Work

Toward a Critical Phenomenology of Health

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Phenomenologies of health remain relatively infrequent compared to phenomenologies of illness. This paper addresses this lack by first summarizing some key elements of phenomenologies of health. First, health typically resides in the background of our experience. Second, health requires a creative, adaptive capacity to life’s variations. The paper then explores prescriptive critical phenomenology of health. It highlights key elements of treatment to produce health that avoid a reductive medicalized approach. The paper examines the social and political determinants of health as key elements of a critical approach to health. Finally, it argues for support of public health as essential to questions of health to counteract the contemporary view of health as solely a personal, rather than contextual, matter.

Source: Philosophies

DOI: 10.3390/philosophies11050150

Author: Talia Welsh

Institution: University of Alberta

Language: English

Topic: Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,689