Chapter 2: The Art of Understanding

The thesis of this chapter is that understanding is a key phenomenon in caring practice, as well as in all kinds of investigations of care. In caring science research, or projects evaluating caring practice, the goal is to better understand some aspects of health and caring; that is, we want to understand how the care works and if it improves health and life as it is supposed to. In order to reach this goal, we need to understand the persons for whom the care is intended. We need to understand if and how the care is embracing the care commitments, for example, if health care supports the patients’ health processes, which includes the experience of well-being and the capacity of managing one’s minor and life projects. Especially the latter is also valid for social care.