Embodiment is the process in which the body as an object is actively experienced, transformed, sustained and finally developed into a subjective body (Waskul, D & Vannini, P. 2006). The body is not merely a vessel to exist in, and the objective-body cannot be separated from the subjective-body. The body may thus be experienced from a multitude of angles, for example, socially, culturally, psychologically, physiologically, clinically, phenomenologically and even religiously, allowing both patients and Healthcare Practitioners (HCPs) to understand illnesses and manage them holistically.
Holistic management of patients is concerned not only with their medical conditions, but also the recognition that they are lived bodies with psycho-socio-environmental components (Nettleton, S. 2008. In: Gilbert, L, Selikow, T & Walker, L. 2009, pg 40). These all shape the way in which patients experience illness, and how HCPs may approach the patient-illness unit as a whole.
One such theoretical holistic approach uses the concept of embodiment from the perspective of four interlinked bodies: the physiological body, which is the physical, anatomical body; the phenomenological body, which is the subjective, lived experience of the person; the social body, which is the societal/environmental/political make-up of the body; and the clinical body, described as the medical body as perceived by HCPs. The clinical body may integrate any or all of the first three bodies, depending on the education and area of specialisation of the HCP (Lectures 1-3, SOCL1016. 2014).
An alternative theory to integration of bodies is that of Cartesian Dualism, an idea that divides the body into a ‘palpable body’ and a ‘tangible mind’ (Scheper‐Hughes, N., & Lock, M. 1987, ...
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...ing the four-body theory as a perspective of the embodiment-disembodiment-re-embodiment process is that the process is assumed to be similar for all patients, but different women may experience the disembodiment and re-embodiment in entirely different ways, for example, breast implants may not have as positive an impact as a woman may have hoped, or a patient may suffer complications such as unequal breasts as a result of surgery.
The four-body theory and the process of embodiment-disembodiment-re-embodiment in the case of breast cancer effectively demonstrate how patients normalise through the decomposition and subsequent recomposition of the bodies, and resume ‘bodied’ lives after their illnesses. Furthermore, HCPs with an understanding of the theory and processes are better equipped to provide not just medical treatment, but a holistic experience for the patient.
1. The body of chronically ill person is a nexus of living meanings made manifest by the patients articulations of pain and health, of sufferings and joy.
The human was once whole in days before, but somewhere in his journey to the present, he lost himself. His mind and body have become separate identities that are unaware of each other's existence. Modern society reflects and encourages those thoughts very well, in my opinion. If a person believes his body is broken, ill, or in need of upgrading, he will seek out a medical professional specialized in the area of distress. Arriving to the specialist, the patient demands quick and efficient treatments that will cure/fix/upgrade the weakness in his body; unaware of the effects this may cause him mentally. Once cured of his weakness, the patient is in full working order and is sent back out into the world. That man's procedure for curing his weakness is the same road taken as someone who wishes to fix a toaster, for example. Would it then be safe to say that the man, subconsciously or consciously, considers his body to be more closely related to a tool rather than a part of himself? Unfortunately, I believe this man is only one person out of an entire society that shares the same dissociation of body and mind. Why do people of modern society not associate themselves with their physical being, and where is this leading us? Moreover, how did this alienation of self come about? I will try to explain the latter of the two questions first, because I believe the answer can be explained through the evolution of medical technology.
Holistic health is based on the law of nature, which is; a whole is made up of interdependent parts. The earth is made up of systems, such as air, land, water, plants and animals. If life is to be sustained the systems cannot be separated, for what is happening to one is also felt by all of the other systems. In the same way, an individual is a whole made up of interdependent parts, which are the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When one part is not working at its best, it impacts all of the other parts of that person. Furthermore, this whole person, including all of the parts, is constantly interacting with everything in the surrounding environment. For example, when an individual is anxious about a school exam or a job interview, his or her nervousness may result in a physical reaction, such as a headache or a stomachache. When people suppress anger over a long period of time, they often develop a serious illness, such as migraine headaches, emphysema, or even arthritis. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that the key factors influencing an individual’s state of health have not changed significa...
Fried, Marlene Gerber, et.el. Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
The changes in embodiment result in a loss. An integral affect of active embodiment is personal identity and agency.
The mind body problem is the controversial idea of the connection between the mind and the body. Physicalism is a solution to the mind body problem, providing the idea that there is nothing above the world and accepts the mind to be a physical essence, nothing above the body. Physicalism provides different approaches in search of the mind and its constituents. By approaching the mind as a physical entity, behaviorist, a type of physicalism, view the mind as a category containing emotions, sensations and feelings. Another approach within physicalism is functionalism, the idea that the mind is a series of input and output of mental states. These and other approaches to physicalism, display the mind as something not out of the physical world and an entity that is not separated from the body. Physicalist believe the mind could be explained by physical sciences in the future. Some physicalist portray the mind through all the sciences while others reduced the
An out of body experience (OBEs) is described as by someone either standing above or floating above their own body. Some also describe it as the soul leaving the body and viewing from...
...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.
A patient is not entirely “healthy” or “sick;” a patient may be healthy in some ways but sick in others. “Health” is subjective in that what works for one patient might harm another. Health is not just related to the state of the body but also is influenced by emotions and the environment.
Waskul, D., & Vannini, P. (2006). Introduction: The body in symbolic interaction. In D. Waskul & P. Vannini (Eds.), Body/ Embodiment: Symbolic Interaction and the Sociology of the BodyRetrieved from http://ia600800.us.archive.org/19/items/BodyembodimentSymbolicInteractionAndTheSociologyOfBody/BodyEmbodiment-WaskulVannini.pdf
Body image refers to a person’s unique perception of his/her body. It is how we perceive ourselves, how we think we appear to others, and how we feel about our looks from “our own internal view” (cash, 1990b, p. 51).This internal view is associated with a person’s feelings, thought, and evaluations (positive or negative). (Cultivation and social comparison, p. 3).
Thus it enables a state of being that is in the moment (it is present). The aesthetical (in terms of material aspects) of the body are also something that is a definite variable. When the body undergoes ‘embodiment’ it is the process of the locus, culture, traditions, biological traits of the body (sex, race) that plays a role in the construction of this experience (which happens on a daily basis) and at the same time simultaneously confines it (2009:3). ‘Embodiment’ is forever shifting and growing; as one’s experiences are continuously happening and thus making it a highly subjective experience as well (2009: 4). This process then allows the body to become something that is more than just a biological construct; it allows the body to become something that is able to express itself unto other beings in both words (the patterns developed when one is speaking and the language styles that one has been influenced to use) and non-verbal communication (the shape and form the body takes when moving in space or even sitting or standing still in a space drawn from experienced emotions and the person’s historical, social and political background). Therefore it is suggested that ‘embodiment’ is something that is a network of interlinked signs showing past experiences and continuously reshaping and forming to show new signs based on new experience (Thapan 2009:
Introduction: For this essay I am going to critically discuss the biomedical model as well as the social model of health and how they both relate to the lay perspectives on health and illness.
In this paper I will be discussing the two most prevalent models of health. These two models of health are not, of course, total opposites. Similar to terms such as gay and straight they are two definitive labels placed upon a broad spectrum that is hardly definitive. There exists in this case as well a large clouded middle between the two limiting labels. These are collections of thoughts about how to go about continuing life. These two paradigms in modern healthcare I hope will one-day come to know one another. For now let us say that in generally speaking there are two different approaches or models of medicine and they are allopathic and holistic. Allopathic is another term for our modern western medicine, which in the United States is the dominant one and the one most familiar to the masses. The other, the holistic model, also known as alternative, is commonly associated with older ideas that originated in the East.
I visited the Body Exhibition, which is located in Buena Park, California. This exhibit allows a person to get a deeper look the inside the systems of a human body and it anatomy. It includes the skeletal system, muscular system, nervous system, respiratory system, digestive system, urinary system, productive system and fetal development, circulatory system, and lastly the threatened body. This exhibit contains more than 200 actual human bodies that have been dissected and preserved. During my visit I saw many things that changed my perspective. While visiting bodies I observed the exhibit itself, observed the people around me and asked the tour guide questions regarding the bodies.