Embodiment Flashcards
The two types of perspectives used in embodiment
Phenomenological: psychologist place the emphasis on lived experiences of our embodiment, arguing that because we have the capacity to reflect on our choices we have some agency to make decisions of who we want to be.
Discursive: psychologist argue that body projects reflects the pervasive influence of society. They are social practices constraints by the ideals, meanings and identities available in out culture. Our bodies are discursive in the sense that they both reflect and express cultural ideas and ideologies.
Discursive psychology and the body
Key psychologist: Michael Foucault
His concept of discursive psychology is inclusive, arguing that the material world is made meaningful through discourse.
Discourse- shared social meanings
The social meanings of discourse regarding the body have an effect on the individuals perception of their body and how it should conform to what is perceived as the norm.
Ie- michael Jackson and his body project aimed to blur the lines of ethnic identity due to the norm within western culture.
-anorexia and bulimia are examples of how women attempt to change their bodies drastically to suit what is seen as standard.
Susan bordo sees anorexia as an extreme examples of the way women voluntarily subject themselves to strict surveillance in the effort to conform to feminine cultural norms.
Power relations:
Power and knowledge are intertwined as identified by Foucault.
Foucault criticises modern society on how they control and discipline people through the language and practices of sciences by measuring examine and analysing.
Sciences establish standard of normality.
The medical institution is a great example of how discourse is used with embodiment. Especially when you have patients with controversial illnesses who are desperately seeking a accurate diagnosed in order to legitimate their disease as well as making it easier for themselves and others to accepted.
As normal patients we hand over the power to our doctors by stating that the doctors know best.
Disciplines such as psychology, medicine, psychiatry, sociology and education among many others generate languages of description where we learn to classify ourselves and our bodies as normal/ abnormal, healthy/unhealthy, sane/mad..etc.
Discourses constituting the body and body practices: is establishing through discourse what you see as normal or abnormal.. Is your say a able body is normal you are implying that a disabled body is abnormal.. If you say heterosexuality is normal you imply that homosexuality is abnormal.
Foucaultarian discursive psychology - the body and bodily practices are part of the material world , but the meaning of sighs, symptoms, behaviours and practices must be through an analysis of discourse.
Phenomenological accounts of the lived body
Consciousness of the body:
Subjective body - lived and experienced
Objective body - observed and scientifically investigated.
Body subject: lived body- an embodied consciousness which fluidly and pre reflectively engages the world. Your daily activities, you take your body for granted.
Body object: the body that is know by others- we observe and objectify other bodies. We became aware of its contained physical thing. We do this to our body normally when we become ill and can no longer take our bodies for granted.
Body- world interconnection: we reach out into the world when we interact with the material things of the world. Holding a cup, getting a tattoo, kicking a football etc. the body represents both our particular view of the world as well as being in the world.
Example: Lucinda Finlay - research conducted on a persons lived body experience of ms - she analyses what Ann ( the woman with ms) feels like subjectively.
- loosing feel in her right arm
- learning how to use the left for everything
- sense of alienation
- not being a bike to feel her kids properly or hug them
- her arm being part of her objective body
- she checks herself every morning engaging with her objective and subjective body
- she can’t separate the Ms from her world
Body as an identity project
Our identity is not fixed by our bodies. We can adapt our bodies and our identity through surgery, health regimes, estate diets, tattooing etc. the way we change our bodies can also be seen as how we seek to change our role in society.
Ie- michael Jackson- body project
Michael Jackson was unhappy with his appearance, especially his wide nose and his dark skin. He saw his body as an active body project and through extremes amounts of surgery altered his boys to blur the lines of ethnicity, age, and culture.
