ABSTRACT
Chapter Five illustrates the value of exploring the suffering self in terms of the ethical judgment calls having to be made. Basic concepts of self are introduced such as the general universal felt sense of self (“I am”); the concept of the self from different academic disciplines including medical humanities, psychology and sociology; and the category of the self from a moral legal perspective. Theistic sources of self are explored in detail from the perspectives of medieval religious women whilst instrumentalist sources of self are explored through first-person accounts of health professionals. Health professionals are actually working at the limits of dominant constructions of self.
