Care and Empowerment: the construction of the subject responsible for his own health in the experience of diabetes

Abstract

Based on an analysis of the literature on patient empowerment in the field of diabetology, I discuss the impact of this perspective on the meanings of changes in the relations of care, and explore implications to the position occupied by health professionals and patients. The analysis considers the difficulties and embarrassments mentioned by health professionals regarding the changes that are required by patient empowerment. Through an anthropological approach, the analysis is supported by theoretical conceptions about the contrast between the logic of choice and the logic of care, and problematizes the difference among the representations of biomedicine agents and patients, based on the opposition between the individual/person models. The analytical course allows to conclude that it is necessary to relativize the idea that patient empowerment represents an increase in individualism in health care relationships. This contributes to include other nuances in the social scientists' reflections on the current tendency of attributing to individuals the responsibility for their own health.