History of Science 2220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Pathos, Thomas Sydenham, Vitus
2 May 2018
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Pathology Lecture Part 1
Overview
1. Pathology
a. Early disease classification
b. Models of pathology
▪ Allows you to think creatively and helps to understand what is going on
2. Investigating the Cell
About what goes wrong but not necessarily about crime and death
Q: Who or what gets sick? (a dichotomy)
A1: A person?
A2: A body?
(I.e., a collection of cells, organs, tissues, chemical and electrical processes, and DNA)
physical body the focus (anatomical, material, physical, observable, measurable, quantifiable)
the person is not accounted for in the body
Shows a clear window into the organs
But also is recognizably a person
- Pathos = suffering (in Greek)
o Relates to emotions and empathy (how the person feels/suffers)
- Illness is personal (an affliction)
o Something that happens to you
- It is about how we change how we feel and think about ourselves
o Focused on the subjective side (symptoms)
▪ Everyone suffers differently
- Disease = ideas about illness (more objective term)
o Explains the suffering, identifies the cause
o Labeling measuring about the subjective illness that you have
o The personal experience is less important than the illness
o Much more scientific, prioritizes the physical
▪ Ex. pain (has a lot of problems, not taken as seriously)
Medicine focuses on the physical change in the body
▪ (Duffin, 67-8)
- Has a subjective dimension affecting:
- Physical symptoms (pain, nausea, disorientation, headaches, anxieties)
o About your state of awareness of your own body, consciousness
o Can relate with your own experience but otherwise no way to know exactly
o Variable: can be less or more extreme, symptom management
- Psychological state (sense of self, relationships to others, broader life-plan)
o More subjective
o Don’t have the same obvious tell-tale signs of their pain
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▪ Ex. Mental illness show the disconnect in a model that focuses on objective
whereas mental health requires a lot more subjectivity
o Effect on the interpersonal dynamic psychologist and counsellors seen as secondary
o Your meaning in life and purpose
▪ How does it affect the time you have left
- Today’s pathology tends to dissociate itself from psychological and social dimensions of
illness to focus on the organic disease (I.e., the lesion)
- Lesion: any measurable change in the body
o The sign of the disease and what’s gone wrong
o Don’t need to feel sick to be sick, just need to find that physical change
▪ May find physical change but unclear if it will cause you to suffer in the
future
5 interrelated functions of pathology (Duffin, p. 65-6):
1. Causation – explain why we get sick, how does it come about
2. Diagnosis – explain what is wrong
Relating the condition and identifying the cause
3. As part of prognosis – predict outcome
If you know why certain types of diseases are more treatable than others
4. To justify treatment type
Depends on the pathology report
5. Evidence – proof (e.g., in lawsuits or forensics – link)
Models/Concepts of Pathology (Duffin, 68-9, 73-6 and 96)
Different ways of constructing disease: how you label disease
top 2: highest types
next level of importance
all the rest the same level of analysis
Organismic: bad, discontinuous, affects the individual, and to be eliminated
▪ Typically used when you think of being sick
▪ Something that you don’t welcome in, shouldn’t have happened
▪ Discontinuous: symptoms appeared due to something that happened
▪ Personal
▪ Wants to be eliminated
▪ The experience of something that’s gone wrong which you want to fix
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Overview: pathology, early disease classification, models of pathology, allows you to think creatively and helps to understand what is going on, investigating the cell. About what goes wrong but not necessarily about crime and death. Q: who or what gets sick? (a dichotomy) A2: a body? (i. e. , a collection of cells, organs, tissues, chemical and electrical processes, and dna) physical body the focus (anatomical, material, physical, observable, measurable, quantifiable) the person is not accounted for in the body. Pathos = suffering (in greek: relates to emotions and empathy (how the person feels/suffers) Illness is personal (an affliction: something that happens to you. It is about how we change how we feel and think about ourselves: focused on the subjective side (symptoms, everyone suffers differently. Medicine focuses on the physical change in the body (duffin, 67-8) Psychological state (sense of self, relationships to others, broader life-plan: more subjective, don"t have the same obvious tell-tale signs of their pain, ex.
