Overview
“Etiology” is a term for the study of causes, which historically has meant a combination of medical, biological, political, and theological analyses into understanding why someone might be suffering.
Suppose we look at someone who experienced a car crash. We can obviously trace the physical injuries resulting from it to the traumatic experience itself, but it may not be sufficient to explain why the car accident happened or why someone continues to suffer after it passed. They might report an increase in symptoms of depression not as a direct result of the car accident but as a result of lacking trauma-informed support from their surrounding network that leads to feelings of isolation about their experience. They might also ask why they specifically were in a car accident compared to someone else, which might involve referencing one’s religion or spiritual frameworks. It might be true that a car accident is caused by someone Driving Under Influence (DUI), but someone might believe that the reason they specifically ended up in an accident had to do with divine punishment or karmic justice. They might try to find some moral lesson in their accident, which involves exploring distinct etiologies than the physiological mechanisms that biomedical physicians and clinicians deal in.