In 2007, 48.7 % of the Norwegian population used Complementary and Alternative Medicine outside the healthcare system with acupuncture, homeopathy, reflexology, massage therapy and hands on healing being the most common. Research suggests that conventional medicine’s view on health and disease is reductionist, evidence-based and biomedical, while CAM’s view is holistic and experience-based. The aim of this research project is to explore how medical doctors and practitioners of CAM view health and disease. A qualitative study was conducted, using focus group (...) interviews: one group consisting of different CAM practitioners, one with medical doctors with CAM background and one with General Practitioners. Findings from the GP group is that they work out of a biomedical view, practice from the bio-psycho-social model, practice evidence based whenever possible, and change their work practices according to the latest research. The CAM practitioners consider energy to be important, blocked energy is connected to disease, and free flowing energy means good health. They see themselves as working holistically. The MDs/CAM work with an understanding that both energy and the biomedical view are important. Another significant difference between the groups is the level of education. The GPs have a six-year university education while that of the CAM practitioners is variable, from none to several years of education. In this study, the GPs viewed themselves to be more similar to the CAM group than to other MDs in many aspects, especially they considered themselves as more holistic in their view of the patients. For further research, it would be beneficial to interview different groups of MDs. In addition, it would be interesting to interview different CAM professions separately since they express different views on many issues on health and disease. (shrink)

As part of a research project exploring inter-professional communication in Norwegian healthcare, junior and senior general practitioners participated in focus group interviews regarding the medical relevance of acquiring and sharing knowledge about their patients as persons. The transcripts were interpreted using phenomenological- hermeneutical and discourse analysis. Both GP groups expressed concern over the lack of emphasis on person-oriented knowledge in the healthcare system and pointed out factors which interfere with the documentation and sharing of such knowledge. Senior GPs attributed more (...) importance to person-related knowledge than did junior GPs while displaying considerably more verbal authority and professional independence. The seniors’ discourse was dominated by ethical considerations while juniors focused more on legal arguments. Our study documents how, with experience, GPs’ reflections and decision-making become more oriented towards solutions adapted to each patient’s life circumstances. To conceptualize expert GPs’ purposeful application of person-centered knowledge, we propose the term "situated gaze.”. (shrink)

In 1989, so-called ‘actually existing socialism’ collapsed, and for the next few decades the West seemed to have won the ideological fight, regarding the way society, politics, and the economy were to be organised. In the discipline of peace studies this led to a hegemonic status of the liberal peace in terms of both theory and practice. Lately, however, the liberal peace has been faced with increased criticism. Liberal peacebuilding seems unable to respond to the needs and wishes of people (...) affected by violent conflict. Its tactics are highly standardised, and aim at engineering a specific set of conditions supposed to ensure a sustainable peace. Most often, these tactics fail to institutionalise the promised peace. Moreover, they display neo-colonial tendencies, as the ability to define and institute peace is ascribed to those living in peace, while those immersed in conflict are expected to receive whatever action plan has been declared most suitable for them. This is highly problematic, as those living in peace also happen to benefit from living in the core of globally operating social, political, and economic power relations. The liberal peace has thus been increasingly recognised in its imperial character. What has not been thoroughly researched, however, is how this imperial character of the liberal peace might be connected to very basic epistemological assumptions Western philosophy, and with it Western academia, holds concerning the subject, rationality, understanding and truth. In this thesis I shall investigate exactly this connection and try to show, how deeply the concepts and practices of the liberal peace operate within a specifically Western understanding of what it means to be a human being, and how this human being comprehends and engages with the world. I will argue that it is, again, this understanding that leads us to a specific conception of what is needed in order to create a politically lasting peace. I shall first offer a thorough analysis of the discourse, condition and practice of liberal peace, as presented by its proponents, and contrast them with the downsides of liberal history, politics, and economics. Second, I shall introduce two philosophers critical of the Western tradition of epistemology: Emmanuel Lévinas and Jacques Derrida. Last, I shall juxtapose the approaches of Lévinas and Derrida to liberal peace, searching for both the criticism and the alternatives they might have to offer to a highly liberal approach to peace. (shrink)