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The hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity

Based in narrative phenomenology, this article describes an example of how lived time, self and bodily engagement with the social world intertwine, and how our sense of self develops. We explore this through the life story of a woman who lost weight through surgery in the 1970 s and has fought again...

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Autores principales: Natvik, Eli, Råheim, Målfrid, Sviland, Randi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Netherlands 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8128800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33439383
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-021-10002-x
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author Natvik, Eli
Råheim, Målfrid
Sviland, Randi
author_facet Natvik, Eli
Råheim, Målfrid
Sviland, Randi
author_sort Natvik, Eli
collection PubMed
description Based in narrative phenomenology, this article describes an example of how lived time, self and bodily engagement with the social world intertwine, and how our sense of self develops. We explore this through the life story of a woman who lost weight through surgery in the 1970 s and has fought against her own body, food and eating ever since. Our narrative analysis of interviews, reflective notes and email correspondence disentangled two storylines illuminating paradoxes within this long-term weight loss process. Thea’s Medical Weight Narrative: From Severely Obese Child to Healthy Adult is her story in context of medicine and obesity treatment and expresses success and control. Thea’s Story: The Narrative of Fighting Weight is the experiential story, including concrete examples and quotes, highlighting bodily struggles and the inescapable ambiguity of being and having one’s body. The two storylines coexist and illuminate paradoxes within the weight loss surgery narrative, connected to meaningful life events and experiences, eating practices and relationships with important others. Surgery was experienced as lifesaving, yet the surgical transformation did not suffice, because it did not influence appetite or, desire for food in the long run. In the medical narrative of transforming the body by repair, a problematic relationship with food did not fit into the plot.
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spelling pubmed-81288002021-05-24 The hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity Natvik, Eli Råheim, Målfrid Sviland, Randi Med Health Care Philos Scientific Contribution Based in narrative phenomenology, this article describes an example of how lived time, self and bodily engagement with the social world intertwine, and how our sense of self develops. We explore this through the life story of a woman who lost weight through surgery in the 1970 s and has fought against her own body, food and eating ever since. Our narrative analysis of interviews, reflective notes and email correspondence disentangled two storylines illuminating paradoxes within this long-term weight loss process. Thea’s Medical Weight Narrative: From Severely Obese Child to Healthy Adult is her story in context of medicine and obesity treatment and expresses success and control. Thea’s Story: The Narrative of Fighting Weight is the experiential story, including concrete examples and quotes, highlighting bodily struggles and the inescapable ambiguity of being and having one’s body. The two storylines coexist and illuminate paradoxes within the weight loss surgery narrative, connected to meaningful life events and experiences, eating practices and relationships with important others. Surgery was experienced as lifesaving, yet the surgical transformation did not suffice, because it did not influence appetite or, desire for food in the long run. In the medical narrative of transforming the body by repair, a problematic relationship with food did not fit into the plot. Springer Netherlands 2021-01-13 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8128800/ /pubmed/33439383 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-021-10002-x Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Scientific Contribution
Natvik, Eli
Råheim, Målfrid
Sviland, Randi
The hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity
title The hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity
title_full The hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity
title_fullStr The hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity
title_full_unstemmed The hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity
title_short The hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity
title_sort hamster wheel: a case study on embodied narrative identity and overcoming severe obesity
topic Scientific Contribution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8128800/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33439383
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11019-021-10002-x
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