Defining Existential Distress: challenges and limits

Existential Distress is an extreme form of vulnerability. This category developed by international palliative medicine research in fact designates an extreme form of suffering, distinct from physical or psycho-social pain. Since the 2000s, articles on Existential Distress have multiplied, and today it corresponds to a specific field of international palliative care research. This distress can cause us to lose our sense of identity and our certainties about the world, and call into question the very point and meaning of our lives, raising not only the existential question of suicide (why live rather than die?), but also the spiritual and eschatological question of belief. These metaphysical questions pose a problem for care teams whose mission is to accompany patients at the end of life, and who are not trained to deal with this existential and spiritual dimension of the suffering of patients facing death. In the context of our contemporary societies, understanding and assessing existential distress therefore opens up important end-of-life issues and raises philosophical expectations on the part of caregivers.

This first Interdisciplinary Workshop on Existential Distress (AIDE) is part of the Medical Humanities action of the Besançon MSHE in conjunction with the Plateforme nationale pour la recherche sur la fin de vie and the UFC Logiques de l'Agir Philosophy Laboratory, the Autonomy - Disability cluster, Besançon CHRU.

This seminar is open to students, professionals and teacher-researchers, subject to availability. Health pass required.

Contact:
Sarah Carvallo
sarah.carvallo@univ-fcomte.fr
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