"Do this, do that, but I'm falling down...": understanding Chron's disease

Abstract

This qualitative study was developed as an effort to understand the meaning and the impact of Chron's Disease on the carrier's life, opting for Life Oral History as the methodological reference and having as a base Hippocrates' monist philosophical school, for which the medical practice focuses on the sick person in his/her totality, taking into consideration his/her temperament and background. The therapeutics must reestablish the person's harmony with his/her environment and with himself/herself. It is an integrative, dynamic medicine that corresponds to the beginnings of psychosomatic medicine. The studies on Chron's Disease, through psychosomatic understanding, made possible to analyze the symptoms not as alien bodies to be eradicated, but as messengers of an appeal to be understood. Through them, the person's history can be recovered, which makes possible the development to more advanced levels of understanding if it is experienced and analyzed consciously.