Uncertainties and Independent Choices:

From the Cases of Patients Suffering from A topic Dermatitis

Abstract

  One of the major concerns among anthropologists is to investigate how people try to control uncertainty. Evans-Pritchard and Godfrey Lienhardt describe how people in underdeveloped worlds explain misfortune by finding causal relationships based on witchcraft or magic. In modern worlds, some anthropologists, such as Ichinosawa Junpei and Watanabe Hibi, focus on the ‘risk’ to explain how people deal with uncertainty. This paper explores the same question from the different perspective from them.

  The treatment of Atopic Dermatitis (AD) holds uncertainty because AD cannot be cured by the standard treatment. Many alternative treatments exist which advocate treatments that contradict the standard treatment. Some patients recover when using the standard treatment and some others recover when using alternative treatments. Thus, it is uncertain which treatment is the ‘right’ treatment. Under such situation, patients with AD have to choose treatments at their own risk.

  This paper shows the cases of three AD patients. The first case is Kiyoka, who heard about the side-effects of steroids when she was in her twenties and stopped using them. Her symptoms became bad because of stopping the use of steroids but she did not use them for seven years. She tried many treatments after she stopped using steroids, such as the hot spring bath remedy, natural cosmetics, eating organic food, restricting bread, fast food and curry.

  The second case is Wataru, who has suffered from AD since he was a baby. When he was 26 years old, he read that steroids an: bad for the body and decided to use Kanpo medicine instead. After he stopped using steroids, his condition got worse. He has tried many treatments, such as supplements, light treatment, hot spring remedies and eating organic vegetables.

  The last case is Ryohei. When he was in the fourth year of university, he was diagnosed with cholesteatoma and had to undergo an operation. The operation itself was successful but after that his AD got so bad that he could hardly go out for four years. After he recovered, he stopped using steroids and found that he felt better even though his skin was rough. He told me that he did not cling to the hope of curing his AD. Because he did not pursue a cure, he did not try many alternative treatments.

  In terms of the trials to control the uncertain conditions, people in underdeveloped worlds and in modern worlds are similar. The former explain the misfortune by witchcraft and try to control the situation. The latter choose the treatments themselves to try to cure the illness. In both trials, people assume certain causal relationships so that they can control the cause and that they can make the situation better. The difference between them is that the former find the causal relationships among the network of people around them, while the latter find it in a personal sphere, mainly in their bodies.