길랑바레증후군에 대한 ‘의학적 상상’

Abstract

Guillan-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is a rare neuropathic disease characterized by the monophasic progression of paralysis, affecting the limbs and the trunk, and by the high rate of recovery. The condition is frequently preceded by intestinal infection caused by Campylobacter jejuni, on the basis of which it is believed that the destruction of the myelin sheath covering the peripheral nerve is triggered by a mechanism called ‘molecular mimicry.’ This process occurs when antibodies created by previously generated bacterial infection mistakenly attack the nerve tissues by the misrecognition of molecular markers. This article engages with this interesting condition philosophically through the concept of ‘imaginary’ based on the author’s role as a physician of Korean medicine, the mainstream medical profession in South Korea associated with the practice of traditional East Asian medicine (EAM). With some epistemic freedom from the constraining ‘embrace’ of biomedical principles granted by that positionality, the author offers two imaginaries concerning GBS: one linguistic, the other EAM-based. For the linguistic interpretation, the author argues, based on studies on walking that illustrate the shared properties between walking and speech (having rhythm and cadence, as well as the intent to engage with the outside world), the paralysis of GBS can be analogous to that of speech, i.e. mutism or aphasia, in that those shared properties disintegrate. For the EAM-based interpretation, the author argues that given the non-musculoskeletal characteristics manifested in GBS, the condition can be considered as ‘the cold-damp disorder’(寒濕病), or diarrheal disease, in the imaginaries of EAM. These deliberations open the door for philosophical engagement with medical conditions for improving the clinical management of GBS.