Somatic Experience Research Articles

“… that which wishes to articulate itself in you”

Abstract Jewish anarchist mysticism weaves elusively through the worlds of art, politics, and religion, informing all three with the concept of do’ikayt, or “hereness.” This essay will bring together threads of the Jewish roots of the Dada and Surrealist movements as they burst into queerness with the work of Claude Cahun, William S. Burroughs, and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, and examine in particular the cut-up method as employed by those artists across media before examining an application of the same method to a pantheist Jewish transness through the mystical practice of gender confirmation surgery to arrive at a theory of bodily hereness. Using the writer’s own experimentation with gender and cut-up poetry to seek a nonlinear harmony with the Spinozan immanent Hashem-as-living-universe, this writing explores the rejection of not only the gender binary, but also the binary inherent in representational art to replace both with the somatic experience of fragments of the universe ricocheting off each other and being transformed by the interaction.

The language of wine reviews

ABSTRACT Expert wine reviewers have a niche skill set, with a particular lexicon, that facilitates their evaluation of wines. Novice consumers may find wine reviews intimidating and confusing. In this paper, we use a dataset of nearly 130,000 reviews from expert reviewers at Wine Enthusiast to explore the lexical dimension of wine reviews and determine to what extent reviewers systematically use language differently across various wine price points. Trends reveal that the information needed to make informed wine purchases are provided through the language of wine reviews. Our analysis shows that wine selection does not require a technical understanding of the wine-specific vocabulary of wine experts. We present a review of the literature on wine reviews and form four hypotheses under the theoretical framework of Kahneman’s two systems of thought—suggesting the linguistic properties of wine reviews reveal the price of wine. We examine how the lexical categories; emotional and logical linguistic content; social; and somatic experiences used in wine reviews relate to price. We then suggest the applicability of this analysis to other commodity domains in future research.

Collective Trauma, Implicit Memories, the Body, and Active Imagination in Jungian Analysis.

This presentation attempts to show the healing potential underlying the inclusion of the patient's body in the analytic process, while honouring and revisiting the understanding of the psyche-body connection described by Jung in his early work. In addition, the author offers reflections on the impact of collective trauma whose aftermath, among others, has been the disappearance of thousands of people, consequently breaking the family genealogy, leaving hundreds of children stripped of their roots and true identity. Referencing clinical material, the author describes how the process of translation and integration-from the sensory-perceptual to the conceptual-symbolic-can be halted on account of collective trauma occurring at an early stage in development. Moreover, it is shown how the potential of the archetype or image schema, linked to the somatic-affective early experiences encoded as implicit memories, can be recovered, when Embodied Active Imagination is included in the analytic work. The patient's bodily gestures and somatic experience may bridge the gap between the preverbal-implicit knowledge and the emergence of emotions and images that allow for the creation of a new symbolic narrative.

From symptoms to subjective and bodily experiences: the contribution of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2) to diagnosis and treatment monitoring in eating disorders

PurposeAtheoretical and descriptive conceptualizations of eating disorders (EDs) have faced substantial criticism due to their limited ability to assess patients’ subjective characteristics and experiences, as needed to determine the most appropriate treatment options. The present article provides an overview of the clinical and empirical literature supporting the potential contribution of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM-2) to both diagnostic assessment and treatment monitoring.MethodsFollowing a discussion of the most relevant shortcomings of current diagnostic models of EDs and a description of the rationale and structure of the PDM-2, evidence supporting the core PDM-2 dimensions of ED patients’ subjective experiences (i.e., affective states, cognitive processes, relational patterns, somatic/bodily experiences and states) are examined, alongside their relevance to ED diagnosis and treatment.ResultsOverall, the reviewed studies support the diagnostic importance of these patterns of subjective experiences in EDs, highlighting their potential role as either predisposing or maintaining factors to target in psychotherapy. A growing body of multidisciplinary evidence also shows that bodily and somatic experiences are central to the diagnosis and clinical management of ED patients. Moreover, there is evidence that a PDM-based assessment may enable closer monitoring of patient progress during treatment, with regard to both subjective experiences and symptom patterns.ConclusionsThe study suggests that current diagnostic frameworks for EDs would benefit from the addition of a person-centered perspective that considers not only symptoms, but also patients’ full range of functioning—including their deep and surface-level emotional, cognitive, interpersonal, and social patterns—to improve patient-tailored interventions.Level of evidenceLevel V, narrative review.

The role of anxiety and depression in suicidal thoughts for autistic and non-autistic people: A theory-driven network analysis.

Autistic adults experience more frequent suicidal thoughts and mental health difficulties than non-autistic adults, but research has yet to explain how these experiences are connected. This study explored how anxiety and depression contribute to suicidal thoughts according to the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide for autistic and non-autistic adults. Participants (autistic adults n=463, 61% female; non-autistic n=342, 64% female) completed online measures of anxiety, depression, thwarted belonging, and perceived burdensomeness. Network analysis explored whether: (i) being autistic is a risk marker for suicide; and (ii) pathways to suicidal thoughts are consistent for autistic and non-autistic adults. Being autistic connected closely with feeling like an outsider, anxiety, and movement, which connected to suicidal thoughts through somatic experiences, low mood, and burdensomeness. Networks were largely consistent for autistic and non-autistic people, but connections from mood symptoms to somatic and thwarted belonging experiences were absent for autistic adults. Autistic people experience more life stressors than non-autistic people leading to reduced coping, low mood, and suicidal thoughts. Promoting belonging, reducing anxiety, and understanding the role of movement could inform suicide prevention for autistic people. Research should accurately capture autistic lived experience when modeling suicide to ensure suicide prevention meets autistic needs.

Aesthetic, Somatic and Somaesthetic Experience of the City

The paper will deal with the notion of the experience (as a crucial term of aesthetic theory) of the city, especially the aesthetic, somatic, and somaesthetic experience. The understanding of experience will be based on John Dewey (1980), Richard Shusterman (1999), Maria Bukdahl (2012), Virgil C. Aldrich (1963), and Walter Benjamin (1935 [1969]). In dialogue with Richard Shusterman, we will illustrate two levels of experience: a) the somatic (almost biological) level of experience and b) a second level of experience that requires some intellectual evaluation: interpretation.

Somaesthetics of Discomfort and Wayfinding

Somaesthetics of discomfort facilitates intentionally inclusive designed spaces for wayfinding by accounting for individuals’ distinct navigational experiences. Following the work of Richard Shusterman, somaesthetics of discomfort is a combination of somatic awareness and somaesthetic reflection centered around feeling ill-at-ease or out of place. The increased awareness of discomfort and reciprocal reflection upon feelings of discomfort enhances how activities and places are experienced, recognized, and categorized. How people experience difficult wayfinding is an element that is often missing from architectural planning and development. Considering uncomfortable somatic experiences of navigation would provide designers with tools to conceptualize and create wayfinding affordances within various spaces. Discomfort may be understood as a somatic affordance during wayfinding because it indicates that there is something problematic about the intersection of soma and environment. This paper describes wayfinding and somaesthetics as they pertain to architectural design. By using the examples of hospitals and parking garages, somaesthetics of discomfort is introduced as a tool that uses somatic appreciation and individual reflection about wayfinding experiences for improving how spaces are designed.

Gravel cycling craft and the senses: scenes, sounds, vibrations, fatigue and typifications on off-road tracks

ABSTRACT Although cycling has been researched at the interactional level, there is scant literature regarding embodiment, and the somatic experiences from rider-bike-ground interactions. Via an ethnographic approach using video obtained from participant observation as a “graveller” sensory practices are examined. Firstly, the research is positioned with the literature on craft studies. Secondly the domains of action namely space, place and the body are theorized and conceptualized. Thirdly, the sensory perceptions generated by gravel riders are depicted. Fourthly, these combined perceptions in turn foster the establishment of subcultural typifications of gravel tracks which are portrayed and form part of the craft knowledge of the above group. The paper concludes by pointing out the link between the sensory and the development of a particular consciousness, and also sport as a fertile ground for investigating craft practices.

A Case of Severe Somatized Depression in a Young Adult: Diagnostic Challenges

IntroductionDepressive disorders in adolescence and young adulthood have always been and remain an urgent problem due to their fairly high prevalence among the population, serious difficulties in diagnosis and untimely treatment. Timely diagnosis and adequate treatment can have a powerful impact on the future life of a person in a positive context. This process requires both standardized mechanisms, and an individual detailed study of each case, as the future of the individual depends on it.ObjectivesA young adult M., 20 years old, a university student, from a socially prosperous family, approached us.Main complaints: headaches that have been going on for almost 4 years. Pains did not depend on loads, both physical and mental, were of various characteristic and different localization. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as anti-migraine drugs, have little effect on the pathological experiences.MethodsOur main method of examination was clinical interview. In the complex assessment detailed neurological and ophtalmological examination included.ResultsThe parents referred patient for a medical examination about a year ago, because they noticed persistent mydriasis in him. During the year, the patient underwent a detailed examination (consultations of a therapist, endocrinologist, neurologist, ophthalmologist, MRI, EEG, dopplerography). Doctors expressed various assumptions about the diagnosis, because all the studies did not reveal any pathology that could explain the indicated complaints and mydriasis.During the initial interview, a high level of intelligence and knowledge was revealed, as well as a sufficient ability to learn. Examining the emotional-volitional sphere, a slight level of emotional instability, mild irritability, anhedonia and a slight degree of hypobulia (which can be explained by long-lasting and persistent pathological somatic experiences in the form of headaches) were found. Incomplete Protopopov’s triad was revealed.The patient was referred for repeated neurological and ophthalmological examination. Specialists with a high qualification level discovered the A. Athanassio symptom in him.He was diagnosed with recurrent depressive disorder, a current episode of severe depression with somatic symptoms, and appropriate treatment was prescribed.Conclusions1. Depressive disorders in adolescence and young adulthood require special attention from specialists of all medical specialties.2. The need for a detailed medical examination and modern neuroimaging methods is beyond doubt.3. Psychiatric examination cannot be limited to assessment of mental status only, and assessment of Protopopov’s triad should be part of psychiatric examination.4. Neurological and ophthalmological examination must necessarily include an assessment of neuro-ophthalmological symptoms.5. Individual selection of treatment should be carried out by a psychiatrist.Sorry to say, Professor Mykola Pityk died 27.12.2020Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Animal-assisted interventions (AAIs)in situ, relationship, and context: AAI as adjunct practice in healthcare and animal-informed education

AbstractAnimal-assisted interventions (AAIs) include and promote multisensory and somatic experiences in therapeutic, educational, and activity-based contexts. Sensory experiences, however, for animal co-workers and others in AAI practice, including the spaces in which AAI takes place, need further exploration not only to facilitate formalized animal and client safety in place-based contexts, but also to illuminate future directions for improved non-anthropocentric ‘animal-informed’ AAI. In Canada, where there is no coordinated professional AAI sector or ‘industry’ as it is referred in the USA, AAI is not a harmonized adjunct health service. Availability is linked to the locations of professional health and allied practitioners with AAI training and interested individuals who sustain the voluntarism needed to provide AAIs that a typically funded in ad hoc and limited capacities. Compared to related fields, like veterinarian medicine and zoology, there remains in general more to be known about the ways AAI relates to larger service contexts and the types of interactions (if any) with other health and mental health service providers. This article explores AAI locales within the Canadian province of Nova Scotia to highlight the occupational experiences of practitioners and their animal-companions/co-workers (from the perspective of practitioners). Through interviews and animal-informed critical theory, this study finds AAI locales boast opportunities despite challenges to access and delivery. We elucidate AAI’s potential of becoming a guide for collective interspecies (companionable-) relations. Some AAI locales are underutilized or mismanaged, others remote, all with untapped potential to contribute to their communities through more diverse (e.g. interspecies) interprofessional service environments and as part of local economies. Leveraged proactively with AAI practitioners as educators for universal relational well-being, AAI could potentially transform therapeutic practice, ideally fostering novel identities beyond the unsustainable humanized and bounded self.

Rothko and resonance

ABSTRACT I take Mark Rothko at his word when he claims that an encounter with his paintings involves ‘companionship’ and argue that this insight reflects the artist’s recognition that an observer and his work are in a relationship in which, as the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa puts it, ‘both sides speak with their own voice’. To understand what this might mean, I first discuss Rosa’s theory of ‘resonance’ and its importance for the study of art. Then, I explore ‘resonance’ in relation to Rothko, relating it to how he manipulated the language of painting to de-centre the normative visual perception of the observer, but also how he potentially opens this observer up to radically non-normative psychological and somatic experiences. The de-centring involves making space for an active relationship with Rothko’s paintings which shifts the observer from the focused, outer-directed and controlling attention that usually dominates visual perception towards a more inwardly directed but more porous mode enacted under conditions of essential uncontrollability.

Mental and Emotional Experiences among Registered Nurses during SARS COV-2 Pandemic

The pandemic COVID-19 has exposed the nurses to tough and emotionally stressful working environment which could affect the mental health which results, delivery of poor quality of patient care, increase the medical error, and higher turnover of nurses. The aim of this meta-synthesis was to synthesize the mental and emotional experiences of nurses while caring for COVID-19 patients. This meta-synthesis was done according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and meta-Analysis guidelines 2021. Literature was searched from Google scholar, Scopus, PubMed, MEDLINE, and CINAHAL electronic database using the Medical Subject Heading words. The meta-synthesis reported data from 10 phenomenological studies with 198 nurses as informants of which 122 were female and 40 were male and the remaining 36 sample categories were not reported and their mean age was 29.62 years. The thematic analysis was performed to derive the six major themes which include negative emotion, optimism, adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic, health-care concern, somatic experience, and professional obligation with 12 subthemes. The outcome of the meta-synthesis was that nurses experienced fear, anxiety, hopelessness, somatic symptoms, fatigue, and heavy workload due to inadequate training, shortage workforce, and unpreparedness. The authors suggest adequate preparedness of nurses to face any hardship of future pandemic

'HIV made me fabulous': a qualitative analysis of embodied storytelling in film to address stigma, further understandings of U=U and advance gender equity.

Even with the Undetectable equals Untransmittable campaign (U=U) campaign, women living with HIV continue to experience intersecting forms of stigma. We explored how the somatic experiences of viewing a film about U=U and women could help individuals gain deeper understandings of HIV and alter learned prejudices. HIV Made Me Fabulous is a film that utilises embodied storytelling to tell the story of a trans woman living through social and historical traumas of HIV. Four online film screenings and focus group discussions took place between June 2020 and June 2021, with participants attending from Canada, Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and India. Two sessions were held with women living with HIV (n =16) and two with HIV-negative individuals (n =12). Transcripts were analysed via thematic analysis using Lafrenière and Cox's framework to assess its impact. Participants experienced strong, diverse emotional responses and sometimes physical effects from viewing the film. These somatic experiences furthered engagement with key messages in the film, including U=U, intersectional identities, and impacts of patriarchal systems. Women living with HIV commented on unique gendered risks experienced during disclosure, and the pressures of reaching an undetectable viral load. Women also commented how the film resulted in deeper reflection of their deservingness of pleasure. Regardless of HIV status, participants expressed motivation towards influencing change that included addressing biases and sharing U=U with others. Embodied storytelling in film is an effective method to counter both intra- and inter-personal HIV-related stigma by provoking responses that enhance compassion for oneself and others.

Introduction

Sensing Place, the fifth volume of Refract, investigates the intersections of ritual, place, and the sensorium: it asks how rituals reify power, resist structures of oppression, or construct senses of identity. The expansiveness of this theme is evident across the contributions to the volume, which suggests that concepts of space, place, and site, distinct as they all may be, are at the same time rich, varied,and overlapping. By drawing on diverse and sited articulations of somatic experience, the essays in this volume explore the ways in which ritual is influenced by its material and ideological surroundings while contributing to the creation of place. This leads us to consider: What can be said of embodiment, a visceral experience of space that articulates place as a site of ritual? In so doing, this volume contends with an otherwise empty conception of space as neither here nor there,inviting the lived, embodied, and repetitively performed elements of place to takehold: sensing place.

Tracing the felt image to thought: A somatic turn towards the nature of the creative process in country dance choreography

Creative processes used to choreograph country dance are distinguishable from those utilized in other dance movement systems. Described here is my experience of a novel approach within somatic education – one reflecting on the nature of the creative process in country dance choreography. My primary aim was to trace a distinctive moment when feeling translates into a later communicable thought. In country dance choreography, this is known as the hook. Over the course of two months, I developed my own experiential somatic practice under the guidance of leading dance, science and somatics practitioner-researcher, Dr Glenna Batson. I engaged in this form of embodied practice in order to explore somatics as a method for conducting research as well as aiding in my own creative process as a country dance choreographer. Through the process of anarchiving, harvesting and tracing moments from my somatic experience, I found key correlations and contrasts between somatics and country dance.

Physiological indicators of emotional arousal related to ANS activity in response to associative cards for psychotherapeutic PTSD treatment.

SEE FAR CBT is an integrative treatment protocol for PTSD and anxiety disorders which combines CBT, body-mind (somatic experience) and imagery-based (fantastic reality; FR) methods. FR is introduced using associative therapeutic cards (COPE cards) to represent both "a pleasant/safe place" and the re-narrating process of the traumatic story. Although some preliminary evidence exists regarding the impact of COPE cards integration in psychotherapy, further validation is needed as to whether these cards can induce distinct arousal-affective states in the observer. The aim of this study was to examine whether exposure to COPE cards evoke different emotional-psychophysiological states using objective physiological measures reflecting autonomic nervous system responses; hence, to further validate its use as a potentially effective tool within the context of SEE FAR CBT therapeutic process. Ninety-five healthy under-graduate participants were first exposed to high-arousal, negatively-valenced cards and asked to put themselves in a state of emotional/physical arousal. Afterwards, they were exposed to low-arousal, positively-valenced cards and were asked to try to calm and relax to the best of their ability. Heart rate, blood pressure and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured at baseline, at the arousal phase and finally at the relaxation phase. It was found that exposure to arousing negative cards resulted in significant increase in blood pressure and a decrease in HRV, while exposure to relaxing positive cards resulted in significant decrease in blood pressure and an increase in HRV. These findings support the efficacy and utility of associative COPE cards in affecting psychophysiological arousal.

Profiling El Vez, The Mexican Elvis: A Dramaturgical Methodology to «Make the Dream Real»

This article discusses the critical practice the author uses in her writing about El Vez, The Mexican Elvis. After offering a brief introduction to El Vez, to the artist Robert Lopez who created him, and to the relationship between them and the icon of Elvis, the author presents the aims of Make the Dream Real, the monograph she is drafting about El Vez/Lopez, to consider how it draws on biographical writing and yet departs from it. The author argues for a dramaturgical methodology and its inherent critical proximity as a means of writing an analytical, contextualized, engaging analysis of an artist and entertainer. The dramaturgical methodology, built on dramaturgical thinking, values flexibility, using a variety of research practices combined with vibrant autoethnographic writing to offer vivid analysis that conveys the intellectual, emotional, and somatic experience of attending a live El Vez performance. The article discusses the value of deep dramaturgical thinking and critical proximity that opens up primary sources and archives through an extended dialogue with the artist built on mutual trust and respect.

The associations between ADHD, pain, inflammation, and quality of life in children and adolescents-a clinical study protocol.

New research shows that the prevalence of neurodevelopmental disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), is increased in children and adolescents as well as in adults with chronic pain, compared to those without chronic pain. Children and adolescents with ADHD also have an increased incidence of various physical conditions associated with pain, and they more frequently suffer from inflammatory diseases. Moreover, parents of children with ADHD can often suffer from pain conditions. These epidemiological and clinical observations form the scientific basis of our study, which aims to map the relationships between ADHD, altered pain experiences/central sensitization, and inflammation in children and adolescents. We will investigate the presence of central sensitization in children and adolescents with newly diagnosed ADHD and compare it with those who have not been diagnosed with ADHD. Participants (and their biological parents) will complete surveys about their somatic health, pain experience, and quality of life. Biological samples (saliva and stool) will be collected, aiming to utilize proteome and metabolome data to discover disease mechanisms and to predict, prevent and treat them. The results from our investigation should enable an expanded understanding of the pathophysiology behind both ADHD and pain/central sensitization. Presently, there are no established protocols for addressing psychiatric symptoms when examining patients with pain conditions in a somatic care setting, nor is there any knowledge of offering patients with ADHD or other neurodevelopmental disorders adapted treatments for pain conditions. Our results, therefore, can contribute to the development of new treatment strategies for pathological pain conditions in children and adolescents with ADHD. They may also increase awareness about and provide opportunities for the treatment of attention and impulse control problems in children and adolescents with pain syndromes.

Somatic Education and Mind-Body Disciplines: Exploring the Effects of the Pilates Method on Life Satisfaction, Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

This study was aimed at exploring the potential of the Pilates Method of somatic education as a tool for enhancing factors influencing wellbeing. Specifically, the study focused on investigating whether Pilates Method mat-based and equipment practices affects mindfulness, self-compassion and life satisfaction among adults. A total of 129 adults (16 men and 113 women) participated in this study. Participants completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Self-Compassion Scale and Satisfaction with Life Scale, and provided additional information regarding the frequency of participation in Pilates practices and demographics. Correlation analysis indicated strong relationships between variables. One-way multivariate analysis of variance was used to determine differences in mindfulness, self-compassion and life satisfaction, and revealed significant differences between Pilates subgroups. Bonferroni post hoc tests showed that participants who practiced Pilates as many as five times per week scored higher than those participating once or twice. Regression analyses indicated that mindfulness and self-compassion were good predictors of life satisfaction. Pilates positively correlated with factors that enhance positive psychology processes and wellbeing. The major finding was that Pilates practitioners can enter into a different relationship with bodily movement, transcending the physical body, fitness and exercise techniques. Further empirical research is required to explore how the Pilates Method shapes somatic experiences. Implications of the Pilates technique as a somatic and mind-body method in physical and dance education are presented.
 
 Received: 11 April 2022 / Accepted: 26 June 2022 / Published: 5 July 2022

Das Politische spüren: Heiner Müllers Horatier und das Körpergefühl der Repräsentation

Abstract Representation as a form of embodiment relates to the human body’s capacity to experience emotion. While this dimension for the most part remains latent in institutional politics, theatre as a medium of physical co-presence can foreground it and explore its potential for a critique of practices and institutions of political representation. This article reads Heiner Müller’s Roman play Der Horatier (The Horatian, 1968) as a theatrical reflection on the role of somatic experience in practices and images of political representation. Drawing on recent studies on the embodiment of emotions, on body memory and the experiential quality of representation, as well as on Antonin Artaud’s concepts of theatre and acting, the reading demonstrates how the evocation of somatic experience and bodily feeling constitutes a core strategy in Müller’s work on an anti-representational form of political theatre.