Body

In this chapter, I draw on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy to explore environmental embodiment—the various lived ways, sensorily and motility-wise, that the body in its pre-reflective perceptual presence engages and synchronizes with the world at hand, especially its architectural and environmental aspects. First, I consider Merleau-Ponty’s interpretation of perception, giving particular attention to his claim that perception involves a lived dynamic between perceptual body and world such that aspects of the world—for example, the heavy hardness of a granite block or the cool smoothness of a chrome railing—are known because they immediately evoke in the lived body their experienced qualities.

Second, I consider the architectural and environmental significance of what Merleau-Ponty calls body-subject—pre-reflective corporeal awareness expressed through action and typically in sync with and enmeshed in the physical world in which the action unfolds. I focus on the taken-for-granted sensibility of body-subject to manifest in extended ways over time and space. I ask how routine actions and behaviors of individuals coming together regularly in an environment can transform that environment into a place with a unique dynamic and character—a lived situation I term place ballet. For both perception and body-subject, I consider how qualities of the physical and designable world—for example, materiality, form, and spatiality—contribute to the lived body’s engagement with and actions in the world.

Note: This chapter was written in 2014 for a proposed edited collection on Merleau-Ponty and architecture. Unfortunately, the editors did not find a publisher(though I was never officially informed of this fact). The chapter has been rewritten, revised, and updated; see the above entry: "Merleau-Ponty, Environmental Embodiment, and Place" (2022)
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The essay explores how silence represents a «feminine language» that communicates through a non-uttered voice. The analysis of silence is here conducted in performance art practice by focussing on the work of Guatemalan artist Regina José Galindo: by using her works, the essay shows how the artist bears witness to trauma and to gender-related violence. This investigation approaches silent performance as capable of articulating and triggering both ethical and political considerations.

Résumé Les techniques des sens C'est par une combinaison des cinq sens que les êtres humains perçoivent le monde, mais le mode de combinaison est loin d'être constant. Les cinq sens reçoivent différentes accentuations et différentes significations dans différentes sociétés. Ces différences sont souvent manifestées par des décorations du corps (par exemple, des disques d'oreilles, des disques labiaux, ou des ornements nasaux). Cette idée est étudiée en se référant aux Indiens Suya et Kayapo du Brésil central et aux Dogon du Mali. Les pratiques d'éducation des enfants représentent un autre moyen par lequel une société exprime et renforce sa hiérarchie sensorielle particulière, ce qu'illustre une étude des pratiques de socialisation des Wolof du Sénégal.

Este artigo se debruça sobre a análise dos efeitos políticos da configuração do personagem Madame Satã, no filme "Madame Satã" (2002), de Karim Aïnouz. Destaca-se, no caso, uma intimidade que nasce de uma proximidade construída no espaço e no tempo diegéticos e que ao mesmo tempo permite explorar lugares e situações praticamente atemporais e indefinidos: pele, poros, mofo e rachaduras nas paredes, suor, purpurina, tecidos, objetos de cena cotidianos. Desta forma, o corpo de Satã assume o lugar de uma fala política que substitui a representação, instaurando novos formatos de resistência no cinema brasileiro contemporâneo.PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Subjetividade. Afetos. Homossexualidade. Corpo. Cinema.ABSTRACTThis article focuses on the analysis of the political effects of the configuration of the character Madame Satã, in Madame Satã (2002), by Karim Aïnouz. It is noteworthy, in this case, an intimacy born of proximity built in space and diegetic time that, at the same time, lets you...

ABSTRACT In the article, we make an attempt at discussing what it means that our reality is commodified, what the consequences of this are, how we commodify our bodies and what role in this process is played by cyborgization, as well as what the relation between commodification and disembodiment is. These issues seem to be significant, because when the consumptionist and neoliberal discourse is reconstructed, the aspect of commodification of a human through cyborgization is omitted or marginalized. And such a context of commodification seems to be especially important, as it constitutes the idea of radical questioning of a biological body as a commodity of high market value. Thus, it constitutes the paradox of the commodification of body, i.e. a situation when the most attractive (from the consumer’s point view) body is a body that is disembodied to the maximum.

This paper addresses the following questions from the point of view of Nietzsche’s philosophy: What is the mind, and which kind of relationship does it hold to the body? Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to show that Nietzsche’s philosophy suggested a view of the mind that allows to outline an alternative stance to both mentalism and physicalism, as well as to both dualism and reductionism. It is argued that Nietzsche’s rehabilitation of the body as the specific seat of the mind in opposition to the Cartesian supremacy of the Ego still is of a great interest for contemporary philosophy, since it is not equivalent either to a reversed form of Cartesian dualism or to a physicalist reductionism. It is argued that Nietzsche did restrict the concept of the mind but in order not to eliminate it, rather to “de-substantialise” it. As the body is described as “Leib-Organisation”, the mind becomes the course of various and manifold mental states that depend on a bodily basis.

This theoretical article presents and applies the theories of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. The article takes as its starting point the observation that current biomedical, social and psychological research does not provide a coherent view of the nature of addiction and there is a great deal of controversy in the field. The material philosophy of Deleuze provides the opportunity to introduce new ideas and bridge the gaps between different theories and approaches. Deleuze's philosophy is especially useful since neurological research on addiction has developed rapidly. Deleuzian concepts have implications not only for the general theory of addiction, but also for different theories on treatment and recovery. A Deleuzian theory, developed in this article, analyzes addictions as situational and interactional processes. Alcohol and drugs are used because they are connected with situations and interactions that enable the production of desire. They change and alter the body. Addiction alters the production of desire and life itself begins to be reduced to alcohol, drugs or a specific mode of behavior. Recovery from addictions is connected with the changes in life that offer subjects an open future. A recovering body must increase its capacity to be affected and be capable of creating new biopsychosocial connections of desire.

Este articulo explora los modos subjetivos de representacion de la protagonista de El color purpura. Revisa las maneras en las que Celie construye, a traves de diversas experiencias personales y comunitarias, su propia identidad. Esta construccion es posible en virtud de su deseo que examina su propio cuerpo y la capacidad de trasformar su propio mundo. Este articulo muestra las maneras en las cuales el amor, la opresion y la falta se fusionan unos con otros para construir un deseo femenino autentico en un universo solo de hombres. De esta manera, Celie deviene en un texto porque ella inscribe en si misma una serie de maximas en relacion con su cuerpo y su capacidad de "ver" mas alla del mundo restringido que la acorrala. Este proceso catartico demuestra como la protagonista se traslada de la paralisis de ser un objeto a la plenitud de ser un sujeto.

The rise in numbers of overweight/obese children in the UK is causing widespread concern. Biomedical constructions of body acceptability and ‘good health’ mean that overweight/obese young people are frequently seen as deviant. The socio-cultural contexts within which young teenagers become fat, and lay conceptualisations of fatness, have largely been ignored. This qualitative study involved in-depth interviews with teenagers aged 13–14 years (n=36), drawn from families living in areas classified as socio-economically disadvantaged. Half of the sample had a Body Mass Index (BMI) classifying them as overweight or obese, whilst the remainder were classified as being ‘normal’ weight. Participants’ embodied perceptions of fatness were complex and sometimes contradictory. We discuss what young teenagers perceive the influences on fatness and body size to be; the professed consequences of being fat; participants’ experiences of attempting to lose weight; and, their reported interactions with friends and family relating to fatness and dieting. Participants rarely mentioned any health-related consequences of their own and others’ fatness, although wearing ‘nice’ clothes and being slowed down were raised as considerations by girls and boys, respectively. ‘Normal’ weight teenagers who disliked their bodies or who wanted to lose weight often claimed to be anxious about this. Being very obese also led to anxiety and reported attempts at ‘crash dieting’. Acceptance of body size/shape was, however, common amongst the overweight and obese teenagers, although some had attempted weight loss. The teenagers in this study were rarely supportive of friends or family who attempted to lose weight and frequently disagreed with others’ perceptions of fatness. These findings are important as they contradict the common perception that being overweight/obese is related to body dissatisfaction and that young people have a fear of fatness.

Autor: João Batista de Oliveira Filho

A obra aborda a utilização do recurso da análise comportamental na observação da linguagem corporal dos pacientes deitados em seu leito, a fim ampliar as possibilidades de extrair as melhores informações possíveis, de sujeito/paciente, potencializar o processo terapêutico
e proporcionar ao profissional de saúde mais uma ferramenta no seu instrumental de acompanhamento clínico.

Editora: Pimenta Cultural (2019)

ISBN: 978-85-7221-073-7 (eBook)

DOI: 10.31560/pimentacultural/2019.737