Over the last few weeks, we've been running a series of posts on the biomedical model. This approach, perhaps more than any other, forms the solid foundations for a lot of physiotherapy theory and practice, so it makes sense to try to understand it better. Here are the links to all the respective posts that make up the complete set: What is the biomedical model #1 - introduction and specific aetiology#2 - germ theory#3 - Cartesian dualism#4 - experimentation#5 - reductionism#6 - normalisation#7 - body-as-machine Critique of the biomedical model #1 - mind-body dualism#2 - medical power#3 - what it means to be a person#4 - standard deviation#5 - (ab)normal … [Read more...] about The biomedical model – for better or worse
What is the biomedical model #6
Thus far, we’ve covered five of the main features of the biomedical model - the model that underpins so much of the theory behind the way physiotherapy functions. These have been: Specific aetiology, or the search for the specific cause of the patient’s signs and symptoms Germ theory and the belief that illness is caused by disease within the body Cartesian dualism and the mind-body split Objectivity and experimentation And reductionism, or the anti-holistic belief that the person can be understood as a collection of systems and structures In this penultimate post, we’ll look at normalisation. Normalisation is the belief that certain people, certain … [Read more...] about What is the biomedical model #6
Stories of Illness / Disability in Literature and Comics – Berlin, October 27-28 2017
From October 27-28, 2017, this two-day academic conference at the Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité examines the ways in which knowledge and experience of illness and disability circulate within the realms of medicine, art, the personal and the cultural. We invite papers that address this question from a variety of different perspectives, including literary scholarship, comics studies, media studies, disability studies, and health humanities/ sociology/ geography. Keynote speaker: Leigh Gilmore (Wellesley College), Author of The Limits of Autobiography: Trauma and Testimony (2001) and Tainted Witness: Why we doubt what women say about their lives (2017). The PathoGraphics … [Read more...] about Stories of Illness / Disability in Literature and Comics – Berlin, October 27-28 2017
New: Normals
Think about how much time you spent learning about the 'normal' body in physiotherapy school. Think about how much time you spend in clinical practice assessing people to see what's 'abnormal.' And all of those clinical trials that develop sensitive, reliable and valid measures of activity, bodily function, movement and pain; all based on some universal notion of normality. Tests and measures have to assume that there is one universal normal for them to be universal. So, in principal, a score of 13 on the Modified Borg Scale means the same thing in Afghanistan as it does in Alaska, and a BMI of 28 is obese no matter where you live. Physiotherapists learn the principal of … [Read more...] about New: Normals
Some notes on dependance and independence
From Jonathan Harvey I am writing this brief note from my hospital bed. I have broken an ankle following a slip and am having an open reduction, internal fixation operation to fix my Fibula bone later today. Eleven years ago, I had a brain injury which was far more serious, and during that time and for several years after, I required a fair amount of care and support. Being in hospital again has made think carefully about the issues of dependence, independence and interdependence. In particular this experience has reminded me of the problematic way I conceptualise the importance of independence and how I view dependence as something to be avoided at all costs. I would argue that the … [Read more...] about Some notes on dependance and independence
Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #6 – Gail Teachman
Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and thoughts on the Connectivity writing project. Over the next few days I'll post up some of the feedback and thoughts that these pieces. Remember to send comments on these things too and I'll pull them all together. This post came from Gail Teachman - Lecturer with the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto and PhD candidate in the Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Science at University of Toronto, working with Barbara Gibson. Gail Teachman Thinking about 'connectivity' offers an immediate shift in perspective - away from the notion that disabled people are 'other'. Rehabilitation, amidst … [Read more...] about Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #6 – Gail Teachman
Connectivity #3 – Connectivity and physiotherapy
This post is part of a new project for the Critical Physiotherapy Network. If you want to know more about the project, track back to this post.Connectivity, as I see it, is about the way people use mediating technologies to engage meaningfully in the world. Connectivity is about real life, real people's abilities, real problems - the very things that physiotherapists face every day. In some ways, it's nothing new to physiotherapy, but it carries with it the possibility of a radical revision of our purpose and function as a profession. Here are some thoughts on how connectivity might enhance and/or challenge our practice. Physiotherapy has always followed a reductive biomedical model … [Read more...] about Connectivity #3 – Connectivity and physiotherapy