[Lay processes in the health system].

Meaningful social action with reference to health and illness will not be understood without integration with subjective knowledge (Wissen) about the body. This knowledge and the experience (Erleben) of bodily changes is constituted intersubjectively (sensu A. Schütz). The taking of the body as one's own, what we call embodiment, develops only in social acts with others: on the other hand embodiment leads in intersubjective processes to meaningfully knitted social networks. The processes of contacting others influences the access to helpful resources of a community (Gemeinschaft). Giving and receiving help between lays and experts varies according to the degree of mediacy, versatility and temporal structure. Intersubjective processes of handling the problems of the body during the patient's biography (historia aegroti) redirect the further development of the illness (historia morbi).