International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2021

Foreword: Individualised narratives of healing and the subjective identity of life(Abstract)

Jianjun Shu

The individualised narrative of healing contains rich perceptions of life health and life existence and their meanings from doctors and patients. Through this, people establish a connection between mind, body and life existence, and express their perceptions of life and their subjective identities based on it. These subjective identities generated through the healing of illness are opportunities to transcend the old self, release the self, and find new life at the level of individual socialisation, helping people to expand their perceptions of health and the meanings of existence. Having experienced the linguistic turn, globally emerging social theories emphasize the individualisation of the actor and the studies of identity. The continuing research in medical sociology, medical anthropology, medical history, and medical literary narratives on the perception and identity of individual lives is complementary to the emerging innovative trend of individualised social theory. This special issue on “Medicine, Human and Society” responds to the difficult situation of the overlap between the prevention and treatment of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the regular treatment of disease and health care, focusing on individualised narratives of medical treatment and the subjective identity of life expressed by them, calling for a joint response to the major challenges facing life and health, and a more humanistic concern for doctors and patients.