DOCSLIB.ORG

Social Contagion

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Social Contagion Social contagion We've all become familiar with viral After reading this, see our leaflet contagion. ‘The transgender craze’ for how this concept relates to the surge This briefing explains the concept of in transgenderism in recent social contagion. years. Defining social contagion Beliefs, feelings and behaviours spread quickly. At times this examples of social contagions can be contagious. We all know can seem almost inexplicable. and how they spread, including people whose enthusiasm is But psychological or other how Christians should infectious. But harmful and manipulative techniques, understand this phenomenon. irrational things can also spread whether used deliberately or not, from person to person. This is can convince people to believe or often called ‘social contagion’. behave irrationally. It covers many things, from the Many social contagions rapid spread of anorexia and are now being spread through self-harm among young people online pseudo-communities. to outbreaks of mass hysteria. These can play a decisive role Even some medical symptoms in manipulating people. They have been found to be socially pressure others to engage in contagious. damaging activities and so spread Often ‘contagions’ can appear the contagion. to come out of nowhere and This briefing looks at THE WERTHER EFFECT The ‘Werther Effect’ is an in the 18th century. The novel example of what are known is about a young man, Werther, today as social contagions. It caught up in a love triangle. refers to copycat suicides, often Tragically, he eventually kills following a highly publicised case. himself. The term comes from a As the book's popularity grew series of suicides across across Europe, some readers shot Europe after the themselves with the same kind of publication of pistol Werther used in the novel. Johann Wolfgang von The Sorrows One woman even threw herself Goethe and of Young into a river clutching a copy of the his book The Werther book.1 Sorrows of Young Werther Social contagion and mass hysteria There are many accounts of ‘mass hysteria’ and ‘collective delusions’ in history. These dramatic cases show how they can spread between people. THE 1518 ‘DANCING PLAGUE’ TANGANYIKA ‘LAUGHTER In July 1518, Mrs Troffea began to dance in the streets of Strasbourg. During the next few days, more than 30 others EPIDEMIC’ joined her dancing. Mystified physicians concluded that ‘overheated blood’ In 1962, three students was the cause. Town councillors built a stage and even at a school in Kashasha, employed musicians, hoping that the afflicted might ‘dance Tanganyika (now off’ the sickness. This only made matters worse, and around Tanzania), suddenly 400 others joined the mania. Reports say some danced until experienced attacks of they died of exhaustion. laughter and crying, each This is only one example of the medieval ‘dancing plagues’ lasting several hours. that historians now believe were caused by hysterical This occurred for up to contagions.2 16 days. The symptoms spread to another 92 pupils, eventually forcing the school to close. Returning home, the children brought the contagion back to their local villages. Within a few months, one village saw 217 people affected and more schools were shut. When the school re-opened the ‘laughter epidemic’ re-emerged. PANIC IN SCHOOLS Some estimate around 1,000 people were A surprising number of mass affected. Pupils claimed affected and 14 schools hysteria cases take place in to have been chased by a shut over a two and a schools. bearded man dressed in half year period.5 Most In 2016, several children black.3 attribute this to hysterical at Elsa Perea Flores School That same year a spate contagion. in Peru began fainting, of similar outbreaks took screaming, experiencing place in schools in Malaysia. seizures and frothing at the Officials struggled to handle mouth. This spread the situation, and many to around schools were forced to close. 80 pupils, One observer said: “It with many was mass hysteria season hospitalised, and cases were happening and even non-stop, spreading from teachers one school to another”.4 being Social contagion and problem behaviour Academics describe self-harm – and other behaviours like drug-taking and eating disorders – as ‘socially contagious’. For many, these behaviours are ‘coping strategies’ that try to address underlying struggles. While coping strategies can sometimes alleviate stress, the 'relief' is short-lived and they do not address the underlying issues. Harmful behaviour must be repeated for any relief to continue. Group settings reinforce and help spread these addictive behaviours in several ways. ‘CO-RUMINATION’ IDENTITY AND COMMUNITY This is where a group of A problem behaviour can to the vulnerable. Group friends keep dwelling on come to define a social members who consider their shared anxieties. group and its members. A leaving the lifestyle Through continual subculture is born. Some face rejection from the discussion and speculation online communities centre community. They may even they can dramatically on self-harm or eating feel the behaviour defines intensify each other’s disorders. They foster a who they are. One person distress. The sense of deep sense of identity and describes “being a mess” as companionship means purport to offer shelter their “entire identity”. group members spur one another on in problem behaviour. Studies show co- rumination leads to higher levels of anxiety.6 PEER PRESSURE AND SOCIAL STATUS Research shows that various forms, including status and approval from the problem behaviours like through ‘advice’, blackmail group. Socially rejected people drug-taking, self-harm and or rumours. Going further are particularly vulnerable eating disorders spread in the problem behaviour because they are more likely through group pressure. is celebrated and leads to to cluster in groups promoting This pressure can come in individuals gaining social these harmful behaviours.7 Case-study: Anorexia Anorexia contagions have been observed provoke each other to lose more weight, since the 1980s. Shockingly, they spread even encourage sharing ‘progress’, express anger within peer groups at residential clinics. Here, towards outsiders and share in each other’s anorexia is viewed as a social identity, with pain. Attempted interventions are often seen others pressured to imitate. Deanne Jade, as attacking the identity.9 In the words of one founder of the National Centre for Eating sufferer: Disorders, says: “I had an illness; I had something few “…I ask myself if an eating disorder unit others had; I was special. The anorexia is the best place for an impressionable gave me an identity and made me an young girl to be… As any inpatient will individual.”10 tell you, a specialist unit is the best place Accessing the pro-Ana community on social to learn how to be really, really good at media is easy. A quick search reveals a stream anorexia… Some patients have reported of shocking content. One study found that bullying and intimidation by the hard- merely viewing pro-Ana websites made people core cases…”8 see themselves as heavier, reporting a greater likelihood of thinking about their weight.11 Some websites depict anorexia as a Some sites offer advice on how to trick goddess called Ana; an authoritative voice doctors or carers into thinking you haven’t giving direction and identity. Others look been starving yourself.12 Networks like professional, offering diet tips, weight-loss pills Instagram and Tumblr have tried to restrict and laxatives. The online ‘pro-Ana’ community such content, but the material is still rife and embraces anorexia as a lifestyle choice. They draws in vulnerable people.13 Tips for hiding anorexia “Leave dirty dishes around the house (example: pour a little milk in a bowl...)” “Wear nail polish to hide the discolouring in your nails from lack of nutrients.” The power of suggestion Some popular entertainers spectacularly reveal the mind’s vulnerability to suggestion.Derren Brown persuades his subjects to sit in cold water as though it were a warm bath or drink vinegar like orange juice. He has even convinced some that he was invisible.14 In tests for new medicines, many sick people can experience genuine benefits from taking a new pill. That’s why placebos are always given to one group and the genuine drug to another in order to test its effectiveness. The nocebo effect is the opposite: the suggestion that someone will suffer negative symptoms leads to the symptoms themselves. The nocebo effect can spread by social contagion. THE NOCEBO EFFECT In one experiment, nocebo expert Fabrizio suffer the worst headaches. Benedetti took a group of students into the Analysis of the students’ saliva revealed a Alps. He suggested to one of them that thin change in processes which also occurs in air could produce migraines. This rumour cases of altitude headache.15 Benedetti said: reportedly spread to more than a quarter of “The brain biochemistry changed in the the group and those who heard it began to ‘socially infected’ individuals”.16 Of course, suggestion requires a suggestible subject. But it might only take a little twinge of pain, or some small abnormality, to make someone suggestible and get them to think: “maybe I am unwell”. Even more people are likely to be taken in by the suggestion if they then begin to show symptoms of some kind. We can see four parts to this: Many cases of mass hysteria involve the power of 1. The person is open to suggestion: suggestion. A rumoured gas attack led 35 people to experience 2. The suggestion is made fainting, headaches and nausea. The reality: someone had that they have or soon sprayed a harmless cleaning product.17 will have a particular condition. Reports of a virus saw more than sixty factory workers experience 3. The idea takes root, numbness, dizziness and producing psychosomatic vomiting.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • North American Journal of Psychology, 1999. PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 346P.; Published Semi-Annually
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 449 388 CG 029 765 AUTHOR McCutcheon, Lynn E., Ed. TITLE North American Journal of Psychology, 1999. PUB DATE 1999-00-00 NOTE 346p.; Published semi-annually. AVAILABLE FROM NAJP, 240 Harbor Dr., Winter Garden, FL 34787 ($35 per annual subscription). Tel: 407-877-8364. PUB TYPE Collected Works Serials (022) JOURNAL CIT North American Journal of Psychology; vl n1-2 1999 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC14 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Psychology; *Research Tools; *Scholarly Journals; *Social Science Research ABSTRACT "North American Journal of Psychology" publishes scientific papers of general interest to psychologists and other social scientists. Articles included in volume 1 issue 1 (June 1999) are: "Generalist Looks at His Career in Teaching: Interview with Dr. Phil Zimbardo"; "Affective Information in Videos"; "Infant Communication"; "Defining Projective Techniques"; "Date Selection Choices in College Students"; "Study of the Personality of Violent Children"; "Behavioral and Institutional Theories of Human Resource Practices"; "Self-Estimates of Intelligence:"; "When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going"; "Behaviorism and Cognitivism in Learning Theory"; "On the Distinction between Behavioral Contagion, Conversion Conformity, and Compliance Conformity"; "Promoting Altruism in Troubled Youth"; The Influence of insecurity on Exchange and Communal Intimates"; "Height as Power in Women"; "Moderator Effects of Managerial Activity Inhibition on the Relation between Power versus Affiliation Motive Dominance and Econdmic Efficiency";
    [Show full text]
  • It's Contagious: Rethinking a Metaphor Dialogically
    Article Culture & Psychology 2015, Vol. 21(3) 359–379 It’s contagious: ! The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Rethinking a metaphor DOI: 10.1177/1354067X15601190 dialogically cap.sagepub.com Zachary J Warren Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA Se´amus A Power University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Abstract ‘‘Contagion’’ appears frequently in peer-reviewed articles and in popular media to explain the spread of ideas, feelings, and behaviors. In the context of social science, however, we argue that this metaphor leads to magical thinking and should be described as a simile, rather than a metaphor. We review literature on ‘‘social contagion’’ using the dialogical paradigm and conclude that peer-reviewed claims tend to correspond with imagined realities from epidemiology rather than social science, including assumptions of passive and linear microbial spread, as well as pathology. We explore case studies on the spread of laughter, riot behavior, and ‘‘mass psychogenic illness,’’ and find that social contagion involves social meanings negotiated at the level of persons and groups that are uncharacteristic to the spread of diseases. Dialogism is presented as a correction to the epidemiological paradigm. Keywords Dialogical theory, contagion theory, psychogenic illness, spread, metaphor, riot behavior, laughter, Bakhtin, Afghanistan, dialogism Introduction In February 2012, the Le Roy School District in Le Roy, New York, reported a ‘‘twitching disease’’ that affected over a dozen teen girls and at least one adult. The New York Department of Health launched an investigation in search of envir- onmental causes, and environmental activist Erin Brochovich sent a team Corresponding author: Se´amus A Power, Department of Comparative Human Development, Social Sciences Research Building, Office 103, 1126 East 59th St, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture, Context and Mental Health of Somali Refugees
    Culture, context and mental health of Somali refugees A primer for staff working in mental health and psychosocial support programmes I © UNHCR, 2016. All rights reserved Reproduction and dissemination for educational or other non- commercial purposes is authorized without any prior written permission from the copyright holders provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes, or translation for any purpose, is prohibited without the written permission of the copyright holders. Applications for such permission should be addressed to the Public Health Section of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at [email protected] This document is commissioned by UNHCR and posted on the UNHCR website. However, the views expressed in this document are those of the authors and not necessarily those of UNHCR or other institutions that the authors serve. The editors and authors have taken all reasonable precautions to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees be liable for damages arising from its use. Suggested citation: Cavallera, V, Reggi, M., Abdi, S., Jinnah, Z., Kivelenge, J., Warsame, A.M., Yusuf, A.M., Ventevogel, P. (2016). Culture, context and mental health of Somali refugees: a primer for staff working in mental health and psychosocial support programmes. Geneva, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Cover photo: Dollo Ado, South East Ethiopia / Refugees are waiting for non-food items like plastic sheets and jerry cans.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Irvine UC Irvine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title e-Rudeness at Work: The Impact of Rude Email on Employee Performance Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2192w2h7 Author McCarthy, Kimberly Anne Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE e-Rudeness at Work: The Impact of Rude Email on Employee Performance DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Management by Kimberly McCarthy Dissertation Committee: Professor Jone Pearce, Chair Professor (Emeritus) Lyman Porter Professor Gerardo Okhuysen Assistant Professor Christopher Bauman 2014 © 2014 Kimberly A. McCarthy DEDICATION TO My boys “Do what makes you happy, be with who makes you smile, laugh as much as you breathe, and love as long as you live.” ― Rachel Ann Nunes For my sons, James and Drew, who make me laugh as much as I breathe, and for my husband Tom, who I will love as long as I live. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................vi LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................................vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................................viii CURRICULUM VITAE...............................................................................................................x
    [Show full text]
  • Ancestral Calling O Practical Challenges About Cultural Syndromes in SA Workplace O Recommended Way Forward for Consideration and Inclusion
    Practical Challenges That Are Posed By ‘Cultural Syndromes’ Within The EAP Context In South Africa Dr Fundile Nyati 20th September 2019 1 Presentation Outline o Introduction o About DSM V o Culture bound Syndromes Vs Cultural Syndromes o About Mass Hysteria o About Ancestral Calling o Practical Challenges About Cultural Syndromes in SA workplace o Recommended Way Forward For Consideration and Inclusion Significant Advance From DSM 4-TR Concept of Culture-Bound Syndromes 2 MY MASTERS RESEARCH THESIS Team Member of Global PsyMap-ZN Researchers For My PhD Studies With UKZN 3 Culture Bound Syndromes To Cultural Syndromes • DSM-5 was launched on 18th May 2013, replacing DSM-4TR. • Ground breaking leadership work by Dr Roberto Lewis- Fernandez, leader of DSM 5 Study Group on Cultural Syndromes. (Cultural Psychiatrist, Columbia University, USA) 4 Defining ‘Culture Bound Syndromes’ (DSM - 4TR) In Medicine and Anthropology, a Culture Bound Syndrome or Folk Illness is a combination of Psychiatric and Somatic symptoms that are considered to be a recognisable disease only within a specific society or culture. 5 Defining Cultural Syndromes DSM-5 Cluster of symptoms and attributions that tend to co-occur amongst individuals in specific cultural groups, communities, or context, and these are recognised as coherent patterns of experience. Significant Advance From DSM 4-TR Concept of Culture-Bound Syndromes 6 EMIC View Of Cultural Syndromes o More inclusive range of psychopathology across the globe, and not just particular constructs of the West (US, Western Europe or Canada). o Includes Cultural Concepts of Distress (CCD’s) to enhance the validity and clinical usefulness in diagnostic practice.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Contagion of Vasovagal Reactions in the Blood Collection Clinic: a Possible Example of Mass Psychogenic Illness
    Health Psychology © 2014 American Psychological Association 2014, Vol. 33, No. 7, 639–645 0278-6133/14/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0000053 Social Contagion of Vasovagal Reactions in the Blood Collection Clinic: A Possible Example of Mass Psychogenic Illness Blaine Ditto, Nelson Byrne, Crystal Holly, and Saharnaz Balegh McGill University Objective: Observing or hearing about illness in another person can lead to reports of similar symptoms. Reports can occasionally be widespread. However, it has been difficult to document whether this is the result of genuine illness or the expression of anxiety with physical terminology. This study examined the effects of being able to see another blood donor experience vasovagal symptoms. Methods: Data were collected in mobile university blood collection clinics. Bedside research assistants coded whether the donor was able or not able to see another donor being treated for vasovagal symptoms. Dependent variables included subjective vasovagal symptoms indicated on the Blood Donation Reactions Inventory (BDRI) and the need for treatment oneself. Given the population of inexperienced donors, many (26% of the 1,209 participants) were able to see another donor treated for symptoms. Results: Being able to see another donor treated was associated with higher scores on the BDRI and an increased likelihood of treatment for vasovagal symptoms oneself. However, this was limited to non-first-time blood donors, perhaps because of higher levels in first-time donors (ceiling effects) or greater attention to the environment in less “overwhelmed” repeat donors. In general, donors who were able to see another react rated themselves as less relaxed and had smaller increases in heart rate.
    [Show full text]
  • BA-Thesis the Emerge of a 2-Dimensional Global Society
    BA-thesis Sociology The emerge of a 2-dimensional global society The exploitation of the social media, herd behaviour, moral panics and the 5th estate Muhammed Emin Kizilkaya Viðar Halldórsson January 2018 The emerge of a 2-dimensional global society The exploitation of the social media, herd behavior, moral panics and the 5th estate Muhammed Emin Kizilkaya Final project for BA-degree in Sociology Supervisor: Viðar Halldórsson 12 ECTS Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Iceland January, 2018 2 Cohesion and fragmentation In the fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of BA in Sociology it is forbidden to copy this thesis without the author’s permission © Muhammed Emin Kizilkaya, 2018 3 Abstract We live in a 2-dimensional global society divided between the physical world and the virtual world both representing the social reality but constructed into different norms and standards, that each defines the contemporary post-modern information society that we all globally have become a part of. This thesis gives an abstract overview of the significant determination of the virtual world implying different perspectives on everything from micro to macro, from social to political, from mental to biological with the intention of broadening the attention on sudden societal transformation as a function of rapid technological processes. Excluding the virtual world when analysing the behaviour of individuals in all global societies increases the possibility of research bias as technology has become the society today. The new virtual world has become a more significant agent of change than the physical world and this new world should never be taken for granted.
    [Show full text]
  • The Martensville Moral Panic
    THE MARTENSVILLE MORAL PANIC by MICHAEL EDWARD HALE B.A., Sir George Williams University, 1968 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Anthropology and Sociology We accept this thesis as conforming THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April 2001 © Michael Edward Hale, 2001 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It.is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of (Xvyflq/O^foJ^ H- SDC(Q I The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date Q^f'Sl 71, lOO} 11 Abstract This is a study of a child abuse panic. The events that brought Martensville, Saskatchewan to national and international attention in 1992 were similar in many respects to other panics concerning multiple allegations of child abuse that occurred in the Western world in the 1980s and 1990s. The methodology of the study included a review of descriptions of child abuse panics published in the mass media and in books and journal articles. Interviews were conducted with residents of Martensville, child advocates, reporters, investigators, officers of the court, expert witnesses and several of the accused.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Influence in Second Life: Social Network and Social Psychological Processes in the Diffusion of Belief and Behaviour on the Web
    Social Influence in Second Life: Social Network and Social Psychological Processes in the Diffusion of Belief and Behaviour on the Web Aleksandra K Krotoski Thesis submitted for Ph.D. degree in Psychology August 2009 Department of Psychology Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences University of Surrey Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH UK ! 2009, Some Rights Reserved (See: Appendix 4) Aleksandra K Krotoski 2 Abstract The Internet has challenged social psychological theories of influence that have focussed on interpersonal perceptions of trustworthiness, expertise and similarity, and normative attributions of social identity. As knowledge is increasingly decentralised and user-generated, new questions arise about how online participants identify which information to adopt or reject. This thesis examines which social psychological and social network analytic features predict attitude and behaviour change using information gathered about 47,643 related avatars in the virtual community Second Life. Using data collected over three studies from online surveys and data accessed from the application’s computer servers, it describes why the structure of a social system, an individual’s position in a social group, and the structural content of an online relationship have been effective at predicting when influence occurs. The first study assessed the relationship between network strength and attributions of trust, credibility, social comparison and prototypicality. Results suggested that network theories that describe influence on the basis of network strength do so because it implicates interpersonal and normative features of influence, evident in this community by the amount of offline information account holders disclose to online contacts. The second study examined the features that predicted attitudes to sexual activity in the virtual world.
    [Show full text]
  • The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation
    The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation Report on a two-year cooperation project with peace activists from Somalia, Rwanda, Ex-Yugoslavia, Israel and Palestine. Team of Experts: Gadha Al-Jabda, Birgit Daiber, Shukria Dini, Lama Hourani, Marlis Gensler, Molly Malekar, Yolande Mukagasana, Bosiljka Schedlich, Simone Susskind Ed. Birgit Daiber | Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation Brussels THE CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN TO PEACE AND RECONCILIATION Report on a two-year cooperation project with peace activists from Somalia, Rwanda, Ex-Yugoslavia, Israel and Palestine. Team of Experts: Gadha Al-Jabda, Birgit Daiber, Shukria Dini, Lama Hourani, Marlis Gensler, Molly Malekar, Yolande Mukagasana, Bosiljka Schedlich, Simone Susskind Ed. Birgit Daiber Rosa Luxemburg-Foundation Brussels Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels www.rosalux-europa.info ((1 Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels Office 2012 [email protected], www.rosalux-europa.info The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation Published by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels www.rosalux-europa.info Translation: Phil Hill Layout: Edition Lit.europe, Berlin Printed and bound by Motiv Offset Sponsored by the Federal Republic of Germany 2 Content The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation – Project Report Introduction ........................................................................... 5 The Working Approach of the Project ................................... 14 Analysis of The Country Reports ........................................... 16 General Conclusions .............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Sopranos’ and Sport: Psychoanalytic and Queer Theories of Embodiment
    This is an electronic version of an article published in Sykes, H. (2007). Anxious identification in ‘The Sopranos’ and sport: Psychoanalytic and queer theories of embodiment. Sport, Education and Society, 12(2), 127-139. Cognition and Instruction is available online at http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&issn=1357- 3322&volume=12&issue=2&spage=127 ANXIOUS IDENTIFICATION IN ‘THE SOPRANOS’ AND SPORT: PSYCHOANALYTIC AND QUEER THEORIES OF EMBODIMENT Heather Sykes Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto Manuscript submitted for publication in Sport, Education and Society Editor: John Evans May 2005 Contact Address: Dept. Curriculum, Teaching & Learning 252 Bloor Street West Toronto, ON M5S 1V6 Canada Tel: 416 923 6641 ext 2439 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The paper uses an episode from the ‘The Sopranos’ television series to illustrate how embodied experiences of sporting practices such as high school football involve both conscious and unconscious dynamics. I outline how cultural practices, such as masculinist sport, are psychically incorporated into the body through various mechanisms of identification. The paper reviews Freud’s notion of the bodily ego, particularly his distinction between instinct and drive, to clarify how phantasy and representation are involved in the formation of embodied subjectivity. Contemporary queer theories about identification provide insights into how psychic dynamics both reinforce and undermine the illusory cultural promise of heteronormative whiteness offered by high school sport and physical education. Keywords Sport, embodiment, identification, psychoanalysis, queer theory. 2 ANXIOUS IDENTIFICATION IN ‘THE SOPRANOS’ AND SPORT: PSYCHOANALYTIC AND QUEER THEORIES OF EMBODIMENT Most of us are both consciously and unconsciously engaged in strategies that provide protection against the putative dangers of encroachment that other bodies seem to pose (Shildrick, 2005:1).
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnomedical Concept of Heat and Cold in Koro: Study from Indian Patients Arabinda N
    146 Original Paper Ethnomedical concept of heat and cold in Koro: study from Indian patients Arabinda N. Chowdhury Abstract. The present study involves the examination of explanation of Koro illness as perceived by the patients during a Koro epidemic in the North Bengal region of West Bengal state, India. Using both quantitative and qualitative method of data collection several ethnomedical explanatory concepts like increased body heat, supernatural, sexual, physical strain; fever and fear were elicited as the emic framework of causes for this malady from the sufferers. Body heat emerged as one of the primary concept. These explanatory narratives were put into different models of body heat pathology, viz., structural, sexual energy, heat loss and heat avoidance and their modus operandi were elaborated. The prevailing community treatment of Koro in the context of these cognitive dimensions along with some trans-cultural reference was discussed. Keywords: Koro, body heat, ethnomedical Koro perception, Indian Koro WCPRR Jul 2008: 146-158. © 2008 WACP INTRODUCTION Koro, a psychogenic reactive state, which is intimately related with the socio-cultural construct of sexual somatization, does reflect varied types of illness beliefs in different cultural groups. In spite of a handful of medical hypotheses (etic explanation) of Koro (both sporadic and epidemic forms) e.g., premorbid sexual conflicts and guilt (Gwee, 1963; Rin, 1965); morbid preoccupation with sexual functioning (Yap, 1965a, b) heightened genital awareness and autonomic hyperarousal (Chowdhury, 1993a; Oyebode et al., 1986), biomedical potentials (Edwards, 1984; Chowdhury, 1989a), hypochondriacal genital concern (Rosenthal & Rosenthal, 1982); mass-fear in relation to castration anxiety (Suwanlert & Coates, 1978) and cultural belief in malevolent fox spirit (Prince, 1992; Chowdhury 1993b), we really have not a single patient- reported (emic explanation) explanatory framework of Koro from any of the patient groups till date, except the study of Tseng and colleagues (1992) from Guangdong, China.
    [Show full text]