scholarly journals The performative effects of diagnosis

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Sebastian Mohr
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Medical Anthropology ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
War Veterans ◽  
Analytical Term ◽  
Medical Diagnoses ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Trans Studies

In this article, I suggest the performative effects of diagnosis as an analytical tool to explore the transformations in people’s intimate lives that being diagnosed brings with it. As an analytical term, I understand the performative effects of diagnosis to describe trajectories in people’s intimate lives that emerge in the interplay between a person’s intimate sense of self, that is, their gendered and sexualed self-perceptions, and the logics and norms contained in medical diagnoses. I develop this term in the context of ethnographic research on Danish war veterans’ understandings of and experiences with intimacy and extrapolate it conceptually in this article through scholarship in feminist theory, trans studies, STS, and medical anthropology and sociology. The argument that I make throughout is that the performative effects of diagnosis allows scholars to explore transformations in people’s intimate lives without a foreclosure about the normative dimensions of these transformations. In that sense, rather than only asking how biopolitical and cis- and heteronormative normalcy constitutes itself, the performative effects of diagnosis provide the opportunity to explore how these dimensions are (re)configured and (un)done in and through medicalized intimacies.

scholarly journals A chip off the (im)moral block? Lay beliefs about genetic heritability predicts whether family members’ actions affect self-judgments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Peetz ◽  
Michael Jeremy Adam Wohl ◽  
Anne E Wilson ◽  
Andrew Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Total N ◽  
Lay Beliefs ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Related Family ◽  
Genetic Heritability

The idea of heritability may have consequences for individuals’ sense of self by connecting identity to the actions of others who happen to share genetic ties. Across seven experimental studies (total N=2,628), recalling morally bad or good actions by family members influenced individuals’ moral self among those who endorse a lay belief that moral character is genetically heritable, but not among those who did not endorse this belief (Study 1-5). In contrast, recalling actions by unrelated individuals had no effect, regardless of lay beliefs (Study 2, 5), the endorsement of other relevant lay beliefs did not moderate the effect of parent’s actions on self-judgments (Study 3). Individuals who endorsed heritability beliefs also chose less helpful responses to hypothetical helping scenarios if they had recalled unhelpful (vs. helpful) acts by a genetically-related family member (Study 5). Taken together, these studies suggest that lay beliefs in the role of genetics are important for self-perceptions.

scholarly journals Home and Away: The House in Exilic Narratives

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-58
Author(s):  
Shane Alcobia-Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Traumatic Rupture ◽  
Edward Said ◽  
Traumatic Loss ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Transnational Community ◽  
Native Place ◽  
Sense Of Home

This article examines the ways in which two Irish writers use the setting and symbol of the house to depict traumatic rupture and the collapse of a sense of self as a result of loss. In both texts — Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce, and Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke’s I Could Read the Sky — dissolution of self occurs due to the movement away from the childhood domicile to England. If home can be defined as ‘a sense of belonging or attachment’, then ‘[m]ovement may necessitate or be precipitated by a disruption to a sense of home’. Emigration can result in the formation of an alternative diasporic, transnational community and support network in the absence of immediate familial ties, yet it can also foster a sense of ‘displacement and loneliness’ as well as ‘self‐perceptions of being exiled’. Emigration, whether forced or not, constitutes a form of exile, one which, as Edward Said argues, is experienced as ‘an unhealable rift forced between a human being and a native place, between the self and its true home’, and which results in a ‘crippling sorrow of estrangement’. That traumatic loss is conveyed in both authors’ use of the house (as setting and symbol).

scholarly journals Making the Self in a Material World: Food and Moralities of Consumption

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle De Solier
Keyword(s):  
Stainless Steel ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Self ◽  
Farmers Markets ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
World Food ◽  
A Site

Food is increasingly central to consumer culture today. From fine dining restaurants to farmers’ markets, stainless steel kitchenware to celebrity chef cookbooks, there is a stylish array of culinary commodities available for fashioning our identities. Yet this occurs at a time when commodity consumption more generally is under greater question as a site of self-making, with the rise of anti-consumerist sentiment. This article examines how people negotiate these issues in their identity formation, by focusing on those for whom food is central to their sense of self: ‘foodies’. I draw on theories of consumption, identity and material culture, in particular the work of Daniel Miller, to examine ethnographic research undertaken with foodies in Melbourne, Australia.

scholarly journals Transitory masculinities in the context of being sick with prostate cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeferson Santos Araújo ◽  
Vander Monteiro da Conceição ◽  
Marcia Maria Fontão Zago
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Medical Anthropology ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Nursing Care ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Identity Transformations ◽  
Inductive Thematic Analysis

Objective: to interpret the meanings attributed by men with prostate cancer to the experience regarding their bodies and masculinities during illness. Method: ethnographic research with 17 men, guided by the narrative method and theoretical framework of medical anthropology and masculinities. The information was collected through recorded interviews, direct observation and field diary records, which were analyzed by inductive thematic analysis. Results: men undergo body and identity transformations when they get sick with prostate cancer, transiting through multiple masculinities, resigning their actions, and occupying subordinate positions in relation to other healthy bodies, which are marginalized in their social relationships and allied with regard to establishing their affective relationships. Conclusion: this evidence enhances and deepens the knowledge disclosed in the literature and contributes to the strengthening of nursing care actions when dealing with the sick.

Iranian migrant women’s beauty practices and (un)veiling in Belgium

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-32
Author(s):  
Ladan Rahbari
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Feminist Studies ◽  
Iranian Women ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Belgian Society ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract The hijab has been considered a notable factor in increasing women’s tendency to practise beauty in Iran. Experiences of beauty practices by Iranian women in diaspora can shed light on the extent of the influence that the practice of (un)veiling might have on beauty regimes. This study uses semi-structured interviews amongst a group of Iranian women in Belgium to investigate the development of beauty practices after migration. The study draws on feminist studies on beauty practices and ethnic/racial identities to explore whether beauty practices create a sense of normalcy or are forms of self-governance in compliance with the dominant discourses of female embodiment. The findings point to the complex intertwinement of racialisation with gendered embodiment and illustrate the strategies that women develop either to embrace their difference or to eliminate the perceived embodied differences and counter racialised othering. The analysis draws on feminist theory to examine participants’ perceptions of the social construction of women’s imagery as migrants and their self-perceptions as racialised minorities in the Belgian society.

Vulnerable Girls and Dangerous Boys

Young ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 427-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Karina Henriksen
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Young People ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Institutional Practices ◽  
Insight Into

The study explores the gendered institutional practices and rationalities applied to young people placed in Danish secure institutions. The study draws on ethnographic research, combining participant observation and interviews to gain insight into professionals’ gendered practices and rationalities, and young people’s experiences of confinement. Drawing on Foucauldian power analytics and post-structuralist feminist theory on subjectivity, the study finds that the disciplining practices are gendered to promote working-class masculinity for boys and normative femininity and (hetero)sexuality for girls, with minorizing effects on some boys and girls. The study provides unique insights from a gender-integrated context for confined young people and supplements scholarship on the gendered logics that underpin interventions operating within the penal–social work nexus.

The Shattered Self of Komsomol Civil War Memoirs

Slavic Review ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 546-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Guillory
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Russian Civil War ◽  
War Veterans ◽  
Civil War Veterans ◽  
War Memoirs

The Russian civil war was a fratricidal climax of seven years of war and revolution that fractured Russian society. Its traumatic effects on postrevolutionary life are beyond measure. In this article Sean Guillory examines memoirs of Komsomol civil war veterans to illuminate the ways the war shaped their sense of self. Guillory argues that veterans' memoirs reveal a shattering of the self where their efforts to narrate their experience as agents of war was overshadowed by their transformation on the batdefield into instinctual beings, imprisoned by emotions, senses, nerves, and muscles. Guillory engages the scholarship on the Soviet self and subjectivity by calling attention to the ways trauma produces a “darker side” of the self, and in particular, how the body serves as a long-term depository for experiences of loss, disorientation, and deprivation.

scholarly journals Thinking through the Photo Essay: Observations for Medical Anthropology

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Jerome W. Crowder ◽  
Elizabeth Cartwright
Keyword(s):  
Medical Anthropology ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Visual Anthropology ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Photo Essay

As photography becomes more prevalent in ethnographic research, scholars should more seriously consider the photo essay as a medium for sharing their work. In this Position Piece, we present guidelines for the creation of ethnographic photo essays for medical anthropology that do not simply combine image and text, but create a balance that allows words to provide context for the image(s) and images to reinforce or challenge the text. We feel there are three basic elements every photo essay must consider that are informed by the theory and practice of visual anthropology. While a solid background in visual anthropology is not necessary to produce a successful photo essay, being mindful of these three elements in relation to your work will help you develop a photo essay that combines the best of what both media offer your audience.

scholarly journals Social Media among Thai students: Narcissism, self-identity or empowerment?

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 79
Author(s):  
Yuwanuch Gulatee ◽  
Babara Combes ◽  
Yuwadee Yoosabai
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Student Attitudes ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Self Perceptions ◽  
Thai Students ◽  
High Level

Background: Social media has now become a ubiquitous part of everyday life, especially for young people. This technology is a double-edged sword and can be used to empower or isolate users. This research is designed to enhance our understanding of how social media is being used by young people, how it affects them and their attitudes towards it. Results: This paper reports on the findings of a follow-up study to explore student feelings and attitudes and student preferences and self-perceptions when using technology. Earlier research examined emerging trends and changes in how students and staff use technology for learning and teaching and ownership of technology. This part of the long-term research project explored student attitudes and self-perceptions when using social media for personal use. Findings confirmed that there is a high use of Facebook amongst the young people in this study and their attitudes toward social media are more positive than negative. Participants felt that social media helped them to communicate with people from around the world, was easy to use for communication and could be used anywhere and at any time. They used social media most often to communicate with friends, colleagues, family and significant others, rather than people they did not know personally. However, they did use social media to build an online presence or profile and used this online platform to raise their status and for self-promotion to the wider community. Participants also admitted that social media impaired concentration, listening and completing activities in the classroom and sometimes caused personal relationship problems. A mobile phone is the device they use most often to access social media. Results also indicate that young people using social media in Thailand do not have a high level of concern about third-party access to their data. However, results from the study do not clearly show that using social media affects the ability of young people to communicate face-to-face. Conclusion: The widespread use of Facebook amongst the Thai students taking part in this study was found to have both positive and negative effects on their communication, entertainment, academic and social lives, their sense of self and personal empowerment.

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