From: "N.G.Crossley" <N.G.Crossley-AT-sheffield.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 09:10:44 +0000
Subject: HAB: habermas/medicine/death


In reply to Jennifer Holtz's intro

   Hi Jennifer. I was interested in the fact that you are applying 
Habermas' work to a medical area. I work in a department of 
psychiatry (as a sociologist/philosopher) and I am currently thinking 
about how we might conceptualise the psychiatry/mental health area 
>from a Habermasian perspective (there are one or two very good 
attempts already written but they were written some time ago). 
Perhaps you could say a bit more about what you intend to do in your 
work. 
  I'm not too sure, from a strictly ethical point of view, how we 
might consider the question of the right to die from a Habermasian 
perspective. I trust that you are aware of H's most recent works in 
ethical theory (Justification and Application etc.). From a more 
sociological angle, however, the question of medical authority over 
questions of death could be looked at fruitfully from the point of 
view of "cultural impoverishment" and "the colonisation of the 
lifeworld" as discussed in The Theory of Communicative Action Vol 2. 
I recently discussed (very briefly) the application of these concepts 
to medicine in general in a paper I presented at the recent Theory, Culture and 
Society conference in Berlin and I will glady send you a copy of that 
if you think it may be useful. I think that I mentioned rights over 
death very briefly (one sentence) but there is clearly much that 
could be done from this position. If you decided to take this line 
there are quite a few interesting studies (on the rationalisation of 
death etc.) that you might look at.

Hope this is of some help.

Nick Crossley
Centre For Psychoatherapeutic Studies
Department of Psychiatry
University of Sheffield
England