Abstract

LIBREROS PINEROS, Liliana. The health-disease process and transdisciplinarity. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2012, vol.38, n.4, pp. 622-628. ISSN 0864-3466.

The purpose of this paper was to reflect on the multidimensional and complex nature of the health-disease process that demands an epistemic approach from transdisciplinarity. The interactions among the different disciplines give rise to most comprehensive alternatives to respond to human health problems that go beyond the biomedical model. Such a model has been the conceptual basis of the modern scientific medicine in which the human body is fragmented and analyzed from the point of view of its parts; hence, the disease is the malfunctioning of the biological or chemical mechanisms, and the role of the medical practice is to intervene physically or chemically to rectify the dysfunction of a specific mechanism. The numerous accomplishments of this biomedical model since the 17th century up to the present were acknowledged, but it is necessary to supplement it with other models or ways to understand the complexity of the human being, since it emerges from the interactions among the historical, the biological, the social, the spiritual and the cultural elements. Therefore, the challenge isto dare to establish a genuine dialogue among various disciplines to bring out changes in the political, economic and cultural estructures of the different societies toward improving the people^,s living conditions and health status.

Keywords : health; disease; transdisciplinarity; complexity.

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