THE BODY , MOUVEMENT & DANCE , RITUAL , LIMINALITY , LANGUAGE , MENTAL HEALTH
What role should psychiatry play in diagnosing and treating ADHD?
In this essay, I draw on anthropology’s claim that all medical systems are cultural systems to argue that psychiatric power over human behaviour should be carefully monitored. The case of ADHD is particularly embedded within the creation of psychiatric drugs and leads us to question the role psychiatry should play in defining this ‘disorder’. The term has now gained social meaning as people reclaim it to describe their realities. How then are we to accurately problematise ADHD? I advocate for the framing of ADHD as enviornmentally-constructed, yet recognise the helpfulness of treatments psychiatry can offer struggling adults.
Why positive thinking won’t end loneliness.
Since 2018, the UK government has put in place a Ministry for Loneliness. Although this is a step in the right direction, I argue here that the Ministry’s choice in framing loneliness through the lens of psychology is counter-productive and put forward more relevant anthropological insights on this issue.
The Lockdown Body: how the world fell apart and how we built it back up
In this piece, I choose to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of ‘lockdown bodies’. I argue that bodies are central to people’s conceptions of the world, their selves and time. By physically removing bodies from the world, lockdown regulations have disrupted these conceptions and triggered existential angst. It was only through the invention of new ‘bodily rituals’ that people were able to resolve this dissonance and build the world back up.
All artworks are made by me.