ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Science and Medicine of Habits II: Habits, The Body and Health

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

These symposia will engage with scientific and medical writings on bodily habits from the medieval to the modern periods. Over the centuries, people have sought to explain the apparent regularity of bodily phenomena such as eating, sleeping and evacuating. In particular, debates emerged about the extent to which these activities are amenable to human control. When framed as habits, such phenomena may be regarded as subject to control – although deeply entrenched habits may be very hard to shift. Alternatively, viewing these phenomena as instincts may place them beyond the reach of medical or social transformation. Papers in these panels will address the subject of habit around three themes: Habits, the Body and Space; Habits, the Body and Health; Habits, the Body and Disorder. Papers will be drawn from a variety of periods to explore the extent to which supposedly automatic bodily processes may be responsive to control or shaping. Topics will include, food and eating, sex and sexuality, pain, movement, clothing, body temperature, hygiene and sleep.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Alexander Wragge-Morley, Lancaster University

Individual Presentations

• The Art of Resting: Bacon, Experiments, and the Limits of Human Control - CRIGNON Elise CLAIRE, Université de Lorraine Archives Henri Poincaré

• Habit as clothing: Transforming the body between psychology and consumerism, 1870s-1910s - Chiara Lacroix, European University Institute

• ‘Getting warmed up for the day’: Nathaniel Kleitman, body temperature and the public understanding of sleep/wake ‘habits’ in mid-20th century America - Kristin Hussey, Newcastle University

• Bodily Rhythms at the Interface of Instinct and Control - Janka Kormos, University of Pecs, Hungary

Session Organizer

• Kristin Hussey, Newcastle University