Hope and Haunting Images: The Imaginary in Danish Parkinson’s Disease Rehabilitation

Much in life is imagined: hoped for, dreamed about, or dreaded, as we engage with potential futures. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive and neuro-degenerative disease, currently incurable. During long-term fieldwork among Danish rehabilitees with Parkinson’s disease, rehabilitees’ mentioning of ho...

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Main Authors: Merete Tonnesen, Claus Vinther Nielsen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Edinburgh Library 2024-10-01
Series:Medicine Anthropology Theory
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Online Access:https://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/7486
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author Merete Tonnesen
Claus Vinther Nielsen
author_facet Merete Tonnesen
Claus Vinther Nielsen
author_sort Merete Tonnesen
collection DOAJ
description Much in life is imagined: hoped for, dreamed about, or dreaded, as we engage with potential futures. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive and neuro-degenerative disease, currently incurable. During long-term fieldwork among Danish rehabilitees with Parkinson’s disease, rehabilitees’ mentioning of hope and images of the future gradually inspired attention to an imaginary dimension in rehabilitation. We explore haunting images and hope among rehabilitees as examples of the imaginary in rehabilitation, but also as windows into how rehabilitees orientate themselves towards an uncertain future. We show how rehabilitees’ imaginations of the future resemble hauntings instigating an urge to ‘do something’ to avoid their actualisation; to insist on living in the now, keeping up training, and partaking in clinical trials. This urge translates into rehabilitation practices, where rehabilitees and professionals work with both hope and rehabilitation goals to maximise the present and postpone the future. We emphasise that hope is a complex phenomenon; it is multiple and has a certain elasticity. A person can carry multiple hopes at once; hope can be agentic, co-created and worked with, located, or be an existential stance.
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spelling doaj-art-b92bd670dbfb4df4a1c8dce5095b76e32024-11-14T15:46:14ZengUniversity of Edinburgh LibraryMedicine Anthropology Theory2405-691X2024-10-0111312510.17157/mat.11.3.74866055Hope and Haunting Images: The Imaginary in Danish Parkinson’s Disease RehabilitationMerete Tonnesen0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9186-8259Claus Vinther Nielsen1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2467-1103Aarhus UniversityDepartment of Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark;b DEFACTUM, Central Denmark Region, Aarhus, Denmark;c Department of Clinical Social Medicine and Rehabilitation, Region Hospital West Jutland, Herning, DenmarkMuch in life is imagined: hoped for, dreamed about, or dreaded, as we engage with potential futures. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive and neuro-degenerative disease, currently incurable. During long-term fieldwork among Danish rehabilitees with Parkinson’s disease, rehabilitees’ mentioning of hope and images of the future gradually inspired attention to an imaginary dimension in rehabilitation. We explore haunting images and hope among rehabilitees as examples of the imaginary in rehabilitation, but also as windows into how rehabilitees orientate themselves towards an uncertain future. We show how rehabilitees’ imaginations of the future resemble hauntings instigating an urge to ‘do something’ to avoid their actualisation; to insist on living in the now, keeping up training, and partaking in clinical trials. This urge translates into rehabilitation practices, where rehabilitees and professionals work with both hope and rehabilitation goals to maximise the present and postpone the future. We emphasise that hope is a complex phenomenon; it is multiple and has a certain elasticity. A person can carry multiple hopes at once; hope can be agentic, co-created and worked with, located, or be an existential stance.https://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/7486hopeimaginationrehabilitationparkinson's diseasehaunting
spellingShingle Merete Tonnesen
Claus Vinther Nielsen
Hope and Haunting Images: The Imaginary in Danish Parkinson’s Disease Rehabilitation
Medicine Anthropology Theory
hope
imagination
rehabilitation
parkinson's disease
haunting
title Hope and Haunting Images: The Imaginary in Danish Parkinson’s Disease Rehabilitation
title_full Hope and Haunting Images: The Imaginary in Danish Parkinson’s Disease Rehabilitation
title_fullStr Hope and Haunting Images: The Imaginary in Danish Parkinson’s Disease Rehabilitation
title_full_unstemmed Hope and Haunting Images: The Imaginary in Danish Parkinson’s Disease Rehabilitation
title_short Hope and Haunting Images: The Imaginary in Danish Parkinson’s Disease Rehabilitation
title_sort hope and haunting images the imaginary in danish parkinson s disease rehabilitation
topic hope
imagination
rehabilitation
parkinson's disease
haunting
url https://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/7486
work_keys_str_mv AT meretetonnesen hopeandhauntingimagestheimaginaryindanishparkinsonsdiseaserehabilitation
AT clausvinthernielsen hopeandhauntingimagestheimaginaryindanishparkinsonsdiseaserehabilitation