disability studies Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability," where impairment was an impairment of an individual ...

, the term bodymind refers to the intricate and often inseparable relationship between the body and the mind, and how these two units might act as one. Disability scholars use the term bodymind to emphasize the interdependence and inseparability of the body and mind.

History

Disability studies scholars who have written academically about the bodymind include Eli Clare,

Margaret Price Dame Margaret Berenice Price (13 April 194128 January 2011) was a Welsh soprano. Early years Price was born in Blackwood, near Caerphilly in South Wales. Born with deformed legs, she underwent surgery at age four and suffered pain in her ...

Sami Schalk Sami Schalk is an Associate Professor in the Department of Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She was previously an Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University at Albany, SUNY. In 2019 she star ...

, Alyson Patsavas, and

Alison Kafer Alison Kafer is an American academic specializing in feminist, queer, and disability theory. , she is an associate professor of feminist studies at the University of Texas, Austin. She is the author of the book ''Feminist, Queer, Crip''. Educa ...

. Clare and Price have proposed that the bodymind expresses the interrelatedness of mental and physical processes, and Schalk defines the bodymind similarly as it pertains to disability and race. Margaret Price introduced the term "bodymind" for disability studies in her 2011 book ''Mad at School'' and developed it further in her 2015 article "The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain." Price writes that the combination of 'body' and 'mind' in one term acknowledges that "mental and physical processes not only affect each other but also give rise to each other—that is, because they tend to act as one, even though they are conventionally understood as two". Price also emphasizes how the understanding of bodymind can influence

diagnosis Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...

. In the context of the

medical–industrial complex The medical–industrial complex is a network of interactions between pharmaceutical corporations, health care personnel, and medical conglomerates to supply health care-related products and services for a profit. The term is a product of the mili ...

, Price comments that psychiatrists ultimately "wield the power of the prescription pad." Additionally, Eli Clare, a writer and activist for queer and disability studies, uses bodymind in his 2017 work ''Brilliant Imperfection'' as a way to resist common Western assumptions that the body and mind are separate entities, or that the mind is "superior" to the body. Like Price, he questions the systems that perpetuate diagnoses that frame people with disabilities as broken or in need of fixing.

Schalk's "psychic stress" of oppression

Scholar

in her 2018 book ''Bodyminds Reimagined'' uses the term bodymind to recognize that "processes within our being impact one another in such a way that the notion of a physical versus mental process is difficult, if not impossible to clearly discern in most cases". Schalk emphasizes the utility of the term bodymind as it relates to disability and race. In analyzing histories of race, gender, and disability, Schalk notes that it is important to recognize the non-physical impact of various oppressions. For Schalk, the term bodymind highlights the "psychic stress" of oppression. In relation to

transgenerational trauma Transgenerational trauma is the psychological and physiological effects that the trauma experienced by people has on subsequent generations in that group. The primary modes of transmission are the uterine environment during pregnancy causing epige ...

in people of color, bodymind is used to show how the psychological toll of oppression and its resulting stress has lasting mental and physical manifestations.

Feminist disability studies

Bodymind also arises in feminist studies, first discussed by

Gloria Anzaldúa Gloria may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music * Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise * Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise ** Gloria (Handel) ** Gloria (Jenkins ...

claims that the connection between the physical body and the mind is a materialist feminist disability studies concept. According to Nirmala Erevelles, Professor of Social and Cultural Studies in Education at the University of Alabama, understanding that identities are forever-shifting, recognizing the importance of the body, and considering how

intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...

affects and restricts the body are all important to comprehending the bodymind concept. Erevelles' theory aims to focus on the role of interactions with others (specifically other's bodies) and how that is manifested in one's identity. Additionally, this theory notes the importance of acknowledging that not everyone has equal access to these interactions. This concept has stimulated conversation related to pain, desire, and cures. Price has related this theory to her claim of a universal need for the validation of one's pain as "real and important", while acknowledging we may not know what someone's pain feels like. Price also goes on to describe care as a united force. Additionally, Black queer feminist scholar,

, highlights the impact of oppression on marginalized individuals/communities on a mental, spiritual, and physical level.

Disability justice and activism movements

Activists and scholars such as Christine Wieseler, J. Logan Smilges, and Ashley Mog have helped normalize the term 'bodymind' and its understanding in relation to power structures, ableism, and activism. Christine Wieseler, a scholar and author of ''Epistemic Oppression and Ableism in Bioethics'', uses the bodymind connection to elaborate on how privileging able bodies creates and perpetuates oppression. Wieseler notes that the disability justice movement is working to create a new rhetoric that reframes disabled bodymind connections in an inclusive way, particularly pivoting away from a frame of lack to a frame of valuing differentiation between bodies and minds. Ashley Mog is another prominent scholar and author of ''Discomforting Power: Bodies in Public''. Mog analyzes the history of disability justice activism in the United States and highlights an array of first-person perspectives through the use of historical interviews with queer and trans disability justice activists. Mog believes that ableist power imbalances in the United States perpetrate the oppression of non-normative bodies. Furthermore, she expands on the ramifications of systemic oppression and illustrates its negative effects on individual and collective bodyminds that face consistent inaccessibility and

otherism Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...

Twitter

In the 21st century, bodymind is being used as a colloquial term in disability activism conversations on social media platforms such as

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. J. Logan Smilges, an author and outspoken disability activist, provides a perspective on ableism's effect in society and states that "social media has helped popularize the language of disability activism, which is wonderful. But it has also warped the concept of ableism so that many disabled people mistake it as any inconvenience to their individual bodymind instead of recognizing it as a structure of power". Cathy Reisenwitz, an essayist and political activist, has also spoken out about the need for a shift in perspective towards bodyminds. Reisenwitz said that "the social model of disability locates the problem in the ableist society; there is nothing 'wrong' with a non-normative bodymind, rather there is something wrong with a world that refuses to accommodate it".

References