EXISTENTIAL AND CLINICAL UNCERTAINTY IN THE MEDICAL ENCOUNTER - AN IDIOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF AN ILLNESS TRAJECTORY DEFINED BY INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE AND AVASCULAR NECROSIS
C. Adamson, EXISTENTIAL AND CLINICAL UNCERTAINTY IN THE MEDICAL ENCOUNTER - AN IDIOGRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF AN ILLNESS TRAJECTORY DEFINED BY INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE AND AVASCULAR NECROSIS, Sociology of health & illness, 19(2), 1997, pp. 133-159
Uncertainty has been a central theme in the sociology of medicine. Sch
olars have focused on the existential uncertainty which is an aspect o
f the illness experience, and on the clinical uncertainty which marks
the diagnosis and treatment of disease. However, there are few intensi
ve examinations of how existential and clinical forms of uncertainty m
utually affect each other. This essay draws on a personal experience o
f illness with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and avascular necrosis
(AVN), and on the clinical record of how these diseases were diagnose
d and treated, in order to demonstrate that these two forms of uncerta
inty, by continuously playing to and playing off each other, mutually
shape the nature of the medical encounter.