Abstract

The phenomenon of waiting inevitably refers to the difference between inner time experience and imposed order of time. Berger and Luckmann (1966) already dealt with the problem of matching different levels of temporality in the everyday world. This problem becomes visible especially in context of long-term diseases, such as severe unconsciousness or degenerative motor disorders like advanced amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). These fields of research are marked by irritations of communicative expectations which turn the other into a stranger. The doubts concerning successful communication deriving from those circumstances leave a deep imprint on the interaction with strangers, an interaction which is mainly characterized by waiting – on anastasis or death, on results of examinations or success in therapy and especially on reactions of the other. This article discusses the different dimensions of waiting in relation with the diseases described above. Especially social crises as well as the artful strategies on coping with them are being reconstructed on this matter.