Transcultural Psychiatry

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hay, M. C.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hay, M. C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Transcultural Psychiatry, Vol. 45, No. 2, 198-229 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1363461508089765

Reading Sensations: Understanding the Process of Distinguishing `Fine' from `Sick'

M. Cameron Hay

Miami University, hayrolmc{at}muohio.edu

Sensations form the bases of our recognition that we are well, or, alternatively, that something is wrong. What is the process which transforms a sensation into a symptom? In this article, I draw on fieldwork from Lombok, Indonesia to propose a model of the processes through which sensations become symptoms. Perceptional and interpretive decisions regarding what sensations need to be attended to as potential symptoms may be the result of personal awareness of cultural ideas about vulnerability, sensation duration, and interference with activities. The interpretation of sensations is always tentative, conditional on further cultural information regarding whether the sensation should be constructed into a symptom. I conclude by suggesting a model of the processes through which sensations are interpreted, become pathologized, and are socially legitimated.

Key Words: illness • interpretation • Lombok • medical anthropology • Sasak • sensation • symptom • vulnerability


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?