Social representations of the body in medical students, Medellin, 2014

Introduction: Philosophical and socio-anthropological discourses about the body have not been of interest in medical formation. Objective: To understand the social representations of the body in medical students, Medellin, 2014. Methods: Ethnography with 11 students selected by theoretical sampling. Social representations were studied with the procedural approach. Methodological rigor criteria of credibility, auditability and transferability were applied. Results: Three analytical categories were analyzed: 1) conceptions of the body which included the subcategories "biological" and "symbolic" dimensions of the body"; 2) importance of the body described from the subcategories "body as medium and object" and "body as definition of Ego"; 3) care of the body with three subcategories: "importance of self-care", "the body of the other", "self-care practices". Conclusion: The organismic conception of the body reveals how medical students understand the other from strictly biological principles; epistemologically it is evident that students are Cartesian vectors lacking historical awareness about the representations of the body; politically and socially the group is aligned with neoliberal rationalities that vindicate marketization, modernization and individuation of the body.