One time my gut and psyche talked to each other
Creators: name: Friis, Tine
Publisher: name: University of Copenhagen
Year: 2023
Subjects: memory-work
microbiome research
public health
mind-body dualism
personal experience
critical psychology
science and technology studies
writing
museum

description: This dissertation started from a fascination with the microbes that live in the human gut andtheir connection with mental health. How can we talk about this connection? What hopes andimaginaries about a healthy life arise when microbes are connected with mental health? Howdo we, more broadly, make sense of the body and psyche? The dissertation takes thesequestions as a point of departure for exploring personal experiences of the connectionbetween gut and psyche, and developed collective memory-work (Haug et al., 1999) asmethodology in a museum context. Research participants wrote memories under the topicOne time my gut and psyche talked to each other… and became co-researchers in theexploration of their own and each other's personal memories. The dissertation is based onempirical material from three memory-work groups with adult participants. The materialincludes the 16 memories that the participants explored, observations and transcripts of thegroup conversations. This transdisciplinary project was conducted at Medical Museion-auniversity museum and research unit at the Department of Public Health, University ofCopenhagen.
The dissertation poses three research questions: (1) What does microbiome research promisein terms of blurring distinctions between body, mind and environment, within the context ofcontemporary public health concerns? (2) How can collective memory-work facilitate thedevelopment of articulations that allow participants to develop sensibilities to oftenunarticulated experiences of how gut and psyche connect? (3) How do memory-workparticipants articulate experiences of gut-psyche connections and mobilize distinctionsbetween body and mind, and with which implications for understandings of body, self andhealth?
The first research question is addressed via a narrative literature review, which explorespromissory language around microbiome research in academic and popular sciencecommunication publications. The review situates the dissertation in relation to microbiomeresearch and frames a methodological shift in the memory-work away from foregroundingdiscussion of the microbiome and towards exploring connections between gut and psyche.The second research question is primarily explored by conceptualizing memory-work asexperimentation with articulating experiences of the gut, the psyche and how they connect.The third research question is answered by investigating when and with which implicationsmemories about gut-psyche-connections create distinctions between body and psyche.
Key findings of the dissertation include the following: (1) The potentials of microbiomeresearch are communicated in a promissory language, expressing promises of holism. Thedissertation argues that this mobilization of the notion of holism poses challenges forunderstanding the complexity in concepts of the body, self and health in relation tomicrobiome research. Moreover, the promissory language increases and extend the suspenseand impasse around the potentials of microbiome research. Doing so, provide ground forgenerating cruel optimism (Berlant, 2011). (2) Memory-work on gut and psyche actualizefundamental questions about our bodies, selves and health. This may give rise to new selfrealizationsfor the memory-work participants and also actualize ethical dilemmas about thetherapeutic and care-related matters of memory-work. The dissertation argues for addressingthe ethical dilemmas in the memory-work collective; the dilemmas can become key incultivating a response-able (Haraway, 2016) research practice when the participantsexperiment with articulating their experiences. Moreover, the dissertation shows how thecultivation of response-ability can be transformed and rearticulated as an ideal of care whenpresenting participant voices anew in an exhibition context. (3) The dissertation shows thatmemory-work on gut and psyche differ widely in form and content. Meanings of gut, psycheand how they connect cannot be presupposed. Instead, they illuminate how notions of gut andpsyche can be employed to articulate the self and navigate social norms and expectations.More generally, the dissertation argues for recognizing (rather than limiting) these multipleand dynamic meanings in explorations of personal experiences of body, self and health.The dissertation takes form as an article-based dissertation, with a synopsis and three articles.Theoretically, the dissertation places itself primarily in critical psychology and postpsychology,in addition to drawing connections to key themes in medical humanities, scienceand technology studies (STS) and feminist science studies. Beyond the specific findingsoutlined above, the contribution of the dissertation is to articulate and illustrate a researchmethodology for exploring situated, diverse and dynamic meanings of mind and body whenthey are mobilized to create meaning in personal experiences of the world.
ReferencesBerlant, L. (2011). Cruel optimism. Duke University Press.Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.Haug, F., Andresen, S., Bünz-Elfferding, A., Hauser, K., Lang, U., Laudan, M., Lüdeman, M., Meir, U., Nemitz,B., Niehoff, E., Prinz, R., Räthzel, N., Scheu, M., & Thomas, C. (1999). Female sexualization: Acollective work of memory. Verso Classics.