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Gestalt descriptions embodiments and medical image interpretation

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Abstract

In this paper I will argue that medical specialists interpret and diagnose through technological mediations like X-ray and fMRI images, and by actualizing embodied skills tacitly they are determining the identity of objects in the perceptual field. The initial phase of human interpretation of visual objects takes place during the moments of visual perception before we are consciously aware of the perceived. What facilitate this innate ability to interpret are experiences, learning and training that become humanly embodied skills. These embodied skills are actualized during the moments of visual perception. My argument is that biology, society and instruments constitute unique individual ontologies influencing specialist readings of the technological output, in other words, putting limits on the “truth-to-nature” relation, which is so much sought for in science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Health Services Research, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, CSS, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5A, 1014, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen Friis

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  1. Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen Friis
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Correspondence to Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen Friis.

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Friis, J.K.B.O. Gestalt descriptions embodiments and medical image interpretation. AI & Soc 32, 209–218 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-015-0615-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-015-0615-6

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