Many factors play a role in determining
why certain mood disorders are more prevalent today than thirty years
ago.
In chapter three of The Face Behind The Mask, Carl Elliott breaks down the social, physical and biographical explanations as to why our American culture has seen a huge boom in the interest in social anxiety disorder and prescription drugs. In 1999, aggressive campaigns began to market and sell a message that the “answer” had been found to help heal or rid your symptoms. The message being passed on to the public was, “Your life is waiting,” and our pill will get you there (Elliott, p. 55).By taking this drug, specifically Paxil, a more socially excepted “you” would be discovered. Television advertisements went directly to consumers suggesting, “their worry and anxiety at home and at work might not be because they are just worries but because they are suffering from a treatable condition” (Rose, p. 213). In the late 1990’s GlaxoSmithKline, manufactures of Paxil began their push to relay the message to consumers and the medical field that a disease does exist for these fears, and anxieties, as does available treatment. Driven and supported by pharmaceutical companies, these advertisements that influenced and persuaded individuals into thinking they are abnormal, created a larger network of power to grow within the drug companies. Elliott describes how the literature and articles around social phobia only just recently became a huge interest to people, especially in the mid-1980s.
“What happened in the mid-1980s to bring about such an explosion of interest in social phobia (Elliott, p. 57)?
Carol Elliott talks about two important events, the revision of the (DSM-III-R) and the emergence of antidepressants to improve social phobia. The first revision of the manual used to diagnose disease and disorders legitimized the term ”social phobia,” along with shaping, forming and defining itself. After being revised once more, an alternative to the original wording was used. This time it was called, “social anxiety disorder- a much softer, patient friendly term” (Elliott, p. 57). While psychiatrist worked to help patients with this social/shyness disorder, their challenge to find a drug or treatment that worked without harsh side effects was hard. Once antidepressants became the drug of choice and altering “aspects of character or behavior,” the shift to medicalize these symptoms (shyness), became the new objection (Elliott, p. 58). With these mood disorders affecting so many people, questions arise about what is going on in our culture that enables and presents situations of stress and feelings of anxiety. As our culture continues to find new pathways for technology to grow, information overload and pressure to conform to new ways of communicating becomes the norm. By promoting drugs to help cope with the new stresses that our modern culture has handed us, a market has been created, which continues to sell addictive products without specifically addressing the bigger aspects that might be causing these phobias. These drugs mask or hide the cause, making it easier to live a facade of happiness. Carl Elliott proposes another important question:
What historical circumstances have possibly led us to this point in our present day modern lifestyles, where companies are compelled to spend $91.8 million dollars to advertise for such drugs like Paxil?
The"Clinical Gaze"
During the 19th century, ideas around treating the body were typically based on physical appearance and bodily behavior. Diagnosis was still based on what the “clinical gaze” was able to link up with visual symptoms (Rose, p.193). Images of the “mad” person were connected to a disorder, just as we diagnose individuals based solely on their “shyness,” something we can see. All these decisions are created from powerful networks of institutions, deciding what is considered “normal” and “abnormal.” In the early 1970s-80s, major shifts in technology, medicine and socio-cultural views on life and death began changing. In the 1980’s, and still today, death was viewed as something “invisible,” secretive and tamed. In the early 1900’s death was accepted as part of life, and now it is something our culture tries to avoid, hide and medicalize. Along with the changing views around death, advancements in technology, computers and electronics were on the move. The early 1980s brought video games (Pac-Man arcade) into households, taking away communication between family members, and isolating children more. All of these factors contribute to our present day culture.
In Nikolas Rose’s article, The Politics of Life Itself, he argues that not only do many drugs used in treating certain mental disorders seek to “pacify and normalize” people, but they attempt to control abnormalities in hopes of placing individuals back into “everyday life” (Rose, p. 210). Are we waiting for that “something” in our lives to kick in just to get us through the day? Which direction and path will you choose to "be happy?" These underlying feelings of disconnect, alienation and competition run so deep in our society that they become part of who we “are,” regardless if you have a disorder or not. The institutions that seek to divide and implant our minds with fear and mistrust create an overflow of paranoia, loneliness and social phobias. We are social “creatures,” not desperate individuals who live alone and in isolation.
Works Cited:
Carl Elliot. 2003. “The Face Behind the Mask” AND “Amputees by Choice.” IN Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003. Pp. 54-76, 208-236.
Nikolas Rose, 2007. Neurochemical Selves, IN The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pp. 187-223.
Can't Wait for the Valium to Hit. AngelFire, 24. Feb, 2011. <http://sevuhupi.angelfire.com/the-effects-of-paxil.html>.
The Conjurer . Hieronymus Bosch, 24. Feb, 2011. <http://www.ask.com/wiki/Gaze?qsrc=3044>.
Prozac. Ready to Be Happy, 24. Feb, 2011.<http://www.podcasters3241.wordpress.com>.
“Aspects of globalization jeopardize health by eroding family-based social systems, denigrating the environment with pollution of the water, air, and land, and by disseminating consumerism accentuating the gap between the rich and the poor” (Wiedman, p. 46).
As globalization continues to reshape societies, the connections and relationships that communities once had with their health care system, is reorganized. In chapter 2, Globalizing the Chronicities of Modernity Dennis Wiedman discusses how “sociocultural processes at the global, individual, and local community are the causes of” various metabolic disorders known at MetS (Wiedman, p. 51). According to the World Health Organization, MetS (Multiple Metabolic Syndrome) is composed of a cluster of conditions including diabetes, which is now recognized as a public health concern, and generating worldwide research. Rather than looking at these disorders from a genetic and biological standpoint, Wiedman explains that the body’s response to modernity are reflections of the ongoing “limitations and suffering” that are “socially and culturally defined”(Wiedman, p. 38). With recent studies indicating that disorders such as diabetes and hypertension are reversible, the enthusiasm among communities with the resources to implement these “lifestyle changes” seems promising. While some individuals have the ability to choose what they eat, or how they live, many do not. With failing infrastructures, economic inequalities and challenging “daily occupational situations,” certain populations are at a greater risk for disease and stress.
While governments and businesses try to “stabilize, and standardize” the routine of their techniques used to control our health, the institution grows along with the “people involved” (Wiedman, p. 45). These people involved become forced into a standard of what health should look, and feel like. Wiedman proposes that as individuals move in sync with the “globalized time” of modernity, the risk of developing chronic disease increases. These socially assembled patterns of activity challenge the community of health professionals to look further into the “larger parameter of life situations” (Wiedman, p. 48). One important group of professionals that are involved in helping people with chronic diseases are occupational therapist.
Occupational Therapy focuses on "culturally relevant treatments and opportunities to improve health and well-being for all categories of people, in the United States and around the world."
-Gelya Frank
World War I: Occupational Therapy
During World War I hundreds of "reconstruction aids" (occupational therapist) were trained to help with wartime injuries. This was a time in history that OT was forced into clarifying what role they played in the medical field.
Bedridden soldiers work on knitting
while injured.
Toy making in a psychiatric hospital.
How do we “enhance opportunities for people and families with chronic conditions to live meaningful, purposeful lives” (Frank, p. 231)?
In chapter twelve, Chronic Conditions, Health,and Well-Being in Global Context, occupational therapy and medical anthropology are brought together to propose, that a closer relationship between the two is beneficial to each profession, and important in knowing how to work with chronic conditions. Occupational therapy, along with many other professions that participate in helping individuals and populations with debilitating diseases and disabilities, face the challenge of creating treatments that are “tailored to each individual’s unique needs and interest” (Frank, p. 232). While occupational therapy attempts to heal the body by taking into account the “everyday lived experiences and meanings,” and taking a more holistic approach, their ties to the biomedical world are further separated. Although similar in focus, medical anthropology and occupational therapy have different approaches that if brought together could have powerful effects on changing the way chronic conditions effect everyday life. By breaking down the terminology, and looking at the connection between the social environment and the biological individual, new frameworks for occupational therapist to work in are created. Like many professions, this therapy has protocols to follow, “diagnostic categories, reasoning procedures, treatment goals” and unique techniques used for intervention (Frank, p. 234). It focuses on helping people fully participate in activities in spite of physical and mental limitations regardless of age, sex or status. By adding in the knowledge and research that medical anthropology can offer, I believe that occupational therapist will have a more well rounded approach to working with the body. Just like medical anthropology, it can be hard to visually understand what occupational therapy is, and what this profession actually does.
Therapy for rehab can take place at multiple locations. Patients might be seen in inpatient hospital settings, outpatient private clinics, schools or at their own home. Because occupational therapists serve individuals and communities with various health concerns, their work environments change and vary according to the needs of the individual and population. As chronic health problems are disrupting lives, more interventions are needed to help give opportunities back to those with disabilities and illness. “To promote practice with populations ignored or actively oppressed by mainstream institutions,” the Occupational Therapy without Borders group has formed (Frank, p. 239). These therapists collaborate with NGO’s and local community leaders to work on creating a sustainable economy, while focusing on the positive aspects of “health,” instead of the negatives of disease. This is one way OT is beginning to reach outside the standard medical model of focusing on just the individual. As this profession helps to bring “meaningful activity” back into the lives of the chronically ill and disabled, an increase of healthy, able body citizens will start living successful, independent lives again. By enhancing opportunities in communities, and seeking to understand the environmental barriers that contain, and prevent certain groups of people from being successful, occupational therapy will open new doors for empowerment and survival. Dealing with health at the global or local level, takes “deeper conversations” that include professionals in many health fields including nursing, public health and anthropology (Frank, p.244). One of the first steps in understanding the field of occupational therapy is having more knowledge around techniques used in this healing method, and the physical and mental disorders that could benefit from this work. By realizing what the full potential of occupational therapy is, the closer we get to decreasing health disparities among marginalized populations.
The two videos below demonstrate how occupational therapy can be used in outpatient private settings, as well as looking at international work that has been done by graduate students.
Sources:
Dennis Wiedman, 2010. “Globalizing the Chronicities of Modernity: Diabetes and the New Metabolic Syndrome.” In Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Chronicity and the Anthropology of Illness. Lenore Manderson and Carolyn Smith-Morris, eds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Pp.38-53.
Gelya Frank, Carolyn Baum, and Mary Law. 2010. “Chronic Conditions, Health, and Well-Being in Global Contexts: Occupational Therapy in Conversation with Critical Medical Anthropology.” In Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Chronicity and the Anthropology of Illness. Lenore Manderson and Carolyn Smith-Morris, eds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers university Press. Pp. 230-246.
Otis Historical Archives. Occupational Therapy World War I era. National Museum of Health and Medicine, 14. Feb, 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/27337026@N03>.
Sensory Integration Therapy Part OneYouTube. <www.youtube.com/embed/qtszqdr4GW4>.
UNM Occupational Therapy Students YouTube. <www.youtube.com/embed/ku4sBTnpyF0>.
Does the body really provide a “solid foundation, a causal locus, of the meaning,” of what it is to be female or male (Laqueur, p. 163)? Are women more “malelike” because their genitals look different, or when they are missing ovaries or breast?
Hannah Wilke (Before getting sick with lymphoma) & Mother
What relationship do we have with specific images of the body, knowing that the backbone of our anatomical history was dominated by a distorted language, and corrupt interpretations of women? Although very different than the images presented in both of the articles this week, I wanted to show two very contrasting photos of the female body. Hannah Wilke, the artist and women on the left, is shown with her mother Selma Butler, who is struggling with breast cancer. Butler is wearing a wig to hide her baldness, able to achieve a “normal” appearance from the neck up. “Breasts, consequently, are comparable to masks in that they veil the complex subject (or subjects) behind them, and, like hair, they are largely accepted as constituent parts of a woman’s normative femininity” (Skelly, 2007). A female body that has two breasts is looked at and interpreted very differently than a body with only one. By removing a breast, the female body is viewed as being less feminine, and lacking sexuality. Wilke herself looks healthy, confident and beautiful, although when she becomes very sick the “mask” comes off and our relationship with her body changes. While watching her mother die, she talked about how the medical procedures took her away, hiding her as if death were a personal shame. She was not going to let this happen to her as she faced her own struggle with illness.
Hannah Wilke dying from lymphoma
Figure 2. Intra Venus Series #4, July 26 and February 19, 1992.
These photographs represent and challenge what it means to be “whole” and female, along with how we “see” the body through our own lens. “Distance from gender and sexuality norms allows us to assess them critically because this distance permits us to suspend or defer our need for them” (Skelly, 2007). What happens when the body is disrupted with disease, and the feminine qualities that we are familiar with disappear? Hannah Wilke used her body as a way to express a message about being a women, and to sometimes critique the "male gaze." While dying from cancer, her performance art and photography took the public closer into the reality of what death looks like. Even though cancer is winning, her photos depict a body still in control, speaking to her audience with power and truth. Her work opened up conversation about identity, gender and sexuality, challenging once again the way women are "objectified by society" and thrown out when they are ill and old. Our history gives insight into the many distorted frameworks created around anatomy, sexuality and gender.
With the “endless new struggles for power and position in the enormously enlarged public sphere of the eighteenth century,” the explanations, and illustrations around the body continued to demonstrate a culturally bound visual (Laqueur, p.152). In chapter 5, Discovery of the Sexes, Thomas Laqueur describes how definitions around the plausible reasons found in the sexual differences between men and women are changing into a new model. “Distant sexual anatomy was adduced to support or deny all manner of claims in a variety of specific social, economic, political, cultural or erotic contexts” (Laqueur, p. 152). As the scientist of this time period began to explore how gender was expressed in reference to biology, the same ideologies around the body succeeded, simply showing the differences in power between men and women. As anatomists begin re-producing illustrations of what the female anatomy should look like, new “complicated constructions,” of the body unfolded (Laqueur, p. 164). The foundations for creating such gender roles seemed drenched in unfinished male dominated observations. Although some photographs are accurate in many ways, the female anatomy carries a sense of presentation with it, marking the time in history and artists responsible for marking their territory. These illustrations are seen through the “varied reality" of the many scientist and artistic interpretations of what the female body should feel and look like (Laqueir, p. 164). The “map” of the body then shows specific features of the female anatomy that they feel are socially acceptable, and suggest a “transcendent norm” (Laqueur, p. 166). Ultimately, this exploration of biological sex has demonstrated ways in which culture has influenced science. With this privileged group of men, making further ideologies around the female body, the cycle of dehumanization continues. Science has been a tool to oppress and legitimize the differences between sex, religion, race and class, only to benefit the most powerful. It has been used to distinguish a “hierarchy” of anatomy, deciding what form is naturally more superior in an attempt to cover up discrimination. By understanding how a certain society of people define what is considered “natural,” and normal, a better knowledge of how this could affect other views on relationships, love and life are seen. Just as the female body was made to look a certain way, so were the ideas around sexual behavior in the late eighteenth century.
By having physicians positioned as “scientific authorities uniquely suited to solving problems confronting the modern world,” acts of sexual behavior were now placed in categories (Terry, p. 40). They were medicalized, and seen as urgent problems to take care of. In Jennifer Terry’s article, Medicalizing Homosexuality, she talks about some of the very same philosophies as Laqueur does concerning sex and gender. Once again it’s easy to see how certain ideas around the body and behavior can, and have led to oppression and inequality. Similar to the explanations of women being inverted men, homosexuals were viewed as having a “condition of inborn sexual inversion,” considered to be unfinished people, and somehow curable (Terry, p.43). With the growing number of medical professionals in the nineteenth century being wealthy, white, comfortable men, the developments around sex grew more powerful only in one direction. This specialization in medicine led to a new language around science that formed even more boundaries and authority around sexuality. Some anatomist in the eighteenth century avoided drawing parts of the body that were “distorted, shriveled, torn or dislocated,” because they failed in meeting the “highest aesthetic standards” (Laqueur, p.167). Visions and illusions of how a particular body part should look like, or what it represents, created a system of power that attempted to contain people that were seen as “abnormal.” By looking back at these perceptions of sexuality during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, many things are revealed that help to breakdown the complex layers of the body and mind.
Works Cited:
Laqueur, Thomas Walter. “New Science, One Flesh.” Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1992. 63-148.
Terry, Jennifer. “Medicalizing Homosexuality.” IN As American Obsession: Science, Medicine and, Homosexuality in Modern Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 40-73.
Goddard, Donald. So Help Me Hannah series1978-81. Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, 10 Feb. 2011 <http://www.thirdspace.ca/journal/article/viewArticle/skelly/48>.
Goddard, Donald. Intra Venus Series # 4 1992. Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, 10 Feb. 2011 <http://www.thirdspace.ca/journal/article/viewArticle/skelly/48>.
Born on the Gamtoos River in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, Sarah Baartman was part of the Khoisan family, currently named the Khoi people. In the Khoisan culture, the body stores more fat around the buttocks and thighs, and Sarah carried even more of it than the others. Although her body looked different, within her culture it was seen as normal, healthy and viewed as something natural. To others, the white upper-class Europeans, the extra fat around her thighs and huge buttocks were seen as something less than human. In 1810 at the age of 20, Sarah was shipped off to London to be paraded around like a circus animal. Her body was seen as “grotesque,” and her genitals described like “skin that hangs from a turkey’s throat.” Not only was she treated like an animal, but her female anatomy was seen as something non-human and said to be the “highest form of animal life and the lowest form of human life.” Her body was viewed by hundreds of 19th century European audiences like a freak show. She was dehumanized over and over again, and looked upon as some kind of ape-like creature.
The ideas, theories and racist images around Sarah Baartman’s journey cannot, and should not be forgotten. The language and power surrounding the body is nothing but dehumanizing in her story, crossing over boundaries, and creating stereotypes that still continue to survive today. I am sure that Sarah had no idea of what her body and mind would have to go through when she left her homeland and stepped on the ship to London. Why is the image of a black woman, in this case Sarah, portrayed as inferior and displayed because of “unusual” features? The dominant European culture was obsessed with having power and authority over others, especially blacks. Sarah’s Khoisan features were said to be of “scientific curiosity,” and considered to represent an oversexed body. Along with these “white” ideals of superiority and sexuality, the center of her story also includes issues surrounding racism and colonialism. Baartman’s journey ties into the article for this week as we look at the historical pathways science has tried to pursue, while searching for the “truth” about the human body. Just as Sarah was put on display for others to gawk at, the female anatomy has a long history of male-dominated ideologies and assumptions.
The history of anatomy during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance is explained through the language and imagery depicted by the dominant culture specific to that time and place. These descriptions and stories are trapped in the institution of “Renaissance medical and physiological theory” (Laqueur, p. 69). They are tied up in “political and cultural order,” and completely leaving out evidence about organs, specifically facts involving the sexual differences between men and women (Laqueur, p. 69). In Thomas Laqueur’s article, Making Sex, Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, the practices of looking at the female body during the sixteenth-century represented a powerful and somehow convincing belief that women were simply “inverted men” (Laqueur, p.70). As males dominated the culture, the language behind anatomy was surrounded by a “one-sex body” image, powerful enough to be able to reveal the “inner mysteries” of the genitals, and even the soul (Laqueur, p.74). Even though most images showed the human body with enormous errors and illustrations of distorted female genitalia, the general public at the time in history viewed this to be normal. It was not just one image that turned the clitoris into looking like a penis; it became a serious of ideas taken from multiple representations, not from nature itself. These historical thoughts about anatomy were completely separate from the actual structure and function of what was known about the sexual organs. As ideology instead of fact was determining how the female body was seen, it is easy to see what sexual differences actually mattered and were chosen to be emphasized during this time. The female body did not have a unique language that gave exact anatomical classification for the genitals or for the reproductive system.
Throughout Lagueur’s article the language, imagery and explanations of the female anatomy shifted around, creating a map of the body that was inaccurate, but at the same time powerful enough to continue to deliver a message encouraging the belief of the “one-sex body” model. Clearly it seems most of these white males were caught up in only looking and seeing the body in one way, through a “male centered system” (Laquerur, p. 97). The hierarchy within this male dominated society determined how power and resources were distributed, including language. These relationships around the body are culturally created in ways that place emphasis on women’s social status and the “unique qualities of a woman’s body” (Laquerur, p.108). Already embedded into the dominant language of science was the language of gender, one that was dehumanizing. Like the anatomy maps of the past, illustrations focused their attention on specific features, leaving out certain parts, and placing emphasis on others. Laquerur points out how one of the most compelling features of talking about sex during this time in history was completely contextualized. As women were deprived of existing and separated into someone, or something less human, they entered into the conversations surrounding the body as the subject.
“If you touch that part of the uterus while women are eager for sex and very excited as if in a frenzy, and aroused to list they are eager for a man, you will find it rendered a little harder and oblong……………(Laquerur, p. 113)
Not only does this demonstrate how culturally and politically bound our language was, but how it is still rooted in our everyday communication with each other. I believe today, that there still exist a “man-made fabric which impinges” on most of our experiences (Laquerur, p. 69). I would just add in a “white man-made fabric….” into that sentence. Although I found the article to be somewhat fascinating, I thought it left out other important historical ideologies about the body that are shaping our relationships with the female image today.
Works Cited:
Thomas Laqueur, New Science, One Flesh, IN making Sex, Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge: havard University Press, 1990. Pp. 63-113
"Formations of Race and Ethnicity." segue.middlebury.edu. 3, Feb 2011. <https://segue.middlebury.edu/view/html/site/amst0227a-f07/node/1361398>.
"Angry Black Women Watch." ABWW Heroine of the Day: Sarah (Saartjie) Baartman. abww.wordpress.com. 3, Feb 2011. <http://abww.wordpress.com/tag/sarah-baartman/>.
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
“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>.
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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.
In chapter three of The Face Behind The Mask, Carl Elliott breaks down the social, physical and biographical explanations as to why our American culture has seen a huge boom in the interest in social anxiety disorder and prescription drugs. In 1999, aggressive campaigns began to market and sell a message that the “answer” had been found to help heal or rid your symptoms. The message being passed on to the public was, “Your life is waiting,” and our pill will get you there (Elliott, p. 55). By taking this drug, specifically Paxil, a more socially excepted “you” would be discovered. Television advertisements went directly to consumers suggesting, “their worry and anxiety at home and at work might not be because they are just worries but because they are suffering from a treatable condition” (Rose, p. 213). In the late 1990’s GlaxoSmithKline, manufactures of Paxil began their push to relay the message to consumers and the medical field that a disease does exist for these fears, and anxieties, as does available treatment. Driven and supported by pharmaceutical companies, these advertisements that influenced and persuaded individuals into thinking they are abnormal, created a larger network of power to grow within the drug companies. Elliott describes how the literature and articles around social phobia only just recently became a huge interest to people, especially in the mid-1980s.
In Nikolas Rose’s article, The Politics of Life Itself, he argues that not only do many drugs used in treating certain mental disorders seek to “pacify and normalize” people, but they attempt to control abnormalities in hopes of placing individuals back into “everyday life” (Rose, p. 210). Are we waiting for that “something” in our lives to kick in just to get us through the day? Which direction and path will you choose to "be happy?" These underlying feelings of disconnect, alienation and competition run so deep in our society that they become part of who we “are,” regardless if you have a disorder or not. The institutions that seek to divide and implant our minds with fear and mistrust create an overflow of paranoia, loneliness and social phobias. We are social “creatures,” not desperate individuals who live alone and in isolation.
