Embodied Domestics, Embodied Politics: Women, Home, and Agoraphobia
Human Studies 34 (1):1-21 (2011)
| Abstract | Agoraphobia is commonly considered to be a fear of outside, open, or crowded spaces, and is treated with therapies that work on acclimating the agoraphobic to external places she would otherwise avoid. I argue, however, that existential phenomenology provides the resources for an alternative interpretation and treatment of agoraphobia that locates the problem of the disorder not in something lying beyond home, but rather in a flawed relationship with home itself. More specifically, I demonstrate that agoraphobia is the lived body expression of a person who has developed an inward-turning tendency with respect to being-at-home, and who finds herself, as a result, vulnerable and even incapacitated when attempting to emerge into the public arena as a fully participatory agent. I consider this thesis in light of the fact that since World War I agoraphobia has been diagnosed significantly more in women than in men; indeed, one study found women to be 89% more likely than men to suffer from agoraphobia. I conclude that agoraphobia is a disorder that stands as an emblematic expression of the ongoing pathology of being a woman in contemporary society–a disorder that reflects that even today women belong to a political world in which they are not able to feel properly at-home | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | No categories specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,875 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesKirsten Jacobson (2004). Agoraphobia and Hypochondria as Disorders of Dwelling. International Studies in Philosophy 36 (2):31-44.
Jeff Hearn, Marjut Jyrkinen, Rebecca Piekkari & Eeva Oinonen (2008). “Women Home and Away”: Transnational Managerial Work and Gender Relations. Journal of Business Ethics 83 (1):41 - 54.
Joshua M. Price (2002). The Apotheosis of Home and the Maintenance of Spaces of Violence. Hypatia 17 (4):39-70.
Kirsten Jacobson (2009). A Developed Nature: A Phenomenological Account of the Experience of Home. Continental Philosophy Review 42 (3):355-373.
Beth Watkins (1998). Women, AIDS, and Theatre: Representations and Resistances. Journal of Medical Humanities 19 (2/3):167-180.
Sarah Kofman & Mara Dukats (1989). Rousseau's Phallocratic Ends. Hypatia 3 (3):123 - 136.
Jennifer A. Parks (2004). Grin and Bare It. Philosophy in the Contemporary World 11 (1):45-53.
Babette Müller-Rockstroh (2004). In Memory. Philosophy in the Contemporary World 11 (1):55-65.
Kirsten Jacobson (2010). The Experience of Home and the Space of Citizenship. Southern Journal of Philosophy 48 (3):219-245.
Rada Iveković (1993). Women, Nationalism and War: "Make Love Not War". Hypatia 8 (4):113 - 126.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-02-24Total downloads9 ( #115,463 of 556,837 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #64,847 of 556,837 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
