As the fields of philosophy of medicine and bioethics have developed in the United States, the philosophical perspective of phenomenology has been largely ignored. Yet, the central conviction that informs this volume is that phenomenology provides extraordinary insights into many of the issues that are directly addressed within the world of medicine. Such issues include: the nature of medicine itself; the distinction between immediate experience and scientific conceptualization; the nature of the body - and the implications of embodiment in the realm of clinical practice; the meaning of health, illness and disease; the problem of intersubjectivity - particularly with respect to achieving successful communication with another; the complexity of decision-making in the clinical context (and in the realm of medical ethics); the possibility of empathic understanding; the theory and method of clinical practice; and the essential characteristics of the therapeutic relationship - i.e. the relationship between the sick person and the one who professes to help. Some of the authors who have contributed to this volume are philosophers, some are engaged in other academic disciplines, and several are practicing healthcare professionals.

Introduction: Phenomenology and Medicine.- Section One / Phenomenology and Medicine.- Temporality and Illness: A Phenomenological Perspective.- The Lifeworld and Scientific Interpretation.- Medicine and the Phenomenological Method.- The Phenomenology of Health and Illness.- Disease: The Phenomenological and Conceptual Center of Practical-Clinical Medicine.- Thinking About Medicine.- Section Two / The Body.- Dimensions of Embodiment: Body Image and Body Schema in Medical Contexts.- Female Embodiment and Clinical Practice.- Emotion and Embodiment Within the Medical World.- The Body, Music, and Healing.- Section Three / Lived Experience.- Experiencing Illness Through Storytelling.- Reflections on Bodily Change: The Lived Experience of Disability.- The Lived Experience of Pain in the Context of Clinical Practice.- The Lived Experience of Mental Illness.- Section Four / Clinical Practice.- Grasping the Existential Anatomy: The Role of Bodily Empathy in Clinical Communication.- The Many Faces of the Clinic: A Levinasian View.- Focusing on Lived Experience: The Evolution of Clinical Method in Western Medicine.- The Phenomenon of Care.- The Phenomenon of Suffering and its Relationship to Pain.- Section Five / Medical Ethics.- Imagining a Fetus: Insights From Talking With Pregnant Women About Their Decisions To Undergo Open-Uterine Fetal Surgery.- On Bodily Autonomy.- Medical Feeding: Applying Husserl and Merleau-Ponty.- Section Six / Research.- Professional Practice and 'Doing Phenomenology'.- From Dis-ability to Difference: Conceptual and Methodological Issues in the Study of Physical Disability.- Notes on Contributors.