Abstract

This article aims to show how the development of aphenomenology ofthe lived bodyis of special interest for a philosophical elucidation of the illness thattakes charge of the patient’s perspective in its specific theoretical relevance. Startingfrom a critique of the Cartesian paradigm of the body-machine and the consequentde-emphasisof the personal experience of the disease, it will be shown how the phenomenological perspective allows us to account for the constituent elements ofthe illness experienced in the first person, such as alteration or disintegration of the link I-body-world-others. Finally, the question of the physical, emotional and cognitive response to the disease and how phenomenological reflections on the disease convergein a reflection on identity, vulnerability, and recognition will be addressed.