Abstract

ALMEIDA, Débora Vieira de. Levinasian philosophy in an experience of nursing care: humanization arising from otherness. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2013, vol.serIII, n.9, pp.171-179. ISSN 0874-0283.  https://doi.org/10.12707/RIII1235.

Background: the term humanization in the health area is related to the quality of the relationship that can be established between participants involved in the process of care. This is based on the assumption that otherness is essential for a relationship that is humanized by the need for unique assistance. This is a theoretical paper with the objective of articulating Emmanuel Lévinas’s philosophy of alterity within nursing knowledge. Data source: Emmanuel Lévinas’s text about the I-other relationship. This will then be situated within a concrete and fictional care situation. Discussion: in the Levinasian I-other relationship the other presents as a face, preventing their objectification. Implications for nursing: caring for the other involves conceiving them as otherness and realizing an infinite responsibility for the other who, with their subjectivity, can share their story and reveal their preferences about how to be cared for. Conclusion: in nursing care situations, the other, independent of the healthcare situation remains as an alterity impossible to objectify, categorize and conceptualize.

Keywords : humanization of assistance; nursing; ethics.

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