The experience of embodiment is a central theme in phenomenological philosophy and has recently received increasing attention also within psychological science. In the present paper we argue (1) that ...the experience of embodiment represents a fundamental synthesis of having a body (the body as an object) and being a body (the body as felt “from within”); (2) that this synthesis is basic to an individual's experience of self-identity; (3) that each individual, as an existential task, has to develop their specific version of the embodiment synthesis; (4) that these syntheses can be more or less harmonious or disharmonious, and that disharmonious syntheses are associated with psychological distress and psychopathology. Different phenomenological accounts of possible variants of disharmonious embodiment, as found in the literature on eating disorders, are discussed and compared. Finally, some research implications and clinical implications are discussed.
This article examines the role of dance shoes in LGBT+ ballroom dancers’ identity formation and expression on the dancefloor. Applying Entwistle’s (2015) ‘situated bodily practice’ to an analysis of ...ethnographic field notes and 35 interviews, I highlight that dancers’ performative constitution of subversive identities through reiterative mobilisation of the traditional symbolic values of dance shoes is influenced by the material. The article makes a key contribution to sociological knowledge on performativity through an introduction of materialities of place, bodies and artefacts into a close reading of reiterative acts. I argue that a closer look into performative acts is necessary for determining whether and how resistance is constituted, recognised and reproduced, taking into account how materialities interweave with discourse in order to give credit to subversive agents emerging in the micro-moments.
There is a growing body of research indicating that bodily sensation and behavior strongly influences one's emotional reaction toward certain situations or objects. On this background, a framework ...model of embodied affectivity is suggested: we regard emotions as resulting from the circular interaction between affective qualities or affordances in the environment and the subject's bodily resonance, be it in the form of sensations, postures, expressive movements or movement tendencies. Motion and emotion are thus intrinsically connected: one is moved by movement (perception; impression; affection) and moved to move (action; expression; e-motion). Through its resonance, the body functions as a medium of emotional perception: it colors or charges self-experience and the environment with affective valences while it remains itself in the background of one's own awareness. This model is then applied to emotional social understanding or interaffectivity which is regarded as an intertwinement of two cycles of embodied affectivity, thus continuously modifying each partner's affective affordances and bodily resonance. We conclude with considerations of how embodied affectivity is altered in psychopathology and can be addressed in psychotherapy of the embodied self.
Landscape in the figure Sue Hawksley
Conceição/Conception,
11/2021, Volume:
10
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This article asks whether we can make embodied sense of the Anthropocene, and if so, how we might locate ourselves in a more empathic relationship with the non-human world? By feeling, at the ...personal scale, the part we play in the natural systems that support life, we may become more able to make the necessary changes in our actions to address the global-scale degradation of nature. I discuss somatic and creative practices that offer tools for cultivating a sense of presence in and as nature, giving examples of artists’ creative practices, including some of my own choreographic explorations aiming to embody the ‘landscape in the figure’.
This study investigates the user experience to clarify what it is like to experience stories in VR (virtual reality) and how immersion influences story experiences in immersive storytelling. This ...study explores the immersive storytelling context, developing and testing a VR experience model that integrates presence, flow, empathy, and embodiment. The results imply that users’ personal traits correlates immersion in VR: user experience in VR depend on individual traits, which in turns influence how strongly users immerse in a VR. The way users view and accept VR stories derives from the way they envisage and intend to experience them. Rather than simply being influenced by technological features, users have intentional and purposeful control over VR stories. The findings of this study suggest that the cognitive processes by which users experience quality, presence, and flow determine how they will empathize with and embody VR stories.
•User experience of virtual reality storytelling.•How immersion influences story experiences in immersive storytelling.•Users' personal traits correlates immersion in VR.•The way users view and accept VR stories derives from the way they envisage and intend to experience them.
This paper reviews some current trends characterizing the specific perspective of ethnomethodologically inspired conversation analysis on the situated organization of action. It also discusses ...contemporary challenges represented within this paradigm by the study of materiality and embodiment in social interaction. In order to further elaborate on the nexus between action, bodies, and materiality, I show on the basis of an empirical exemplary situation, how research on multimodality – that is, on the diversity of resources that participants mobilize to produce and understand social interaction as publicly intelligible action, including language, gesture, gaze, body postures, movements, and embodied manipulations of objects – can be further expanded by considering not only embodied resources for interacting but also embodied practices for sensing the world in an intersubjective way.
•The paper discusses current state of the art in multimodal CA.•Recent expansions of multimodal analysis concern the body in its entirety, materiality, and ecology.•Situated action shapes the relevant material aspects of objects in interaction.•Material features are not only talked about and seen, but also sensed.•Multimodality can be further expanded to consider multisensoriality.
Embodiment is a key under-researched component of dark tourism experiences. Qualitative and experimental methods were applied in four studies to reveal the bidirectional body–mind synchronization in ...dark tourism experiences. Taking the Chernobyl zone as a case, we first prove the mind-to-body pathway in which the dark experience exerts a measurable effect on the participants' sensory expression in photographs and sketches. We then discover the body-to-mind pathway in which the expressions of darkness can be decoded by others. Furthermore, this study illustrates how the different dark levels of the product photos on a website affect the potential tourists' feelings. This study expands the understanding of embodiment theory in dark tourism with implications for product design and marketing.
Display omitted
•The bidirectional body–mind synchronization is constructed in dark tourism.•Dark experience influences sensory expression in photographs and sketches.•The expressions of darkness can be decoded and correctly interpreted by others.•Different dark levels of photos affect the potential tourists' product evaluation.
PDF
