Produce either an autoetiography or autopathography journal or video.
When Anne Hunsaker Hawkins wrote about autopathography in the 1970s – what she called “pathography” – her goal was to figure out ways that “patients” could recover a sense of what their experience of illness meant to them personally and then construct ways of healthy living that fulfilled their personal needs. “Auto-pathography” refers to writing about your unwell self. Writing about an illness experience, she said, “is a kind of psychic rebuilding that involves finding patterns, imposing order, and, for many, discovering meaning.” Since then, some writers have gone on to use Drew Leder’s ideas of “the absent body” (i.e., the body in healthy states that is absent from awareness) and “bodily dys-appearance” (i.e., awareness of the distressed body that is in pain, sick, thirsty, hungry, nauseous, stressed, or anxious that removes us from activities in which we are engaged, alienates us from the social world and forces us to withdraw into the limited space of the body) to study and write about their personal experiences with ill-health. On the other hand, others have gone on to write about dealing with personal experiences with what Leder has called “social dys-appearance” where their perceptions of their bodies as gendered, racialized, disabled, aged (and other attributes of social identity) can contribute to a sense of fragmentation and/or social alienation. Still, others have gone on to write about “bodily eu-appearance” whereby states of pleasure and euphoria are produced during physical exercise, sexual activity, use of alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics (and other behaviors) in which the body is a space that does not appear to be an obstacle to “getting on with life.” In “bodily eu-appearance” the body appears to contribute to a state of happiness and “well-being.” But, that being said, “bodily eu-appearance” is a temporary state of being. Most of the time, individuals who are not preoccupied with “bodily dys-appearance,” “social dys-appearance,” and “bodily eu-appearance” attempt to live “healthy” through activities like diet, exercise, and sleep in order to preserve good health. Writing about what needs to be done to maintain “health” I call “autobiography.” “Auto-etio-graphy” refers to writing about what an individual does to maintain, build up, or improve health over time.
In this assignment, you will produce and submit a journal or video that logs your personal experiences. You will log:
Strategies you use to maintain, build up, or improve health over time in an autobiography. In this context, “bodily EU-appearance” serves to encourage the ongoing pursuit of such strategies. Successful strategies, in this context, are generally intended to promote well-being and self- and/or life-affirmation. *
OR
Strategies you use to cope with “bodily dys-appearance” and/or “social dys-appearance” in an autopathography. In this context, “bodily eu-appearance” serves to prevent “bodily dys-appearance” and/or “social dys-appearance.” Successful strategies, in this context, are generally intended to promote well-being and self- and/or life-affirmation. *
AND
- Whether you are doing an autobiography or autopathography, you will log how the stressful social environment of the 21st century affects your personal experiences. Stress, in and of itself, is not generally considered to be a disease or illness. However, there is general agreement that stress contributes to ill-health and disease. Correspondingly, there is general agreement that people who develop and nurture successful stress reduction strategies are less likely to become ill.
Remember: this is not an essay. You may produce either an autobiography or an autopathography journal or video.
Be sure that your journal or video provides background about the strategies you are studying.
Be sure that your journal or video makes clear when and where you perform the strategies you are studying.
Be sure that your journal or video makes clear (a) the “rules” (i.e., “obligations” and “expectations”) surrounding the performance of the strategies, and (b) what you expect to happen if the strategies are not performed according to the rules.