Dance Therapy

DMT - Work Samples #1 from DMT Documentary on Vimeo.
This video shows a clip of a documentary on how dance movement therapy was used as a way of rehab to help victims of human trafficking and mental illness in India.

Power, Knowledge, and Practice

After reading Allan Young’s article, A Description of How Ideology Shapes Knowledge of Mental Disorder (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), I began to wonder about  the many different therapeutic techniques  used today to treat illness, and why certain treatments are chosen over other modalities to reach better health.  Young describes that treatment at the Institute for post traumatic stress disorder is focused around  the patient’s ability to express and “recall his etiological event and then disclose it, in detail to his therapist and fellow patients in the course of psychotherapy sessions” (Young, 111).  Not only are patients at the Institute expected to give “verbal evidence” of their experiences, they must also acknowledge how their present behavior is influenced by their disturbing past (Young, 112). 

Many expectations placed on these patients are  based on their ability to verbal communication and express emotions accurately. This success is then used as a model to map their progress and growth in the program. With patients arriving at the Institution with traumatic stories attached to their so called “defective self,” it is not surprising that this Institution has such strict protocols of rehabilitation that have to be followed (Young, 112).  “In order for these events to be properly worked through or processed, patients need to give detailed accounts” (Young 116). The Institutional ideas around mental health are used to persuade people to act in ways they might not want to. With each psychiatric unit in the Veterans Administration having a very different “standard table” of organization to follow, it is easy to see how the power of knowledge behind mental illness can shift (Young, 117).   Because these ideas are imbedded in therapeutic codes, the disorder is reinforced yet again, connecting the patient with the defective self and giving power back to the Institution. With disorderly and wild behavior occurring, the program claims to need a way to find control. Creating a code that says “when patients feel physically unsafe they also feel psychologically unsafe, lack of psychological safety is an obstacle to disclosure, and without disclosure there can be no recovery,” automatically bounds and limits the patients (Young, 123). They are simply supposed to obey with the guidelines set in their “agreement,” and not act against these beliefs.  After moving through the experience together, the patient is said to have found a more appropriate behavior around anger, while the therapist has conquered the difficulties surrounding the “knowledge production process” (Young, 128).

By looking at how PTSD was handled through the framework of this Institution, it is hard not to think about the many other treatments that might be useful in helping the mentally ill. While both a medical and psychological model is used to treat these illnesses, each  approach offers a very different style to the healing process. One model uses “products,” like prescription drugs and pills, which are separate from the “body” and patient.  While the physiological model requires the patient to use more internal resources that are already available, trying to build relationships and new behavior.  An alternative therapy that is also used to treat mental illness is dance movement rehab. This approach does not use drugs or talk therapy as a means of communication.

Dance Therapy                     

Definitions from the ADTA: American Dance Therapy Association

"Dance/Movement Therapy is the psycho-therapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration of individuals."         

"Dance/Movement Therapy is practiced in mental health, rehabilitation, medical, educational, and forensic settings, and in nursing homes, day care centers, disease prevention, and health promotion programs. "  

Moving away from a social or psychological approach to the treatment of mental illness, dance therapy creates an atmosphere that encourages communication and expression through body movement. It connects the mind with the body, presenting a place for emotions to break free without speaking. As the article by Allan Young discussed, there is a resistance among the patients when pushing to engage in verbal dialogue.  Dance therapy offers a non verbal, movement based approach that allows expression when words might not be available or possible.  It provides a tool to use against harmful emotions and behaviors. It relieves muscular tension caused from physical and mental disabilities, enabling the body to become more aware of itself in space. With my background in dance and movement, I truly believe that it can heal and give the body a chance to feel free and balanced again.

Works Cited:
• Allan Young, 1993. "A Description of How ideology Shapes Knowledge of a Mental Disorder (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." p.108-128.  IN Knowledge, Power, and Practice: The Anthropology of Medicine and Everyday Life
• DMT- Work Sample 1 . Vimeo. <http://vimeo.com/7287738>.
• Dance Movement Therapy With Gina Serraino.  YouTube. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ0kO6-W4uc>.
• ADTA (American Dance Therapy Association). < http://www.adta.org/. 2009

Professional Authority and Expertise

“Expertise plays a crucial role in political rule in modern societies, by rendering a multiplicity of social fields governable through detailed documentation, classification, evaluation and calculation (Johnson 1993)” (Petersen & Lupton, p. 14) 

In the article, The New Public Health: A New Morality, the authors discuss the evolution of

public health, and the complexity that lives within this “new” idea surrounding policy. As new health education programs are being promoted and strategies to improve lifestyle choices are implemented into communities, a need to bring in more expert knowledge and professional authority to govern is seen. A way to control and regulate a society into a more useful group is to “translate reality into a form in which it can be debated and diagnosed” (Petersen & Lupton, p. 15). The expertise that is tied to public health is seen as one way of shaping and changing behavior to fit a certain measurable standard of living. This new theory that shifts the responsibility to the individual leaves out many of the sociological factors that predispose people to a “unhealthy lifestyle,” such as ethnicity, gender and class, creating assumptions and ultimately blaming the victim (Petersen & Lupton, p. 16). 

Attaching a specific “lifestyle prescription” to daily living is viewed not only as way to enable healthy choices, but also a way to constrain and label many communities whom might be unable to actively participate due to physical limitations.  If the new public health focuses on “appearance of the individual body,” along with pushing a subscription around a healthy “norm” of daily life for everyone, then I believe we are moving further away from keeping our community free of disease and illness (Petersen & Lupton, p. 23). The  human body can be ill without being diseased. Healing and illness are fundamental human experiences that are best viewed holistically. Much of the body and the symptoms within it are filtered through our beliefs and cultural assumptions. 

These types of pamphlets represent what I envision the "Public Health Receptionist" in the above cartoon to be passing out while she is on the phone.

          

 

Public health influences the way people assemble an understanding about the body, and the risk associated with the choices they ultimately end up making. As the above cartoon demonstrates, everyone is looking for professional help in finding answers to their health questions. I think it is interesting how the cartoon depicts this "public place" where there is a one stop shop for finding the answers to all health concerns. Although it tries to represent a diverse group of people, it fails in describing their own unique stories and assumes that everyone regardless of culture must have the same type of questions, easily answered by the receptionist and a paper pamphlet.

 


Will babies be unhealthy if they are not brought up in the typical "normal" male/female relationship? This pamphlet seems to give the impression that without family support, your child will suffer. Representations are a powerful tool when people are looking for professional answers concerning their health.

With illness and disease comes a set of instructions that physicians follow in order to treat the body and give patients freedom and independence back. With specific protocols that the medical community must follow in order to take care of the body, people sometimes begin searching in new directions to find the right doctor or medicine that works for them. With insurance companies dictating how our care should be scheduled, it can be hard for families to achieve what they feel is best for their loved ones. The determination and drive to find the top medical care to fight disease can be a chaotic and long journey. "Although governments cannot assure that every individual attains personally defined 'health,' they at least have the responsibility to establish environments that make possible an attainment level of health for the total population" (Petersen & Lupton, p.17). 

The video clip below is about a documentary called 9000 Needles. It is  about a family who struggles through the health care system, searching for the best doctors and professionals to take care of their brother. Their experience with medicine, healing and the American health care system reminds me of the many topics we have covered this week in class. This family struggles with medical care at the local level, fighting insurance companies along with the other challenges a stoke brings to the body.

I wonder what type of environments are established for the disabled and stroke survivors that really allow complete achievement towards better health.   For them, the body and mind have changed, and they no longer "fit" into the same category.

Works Cited:

• Alan Peterson and Deborah Lupton. 1996. “The New Public Health: A New Morality?” and “Epidemiology: Governing by Numbers.” Pg. 1-60. In the New Public Health: Health and Self in the Age of Risk. London: Sage Publications.

• "Public Health Portal." EWashtenaw.org 20 Jan. 2011 <http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/departments/public_health/ph_portal/public-health-portal>.

• "Sex-Making the Best Decision For You."  hhs.state.ne.us 20 Jan. 2011 <http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/dpc/HIV_Brochures/teenagers.htm>.

•  "Healthy Babies Need Everyone's Support." bcliquorstores.com 20 Jan.2011 < http://bcliquorstores.com/alcohol-pregnancy>  

• 9000 Needles Documentary- Devin Dearth.  YouTube. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSJLn7AKGY0>.

The Egg And Sperm: Stereotypes, Language and Imagery

www.welcome.ac.uk

 This image shows the lining of the uterus during menstruation. The very top layers are being shed while the bottom, or underlying layers are breaking down and red blood cells are released

                                                        ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqwwu2btSwI)

By just changing the music dynamics in this very basic video, a different assumption can be made about the role the sperm and egg take on. Without words, just sound can have a huge impact on the way the egg and sperm are viewed.

In  Emily Martin’s article, The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles, she states that “by becoming aware of when we are projecting cultural imagery onto what we study,” is important as we try to progress towards more equal roles in describing the egg and sperm activities (501). She was very powerful in her own “voice” and language throughout the article, even though I thought that some of her substitutes for “words” were not any different than the “personalities” that have already been given to these cells in our bodies.

Whether it is throwing out a line, making a bridge, harpooning an egg, wasting, shedding or penetrating, the meaning and emotional connection tied to these actions are different, and can vary from culture and country. The models that biologist and many professionals uses to demonstrate, teach or articulate different bodily processes can have huge social effects. Is one image more neutral and less attached to a specific gender? Is throwing out a line to the egg show a more equal partnership in this complex relationship of events happening? Some of the images that are created around reproduction are definitely considered biased and lean more towards one direction. For some this imagery of tossing out a rope, could represent the egg is weak, and needs help. For others it might represent a mutual relationship happening to achieve success. I agree with Emily, that the focus should possibly be on the “stickiness of the egg,” and the filament, staying away from words that attach a false image of what is really happening (494). Or centering on what is fact instead of attaching a “role or personality” to the processes in general.

I chose to use the first and second image on this page to help explain why I personally do not feel these “female biological processes” represent a failure and are wasteful. I had no other attachment to both images besides the clarity and focus on detail. Although quite different than using language to describe these complex organ systems, imagery is powerful, just like our own voices and assumptions are. These specific images do not lead me to a feeling of chaos, nor do I get a sense of feeling less worthy. I am sure there are many that do. In these photos I see a system that is beautiful instead of “wasted and unsalable” (Martin, 486). I chose to stick with more neutral imagery to see if new vocabulary and communication about the egg or sperm was attached. I still found the term shed to be used along with breakdown. In my eyes neither one of those terms implied nor attached a gender stereotype to the science behind this process.

The short clip that I picked, served as a quick peek into how sound can be powerful in the message, regardless of what the content is. In this case it is very obvious what the message was. Many people receive their information about the body through the media and in some cases have a relationship with the “body” that only goes so far, believing in most of what they hear. Because of the control and restriction that “shifting power of sexual mores,” along with the “medicalization in American culture” push upon people, it is hard to envision a more “neutral” language for the future (Rapp, p.59).

Gender roles and inequality intersect with power and resources. These metaphors used in the science textbooks today still come from “embodied” experiences. The beliefs about our bodies and health inform us to make decisions and choices, but are shaped by many things such as our social network, environment and policy or politics. In Emily Martin’s article she shows how language and vocabulary are used to represent how science has stereotyped the egg and the sperm into a certain role. She shows how science has used words to represent power, and how it can be connected to gender. What I learned from her article was how medical systems, language and stereotypes can reflect the actual social reality, and can lead to believing a female or male should act a certain way, with a specific role to follow. She started a conversation about representations and began breaking down gender stereotypes. Being able to "shine a light" on many of the underlying factors that appear to be unnoticed by many, are important when looking at all the different images we have surrounding culture, medicine and the body.

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