Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: the startling discrepancy between prevalence and knowledge regarding the medical condition, vulvodynia.Informed by a feminist sensibility, it traverses diverse fields of knowledge, including psychoanalysis, feminist body scholarship, studies in hysteria, trauma models and neurophysiology.In this article, I focus on my research and writing practice as it evolved during and after the writing of the thesis.My methodology consists of a conversation with an enemy conducted most notably within my body, and through dreams and serendipity, so, after a brief introduction, I will elucidate the methodology under these three sub-headings.My thesis continues to provide source material for memoir, essays and fiction, therefore I will include examples from these different genres to illustrate the process through which the enemy became my reflexive guide. A ConversationIt began in April 2000.An assault on that most private and vulnerable part of the female body: the vulva.An attack of such ferocity and duration that I was forced to surrender professional and personal life roles.No longer a psychotherapist or educator, no longer a lover, I withdrew from society and tried to heal. Vulvodynia: Chronic unexplained vulval pain lasting three months or longer.Notwithstanding all these outward evidences of physical suffering, she had the moral fortitude to hold herself on the couch, and implored me not to desist from my efforts if there was the least hope of finding out anything about her inexplicable condition.(Sims, 1861, p. 357) Prevalence: 16-25% of all women may experience a form of vulvodynia at some point during their lifetime (e.g.Reed et al., 2012).So commonly is it met with at least, that it becomes a matter of surprise that it has not been more generally and fully described.(Thomas, 1880, p. 145) An enemy had attacked my body. Or was my body the enemy?My vulva aches and burns.Sometimes it feels raw, as if the skin is missing and the nerves are frayed wires, exposed to the air.The slightest touch, even a gentle breeze, triggers increased throbbing
Author: Josephine Taylor
Language: English
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2196814927