Bodily Level Research Articles

The interface between body and culture in the figurative conceptualization of the “eye” in Amharic

Abstract Inspired by the notions of body-based and culturally specific embodiment, this study sheds light on the interface between body and culture in the Amharic conceptualization of ayn ‘eye.’ Applying the “lexical approach”, this paper examines the eye-related metaphors in Amharic monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. At the bodily level, the widespread conceptual metaphors knowing/thinking is seeing and eyes are light sources, and the metonymies eye for person and physiological (eye) change stands for an emotion are present in Amharic. In the cultural dimension, ayn is related to the concept of the “evil eye”, which associates the eye with mystical powers. However, contrary to the widespread superstitious belief of the “evil eye” in other cultures, the notion of the “evil eye” in Amharic is associated with the concept of buda--a class of people socially segregated due to their economic status and their supposedly accursed lineage. This study shows that the presence of similar conceptual metaphors (“vision-light”, “vision-knowledge”, and “eye-emotion/personality” metaphors) and cultural beliefs (the “evil eye”) in different languages/cultures does not necessarily entail equivalent conceptualization.

Radar in the darkness. The dreams and art of a psychotherapist in a forensic institution

Under the assault of disturbing experiences that seem sealed into a bodily discourse, there appears an increased permeability between the dream space and the psychotherapy space. It is in the forensic in-patient hospital environment that I have commonly sat with a calm and compliant patient to find myself grappling with an overwhelming pull toward sleep. Such tiredness in countertransference can be understood as a manifestation of the weight of buried or repressed disturbance which can only seemingly be registered at a bodily level. Forensic patients are usually the subject of vilification from the courtrooms to sensationalist media reports in a system that further bottlenecks their emotional lives. It seems to me that sometimes there can be a fine line between continuing the trend of condemnation and the taking up of clinical responsibility. It is perhaps one of the most helpful aspects of psychoanalytic work, that we consider the projective processes involved in the criminal justice system. That we look to ourselves and our own countertransference for greater clinical clarity, a radar in the darkness. It is with this in mind that I write an introspective paper focussing on the lens of my own dream life and artistic responses to the environment of a forensic institution.

Putting the Place in Flow Restructures: Networks, Assembled Positionalities, and the Special Economic Zone Development

This article attempts to further develop the positionality of place through aggregated effects of vision construction by different positioned actants. We attempt to integrate two concepts: the feminist positionality that stresses the subjects’ situatedness in networks and their relational power of vision constructions in host places and the networking behavior of brokers with their exclusive connections to small world clusters, as argued by international relations network analysis. Our attempts at the bodily level of situated and subjective vision construction aim to address two challenges: first, how to address the entanglement of geopolitics and biopolitics, and second, how do encounters account for the power of a place premised on its areal resources through the behavior of brokers. The institutionalization of special economic zone development in Cambodia, from the introduction of new norms to law-making and planning, is chosen as a case for its dynamic process.

Therapist responsiveness in the blank landscape of depression: A qualitative study among psychotherapists

Objective Evidence about the high burden of depression on society and the immediate environment of patients has accumulated over the past decades. Yet, empirical data about the impact of depression on the environment of psychotherapy are limited. The present study investigates the phenomenon of therapist responsiveness in the treatment of depression. Specifically, this qualitative study examines the influence of a client’s severe depressive symptomatology on psychotherapists’ immediate experience and reflections about interventions. Method The responses of 26 Flemish psychotherapists and counselors to a questionnaire with open questions and as part of a focus group were investigated by using Consensual Qualitative Research methodology. Results First, experiences with a negative valence were most common in the responses of the psychotherapists and counselors. A particular negative experience, a sense of “constriction”, affecting the therapist’s relational, cognitive, emotional, and bodily level of experiencing, was a predominant response. Second, most psychotherapists and counselors considered a therapeutic attitude of being present for the client and the different aspects in the client’s experience to be crucial, although most of them experienced difficulty in maintaining an attitude of presence. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that exploration of the different aspects of the clients’ experience and working with the self-split of the client might be essential in the psychotherapeutic treatment of depressive disorder.

Planetary performance

The paper discusses the concept of planetary action between contemporary performance art and political climate action. By focusing on the extensive assemblages of actions created by artists such as Khvay Samnang or Tomás Saraceno, it develops a planetary approach to performance. Between artistic and non-artistic actions, their historically and geographically farstretching infrastructures, and the interplay of human and non-human actors, the paper proposes a planetary politics that addresses the ecological catastrophes of our times on the bodily level of action and its relation to knowledge.

Toward a More Comprehensive Understanding of Pathogenic Beliefs: Theory and Clinical Implications

According to Control-Mastery Theory, an integrative cognitive-dynamic theory of mental functioning, psychopathology, and psychotherapy process, functional psychopathology derives from pathogenic beliefs. Pathogenic beliefs associates a healthy and adaptive goal to a danger, are generally developed during the developmental period to adapt to traumas and are unconsciously tested by patients in psychotherapy to be disproved. We propose the existence of pathogenic beliefs that are mainly encoded as bodily tensions, sensations, emotions, intensions, mental images and expectations, and only secondarily or not at all as words. These non-verbal pathogenic beliefs painfully affect patients’ bodily states, emotions and behaviours without the patients being able to understand the reasons of their own sensations, reactions and actions. In order to disprove these non-verbal pathogenic beliefs in therapy, it is not enough that clinician help their patients make them explicit; clinicians have also to adapt their overall attitude, non-verbal and paraverbal communications, and to adjust the setting, the nuances and the “atmosphere” of the therapeutic relationship according to the specific developmental traumas that gave rise to these beliefs, the goals thwarted by them and to how the patient test them. The disconfirmation of pre-verbal pathogenic beliefs may also be facilitated by psychotherapy techniques that address the problems of patients on a bodily level. In order to disprove preverbal pathogenic beliefs, an embodied corrective emotional experience is needed.

Letting the body find its way: skills, expertise, and Bodily Reflection

AbstractWhat forms of consciousness can the subject have of her body in action? This is a recurrent issue in contemporary research on skilled movement and expertise, and according to a widespread view, the body makes itself inconspicuous in performance in favour of the object or goal that the activity is directed to. However, this attitude to consciousness in bodily performance seems unsatisfying for an understanding of skilled action, and the work of several researchers can be seen as responding to this view: Montero, Legrand, Ravn and others in the philosophy of expertise and of dance have developed various notions of consciousness and cognition to account for the mindful processes at play in performance.Two related questions can be distinguished here: (1) Is there an inherent conflict between skilled action and at least more than marginal awareness of that action, or is it possible – and even desirable – to reflect on our own performance without considerably impeding on it? (2) What forms of consciousness pertaining to the body in action must we distinguish in order to answer the first question?This paper gives an overview of this discussion, focusing on the second issue, although the first will come into play in so far as it is linked with the latter question. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s analyses of bodily reflection and on dancers’ descriptions, I show that there is, in phenomenological terms, a bodily level of reflection: a fully conscious and exploratory activity that is led by the skilled body, and that is explicitly aimed at by many performers.

Operational Choreography

The paper adresses dance in regard to logistical capitalism and its operational politics. Operational politics denotes the control of processes from their inside, regulated and modulated by their very own logic. Instead of subsuming processes to external regulators such as pregiven scripts, goals or acting and moving subjects, operational politics is based on the logic of process itself and its regulation via immanent techniques. In regard to movement, operational politics started to gain hold in the field of logistics in the 1960s. Over the last decades, these operational choreographies proliferated into all realms of society, creating a logistical regime that comprises modes of thinking as much as modes of existence and action. It governs the movements of economic production as much as the way we perceive, live and move. Dance – seen as a practice in which new modes of thinking, moving and acting as well as new forms of subjectivity are explored in a physical manner – became an integral part of this logistical regime: In dance, the logic of operations is exercised beyond the realm of business organization. The study of operational choreography in dance as it is proposed in the paper is therefore twofold: On the one hand, it offers an analysis of the modes of logistical power at work in performances. On the other hand, it reveals how performances investigate the logistical regime itself and its operational politics on a bodily level.

Emotions as Self-Organizational Factors of Anthropogenesis, Noogenesis and Sociogenesis

Purpose. The purpose is to prove the synchronicity of anthropogenesis, noogenesis and sociogenesis based on emotions, which are their self-organizational principles, as well as to reveal the synergistic essence of these processes. Theoretical basis. The study is based on the self-organizational paradigm, the theory of autopoiesis, labour theory, pananthropological concept, as well as on the concept of synergy of biological and mental phenomena. Originality. The concept of synchronicity of anthropogenesis, noogenesis and sociogenesis based on the emotions is substantiated. The concept of self-organizational emergence of emotions on the basis of hormones is developed. It is established that anthropogenesis is a process of anthropologisation of life based on biochemical reactions in the form of hormones and emotions, which are a synergy of genetic information, biochemical processes, instincts, and physiological phenomena. It was outlined that noogenesis has an emotional dimension, because emotions are the basis for self-organization of rationality, which begins at the level of emotional consciousness. The author shows the specifics of sociogenesis, which self-organizes based on social emotions, which in their turn "distinguish" a man from the sphere of natural existence based on the ability to control emotions. Conclusions. Emotions arise self-organizationally on the basis of hormones. They are self-organizational factors of anthropogenesis, noogenesis and sociogenesis based on the synergistic effect that arises through the combination of emotions and hormones at the biochemical level. The basic principle of anthropology is emotions that synchronize anthropogenesis, noogenesis and sociogenesis, which manifests themselves on the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. At the bodily level, emotions are expressed as biochemical and hormonal reactions. At the spiritual level emotions create the basis for the development of the mind, which originates as emotional consciousness. Emotions self-organize the process of anthropologisation of life, which is possible based on the synergy of human genome, biochemical, physiological phenomena and instincts. The concepts of synchronicity of anthropogenesis, noogenesis and sociogenesis and self-organizational emergence of emotions based on hormones initiate a promising direction of further research of the role of emotions in the processes of self-organization of social phenomena.

Experiencing Rupture: affective art and becoming-with slow emergencies

This paper provides an account of three artists’ exploration, together with a psychotherapist, of the ways in which they are engaging with the irreversible harm of the Capitalocene and its palpable manifestations within the body, as part of the world. Through polyvocality and poly-positionality, as well as being taken through the performance itself, this paper traces the development and presentation of the artwork Rupture, an interdisciplinary and collaborative work which brought together photo, video and sound artist Jessie Boylan, researcher, writer and performer Virginia Barratt, digital media artist Linda Dement and trauma-informed psychotherapist Jenna Tuke. Their collaboration and conversation, included in this account, inhabit how anxiety, as a warning system, is constantly triggered—not just at a bodily level, but also at a social and global ecological level—by daily messages of danger and catastrophe. Yet, by seeing anxiety’s capacity as a productive force, the authors ask : can we work together with the dead and dying, can we hold the pain of the earth/body and reconfigure the traumas beneath the surface to move us on from stasis ? Locating the work at the beginning of Australia’s worst-ever fire season, in late 2019, this paper provides the artists’ reflections on the process of making-with our catastrophic times.

Программа по профилактике девиантного поведения учащихся начальной школы с применением народных игр

The program belongs to the preventive psychological and pedagogical direction. In this particular version, the program is aimed at preventive and psychocorrectional work with children using folk games. The phenomenon of folk play in the program is used as a technological resource in working with children to develop socialization, adaptive resources, communication skills, and prevention of deviant behavior. It can be applied to almost any school age. In folk games, the following psycho-emotional states are modeled and experienced in safe conditions: fear, aggression, resentment, rejection, power, and being chosen. It is an intensive and safe way to socialize and prevent deviance. If the play stage in the child’s life has not been worked out, then, getting a varied and complex experience of interpersonal communication and interaction in the game, the participant in the game is freed from the already acquired destructive stereotypes and clamps at the emotional and bodily lev-el. Game situations most successfully form the personal qualities set forth in the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of primary general education: benevolence, the ability to cooperate, find ways out of difficult situations, be responsible for their actions. This program involves a whole range of psycho-preventive measures, which are aimed not only at the individual psychologi-cal and pedagogical correction of the student’s personality, but also at restoring his social status in the peer group. The folk game, included in the psycho-preventive program as the main attribute, does not require additional material and technical costs and educational and methodological sup-port, but requires serious training on the part of a teacher-psychologist. Here, knowledge is needed about the psychological impact of folk games, the range of their application, age qualification, as well as the psychophysiological characteristics of children of this age in the selection of games, the psycho-emotional load of games, the order of alternation of games.

\u2018Bodies (that) matter\u2019: the role of habit formation for identity

This paper will interpret Judith Butler’s theory of performativity and materialization as a theory of identity, and so put it into dialogue with a phenomenological account of habit formation. The goal is to argue that identity is developed already at a bodily level and that this takes place via the processes of habit formation. The constitution of subjectivity, in other words, requires at the most basic level some kind of bodily performativity. What follows intends to draw out the concept of ‘the body’ in Butler’s work, the role of which is surprisingly meagre given her clear favour of language signification in the elaboration of her theory of performativity. Alternatively, this paper will provide a phenomenology of habit formation that re-introduces the body not as thematic materiality, but as lived materiality. The body will therefore be conceived as something which is already skilful and creative, sensitive and vulnerable, and ultimately, as Butler anticipates, responsive to the intertwinement of individual and social aspects of identity formation. In this regard, I will argue for a performative theory of (bodily) habitual identity.

Subjective changes in mind-body attunement associated with transdiagnostic group–based compassion-focused therapy

A key focus of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is the facilitation of “felt” change on a bodily level for individuals with high levels of shame and self-criticism. However, while evidence suggests that CFT is effective in reducing psychological distress, research has yet to examine the extent to which CFT facilitates bodily change. The aim of this study was to investigate subjective bodily changes associated with attending a trans-diagnostic CFT group within a mental health service. A qualitatively weighted mixed-method design was employed, combining phenomenological and observational elements. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with eleven participants following the group and analyzed thematically. Pre-post self-report data was gathered (N = 23) using the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) to further examine subjective body-related change. Results were integrated using the concept of mind-body attunement. Participants’ reported experiences of distress prior to CFT were seen to reflect difficulties with attunement between mind and body. Following CFT, participants’ sense of being attuned to their bodies appeared to increase. This change appeared to be associated with the cultivation of a more self-compassionate mindset; engaging in a regular, compassion-focused meditative or reflective practice, and experiencing shared compassion. Results suggest that CFT may be helpful for individuals whose psychological distress is at least partly associated with disruption in mind-body attunement. A model outlining the relationship between compassion, mind-body attunement, and positive life outcomes is proposed.

Re-inhabiting one\u2019s body: A pilot study on the effects of dance movement therapy on body image and alexithymia in eating disorders

BackgroundBody image disturbance and alexithymia are two core aspects of Eating Disorders (EDs). However, standard treatments for EDs do not include specific techniques to approach these issues on a bodily level. This pilot study evaluated the effects of a Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) intervention on body image and alexithymia in patients with EDs, and also explored their experience of the therapeutic process.Method14 patients with EDs were recruited from a private clinic. Seven were assigned via quasi-randomization to the DMT group and the others (n = 5) continued their treatment as usual. The length of the intervention was 14 weeks. All participants completed the Multidimensional Body Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) at the beginning and at the end of the intervention. Additionally, the DMT group wrote reflective diaries about their experience at the end of each session, which were analyzed using qualitative methods.ResultsBetween the pre- and post-intervention, the participants of the DMT group significantly improved in Body Areas Satisfaction (effect size: 0.95) and Appearance Evaluation (effect size: 1.10), and they decreased significantly in Appearance Orientation (effect size: 1.30). A decrease in Overweight Preoccupation was observed (effect size: 0.75), however this was not statistically significant. The control group did not show significant changes in any of the MBSRQ subscales. Neither the DMT group nor the control group improved significantly in the alexithymia scores. The qualitative analysis revealed valuable insights into the participants’ processes throughout the sessions. In general, participants received the DMT intervention positively. They reported improvements in their mood states and an increase in their self-awareness. They also appreciated the relationship with the group and the therapist.ConclusionThese results indicate that DMT might be a complementary treatment option for EDs, as it may be able to address body image issues more effectively than verbal therapies. More studies with larger samples are needed to confirm these promising preliminary results.

Embodied self-other overlap in romantic love: a review and integrative perspective.

Romantic love has long intrigued scientists in various disciplines. Social-cognitive research has provided ample evidence for overlapping mental representations of self and romantic partner. This overlap between self and romantic partner would contribute to the experience of love and has been found to be a predictor of relationship quality. Self-partner overlap has been mainly documented at the level of conceptual or narrative self, with studies showing confusion between one's own and partner's identity aspects, perspectives, and outcomes. But the self is not restricted to abstract, conceptual representations but also involves body-related representations, which, research has revealed, are linked to social-cognitive processes. In this article, we review the emerging evidence that romantic love involves not only a blurring of conceptual selves but also a reduction of the distinction between self and romantic partner at a bodily level. We discuss the potential function(s) of self-other overlap in romantic relationship at the level of body-related representations and consider possible mechanisms. We conclude with possible future directions to further investigate how romantic love engages embodied self-other representations involved in social interactions.

The curious case of maxixe dancing: From colonial dissent to modern fitness

ABSTRACTThe primary goal of this study is to shed new light on the meteoric rise (and fall) of maxixe dancing, from Rio de Janeiro’s practices and performances in the late 1800s to its international explosion in Parisian venues in the 1910s, and subsequent codification in USA dance manuals published in 1914. Building on my previous scholarship, I examine how different kinds of bodies have articulated maxixe at four distinct scenarios, paying close attention to the positionality of female partners and their interactions. Using the scholarship of Savigliano, Velloso, Kraut, Goldman, Lowe, Foster, Santos and Mignolo, I address (a) how this partner dance functioned at the bodily level (how it was executed or described), (b) the (socio-political) roles it assumes and (c) the effects it produces (from discourses to affects).

The End of Nature: Between Disenchantment of the World and New Mythologies

In this article, the situation of the end of nature is discussed in the terms of the Weberian metaphor ‘the disenchantment of the world’ and its variations. The nostalgic effort to return to nature is explained referring to the Romantic notion of nature and the peculiar reiteration of nostalgic utopia in our times (see the example of ancient Lithuanian feasts). In addition to that, the article analyses the contrasting approach which is also characterized by the negative valuation of exploitive relation towards nature. However, in this second case, the reaction to the situation of the end of nature is based on a radical reformulation of the concept of human. According to this model, the relationship with nature should refuse the anthropocentric perspective. In this article, this position is described as a disenchantment of human and is illustrated by artistic performance, which aims to demonstrate the commensurability of human and animal on the bodily level.

Normalcy, Race, and Biomedical Technology in Brazil: The Case of Low White Blood Cell Count.

This article explores the intersection between low-complexity biomedical technologies and ideas about race in Brazil. Using ethnographic material collected in the northeastern city of Salvador on the clinical management of low white blood cell count (leukopenia), and debates involving doctors, biomedical scientists, and social movement activists on establishing racialized parameters in complete blood count tests, I explore how the notion of normalcy is connected to ideas about racial difference. Taken both at a population and individual bodily level, normalcy serves to contrast local history, portrayed as the result of widespread admixture between groups, with other national contexts, such as that of the United States. While a material body that cannot be classified as racially pure is seen as normal in the contemporary Brazilian context, nevertheless these pure racial types feature discursively as existing in a long lost past of Brazil's history. At the same time, normalcy can also be locally challenged by certain actors, such as social movement activists, who underline the specific experience of certain racialized bodies, questioning the overarching national narratives of admixture and arguing for the need to recognize these bodies as normal as well, particularly in the context of political struggle for the reduction of social inequalities. These two ways in which normalcy appears articulated with local meanings of race gives way to seemingly contradictory and confronting discourses. Thus, racial categories that are explicitly not identified with admixture are seen as a thing of the past (the history of the Nation) and a thing of the future (a more racially equal country). This can be better comprehended by the process through which different historical discourses on racial difference in Brazil appear in connection with, or as a proxy for, ideas such as nation, population or gender, originating from different places and moments in history.

Confronting Racist Habits: Practical Theological Implications of William James’s View of Habit Change

This article conceptualizes racism and privilege as habitual orientations located at the bodily level, not merely at the level of intention and consciousness. Engaging contemporary critical race thinkers, the analysis explores how William James’s psychological-pragmatic perspective on habit opens up fresh insight into the nature and function of racist habits. The author looks specifically at the value of James’s metaphors of “habits as scars” and “habits as grooved pathways” for conceptualizing racism embedded as bodily habit and habitual orientation. He also applies Bourdieu’s notion of habitus to Christian churches in the United States in order to examine the church as a habituating locus of power and to account for the role of social structures in the formation and reproduction of racist habits. Given the difficulty, even implausibility, of completely erasing racist habits, he considers how James’s view of habit change translates into practical theological approaches for confronting Whiteness and developing more racially just pedagogies and practices that gradually orient the body in new habitual ways of being.

Therapist memory and reverie: implications for the clinical setting

ABSTRACTIn this work, the author considers reveries to be ‘dream-like-memories’. In the course of a session they appear as proto-memory – the therapist’s early traumatic object relations that are recorded in the unconscious at an almost bodily level (a type of unthought known) and which are resurrected between therapist and patient when a similar traumatic subject arises between them. The therapist’s reveries are recollections in the form of dream-like allusions to his past experience. A clinical vignette from the psychotherapy of a child whose father suffered from PTSD (following a wartime experience in Afghanistan and Iraq) is discussed. Dissociative dynamics were repeated in the therapeutic relationship, in the form of an obsessive game intending to preserve the state in which there was no need to remember what had been unconsciously transmitted to the child: his father’s wartime experience. The projection of the primary elements which had been silenced evoked in the therapist allusions to his unconscious identification with his ancestor’s post-traumatic experiences. These allusions helped in overcoming the dissociated state. The role of memory in child psychotherapists’ receptivity of trauma is revisited.