Page 198 - alligood 8th edition_Neat

CHAPTER 11 Katie Eriksson 179
Environment Health
Eriksson uses the concept of ethos in accordance with Eriksson considers health in many of her earlier writ-
Aristotle’s (1935, 1997) idea that ethics is derived from ings in accordance with an analysis of the concept in
ethos. In Eriksson’s sense, the ethos of caring science, as which she defines health as soundness, freshness, and
well as that of caring, consists of the idea of love and well-being. The subjective dimension, or well-being,
charity and respect and honor of the holiness and dig- is emphasized strongly (Eriksson, 1976). In the cur-
nity of the human being. Ethos is the sounding board rent axiom of health, health implies being whole in
of all caring. Ethos is ontology in which there is an “in- body, soul, and spirit. Health means as a pure concept
ner ought to,” a target of caring “that has its own lan- wholeness and holiness (Eriksson, 1984). In accor-
guage and its own key” (Eriksson, 2003, p. 23). Good dance with her view of the human being, Eriksson has
caring and true knowledge become visible through developed various premises regarding the substance
ethos. Ethos originally refers to home, or to the place and laws of health, which have been summed up in an
where a human being feels at home. It symbolizes a ontological health model. She sees health as both
human being’s innermost space, where he appears in movement and integration. The health premise is a
his nakedness (Lévinas, 1989). Ethos and ethics belong movement comprising various partial premises:
together, and in the caring culture, they become one health as movement implies a change; a human being
(Eriksson, 2003). Eriksson thinks that ethos means that is being formed or destroyed, but never completely;
we feel called to serve a particular task. This ethos she health is movement between actual and potential;
sees as the core of caring culture. Ethos, which forms health is movement in time and space; health as
the basic force in caring culture, reflects the prevailing movement is dependent on vital force and on vitality
priority of values through which the basic foundations of body, soul, and spirit; the direction of this move-
of ethics and ethical actions appear. ment is determined by the human being’s needs and
At the beginning of the 1990s, when Eriksson rein- desires; the will to find meaning, life, and love consti-
troduced the idea of suffering as a basic category of tutes the source of energy of the movement; and
caring, she returned to the fundamental historical health as movement strives toward a realization of
conditions of all caring, the idea of charity as the basis one’s potential (Eriksson, 1984).
of alleviating suffering (Eriksson, 1984, 1993, 1994a, In the ontological conception, health is conceived
1997a). This meant a change in the view of caring real- as a becoming, a movement toward a deeper whole-
ity to a focus on the suffering human being. Her start- ness and holiness. As a human being’s inner health
ing point is that suffering is an inseparable part of potential is touched, a movement occurs that be-
human life, and that it has no distinct reason or defini- comes visible in the different dimensions of health as
tion. Suffering as such has no meaning, but a human doing, being, and becoming with a wholeness that is
being can ascribe meaning to it by becoming recon- unique to human beings (Eriksson, Bondas-Salonen,
ciled to it. Eriksson makes a distinction between Fagerström, et al., 1990). In doing, the person’s
endurable and unendurable suffering and thinks that thoughts concerning health are focused on healthy
an unendurable suffering paralyzes the human being, life habits and avoiding illness; in being, the person
preventing him or her from growing, while endurable strives for balance and harmony; in becoming, the
suffering is compatible with health. Every human human being becomes whole on a deeper level of
being’s suffering is enacted in a drama of suffering. integration.
Alleviating a human being’s suffering implies being a
co-actor in the drama and confirming his or her suf-
fering. A human being who suffers wants to have Theoretical Assertions
the suffering confirmed and be given time and space Eriksson’s fundamental idea when formulating theo-
to become reconciled to it. The ultimate purpose of retical assertions is that they connect four levels of
caring is to alleviate suffering. Eriksson has described knowledge: the meta-theoretical, the theoretical, the
three different forms: suffering related to illness, suf- technological, and caring as art. The generation of
fering related to care, and suffering related to life theory takes place through dialectical movement be-
(Eriksson, 1993, 1994a, 1997a). tween these levels, but here deduction constitutes the