ANTHROP 3HI3 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Abdominal Pain, Gastrointestinal Cancer, Narrative
23 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Case Studies
5
Person
Illness
Significance
Alice Alcott
Diabetes, angina,
amputation.
Doctor must provide support.
Howard Harris
Spinal injury, back
pain.
Living with pain. Vulnerability.
Rudolph Kristiva
Abdominal pain.
Pain controls life.
Antigone Paget
Car accident, back and
neck pain.
Double-Bind Theory.
Cultural vs. Self-Identity.
Paddy Esposito
Myocarditis.
Inner peace. Letting go of desires.
William Steele
Severe asthma.
Explanatory Models (all different).
Practitioner was not the healer,
psychiatrist was.
Jill Lawler
Psoriasis.
Doctor didn’t consider patient’s
illness narrative.
Alicia Mercado
Chronic pain.
Folk illness: used home remedies
instead of medication.
Mohammad Kochi
Gastrointestinal
Cancer.
Cultural awareness. Language
barriers.
1. Case Study: Alice Alcott
a. Description: middle-aged, Protestant woman, New Hampshire
b. Illness: juvenile diabetes, amputations of toes & left foot due to diabetes and
infection later led to angina, eyesight problems
c. Case: non-compliant/non-responsive
i. Refused physiotherapy and visitors
ii. Managing diabetes = strict diets, she felt she was at a higher
disadvantage but her friends did not see it that way
iii. Protestant = suffer to prove faith in God
d. Significance: chronically ill should mourn losses and grieve, then carry on with
their lives
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i. psychotherapeutic approach: non-compliant persons = suffering and in
need of support
e. Practitioner helps patients gain control over fear, restore confidence in body &
self, and finally helps patient prepare for death.
2. Case “tudy: Howard Howie Harris
a. Description: once a construction worker, now a Police Lieutenant, tall/athletic
build, husband + father
i. Carries ushio for his ak, alays holds o to ojets for support to
stad
ii. Feels pain when he moves
iii. No father figure, abusive father—abandoned him and his mom
iv. Absent mother—never really cared for him
b. Illness: back/spinal injury
c. Case: tried dozens of various physicians, worn braces
i. Had 4 major surgical procedures on spine
ii. Receives weekly nerve blocks
iii. “EVE‘E lusters of pai eery fe eeks lastig days/a eek
iv. Wife: annoyed, got a job to support family
v. Children: at stoah hearing about his pain
vi. Dotor = aoyed, doest fully eliee his pai
vii. Co-workers sometimes cover for him
viii. Managing diabetes = strict diets, she felt she was at a higher
disadvantage but her friends did not see it that way
ix. Bor-agai Christia = would never consider suicide (it is a sin)
d. Significance: Weak spine and pain/vulnerability = metaphor for his job, marriage
kids, and childhood experiences.
i. Removing pain = remove hurtful experiences, damaged relationships
ii. Treatment should be done with the systemic evaluation of the
psychosocial crises in his life experiences.
iii. LIVING w/ PAIN
3. Case Study: Rudolph Kristiva
a. Description: chronic abdominal pain for 15 years, unmarried, spent more time in
his social life than improving his career and academics, gay
i. Jewish
b. Illness: low grade, intestinal pain, as well as pain in shoulders and chest wall and
dizziness, constipation, & weakness
c. Case: tried dozens of various physicians, worn braces
i. Thinks he is doomed to develop AIDS; lived promiscuously in US and
France
ii. Work stress + other stress
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