Distinction between Heath and Illness in Context with the Medical Anthropology - Assignment Example

Finding the differences between the two notions seems to be useful in medical anthropological context since diseases are mainly concerned with the biomedical curing, while illness involves both biomedical curing as well as psychological treatment. The psychological factor encompasses the perception of the patient’s emotions, which forms the basic concept in the field of Anthropology. Thus, for example the disease which includes measles can be cured by biomedical medicines, whereas illness which may include both mental and physical disorders need to be treated accordingly.

In this context, an explanatory model reveals how individuals sense their illness and the related experiences of it. The explanatory model are usually used to explain “how people view their illness in terms of how it happens, what causes it, how it affects them, and what will make them feel better” (“Explanatory Model” ). Thus one of the advantages of the explanatory model would be, it can assist in the integration of clinical, epidemiological and other social science related aspects of diseases and illnesses, thereby enhancing the depth of the scientific understanding of any diseases and illness. . four major steps: 1) With the effective background of the cultural myth, and under the culture specific symbols, both the experiences of the healed and the healers becomes generalized. 2) The patient’s problem is described by the healer in the form of a myth. 3) Patient’s emotions are attached to the transactional symbols from the general myth 4) Finally, the healer manipulates those transactional symbols skillfully and help the patient transact his/her emotions. (Waldram).

Variations in the structure of this symbolic healing happens when the treatment has to be fastened and due to certain culturally specific symbols. The basic crux of all these symbolic healing methods is, the healing process involves “an ontological shift for the patient into a particularized mythic world.” (Dow 61). A symbolic healing can be considered a success and even possible when that particularized mythic world is present for both the healer as well as the patient, and importantly, when the patient fully agrees to the power of the healer to judge and de?

ne the patient’s relationship to it. When this healing is compared with biomedical curing, the difference is the focus on mind in the case of healing, while the focus is on the physical body in later case. In general the psychosocial factors become one of the neglected areas in biomedical curing. Thus the biomedical curing can be considered as a historic shift from the ways the doctors carried out their practice. That is, in the case of symbolic healing the patient’s emotions are centered, while in biomedical curing the body rather than the mind is targeted.

Brief description of Medicalization, pregnancy and Demedicalization with suitable examples Medicalization can be defined as a process in which many key non-medical aspects of