How Abused Children Become Unhealthy Adults
Kirkengen, Anna Luise: Hvordan krenkede barn blir syke voksneA central dilemma in medicine is the gap between the factual, medical truth and the subjective experience of the individual.
The author intends to show how the traditional medical approach to the body as matter often interferes with understanding what really is ailing the patient. By means of a range of authentic patient histories, the author demonstrates how integrity violations such as neglect and abuse during childhood express themselves in apparently incomprehensible illness in adulthood. Appalling personal narratives are braided with theoretical reflections and numerically based documentation from international research.
A core dilemma in medicine is presented in a dialogue between Arne Johan Vetlesen, a recognised Norwegian moral philosopher, and the author. Their discussion is based on a report from a conference of the world´s leading neuroscientists.
The book is written for students in the health care professions, in medicine and psychology, and for a variety of practitioners, be these doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers or the police. In addition, the author wishes the book to be helpful for persons who have experienced being abused, violated or neglected. They may use the stories presented in a double sense: as means to understand certain connections in their own lives, and as facilitators for a deeper insight on the side of their caretakers into the impact of their lived experiences.
Click here for a fuller presentation in English, or an English sample translation .
Eine Präsentation auf Deutsch
First published: 2005, Universitetsforlaget
Anna Luise Kirkengen: Biography and bibliography
