problems in the foundations of modern sociality. The formulation of the narrative imperative is proposed.

Keywords: биоэтика, гибридный форум, коммуникативная дисфункция, комплаентность, уязвлённая самость, расчленённая плоть, множественное тело, коммуникация с одним языком