HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1508138
This article is part of the Research TopicSensing Minds: On the Role of Intuitions, Feelings, and Emotions in Psy-clinical Diagnoses and JudgementsView all 4 articles
Hunches that matter -The role of intuitive concern in medical understanding
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Witten/Herdecke, Witten, Germany
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This conceptual analysis examines the role of intuition in medical understanding from a philosophical point of view: (1) Intuition serves an indicative function, whereby it experientially reveals that something is of importance to us, thereby enabling us to adapt and (re)evaluate situations. This results in the emergence of a distinct conative dimension. The intuitive judgments and insights about what matter also come with an urge to act on them, which is crucial for explaining the motivation for proactive prevention of harm and the promotion of well-being. (2) One specific mode of recognizing "what matters" is being intuitively concerned. Intuitive concern can be conceptualized as a process that relies on the interplay of intuitive "knowing" and deliberative thinking in clinical decision-making. (3) It can be concluded that these hunches are significant, as they indicate not only what should be taken seriously, but also the necessity of achieving accuracy. Intuitive concern is an essential aspect of medical professionalism, both as a reflexive necessity and as an expression of the "art of healing".
Keywords: Intuition, concern, medical professionalism, predictiveness, Medical understanding
Received: 08 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jacobs. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kerrin Artemis Jacobs, Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Witten/Herdecke, Witten, Germany
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.