New definitions of evidence in contemporary medicine: Contributions from anthropology

This article explores the “productive” importance of the Humanities and Social Sciences–Anthropology particularly–through the revision of the “impact” produced in an eminently empirical field: Medicine, particularly after the hegemony of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM). The impact of the Humanities in general and Anthropology in particular has a twofold meaning: 1) as a critical foundation against the “fundamentalistic” positivist view–disease is something purely biological–and 2) the incorporation of a new humanistic repository–maybe better the recovery of many of contemporary practices. The increasing relevance of Humanities on modern medicine with the emergence of Narrative-Based Medicine (NBM), movement of what has become known as “Narrative Turn” in the field of medicine–we offer here a case-study about Borderline Personality Disorder–challenges the assertions that insist on their lack of productivity and effectiveness. We suggest here an opening movement towards more inclusive definition of evidence-in epistemology and academia, but also in clinical practice.