The Abject Embodiment of Cancer Patients: Dignity,Selfhood, and the Grotesque Body

The body is the empirical quintessence of the self. Because selfhood is symbolic, embodiment represents the personification and materialization of otherwise invisible qualities of personhood. The body and experiences of embodiment are central to our sense of being, who we think we are, and what others attribute to us. What happens, then, when one's body is humiliating? How does the self handle the implications of a gruesome body? How do people manage selfhood in light of grotesque physical appearances? This study explores these questions in the experiences of dying cancer patients and seeks to better understand relationships among body, self, and situated social interaction.     

Work accommodation for people with multiple chemical sensitivity

Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a term used to describe allergic-like reactions to chemicals that represent everyday exposures in industrialized countries. It is sometimes associated with electromagnetic sensitivity, and both conditions are most likely engendered by environmental exposures. Prevalence studies suggest that chemical sensitivity affects 12-15% of the US population and that it crosses age, socio-economic status and racial lines. Electromagnetic sensitivity is less understood, but affects a portion of those with chemical sensitivity. Persons with these environmental sensitivities often experience difficulties with health care, housing and work. Workplace barriers result in significant disability, with ensuing financial loss and isolation for the worker. We examined work accommodations for 100 persons with self-reported MCS and its relation to life satisfaction. Results are discussed in terms of accommodating invisible disabilities that challenge industrial capitalism.     

Group therapists' countertransference reactions to multiple deaths from aids

Group therapists for those with HIV Related Diseases are becoming the “professional” survivors of this world-wide epidemic. From their experiences we may learn a great deal more about the effects of multiple deaths on mental health care professionals. As therapists they are constantly eliciting and listening to the fears, hopes, agonies and terrors of those with this disease. They become the bereaved. Witnesses to the deaths of many of their group members, they struggle with a wide range of emotional responses while at the same time assisting surviving group members in their struggle to live with these deaths. Mourning reactions and countertransference phenomena are in abundance as these therapists grapple with these group processes. This article identifies and examines these therapists' responses by focusing on clinical illustrations drawn from their bi-weekly supervision sessions.