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Psychiatric and Mental Health Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Psychiatric and Mental Health
“Chains Weigh Heavy”: Body Mapping Embodied Experiences Of Anxiety, Priya Vaughan Dr, Anna Tewson, Patricia Morgan Dr, Katherine M. Boydell Professor
“Chains Weigh Heavy”: Body Mapping Embodied Experiences Of Anxiety, Priya Vaughan Dr, Anna Tewson, Patricia Morgan Dr, Katherine M. Boydell Professor
The Qualitative Report
Anxiety has both cognitive and somatic dimensions as is ubiquitous at a population level. We report on an arts-based research workshop gathering data on embodied experiences of anxiety and non-anxiety. We developed an innovative short body mapping workshop to collect data and undertook thematic analysis to analyse textual and visual data. 35 body maps were produced. “Tightness,” “pain,” and “heaviness” were the most frequently expressed embodied sensations of anxiety. By contrast, when not feeling anxious, participants’ bodies primarily felt “energetic,” “ordered,” and “open.” Anxiety was most frequently felt in the stomach, head and heart. 35 Participants mostly used an abstracted, …
Skin Stories And Family Feelings: The Contradictions Of Skin Picking In Mother And Daughter, Katrina Jacinto
Skin Stories And Family Feelings: The Contradictions Of Skin Picking In Mother And Daughter, Katrina Jacinto
Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal
Skin picking, otherwise known as dermatillomania, is considered to be a medical disorder by the DSM-5. However, the embodied experiences of skin picking in myself and my mother do not align with the neat definitions offered by psychiatry. Through autoethnographic material and an ethnographic interview with my mother, I argue that skin picking is a bodily technique that is pathologized through stigma. In particular, I suggest that skin picking reveals the body as a polyvalent entity, in which the same features and practices take on different meanings in different bodies. This frames the discrepancies between mine, and my mother's, experiences. …