Curare

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48 (2025) 1+2: (A)symmetrical Rela­tions. Pro­fes­sion­al Insights into the Every­day Life of Psy­chi­atric Hos­pi­tals

The­mat­ic Focus edit­ed by Andrea Kuckert

This issue of Curare focus­es on pre­sen­ta­tions from the 36th con­fer­ence of the Ass­co­ci­a­tion for Anthro­pol­o­gy and Med­i­cine (AGEM), orga­nized by edi­tor Andrea Kuck­ert togeth­er with Ehler Voss in coop­er­a­tion with the col­lab­o­ra­tive research plat­form Worlds of Con­tra­dic­tion (WOC) at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Bre­men and the Alexius/Josef Hos­pi­tal in Neuss. From Novem­ber 16–17, 2024, the con­fer­ence in Neuss explored facets of coop­er­a­tion in every­day psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal life from var­i­ous per­spec­tives, focus­ing on the (a)symmetries of the rela­tion­ship between physi­cians and patients. One aim of the con­fer­ence was to bring togeth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives from anthro­po­log­i­cal dis­ci­plines and those from med­i­cine and nurs­ing to engage in dia­logue on a clas­sic top­ic in med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy, in the spir­it of pub­lic anthro­pol­o­gy. We are delight­ed that in Neuss, in addi­tion to col­leagues from acad­e­mia, prac­ti­tion­ers from the nurs­ing pro­fes­sions in par­tic­u­lar shared their expe­ri­ences and agreed to put their thoughts into writ­ing for this pub­li­ca­tion. Cre­at­ing a pro­duc­tive space for com­mu­ni­ca­tion where diverse per­spec­tives can be heard and which pro­motes inter­dis­ci­pli­nary and inter­pro­fes­sion­al exchange is a task that AGEM has pur­sued since its found­ing in 1970.