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Phronesis is often described as a 'practical wisdom' adapted to the matters of everyday human life. Phronesis enables one to judge what is at stake in a situation and what means are required to bring about a good outcome. In medicine, phronesis tends to be called upon to deal with ethical issues and to offer a critique of clinical practice as a straightforward instrumental application of scientific knowledge. There is, however, a paucity of empirical studies of phronesis, including in medicine. Using a hermeneutic and phenomenological approach, this inquiry explores how phronesis is manifest in the stories of clinical practice of eleven exemplary physicians. The findings highlight five overarching themes: ethos (or character) of the physician, clinical habitus revealed in physician know-how, encountering the patient with attentiveness, modes of reasoning amidst complexity, and embodied perceptions (such as intuitions or gut feeling). The findings open a discussion about the contingent nature of clinical situations, a hermeneutic mode of clinical thinking, tacit dimensions of being and doing in clinical practice, the centrality of caring relations with patients, and the elusive quality of some aspects of practice. This study deepens understandings of the nature of phronesis within clinical settings and proposes 'Clinical phronesis' as a descriptor for its appearance and role in the daily practice of (exemplary) physicians., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Phenomenology suggests that the clinician should not only focus on the patient's body as it can be objectively grasped, and not only on the patient's inner, psychic world, notably the representations and fears about the body, but should also explore the patient's body as it is experienced and lived, what we call the « bodily experience »., Competing Interests: Les auteurs n’ont déclaré aucun conflit d’intérêts en relation avec cet article.

The human body is the object upon which medicine is acting, but also lived reality, image, symbol, representation and the object of elaboration and theory. All these elements which constitute the body influence the way medicine is treating it. In this series of three articles, we address the human body from various perspectives: medical (1), phenomenological (2), psychosomatic and socio-anthropological (3). This third and last article focuses on the psychosomatic and socio-anthropological facets of the body and their contribution to its understanding.