Tairyokuas a belief system of health and illness: a study of cancer patients in Japan

Autor:	Ikumi Okamoto
Rok vydání:	2008
Předmět:	medicine.medical_specialty Palliative care business.industry Energy (esotericism) media_common.quotation_subject Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Alternative medicine Cancer Context (language use) General Medicine Traditional Chinese medicine medicine.disease Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Nursing Anthropology Sociology of health and illness Medicine business Autonomy media_common
Zdroj:	Anthropology & Medicine. 15:239-249
ISSN:	1469-2910 1364-8470
Popis:	The aim of this paper is to investigate the concept of tairyoku (body power) within the context of palliative care in contemporary Japan, and to explore its use by cancer patients at palliative care units (PCUs). Tairyoku is thought to be vital energy, analogous to qi in Chinese Medicine. In this paper it is shown that tairyoku is used to monitor bodily condition by patients and that it plays an important role in treatment decision-making for them. Medical professionals also use the word tairyoku; however, they do not agree with the patients' idea of increasing tairyoku in order to cure cancer. This situation causes disagreement about treatment between patients and medical staff at PCUs; however, this paper will show that tairyoku is the important concept to help patients manage their illness and sustain their autonomy, and finally accept imminent death.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::175721080c72606e8165fb7c0e38bc83 https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470802357570 Zobrazit plný text záznamu Plný text ve formátu PDF Plný text ve formátu HTML
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