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On Pain, Embodiment, and Social Disruption

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 10:53 AM PDT

Kristin Elizabeth Yaris (M.P.H., Ph.D Candidate, Anthropology, UCLA) has an outstanding paper out in Ethos: Journal for the Society of Psychological Anthropology entitled The Pain of "Thinking too Much": Dolor de Cerebro and the Embodiment of Social Hardship among Nicaraguan Women.

Here is the Abstract:

In this article I present the results of a community-based ethnographic study of the social and cultural meanings of dolor de cerebro ("brainache"), a pain commonly expressed by Nicaraguan women. Based on the results of narrative interviews conducted with 12 women, I show how these women situate the pain of dolor de cerebro in relation to their persistent worries about the impact of death, abandonment, and outmigration on personal and family well-being. I argue that, though the sensate physical experience of dolor de cerebro is significant, this pain is meaningful primarily as an embodied expression of the distress women experience as they confront the often-overwhelming circumstances of hardship in their local social worlds. In this way, women's narratives of dolor de cerebro emphasize how somatic forms of suffering are inherently moral experiences, as they bring to the fore "what matters most" in people's lived experience. Thus, this research contributes to our understanding of how personal narratives of bodily disruption relate to cultural norms and social ideals, in this case, reaffirming Nicaraguan women's desires for continuity and stability in family relationships.

This paper does a masterful job of linking together key concepts in pain studies, embodiment and phenomenology, and the social determinants of health (migration, political violence, domestic violence, income and food insecurity, etc.). The article is highly recommended.

(h/t Somatosphere)