Submitted in fulfillment/partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Science in the Postgraduate Program in Psychology (Counseling) at the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. 2.5 'Talking' bodies: re-presenting the HIV-positive body 2.6 Narratives: It's all about telling a story.
Literature review
The discursive constitution of self
Therefore, power is productive (rather than oppressive or prohibitive) in that it is constitutive of people's subjectivities and decentralized in that its operation permeates everyday forms of social interaction and cannot be fully 'seen'. For Parker (1989), it is the knowledge that circulates in discourses, and the 'truth' claims these discourses purport to hold, that are the currency of everyday social interactions of submission and dominance.
The gendered construction of mv
Crawford (1994) argues that the construction of the 'unhealthy other' through moralizing discourses is necessary to preserve the concept of self as 'healthy' and by extension 'moral'. Because of the 'shameful' circumstances of the person's death, they are often denied a proper burial.
The politics of the mv -positive body
In the West, according to Bartos & McDonald (2000), the ways in which subjectivities are constructed in relation to life with an HIV-positive diagnosis have shifted with the dawn of the 'new treatment era'. The narratives of the Bambanani women (Morgan & Thomas, 2003) are an example that demonstrates the potential for 'survivor' stories to have positive connotations (Almeleh, 2004a).
Method
Conceiving of the research
As in the case of the Bambanani Women's Group (Morgan & Thomas, 2003), a narrative approach allowed for the capture of stories that enhanced body maps and vice versa. In my case, having studied isiZulu until the third year of university, I felt reasonably equipped to speak to the participants in their own language, should the need arise. Part of this would involve a willingness to account for my own situatedness in order to deconstruct the power implicit in the positions of the 'researcher' and the 'author'.
Locating the participants
- The semi-structured narrative interview
The original group (i.e. present on the day of the body mapping workshop) often consisted of women. Prior to the start of the body mapping workshop, signed consent was requested from all involved.
Narrative analysis
Self in relation to the future
Contrary to the trend above, only one of the women spoke positively about the role her father played for her in her life. Implicit in many of the women's narratives, special emphasis is placed on the support received from family members. As a result, many of the mothers were concerned about making the necessary preparations to ensure the financial security of their children's future.
Preparing for their children's future, in which they will be potentially absent as mothers, allows the experience of the present to be imbued with meaning. For many women, marriage heralded a change in life circumstances that brought with it problems. Women's positions are situated in discourses in which men's irresponsibility is attributed to the "powerlessness" of their sexual instincts.
Although many women did not speak directly about the social isolation that resulted from their HN-positive status, this was often implicit: So while the significance that HIV has had on the lives of the women in this study is not denied, their stories must also be told read in the context of their already disrupted lives. This means giving up future possibilities in favor of living with the 'philosophy of the present' (Davies, 1997).
Disruptions to the body
Grace's description of the ways in which her body has been affected by the disease covers many aspects of HIV symptomatology. Many of the women's accounts reflected concerns about minimizing the harmful effects of the disease on their bodies. What the above points to is how the invisibility of symptoms contributes to the social constructions of the 'healthy sick' (Zaina, 2005).
What the above comments illustrate is the centrality of the body in mediating the subjective experiences of living with RIV. All of the women drew on their Christianity to help them understand the disruptions that HN/AIDS caused in their lives. While several of the women claimed to have followed Christianity for most of their lives, the discovery of their status led to an intensification of their spiritual beliefs and practices.
So you will never know why some of the things are happening in your life. The sense of 'community' provided by the support group, for women, extends to the churches they belong to outside the group. All women resisted appealing to cultural/traditional constructions of HIV as a way of understanding their illness.
Reflection on the process of gathering narratives
In the following excerpt, I confront the problem of what happens when the respondent's emotional world threatens to 'derail' the interview and requires me to shift subject positions from that of 'researcher' to that of 'therapist'. . At this point in the interview, the need to provide some control over the respondent's emotions becomes apparent. Reflexively, I become aware of two competing subjective positions within me, that of 'therapist' and that of 'researcher'.
I feel reassured by her answer and return to the questions of the interview schedule and the voice of 'the researcher'. After reaching a dead end of questions, I have no choice but to return again to the interview schedule questions. This not only contributed to the formation of the report that is produced, but also to how the respondent could have experienced herself afterwards.
These interventions, which 'speak' at different levels, produce the overall polyphonic texture of the narrative. Because, in this case, the moderator knows Phumzile personally, she functions as a mediator of meaning, whose comments add more weight to the production of the narrative than an outsider might. This universalization of the story connects it to the archetypal themes of abandonment, rejection, loss, and hope.
Conclusion
Because body maps remain open to multiple interpretations, they stand as a meaningful counterpoint that resists the imposition of a particular interpretation of women's narratives. Therefore, while the research was intended to provide a facilitative 'space' in which women could construct versions of their identities on their own terms, it is important to recognize that the narratives they produced represent one of a number of possible sets. the stories that may have come out. This deliberate decentering of the 'authorial' voice on my part represents a powerful way of deconstructing knowledge practices and their agendas.
These discourses, insofar as the prevailing denial about RN/AIDS is concerned, have emphasized the continuation of the racial practices of the past, in that it is the materially disadvantaged who are most affected by RN/AIDS and are the ones who are most in need. of effective treatment (Walker, Reid & Cornell, 2004). Working in a developing context with African women revealed the strong Western theoretical basis underlying some of the questions used in McAdams' (1993) narrative interview protocol (see Appendix 4). A particularly strong theme that emerged from the stories of the women in this study was how for many of them their formative years were marked by the absence of a father or both parents.
For the mothers in this study, their children were a powerful reinforcing factor in coping with the uncertainty of the future. Another strong theme that emerged was how women engaged in managing their identities in order to maintain their sense of "built-in". By investing in particular subject positions, they were able to resist some of the discrediting and harmful advocates implicit in dominant HIV/AIDS discourses.
Boundaries of the self and the unhealthy other: Reflections on health, culture and AIDS. Survivors and 'victims': Long-term RN-positive individuals and ethos of self-empowerment. Social Sciences and Medicine. Making sense of RN infection: discourse and adaptation to life with an RN positive diagnosis, Health a). Introducing Narrative Psychology: Self, Trauma, and the Construction of Meaning.
Stigmatization, scapegoating and discrimination in sexually transmitted diseases: Victory of 'them' and 'us'. Social Science&Medicine. /AIDS through the lens of Christianity: Perspectives from a South African urban support group. 2000). Doing qualitative research differently: Free association, narrative and the interview method, London: Sage Publications. The AIDS crisis: Overview of psychological issues and. implications, with special reference to the South African situation.
The stories we live by: Personal myths and the creation of the self New York, Guilford Press. The Nelson Mandela/HSRC HIV/AIDS Study: South Africa's national HIV prevalence, behavioral risk and household media survey 2002. An evaluation of body mapping as a potential HIV/AIDS educational tool, Paper of work of CSSR No.
Appendices
Ethical clearance letter
ETHICAL APPROVAL NUMBER: HSSl06472A I would like to confirm that ethical approval has been granted for the following project:.
KWAZULU-NATAL
Consent form
KWAZU LU - NATAL
Body mapping workshop instructions
Choose a different color and fill in your partner's figure wherever it is outside the outline of your body. Draw a symbol of your clan and write a name next to it (eg family, church, country). Now draw your hands and feet in ink and place them where you drew your hands and feet on your body map.
When you feel down or depressed, where inside your body do you feel emotional pain. Feel where your place of personal power is located on your body and mark the spot. Paint or draw a picture of your first memory somewhere on your body chart and describe it in a few words next to the picture.
Ask yourself how HN or HN drugs have affected your body on the outside, specifically your skin. Using the same color/pattern, draw/paint the parts of your body most affected by HN-related diseases on the inside of your body (eg your hearing, lungs, blood). Complete your body chart by decorating it with any other details, colors or patterns of your choice that have special meaning to you.
Semi-structured interview schedule
Body maps
