Where is the Centeredness of Care?

In trying to see Hodges' model anew, which is quite a challenge after four decades; what of the model's structure?

It is easy to get carried away with mathematical terminology:

One line, add another, and they intersect, at a 90 degree right angle. So is centeredness to be found at the intersection point? 

If I'm tying myself up in knots well there's another possibility! 😉 

As a whole it appears the axes of the model are a manifold and not - in the center?

What do you think?

See also: 'What Is a Manifold?'

https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-a-manifold-20251103/

Interesting ... 'Incidence structure(s)'

Unsurprising, in studying 'Hodges' model, I've been aware of Wilfrid Hodges and model theory for many years.

Now, trying to look at (Brian) Hodges' model using maths, I've wondered about possible connections with Wilfred Hodges' work.

Dr W. Hodges was listed in searches on lines, axes, and structure:

'Algebraists and geometers like to classify structures by the laws which they obey. A typical law for incidence structures reads:

"For any two different lines L and M, there is exactly one point which lies on both L and M."'

My imagination may be getting the better of me, but there seems something profound in the intersection of the model's two axes and the care - knowledge domains that are created (proposed - adopted..)?

So, is Hodges' model a form of 'incidence structure', or does it contain several incidence structures? 

Hodges, W. (1985). Truth in a Structure. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 86, 135–151. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4545041

Hodges' model - Locus of Care & Control?

Draft notes:

There are obvious geometric features (Stewart, 1981) in Hodges’ model. Application of the model is a holistic affair. The centre of the model is its centre (as a template), but in application it is not fixed. There are several degrees of freedom, determined by the context of application. Consider figures 4a, 4b and 4c. Perhaps it can be argued there is what amounts to a care locus? As Persons (2025) notes:

‘Primary care is considered the first line of defense in health care, and it is the locus of the maintenance of both individual and population health.‘ p. 15.

 Emphasis can be placed on selected domains, as the situation dictates:

Stewart, I. (1981) Concepts of Modern Mathematics, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Persons, G. A. (2025). Health Care Safety Nets: Vital Participant Roles and Varying Policy Contexts. Phylon (1960-), 62(1), 5–30. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27396595

Patients as Persons not Things: [Nursing] Theory - Practice

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

"Is there something perverse, if not archly insistent, about complicating things with theory? Do we really need anything like thing theory the way we need narrative theory or cultural theory, queer theory or discourse theory? Why not let things alone? Let them rest somewhere else-in the balmy elsewhere beyond theory. From there, they might offer us dry ground above those swirling accounts of the subject, some place of origin unmediated by the sign, some stable alternative to the instabilities and uncertainties, the ambiguities and anxieties, forever fetishized by theory. Something warm, then, that relieves us from the chill of dogged ideation, something concrete that relieves us from unnecessary abstraction." p.1.

 

My source:

Brown, B. (2001). Thing Theory. Critical Inquiry, 28(1), 1-22. Retrieved September 18, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1344258

h2cm - Being at the center of things [I]

The center of Hodges' model can represent many things:

an epistemological nexus for the transdisciplinary dependencies of our times
multidisciplinary coffee shop
self-care engagement stage
the chaos of all things
holistic harmony
integrated idyll*

More down to Earth and acknowledging this cruciform '+' structure as a mythic device, in addition to searching for the mysteries of the universe at the center we can also place the 'well' person there.

As the previous post on ADLs suggests the 'well' person can function on a basic level and has negotiated the four axes and the four and five fold knowledge domains. They can therefore be considered (sufficiently) wholly integrated. We are all travellers, constantly traversing these domains of experience consciously, unconsciously, expertly or with the awkwardness that denotes the novice.

Conversely and reflecting the model's utility: it is also possible to locate the unwell individual in the center too. In this instance the placement suggests impoverishment of experience, ongoing personal and social stasis and in the case of substance misuse the presence of specific disruptive focus and preoccupations. The person becomes lost to their potential, stuck in a 4:5-fold minima. They continue to travel chronologically, but the journey is spiral, self-iterative and diminishing by return.

However: what you can see you can change, or come to terms with.

*from Greek eidyllion, little picture (h2cm as a snapshot).

Original image source: http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/protein2.html