Semanticizing Non-Common Sensory Experiences

• In Event: 41025 - Experiencing and Expressing Disability Identities

Abstract

This paper explores the social processes underlying human sensoriality, specifically looking at how sensory experience is constructed and made meaningful. The study focuses on the sensoriality of people with spinal cord injuries who experience sensations in the sublesional area of their body. Such sensations are unexpected and unusual. They cannot be explained or made meaningful by medical knowledge or common sense; they are an example of non-intersubjective sensory experiences. My analysis aims to understand the influences of social interaction on the possibility of giving meaning to these non-common sensory experiences and the reasons underlying this social process. The study presented in this chapter is based on data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two physical medicine and rehabilitation departments specializing in spinal cord injuries. Forty-two spinal cord injury patients took part, and thirty-eight healthcare workers were involved. The findings highlight the importance of intersubjectivity and caregiver legitimacy in the process of semanticizing non-intersubjective sensory experiences. Two main ways of making sense of sensory experience are examined: one involving caregivers, the other initiated by the patients themselves, but which often concealed from view.

Author

• Eve E. Gardien, Rennes University (France)