Epistemic Injustice in Medical Contexts

The ways in which we interact with healthcare institutions and contribute to understandings of health and illness are influenced by uneven and often invisible power relations in the social world. One of the key mechanisms that dictate how healthcare interacts in the sociopolitical arena is the distribution of epistemic power. This chapter offers an in-depth examination of the unique epistemic injustices that arise in the medical context, within both somatic and psychiatric healthcare. As healthcare is a domain that is constantly evolving and facing ever-new social issues and developments, an overview of recent developments in epistemic injustice in healthcare is much needed. While there has been a surge of literature on epistemic injustice and healthcare in recent years, this chapter draws out some of the more subtle forms of epistemic injustice that have heretofore been overlooked. The chapter sections are as follows: (1) Epistemic Injustice, (2) Epistemic Injustice in Healthcare, (3) Epistemic Injustice in Psychiatry Across Conditions and Contexts, (4) Unexplained Condition, (5) Intersectional Epistemic Injustices in the Medical Context, and (6) Phenomenology, Epistemic Injustice, and Medicine.