Bodywork: Self-Harm, Trauma, and Embodied Expressions of Pain

Autor/in	Gurung, Kesherie
Titel	Bodywork: Self-Harm, Trauma, and Embodied Expressions of Pain
Quelle	In: Arts and Humanities in Higher Education: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 17 (2018) 1, S.32-47 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1474-0222
Schlagwörter	Self Destructive Behavior; Trauma; Personal Narratives; Human Body; Self Expression; Psychological Patterns + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Self destrucive behaviour; Selbstzerstörung; Erlebniserzählung; Menschlicher Körper; Ausdruck
Abstract	Self-harm, or self-mutilation, is generally viewed in academic literature as a pathological act, usually born out of trauma and/or a psychological and personality defect. Individuals who engage in self-harm are usually seen as damaged, destructive, and pathological. While self-harm is not a desirable act, this paper argues through the narratives of those who engage in such acts that self-harm may be better construed as a meaningful, embodied emotional practice, bound up in social (mis)understandings of psychological pain and how best to attend to such pain. In particular, this paper suggests that those who engage in self-harm practices are performing embodied, socially situated acts of healing, survival, and self-creation in a physical attempt to retell complex, fragmented stories of abuse, existential angst, trauma, and loss of self. While these individuals may be more or less successful in such attempts, this paper suggests that understandings of self-harm would benefit from more nuanced approaches to individuals' embodied expressions of pain that take into account the difficult nature of psychological suffering and the effects of trauma. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01