Art Piece: Discobolus
https://www.google.co.za/search?q=discobolus&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWmpacn8LdAhXKC8AKHVV3AbQQ_AUIDigB&biw=562&bih=590#imgrc=TckuAWnn0W3a
Discobolus is a famous sculpture from the Ancient Greek Olympic Games, who is also known as the Disc Thrower.
The original sculpture was made by the sculpture Myron, in the Bronze Age in the mid-fifth century. The original was lost; however, it was admired by the Romans and replicas were passed down through the centuries (Butler, 2017).
Myron was famous for his representation of athletes. For this particular statue, it was thought to convey certain Greek ideals of balance, proportion, harmony and rhythm. It is a statue that captures the graceful movement and action the human body is capable of in a single pose. There is speculation that the disc thrower has perfect control over his mind, body and spirit, which is reiterated in his clam expression and fluidity of his bodily movement.(Cartwright, 2013)
Reflection:
The ethical principle linking to Discobolus is autonomy.
Autonomy is the capacity of self-determination or self-governance. It stems for the Greek word autonomia, which means independence. Autonomy can be broken down into moral, political or personal autonomy. This concept means that one is basically in control of their own path in their life. Therefore, for a system to be autonomous, the dominant factor driving it, must be self-preservation (Dryden, 2012).
For me this can be clearly linked to my experience in clinical practice, due to the variety of different types of people that we are faced with to treat. Where Discobolus represents the Greek ideals of proportion, balance and harmony, which are strong ideals a self-determined person would have in order to lead their life; almost next to none of the patients I have comes across have such ideals in their life.
In my experience most of the patient’s come in due to secondary complications from substances abused in excess, meaning they lead no sort of balanced life style. Patient’s either suffer from amputations due to diabetes or have extreme high blood pressure, or lung problems due to excessive smoking; all of which can be so easily avoided.
If patients lead an autonomous lifestyle, everything they do, they would do for self-preservation. I think this stems from some patients being unaware of how certain habits can negatively impact their lifestyle. This became clear to me with one particular patient who suffered from uncontrolled diabetes and due to this had an amputation (left AKA) done last year. He was now back in hospital due to the fact that his diabetes was still uncontrolled resulting in him needing the other leg to be amputated. The hospital decided to intervene by using a multi-disciplinary approach. I stood and listened to the doctor re-explain to the patient how important taking his mediation is and then the dietician explained what food groups to eat and what to avoid.
This patient was not interested at all, he was hardly paying attention to what either health professionals were saying. And when they had left and I was treating him, I decided to re-enforce what they had said. Yet the very next day we walked past his room and there was a 2 litre coke bottle at his bed side. When he was asked why he had that, he simply said he didn’t care. It was quiet hard to accept and frustrating that even though this patient had already suffered from his own bad habits, he would just continue with them even after being educated and warned. I struggled to see why he didn’t want to change his mind.
This made me realise that people need to have more self-governance in their own life’s, they need to be able to make wise decisions, in order to live a life which is balanced, in proportion, has harmony and rhythm; all which Discobolus represents.
References:
Butler, S. (2017, March 28). The Discobolus. Retrieved from Hidden History: http://www.hiddenhistory.co.uk/2017/03/28/the-discobolus/
Cartwright, M. (2013, December 3). Discus Thrower. Retrieved from Ancient History Encyclopedia: https://www.ancient.eu/image/2174/discus-thrower-discobolus-lancellotti/
Dryden, J. (2012, January). Autonomy. Retrieved from Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://www.iep.utm.edu/autonomy/
3 thoughts on “Discobolus and autonomy”
Hey Sonali, thanks for sharing!
First off I think that this is a great topic for physiotherapist students, so it is definitely a good choice for your assignment. I enjoyed how you give a bit of background information on the statue before actually tackling the reflection part. However I would definitely try to add in one or two references as too where you got this information. This also applies to the definition of autonomy in your first paragraph of your reflection.
In the 7th line of your second paragraph of your reflection you have an error where you need to correct “from a so many” to just “from so many”. Try to flesh out your reflection a bit more, adding in some personal experience or just adding in some more substance to your reflection, as it is very to the point, and doesn’t give the reader an enjoyable reading experience where they can fully digest what your are trying to portray.
I hope this feedback helps! Otherwise a very good job!
Hi Sonali.
Thanks for sharing. I really liked the background you included as well as the link you made, very clever. Balance and harmony is something we all try to achieve and maybe links to holistic management as well. All aspects of a persons life are linked in some way. The content is very relevant.
I suggest adding references to back up your claims and thoughts, as well as maybe explaining how we as physiotherapists can assist patients in achieving their autonomy and balance. We too have a role to play when patients come in, sometimes its educational, emotional or physical assistance. A link between physiotherapy, patients and autonomy/ balance would be nice.
You can also add some more personal experiences or feelings you have had during clinical blocks, as it feels very fact based as it is now. Claims are made throughout but a more in depth reasoning for them can make then even stronger.
There is a good flow, however grouping similar ideas together may make it easier to follow. Mainly the last paragraph. I also liked how you included some examples and explained how patients don’t fit this perfect mould or idea. Very true. As a result we have to adapt to different types of people everyday.
Overall great idea and link. Hope this helps.
Hey Sonali,
First of all what a great topic! I have found myself wandering the same thing a number of times – people do the most harm to themselves. With bad habits and a sedentary lifestyle people are more prone to develop medical problems, and even though they have the ability to change that, still they don’t. Why is that?
Maybe we (as people privileged enough to study at a university) have a perspective of these patients not being able to take control of their lives, but that is not the perspective of the patients. They live in an entire different world than we do – or at least the majority of my patients do. They are either uneducated, or live in a culture not based on science, and they just don’t know any better.
I once had a patient that couldn’t understand how his condition (CVA) could affect him physically. He couldn’t believe that his brain controlled his body in the way that it does.
What I’m trying to say is that our patients come from way different backgrounds than we do, and we have to try to see the world from their perspective.
The other comments covered most of the grammar and stuff like that, so this was just some food for thought. Hope this made sense and helps.