EMBODIMENT

EMBODIMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

   • THE BODY has generally been treated as a BIOLOGICAL object in psychology
   • The body is our COMMUNICATION vehicle - not separate from SELF and SOCIAL WORLD
   • MIND/BODY DUALISM NEEDS TO BE OVERCOME

2. IDENTITY & THE BODY

   • DESCARTES saw the body as separate from subjective experience
     • Western Culture soaked up this idea known as CARTESIAN DUALISM
   • CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY is critical of reductionism - reducing a person to a body or a mind
   • SELF IMAGE is based on a sense of being EMBODIED
     • This experience is mediated by culture
       • Burkitt (1999)
   • As well as BIOLOGICAL, our bodies are rooted in the SOCIAL WORLD
     • Connell (1987)

3. Body as an IDENTITY PROJECT

   • People change their appearance to change their IDENTITY
     • e.g. health food + Gym = healthy body but juxtaposition to the Global Dangers (Shilling, 1997)
     • Body image challenges SOCIAL NORMS & celebrates individuality via PIERCINGS & TATTOOS - Holland (2004)
       • In Western Culture, people have freedom to CHOOSE identity
         • But how much of that AGENCY is shaped by societal pressures to conform to SOCIAL NORMS?

4. PHENOMENOLOGICAL psychologists place emphasis on our LIVED EXPERIENCE of EMBODIMENT

   • We have the AGENCY to be who we want to be

5. DISCURSIVE Psychologists - our bodies reflect ideas and identities available in our culture

6. GROSZ (1994) suggests we should view the MIND/BODY as a MOBIUS STRIP - no obvious inside/outside = UNITY

7. DISCURSIVE PSYCHOLOGY & THE BODY

   • The EMBODIED SELF is embedded in DISCOURSE
     • it REFLECTS & PROJECTS the LANGUAGE BASED CATEGORIES IN SOCIETY
   • FOUCAULT (1972) - The body may be MATERIAL, but the meaning of SIGNS, SYMPTOMS, BEHAVIOURS is totally DISCURSIVE
   • DISCOURSES
     • CONTAIN SHARED SOCIAL MEANING
       • Language does not reflect meaning - it CONSTRUCTS meaning
       • Burns (2006) Body meanings are not fixed within the body - thEy are found in cultural/historical DISCOURSES
         • THE BODY REPRESENTS THE EXPRESSION OF MEANINGS & IDEAS
       • BORDO (1988)
         • Anorexic women conform to patriarchal standards of femininity
           • A form of SOCIAL POWER RELATIONS
     • ARE RELATIVE TO HISTORICAL CONTEXT
       • DISCOURSES CHANGE WITH THE TIMES - mutable, fluid, not fixed
         • DEPRESSION was a new term in the 1930's - it hasn't increased - just awareness of it has increased
     • ENTAIL POWER RELATIONS
       • FOUCAULT sees POWER RELATIONS as embedded in SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS & DISCOURSES
         • POWER & KNOWLEDGE INTERTWINED
           • SOCIETY CONTROLS PEOPLE VIA LANGUAGE
             • e.g. legitimising certain illnesses and not others
     • HAVE EFFECTS ON CONSTITUTING THE BODY & BODY PRACTICES
       • DISCOURSES decide what is normal/abnormal
         • "QUEERING" blurs these boundaries
   • STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS of the DISCURSIVE APPROACH
     • +
       • Presents strong case for viewing body as a discursive construction
         • Highlights cultural meanings in historical contexts
           • Critiques the natural order of things
             • Demonstrates how discourses can have a negative effect (anorexia)
     • -
       • The LIVED EXPERIENCE is missing
         • The discursive approach sidelines real body experience
         • you have to have a body to experience illness, sex etc...

8. PHENOMENOLOGICAL accounts of lived experience

   • Phenomenological accounts of 'lived experience'
     • Meanings
     • Consciousness
     • the way we perceive, think and feel
     • MIND & BODY are ONE
     • the body is the vehicle of being in the world
       • our bodily experience is the way to understand the world, ourselves and others
   • CONSCIOUSNESS of the BODY
     • THE SUBJECTIVE BODY - as LIVED & EXPERIENCED
       • EMBODIED CONSCIOUSNESS
     • THE OBJECTIVE BODY - as observed and investigated
   • A BODY-WORLD INTERCONNECTION
     • our bodies do not stop at the skin but reach out into the world via PERCEPTION, ACTION & INTERACTION
       • YOUNG (1985) The lived experience of being pregnant
         • THE OTHER BEING inside is part of her
         • The loss of SENSE OF BOUNDARY
         • the unexpected feel of skin on skin as her bump touches her thigh
   • THE EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHOD
     • FINLAY (2006) ANN HAS MS and loses the use of her arm
       • EPOCHE
       • FOCUSED ON 7 EXISTENTIAL DIMENSIONS OF LIFEWORLD
         • EMBODIMENT, SELFHOOD, SOCIALITY, TEMPORALITY, SPATIALITY, PROJECT AND DISCOURSE
       • inescapable embodiment
       • MS is part of her - INTERTWINED
         • has a feeling of BODILY ALIENATION - but daily seeks to connect with her alienated arm by affirming her body identity
   • STRENGTHS & LIMITS of PHENOMENOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
     • +
       • Ann's LIVED EXPERIENCE is focused upon
         • IT'S POIGNANT - insights touch readers and give them better understanding of the MS experience
           • therefore this can have implications on policy and practice
     • -
       • the influence of discourse has not been taken into account
         • meanings exist only in discourse so subjective experience is meaningless
   • INTERROGATIVE THEMES
     • we are embodied and SOCIALLY SITUATED within the body
       • But have AGENCY & POWER to transform our physical identity
     • POWER lies in LIVED EXPERIENCE
       • POWER lies in culturally available discourses on identity
     • Body has an openness onto the world
       • INDIVIDUAL, SOCIAL, BODY, MIND have no boundaries

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