ABSTRACT
Migration-related health problems can be acute and/or chronic. The chronization is a characteristic of sinistrosis, a multi-institutional phenomenon in which the patient-clinician relationship is trapped in a dead end. To unlock this situation, the author proposes an explorative methodology for case-history making that focuses on the economic aspect of sinistrosis.
Subject(s)
Acculturation , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Emigration and Immigration , Rehabilitation, Vocational/psychology , Sick Role , Transients and Migrants/psychology , Humans , Patient Care Team , Physician-Patient Relations , Rehabilitation, Vocational/economicsABSTRACT
From an interactionist point of view, the cultural life history of the clinician is as important as that of the patient. In present day Europe, migratory upheavals have requested adjustments at all levels. There are foreign patients, yet professionals are themselves also culturally diversified. Affected by the migration stress, they too are submitted to its effects. The author proposes that the patient/clinician relationship be revisited in the light of the interpretative-reflexive interaction model between informant and ethnographer in the anthropological fieldwork.
Subject(s)
Cultural Characteristics , Emigration and Immigration , Health Personnel , Professional-Patient Relations , Self Concept , Europe , Female , Humans , Male , Models, Psychological , RoleSubject(s)
Anthropology, Cultural , Family Practice , Mental Disorders/psychology , Primary Health Care , Ethnopsychology , HumansABSTRACT
If one considers going through life as a temporal migration, one can observe that passing from one stage of life to the other is marked by certain rites (rites of passage or transition). The act of retirement is such a rite. This event involves individual and collective role changes (losses and gains). Within the context of stress produced at that particular time of temporal migration, the author examines the effects of physical (spatial) migration. Four cases are presented to illustrate this kind of situation. They are separated into two groups: multigenerational migration with and without the participation of aged parents. The use of an ethnological model--the concept of "Guardians of Culture"--allows for the study of the problem from the point of view of a reassessment of self in terms of a cultural role. This ethnopsychiatric approach attempts to assume a preventive role in that it deals with the detection of early signs of stress which could have serious repercussions on the health of the elderly population.
