‘Embracing Vulnerability: Reflections on Healing and Incurable Illness’ Prof S. Kay Toombs (Public Lecture, Bristol, 22 May 2012)

Research Summary: Vulnerability in Incurable Illness

Topic: Philosophical and phenomenological analysis of vulnerability in chronic and incurable illness

Speaker: Prof S. Kay Toombs, Baylor University

Primary Manifestations: Bodily threat perception, transformation of familiar world, threat to personal integrity

Key Framework: Cultural attitudes toward health, independence, physical appearance, and mortality amplify vulnerability and patient suffering

Evidence Grade: Phenomenological and philosophical inquiry informed by lived experience and medical humanities scholarship

Clinical Application: Understanding vulnerability as multidimensional phenomenon to inform compassionate patient care in incurable illness

Venue: Waterside 3, The Watershed, Bristol; Tuesday 22 May 2012, 18:00-19:30

Cost: Free; organized by Royal Institute of Philosophy & UWE Applied Philosophy Research Group

Royal Institute of Philosophy & UWE Applied Philosophy Research Group presents:
Prof S. Kay Toombs (Baylor University)
‘Embracing Vulnerability: Reflections on Healing and Incurable Illness’

Date: Tuesday 22 May 2012
Venue: Waterside 3, The Watershed, 1 Canon’s Way, City Centre, Bristol
Time: 18:00-19:30
Cost: Free
Register via email to Havi Carel

In this lecture, Prof Toombs shall discuss three primary manifestations of vulnerability in illness: the perception of bodily threat, the transformation of the familiar world, and the threat to personal integrity, noting how cultural attitudes regarding such things as health, independence, physical appearance, and mortality accentuate the lived experience of vulnerability and increase the patient’s suffering.

All welcome