Prof Havi Carel - Phenomenology of illness

Dr Sara Booth in discussion with Professor Havi Carel

Havi Carel studied for a BA and MA at Tel-Aviv University and was awarded her PhD by the University of Essex. She was lecturer at the University of the West of England then moved to the University of Bristol as a senior lecturer and later promoted to professor.

Her research interests include philosophy of medicine, phenomenology, philosophy of death, epistemic injustice and health, illness, and children, and film and philosophy. Carel is best-known for her work on the phenomenology of somatic illness, and has led AHRC-funded project on concepts of health, illness, and disease (2009–11), a Leverhulme Trust-funded the lived experience of illness, a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship and currently has a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award funded project, 'The Life of Breath'

In 2006, Carel was diagnosed with lymphangioleiomyomatosis, a life-limiting lung disease, and much of her academic work reflects her own lived experiences as an ill person.

Show Notes

00m - intro to Havi and the study of phenomenology

2m - Havi’s own experience of breathlessness

4m the difference between normal and pathological breathlessness

6m the politics of breathlessness  and symptom discordance

9m The Wellcome Trust Life of Breath investigation

15m Improving care for people with breathlessness - Exploring the holistic nature of breathlessness treatment

16m attitude towards illness. Is it a norm rather than an aberration?

21m - Her book Illness and it’s influences  and the geography of illness, social architecture of  our lives

27m -  belief systems, perspective and the benefit of philosophy

33m -  testimonials -  effecting lasting change in medical practice

Find out more about the Wellcome Investigation - https://lifeofbreath.org/