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“Sometimes, I think I might say too much”: Dark Secrets and the Performance of Inflammatory Bowel Disease *
Author(s) -
Thompson Alex I.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1002/symb.50
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , inflammatory bowel disease , stigma (botany) , focus group , disease , feces , ulcerative colitis , psychology , social psychology , sociology , medicine , epistemology , pathology , psychiatry , biology , philosophy , ecology , anthropology
This study examines the dramaturgical embodiment of chronically ill bodies managing “fecal matters” (Weinberg and Williams 2005) in Inflammatory Bowel Disease ( IBD ) support groups. Data were derived from my reflections as a person with IBD , a year of participant observation, and semi‐structured interviews with support group members. I first uncover the boundaries of the private body (Cahill 2006). Secondly, I focus on the entrenchment of IBD within the stigma of fecal matters. Lastly, I explore the disparate ways that support group members harnessed language to protect their embodied selves from symbolic fecal contamination, from a “soiled self.”