A Tale of Two Scars: Negotiating identity through interventions on the skin

Nedergaard, Mette Jensine Ingerslev

4. term

Psychology, Master

2015

2015-05-29

68

Dette speciale undersøger, hvordan kropslige ar kan fungere som person-kulturelle tegn og hukommelsesredskaber, der forbinder fortidens erfaringer med nutiden og påvirker forventninger til fremtiden. Når sådanne erindringsredskaber bliver måder at forstå sig selv på, bliver hudens psykologiske betydning tydelig. Traumer kan opleves som brud i livet, og arret bliver et konkret sted, hvor meningsskabelse og identitet finder sted. Arbejdet bygger på teorier om dialogicitet (selvet som en løbende indre og social dialog), overgange, grænser og hud forstået som et psykologisk, ikke kun biologisk, fænomen. Metodisk anvendes et enkeltcase-design: et narrativt og semistruktureret interview med en kvinde, der har gennemgået to kejsersnit. Særligt er, at hun kun har ét synligt ar, men beskriver sine erfaringer ved at identificere sig som en person med to ar. Under interviewet blev stemme, ordvalg og kropssprog observeret for at triangulere data. Specialets kapitler er flettet sammen, og analyse og fortolkning er integreret fra begyndelsen. Det er et bevidst valg for at holde teori, metode og fænomen tæt forbundet og skabe retorisk sammenhæng. Analysen foreslår, at huden kan forstås som en semipermeabel psykologisk grænse, hvor kommunikation og betydning passerer ind og ud og reguleres af personen selv. Ar kan fungere som særskilte stemmer på huden, der repræsenterer dele af helheden. Som person-kulturelle tegn kan de blive dominerende, overordnede tegn, der organiserer andre betydninger og hjælper personen med at forudforme, hvordan nye erfaringer forstås. At undersøge arnes personlige betydninger giver et greb om forholdet mellem dele og helhed, et klassisk problem i psykologien. I kultur- og sundhedspsykologi kan denne tilgang være et første skridt til at forstå, hvordan huden som kommunikativ grænse reguleres. En sådan kropsligt forankret forståelse kan informere læge-patient-dialoger og andre asymmetriske samtaler. Overordnet ses huden som et medium, hvorigennem verden forstås, kommunikeres med og identitet skabes, og bliver dermed central i individuel meningsdannelse.

This thesis explores how bodily scars can function as personal-cultural signs and memory devices that link past experiences to the present and shape expectations about the future. When such memory devices become ways of understanding the self, the psychological importance of the skin becomes visible. Traumas can be experienced as ruptures in life, and the scar is a concrete site where meaning-making and identity formation take place. The work draws on theories of dialogicality (the self as an ongoing inner and social dialogue), transitions, boundaries, and the skin understood as a psychological, not only biological, phenomenon. Methodologically, the study uses a single-case design: a narrative and semi-structured interview with a woman who has had two caesarean sections. Notably, she has only one visible scar but describes her experiences by identifying herself as a person with two scars. During the interview, voice, word choice, and body language were observed to triangulate the data. The chapters are interwoven, with analysis and interpretation integrated from the outset. This is a deliberate choice to keep theory, method, and phenomenon closely connected and to create rhetorical coherence. The analysis suggests that the skin can be understood as a semi-permeable psychological boundary through which communication and meaning flow and are regulated by the person. Scars can act as distinct voices on the skin, representing parts of the whole. As personal-cultural signs, they may become dominant, higher-order signs that organize other meanings and help pre-shape how new experiences are understood. Investigating the personal meanings of scars offers a way to address the relation between parts and wholes, a classic problem in psychology. In cultural and health psychology, this approach can be a first step toward understanding how the skin as a communicative boundary is regulated. Such embodied psychological understanding may inform doctor–patient dialogues and other asymmetrical communication. Overall, the skin is seen as a medium through which the world is understood and communicated, and where identity is formed, making it central to individual meaning-making.

[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]

Skin, identity, dialogicality, boundaries

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