Universitat Internacional de Catalunya - Barcelona

General Anthropology

• code 07839
• course 1
• term Semester 1
• type FB
• credits 6

Module: Basic training

Matter: Anthropology

Main language of instruction: Spanish

Other languages of instruction: Catalan, English, French

Head instructor

Dr. Francesc Xavier ESCRIBANO - xescriba@uic.es

Office hours

Teachers will attend to the students at an agreed time arranged by e-mail.

• Xavier Escribano, PhD: xescriba@uic.es
• Isabel Morales, PhD: imorales@uic.es
• Andrea Rodríguez-Prat, PhD: arodriguezp@uic.es

Given the increasing specialization of health studies, health professionals need to have theoretical and practical resources in order to avoid fragmented views of the patient. In order to do this, the Anthropology course will facilitate the development of a coherent and complete picture of the human being in which the student is able to recognize the plurality of their physical, mental, social and spiritual dimensions and integrate them appropriately.

Moreover, the concepts of health or disease, pain and suffering must be understood in light of an overall perspective of the human being that takes into account simultaneously, their vulnerable status and personal dignity. The health professional practice inevitably raises numerous issues that require having undertaken a profound reflection on the nature of human beings, their possibilities and the limits of their behavior, which rigorously address the topics of Anthropology.

Finally, thanks to the subject of Anthropology, the Physiotherapy student can better understand the necessary articulation and balance between the technical side and the human side of their profession, with the objective of overcoming the limitations of a purely technological response to the disease as well as contributing to their professional profile in the humanizing aspect that society demands.

No prerequisites are required.

• Reflectively and critically weigh those interpretations or images of human beings that prevail in our socio-cultural system, especially taking into account their implications in the understanding of health and disease, pain and suffering.
•  Reach an overall perspective of the human being as a complex and multidimensional reality, taking into account a level of philosophical reflection on the many accomplished results from ongoing developments in various biological, social and human sciences.
• Provide conceptual tools to rigorously analyze and evaluate the different problems that human existence presents in the modern world, emphasizing, in a very special way, those relating to the health world, as is the case in those situations where the dependency, vulnerability or fragility of the human being is evident.

• 01 - The ability to analysis and synthesis.
• 02 - The ability to organise and synthesize
• 05 - The ability to manage information.
• 06 - To have comprehensive problem-solving skills.
• 07 - Demonstrate decision-making skills.
• 09 - Demonstrate critical thinking skills.
• 10 - Develop autonomous learning skills.
• 11 - The ability to adapt to new situations.
• 12 - To be creative
• 13 - Knowledge of other cultures and customs.
• 17 - The ability to work responsibly and autonomously, so as to handle job-related activities without the need for strict supervision.
• 18 - Demonstrate a patient-centered approach by showing respect for the central role of the individual and his/her needs in decision-making.
• 28.1 - Capacity for oral and written communication in the native language.
• 28.2 - Demonstrate Interpersonal skills.
• 28.3 - Show respect, appreciation and sensitivity towards the work of others.
• 29.1 - Demonstrate a committment to ongoing learning and self-improvement.
• 30.1 - Teamwork skills.
• 54 - Ability to interact effectively in a multidisciplinary team.
• 56 - Capacity for self-assessment of knowledge, skills and attitude.

1. The student has acquired the sufficient conceptual elements in order to detect any reductionist views of human beings. In particular, students can criticize and overcome any fragmented considerations they may have of the patient (as a mere collection of organs and systems) as well as overcome any reduction of the sick person to his/her pathology.

2. Students will know the philosophical and anthropological foundations of a human being's dignity, be able to consistently explain and argue these foundations and will apply them to multiple case studies related to their professional practice.

3. The students will acquired a comprehensive understanding with multiple perspectives of the human being, in a way that health and disease are no longer exclusively biological or physiological phenomena, and they will be able to also look at the patients taking into account their psychological, social, cultural, ethical and spiritual components.

4. The student will acquire a broad conceptual background to rationally analyze and understand the fundamental structure of the human being, specifically emphasizing the importance of their corporeality, affection, freedom, sociability, dignity, vulnerability and transcendence.

5.  The students will acquire a greater degree of personal self-knowledge, enhancing their moral sensitivity to the suffering and the fate of others, they will discover the importance of attitudinal values in extreme situations, and they will learn to critically reflect and evaluate human nature and condition.

Unit 0 Anthropology and Health Sciences
0.1 What is Anthropology? Diversity of anthropological knowledge.
      0.2 Role of anthropological reflection in Health Sciences.

Unit 1 Sapiens: Knowledge and life
      1.1 The animal that self-interprets.
      1.2 The problem of anthropological reductionism.

Unit 2 Animal life and human life.
      2.1 Physical Interior and essential interiority.
      2.2 The classical perception of soul (psyche).
      2.3 Levels of life: plant, animal and human.
      2.4 Distinguishing features of the human soul.

Unit 3 Nature, culture and individual.
3.1 The naked animal. Functional specificity of the human being.
      3.2 The articulation of nature and culture: the hand and intelligence.
      3.3 Levels of culture: instrumental, practical, ideal.
      3.4 The unity of nature and plurality of cultures.

Unit 4 Human corporeality
      4.1 Brief history of the view of the body.
      4.2 The experience of corporeality.
      4.3 Phenomenology of the senses.
      4.4 The paradigm of the lived body and disease.

Unit 5 The emotional dimension.
      5.1 Basic animal instincts.
      5.2 Dynamics of the human trend.
      5.3 Perception and classification of emotions.
      5.4 Emotional intelligence in an ethical perspective.

Unit 6 Language
      6.1 The symbolic animal: from voice to word.
      6.2 Specific features of human language.
      6.3 Language functions.
      6.4 Language and social interaction: the therapeutic use of words.

Unit 7 The human being: individuality and freedom.
7.1 What is voluntary and involuntary? Desire and choice.
      7.2 The free fulfillment of the human being.
      7.3 Physical, psychological, moral, and political freedom.
      7.4 The biographical dimension of personal existence.

Unit 8 The human being as a relational being.
      8.1 The social or relational dimension of the human being.
      8.2 Intrapersonal and interpersonal relations.
      8.3 Relationship with nature and technological civilization.
      8.4 The relationship with the transcendent: human religiosity.

Unit 9 Dignity of the human being.
      9.1 History of recognizing dignity within a person.
      9.2 The foundation of dignity within people.
      9.3 Naturalism and personalism: discussion of the notion of "person" in the context of contemporary bioethics.
      9.4 The special dignity of the sick person.

Unit 10 The vulnerability of the human person.
      10.1 Suffering and conscious life.
      10.2 Levels of pain or suffering: physical, psycho-emotional and spiritual.
10.3 Philosophical understanding of suffering. Attitudes towards pain.
      10.4 The question of the meaning of pain
      10.5 The Christian meaning of suffering.

Unit 11 The ill human being.
      11.1 Significance and interpretation of disease throughout history.
      11.2 Disease as an existential crisis.
      11.3 Illness: autonomy and dependence.
      11.4 Social attitudes towards the sick.

Unit 12 Human beings towards death.
      12.1 Human consciousness of death.
      12.2 The cultural and personal adjustments to dying: attitudes towards death.
      12.3 The suppression of death in our society.
      12.4 The question of survival after death.

Chapter 0 x
      0.1 x
      0.2 x

Chapter 1 x
      1.1 x
      1.2 x

Chapter 2 x
      2.1 x
      2.2 x
      2.3 x
      2.4 x

Chapter 3 x
      3.1 x
      3.2 x
      3.3 x
      3.4 x

Chapter 4 x
      4.1 x
      4.2 x
      4.3 x
      4.4 x

Chapter 5 x
      5.1 x
      5.2 x
      5.3 x
      5.4 x

Chapter 6 x
      6.1 x
      6.2 x
      6.3 x
      6.4 x

Chapter 7 x
      7.1 x
      7.2 x
      7.3 x
      7.4 x

Chapter 8 x
      8.1 x
      8.2 x
      8.3 x
      8.4 x

Chapter 9 x
      9.1 x
      9.2 x
      9.3 x
      9.4 x

Chapter 10 x
      10.1 x
      10.2 x
      10.3 x
      10.4 x
      10.5 x

Chapter 11 x
      11.1 x
      11.2 x
      11.3 x
      11.4 x

Chapter 12 x
      12.1 x
      12.2 x
      12.3 x
      12.4 x

The course is usually taught through theoretical sessions (lectures) and practical sessions (case method). During the lectures the professor will go into depth on the main units and concepts of the subjects detailed in the syllabus. The practical sessions are mainly based on the analysis of texts and audiovisual documents which are intended to illustrate and go into the concepts explained above in depth. In advance, students will be able to find in the corresponding section of Moodle, the subject guidelines and documents necessary to prepare for the practical sessions.

• 20% midterm examination of contents 
• 40% training practice: attendance, participation, exercises and assignments
• 40% final exam of contents

    Passing the training practice is equally as important as passing the final exam in order to pass the subject.

BASIC MANUALS OF REFERENCE
- Amengual, G., Philosophical Anthropology, BAC, Madrid, 2007.
- Torralba i Roselló, F., Antropología del cuidar, Fundación Mapfre Medicina, Barcelona, 1998
- Vicente Arregui, J. and Shack, J., Filosofía del hombre.Una antropología de la intimidad, ICF-UNAV, Rialp, Madrid, 1995.
- Yepes Stork, R., Fundamentos de antropología, Eunsa, Pamplona, 1997.

GENERAL WORKS
- Anrubia, E. (ed.), La fragilidad de los hombres. La enfermedad, la filosofía y la muerte, Eds. Cristiandad, Madrid, 2008.
- Anrubia, E. (ed.), Filosofías del dolor y la muerte, Ed. Comares, Granada, 2007.
- Escribano, X. (ed.), Territoris humans de la salut. Societat, cultura i valors en el món sanitari, Ed. Dux, Barcelona, 2008.
- Roqué, M. V. (ed.), El sentido del vivir en el morir, Thomson-Reuters Aranzadi, Pamplona, 2013

GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
-  Alsina, J., Los orígenes helénicos de la medicina occidental,  Barcelona: Labor, 1992.
-  Andorno, R., Bioética y dignidad de la persona, Tecnos, Madrid, 1998.
- Buber, M., ¿Qué es el hombre?, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Madrid, 1986.
- Choza, J., Humanismo de la ancianidad; en Los otros humanismos, Pamplona: Eunsa, 1994.
- Gadamer, H. G., El estado oculto de la salud, Gedisa, Barcelona, 2001.
- Gehlen, A., El hombre. Su naturaleza y su lugar en el mundo, Sígueme, Salamanca, 1987.
- González García, M. (comp.), Filosofía y dolor; Madrid: Tecnos, 2006.
- Hennezel, Marie de, La mort íntima, Columna, Barcelona, 2000.
- Jaspers, K., La práctica médica en la era tecnológica; Barcelona: Gedisa, 2003.
- Jonas, H., Técnica, medicina y ética, Paidós, Barcelona, 1997.
- Jünger, E., Sobre el dolor, Tusquets, Barcelona, 2003.
- Laín-Entralgo, Pedro, La relación médico-enfermo, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1964.
- Laín-Entralgo, P., El arte de la curación por la palabra en la antigüedad clásica, Barcelona: Anthropos
- Landsberg, P. L., Ensayo sobre la experiencia de la muerte, Ed. Caparrós, Madrid, 1995.
- Ortega y Gasset, J., Meditación de la técnica y otros ensayos; Madrid: Alianza, 2000.
- Pellegrino, E. D. i Thomasma, D.A., A philosophical basis of Medical Practice. Toward a Philosophy and Ethic of the Healing Professions, New York, Oxford University Press, 1981.
- Nussbaum, La terapia del deseo, Paidós, Barcelona, 2003.
- Roqué, Mª. V., Médico y paciente. El lado humano de la medicina, Ed. Dux, Barcelona, 2007.
- Russo, G., Il medico. Identità e ruoli nella società di oggi, Edizioni Internazionali, Roma, 2004
- Scheler, M., Muerte y supervivencia, Ed. Encuentro, Madrid, 2001.
- Scheler, M., El puesto del hombre en el cosmos, Revista de Occidente, Madrid, 1936.
- Torralba, F., Filosofía de la Medicina, Institut Borja de Bioètica. Fundación Mapfre Medicina, Madrid, 2001.
- Vicente Arregui, J., El horror de morir; Barcelona, Tibidabo, 1992.

TITLES OF INTEREST
- Bauby, J.-D., La escafandra y la mariposa, Ed. Planeta, Barcelona, 2008.
- Sacks, O., L'home que va confondre la seva dona amb un barret, Ed. Proa, Barcelona, 2001.
- Szczeklik, A., Catarsis, Sobre el poder curativo de la naturaleza y el arte, Acantilado, Barcelona, 2010.
- Szczeklik, A., Core. Sobre enfermos, enfermedades y la búsqueda del alma de la medicina, Acantilado, Barcelona, 2012. Básica:

Assessment period

E: exam date | R: revision date | 1: examination | 2: first resit:

• E1 12/01/2016 08:00h A09
• E2 22/06/2016 08:00h

E: exam date | R: revision date | 1: first session | 2: second session:

• E1 18/01/2019 08:00h
• E2 27/06/2019 10:00h A02