IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v59y2004i1p103-112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In motion, out of place: the public space(s) of Tourette Syndrome

Author

Listed:
  • Davis, Kat Kleman
  • Davis, Jeffrey Sasha
  • Dowler, Lorraine

Abstract

According to Doris Humphrey, "Nothing so clearly or inevitably reveals the inner man [sic] than movement and gesture...the moment you move you stand revealed, for good or ill, for what you are" (The dance notebook, 1984). Tourette Syndrome, characterized by motor and vocal tics, elicits stigma for just this reason: the tics and movements it causes have revealed Touretters as something beyond the 'normal.' This paper examines the ways Touretters are perceived and received in public spaces, using published illness narratives and film documentaries to address the question of why the reactions TS invokes are so severe. We will demonstrate how the stigma surrounding the disorder stems from the perception of Touretters as disruptive to the order and health of public spaces. To describe the production of stigma and the violent reactions to TS individuals, we draw upon theories of bodies and performativity from feminist studies, Catherine Waldby's work with the imaginary anatomy, and geographical perspectives on the social construction of space. The geographic studies of space are used to illuminate discussions of people's life experiences by showing how body movements associated with illness produce stigma by transgressing the unwritten codes that govern particular public spaces. Our intention in this paper is not to introduce new empirical data, but rather to analyze the mechanisms of stigma formation produced by the complex relationships between the functioning of social spaces and individuals' experiences of illness.

Suggested Citation

  • Davis, Kat Kleman & Davis, Jeffrey Sasha & Dowler, Lorraine, 2004. "In motion, out of place: the public space(s) of Tourette Syndrome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 103-112, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:59:y:2004:i:1:p:103-112
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(03)00544-6
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Markevich, Andrei & Harrison, Mark, 2011. "Great War, Civil War, and Recovery: Russia's National Income, 1913 to 1928," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(3), pages 672-703, September.
    2. Cox, Susan M. & Kazubowski-Houston, Magdalena & Nisker, Jeff, 2009. "Genetics on stage: Public engagement in health policy development on preimplantation genetic diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1472-1480, April.
    3. Andrews, Gavin J., 2019. "Spinning, hurting, still, afraid: Living life spaces with Type I Chiari Malformation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 13-21.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Movement Stigma Tourette Syndrome;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:59:y:2004:i:1:p:103-112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.