Dehumanization in Medicine: Causes, Solutions, and Functions
- PMID: 26168442
- DOI: 10.1177/1745691611429706
Dehumanization in Medicine: Causes, Solutions, and Functions
Abstract
Dehumanization is endemic in medical practice. This article discusses the psychology of dehumanization resulting from inherent features of medical settings, the doctor-patient relationship, and the deployment of routine clinical practices. First, we identify six major causes of dehumanization in medical settings (deindividuating practices, impaired patient agency, dissimilarity, mechanization, empathy reduction, and moral disengagement). Next, we propose six fixes for these problems (individuation, agency reorientation, promoting similarity, personification and humanizing procedures, empathic balance and physician selection, and moral engagement). Finally, we discuss when dehumanization in medical practice is potentially functional and when it is not. Appreciating the multiple psychological causes of dehumanization in hospitals allows for a deeper understanding of how to diminish detrimental instances of dehumanization in the medical environment.
Keywords: dehumanization; empathy; health; medicine; policy.
© The Author(s) 2012.
Similar articles
-
Perceiving the agency of harmful agents: A test of dehumanization versus moral typecasting accounts.Cognition. 2016 Jan;146:33-47. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2015.09.009. Epub 2015 Sep 20. Cognition. 2016. PMID: 26398862
-
Dehumanization in children: the link with moral disengagement in bullying and victimization.Aggress Behav. 2014 Jul-Aug;40(4):320-8. doi: 10.1002/ab.21522. Epub 2013 Dec 27. Aggress Behav. 2014. PMID: 24375450
-
Stress and Dehumanizing Behaviors of Medical Staff Toward Patients.Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019;1133:97-104. doi: 10.1007/5584_2018_308. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2019. PMID: 30632115
-
Dehumanization and infrahumanization.Annu Rev Psychol. 2014;65:399-423. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115045. Epub 2013 Jun 26. Annu Rev Psychol. 2014. PMID: 23808915 Review.
-
Dehumanization of psychiatric patients: Experimental and clinical implications in severe alcohol-use disorders.Addict Behav. 2019 Feb;89:216-223. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.08.041. Epub 2018 Sep 1. Addict Behav. 2019. PMID: 30326462 Review.
Cited by
-
A Co-Design Process to Elaborate Educational Materials to Promote Appropriate Use of Antibiotics for Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Primary Healthcare in Catalonia (Spain).Patient Prefer Adherence. 2021 Mar 8;15:543-548. doi: 10.2147/PPA.S297581. eCollection 2021. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2021. PMID: 33727799 Free PMC article.
-
Dehumanization and mass violence: A study of mental state language in Nazi propaganda (1927-1945).PLoS One. 2022 Nov 9;17(11):e0274957. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274957. eCollection 2022. PLoS One. 2022. PMID: 36350823 Free PMC article.
-
The promise of machine learning in predicting treatment outcomes in psychiatry.World Psychiatry. 2021 Jun;20(2):154-170. doi: 10.1002/wps.20882. World Psychiatry. 2021. PMID: 34002503 Free PMC article.
-
Belief that addiction is a discrete category is a stronger correlate with stigma than the belief that addiction is biologically based.Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2023 Jan 10;18(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s13011-022-00512-z. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2023. PMID: 36627629 Free PMC article.
-
History and development of medical studies at the University of Witten/Herdecke - an example of "continuous reform".GMS J Med Educ. 2019 Oct 15;36(5):Doc61. doi: 10.3205/zma001269. eCollection 2019. GMS J Med Educ. 2019. PMID: 31815171 Free PMC article.
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
