Caught up in Care: Crafting Moral Subjects of Chronic Fatigue

• Published in: Medical anthropology Vol. 40; no. 5; pp. 432 - 445
• Main Authors: Risør, Mette Bech, Lillevoll, Kjersti
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Routledge 04.07.2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: activity regulation; agency; chronic fatigue; Chronic fatigue syndrome; Clinical assessment; Community medicine, Social medicine: 801; Fatigue; Handicrafts; Health sciences: 800; Healthy habits; Helsefag: 800; Medical disciplines: 700; Medisinske Fag: 700; moral codes; Norway; Samfunnsmedisin, sosialmedisin: 801; Samfunnsvitenskap: 200; self-management; Selfmanagement; Social anthropology: 250; Social science: 200; Sosialantropologi: 250; Symptom management; VDP; agency; chronic fatigue; Norway; self-management; activity regulation; moral codes
• ISSN: 0145-9740; 1545-5882; 1545-5882
• DOI: 10.1080/01459740.2021.1883011

Patients with chronic fatigue receive advice to improve symptom management and well-being. This advice is based on ideas of self-management and is conveyed during clinical assessment as "activity regulation." Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a hospital clinic in Norway, we show how these patients attempt to demonstrate their competences and everyday concerns, and how the ideology of self-management frames the hope for recovery and crafts a subject with the ability to improve. Patients, however, linger between everyday social predicaments and ideals of healthy living, and are caught up in cultural models of care that deflect everyday concerns and agency.