THE EMBODIMENT THEORY, THE HOLISTIC APPROACH AND BREAST CANCER IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT
In this paper I will discuss, in some brief length and detail, a few ways in which the perspective of embodiment, using the four bodies of the SOCL1016 course, enables doctors (including the many other types of health care practitioners) and patients to better comprehend and holistically intervene in cases of cancer of the breast. I will also attempt to outline some of the strengths and the weaknesses, if not the challenges, of the theory of embodiment via the referral to South African and generic examples mentioned in various readings, articles and those of the guest lecturer, Renee Van der Wiel (April,15th, 2014)
The definition of embodiment, by some consensus of online users, as according to The Online Free Dictionary (2014) is “the act of embodying or the state of being embodied or being a body that embodies”; although as according to our lectures delivered by Kezia Lewins (April, 2014), embodiment is the relationship between the mind and the body, and the relationship between the individual (the self) and the general society in which the body lives. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret M. Lock, in a 1987 paper that they wrote, proclaim a theory of embodiment that has three separate bodies: the individual body (which is understood to be the actual individual self), the social body (which represents the simultaneous interaction between the individual and society and how that society is affected by the individual) and the body politic (which demonstrates how various governments and authorities try to control not only the movement of the bodies of individuals but also the behaviour of those bodies). On the other hand, Jones (2011) says that ...
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• Jones. N.L. 2011. “Bioethics Embodied Ethics: From the Body as Specimen and Spectacle to Body as Patient” in Mascia-Lees. F.E. A Companion to the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (pages 72-85)
• Csordas. T.J. 1994. “Introduction: the body as representation and being in the world” in Embodiment and Experience: The existential ground of culture and self” Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (pages1-24)
• Cobb. S. and Starr. S. 2012. “Breast cancer, breast surgery, and the makeover metaphor” in Social Semiotics, Vol. 22 No.1 (pages83-101)
• Renee van der wiel, Guest lecture at the University of the Wit Watersrand, Breast Cancer: South African Example, April 2014.
• Van der Wiel. R. 2013. ‘”I am happy with one”: Re-evaluating the relationship between gender, breast cancer surgery, and survival’ in Agenda, Vol.27, No.4 (pages 55-64)
The only logical conclusion to derive from this observation is that what we consider to be ourselves is not our bodies. As a result, an individual’s personal identity cannot be rooted in just his or her body, unlike what body theorists would like to
Richard Taylor explained why the body and the mind are one, and why they are not two separate substances. In the article “The Mind as a Function of the Body”, Taylor divides his article in a number of sections and explains clearly why dualism, or the theory that the mind and the body are separate is not conceivable. In one of these sections it is explained in detail the origin of why some philosophers and people believe in dualist metaphysics. As stated by Taylor “when we form an idea of a body or a physical object, what is most likely to come to mind is not some person or animal but something much simpler, such as a stone or a marble”(133). The human has the tendency to believe a physical object as simple, and not containing anything complex. A problem with believing this is that unlike a stone or a marble a human (or an animal) has a brain and the body is composed of living cells (excluding dead skin cells, hair, and nails which are dead cells). The f...
Over the past decade breast cancer has become one of the most predominant diseases in the United States. Breast cancer starts out as a malignant tumor in the tissues of the breast which is formed from the uncontrolled growth of abnormal breast cells. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, but it can also appear in men. (Stephan, 2010)
Goodman, Berney (1994). When the body speaks its mind. New York: G.P Putnam's sons Publishing.
Breast Cancer is defined as “a group of solid tumor malignancies arising in the tissues of the breast” (Sarah Crawford, Richard Alder, 2013) in human and other mammals. It can happen to both men and women. For women, breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death. According to National Cancer Institute, in the United States, the 2014 estimated new cases and deaths of female from breast cancer are 232,670 and 40,000, respectively. For male, it’s 430 deaths out of 2,360 new cases. From these numbers, we can see that women in the U.S. are greatly affected by breast cancer, thus, it’s not difficult to imagine the impact on a worldwide level. Although these numbers look frightening, people can actually survive from breast cancer if it is detected early and treated properly, so it is extremely important for all of us, especially women, to have a better understanding of breast cancer.
Rosen, Leo and Rosen, Gloria. (2011).Learn About Cancer. American Cancer Society. Retrieved November 26, 2015 from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/index
Thus, embodiment is the conscious perception of the “it” in opposition to “me.” “It’ has no feelings or personal agency. “Me,” though, is present. Embodiment is “being a body” and also consciously owning the body. Cleopatra’s change into a Freak is a loss, as it is unintentional. The extent of her power is not competent enough, though. Kertesz’s idea of himself changes as his embodiment does. They digress from existence as a “me” to “it.” “It” is the oppressive other’s view of the different individual: an “it” that “me” (the institution) can gain power over. When the institution gains control of another body, it embodies this body with itself, resulting in a death of the person that previously embodied it.
In this piece, Grealy describes the influence of her experiences of cancer, its treatments, and the resulting deformity of her face on her development as a person. She explores how physical appearance influences one's sexual identity and over all self worth. She also explores how one's own interpretation of one's appearance can be self fulfilling. Only after a year of not looking at herself in the mirror, ironically at a time when she appears more "normal" than ever before, does Grealy learn to embrace her inner self and to see herself as more than one’s looks or physical appearance.
...of the body, and no problem arises of how soul and body can be united into a substantial whole: ‘there is no need to investigate whether the soul and the body are one, any more than the wax and the shape, or in general the matter of each thing and that of which it is the matter; for while “one” and “being” are said in many ways, the primary [sense] is actuality’ (De anima 2.1, 12B6–9).Many twentieth-century philosophers have been looking for just such a via media between materialism and dualism, at least for the case of the human mind; and much scholarly attention has gone into asking whether Aristotle’s view can be aligned with one of the modern alternatives, or whether it offers something preferable to any of the modern alternatives, or whether it is so bound up with a falsified Aristotelian science that it must regretfully be dismissed as no longer a live option.
The relationship of the human soul and physical body is a topic that has mystified philosophers, scholars, scientists, and mankind as a whole for centuries. Human beings, who are always concerned about their place as individuals in this world, have attempted to determine the precise nature or state of the physical form. They are concerned for their well-being in this earthly environment, as well as their spiritual well-being; and most have been perturbed by the suggestion that they cannot escape the wrongs they have committed while in their physical bodies.
Butler, Judith. "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'". New York. Routledge. 1993
Historically speaking breast cancer has been around for hundreds of years. Thankfully the treatment has improved. Patients who get the cancer removed and take care of themselves after, for example, by exercising and eating healthy, will live longer. There are many risks that increase the likelihood of developing breast cancer, for instance, age, family history, and race. A women who made history with breast cancer was Betty Ford, Betty was one of the first lady’s to speak openly about her disease. Betty encouraged women who have been affected with the disease to go to their doctor as soon as possible and told women who had shared that they didn’t have breast cancer to do self breast exams regularly and get mammograms. She also said when women get diagnosed with it don’t be embarrassed. Treatments in the past were pretty good and quite the same compared to the treatments given to people now, for instance, mastectomy’s which was the primary...
It is easy to fall in love with bodies. I Breathe skin, lose time to anticipation and pleasure, hair, lips, thighs; tangled in another person, I am lost in a jungle. Transcendence. Society teaches us to break a body down: we love legs, butts, breasts; we take images and splice them into the form of our perfect desire. Like Pygmalion we are desperate to breathe life into our conception of beauty, our imagination of a perfect creature. Reality is easily redrawn around a body whose presence in a place reorganizes the map of the world. Nothing exists but the texture of skin, its taste thick in the mind's imagination. Against our animal world, ideas and numbers seem strange, misplaced, insignificant to desire and love, to connecting with another's warmth. Trying to fulfill a fantasy, it is the dreamer who is recreated. It is time that is filled in.
Breast cancer affects nearly fifty thousand women each year in the UK. Breast cancer in women is more common over the age of fifty however in recent years there has seen a spike in younger women falling victim to breast cancer (Macmillan.org, 2012). Cancer Research (2012) states that there are a large mixture of emotions for someone being diagnosed with Breast Cancer and this also may directly impact the families and friends of those diagnosed. Furthermore Macmillian (2012) said that the feelings and emotions that come with a diagnosis of ...
But, “human persons have an ‘inner’ dimension that is just as important as the ‘outer’ embodiment” (Cortez, 71). The “inner” element cannot be wholly explained by the “outer” embodiment, but it does give rise to inimitable facets of the human life, such as human dignity and personal identity. The mind-body problem entails two theories, dualism and physicalism. Dualism contends that distinct mental and physical realms exist, and they both must be taken into account. Its counterpart (weak) physicalism views the human as being completely bodily and physical, encompassing no non-physical, or spiritual, substances.