Psychoanalytic-Autoethnography
Author:
Open Access
- 20 August 2014
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Qualitative Inquiry
- Vol. 21 (4) , 343-353
Abstract
This article presents a psychoanalytic-autoethnography of embodied masculinity. It examines the sport of competitive natural bodybuilding as a means to pursue relevant ontological questions as part of a wider philosophical project. The embodied narrative addresses three overlapping themes: an examination of the discourses defining a crisis of masculinity relating to an evolving body project; an analysis of the subject’s ambivalence toward the spoken ideal of “physical culture” while imagining other forms of desire and risk-taking practices; an analytic autoethnographic account of a competitive body experiencing temporal feelings of “loss,” reflecting on fragmentary experiences connected to socially conditioned roles. Enframed by psychoanalytic theory, the analysis draws inspiration from the work of Lacan and supporting cast of Butler, Kristeva, and Agamben.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- The NaturalMen and Masculinities, 2010
- Gender Capital and Male BodybuildersBody & Society, 2009
- Analytic AutoethnographyJournal of Contemporary Ethnography, 2006
- The State of Exception2005
- Sporting Bodies: Dynamics of Shame and PrideBody & Society, 2000
- Creating `The Perfect Body': A Variable ProjectBody & Society, 1999
- Male Bodybulding: The Social Construction of a Masculine IdentityThe Journal of Popular Culture, 1998
- Muscle Dysmorphia: An Underrecognized Form of Body Dysmorphic DisorderPsychosomatics, 1997
- Fertile Obsession: Validity After PoststructuralismThe Sociological Quarterly, 1993
- For a Sociology of the Body: An Analytical Review1991