Source: MPizzolati

PAR network member and sociologist Micol Pizzolati designed and facilitated a workshop to explore the lived experiences of people whose close family members underwent mental illness and disorder treatments through body mapping.

Body mapping is a visual, narrative, and participatory approach which offers unique strengths and a wealth of ways to engage participants, that are considered knowledgeable, reflexive individuals who can articulate their complex life journeys and social circumstances by drawing, collaging, and writing in the shape of their life-size body.

The surfacing of mental troubles in a family circle presents tough challenges in maintaining interconnectedness and relationships among family members in the face of unconventional behaviour and stigma, as they negotiate their needs and those of loved ones. Family members grieve for the person their mentally ill loved one has become and long for the person he or she once was, with a keen awareness of two distinct phases – pre- and post-illness personal life – and their connection to interpersonal relationships.

To explore these nuanced, varied aspects of mental illness in a family context, Micol involved activists from an association working in northern Italy to raise awareness of mental distress. A small group of mothers, sisters and nieces participated in a half-day collaborative workshop, developing individual body maps to generate and share stories.

Micol explains that engaging the sensory body through drawing and talking about emotional experiences via embodiment allows participants to consider these experiences intuitively, thus opening insights into the research process. The embodied research experience provided the opportunity to draw closer to the density of the participants’ lives. Active imagination, images, and words prompted new perspectives to the understanding of remarkably different and vivid experiences of obligations to care for family members with mental distress.

The participants’ body maps are moving expressions of the afflictions and powerful challenges they have encountered and continue to face.

Click here to read an article based on the workshop and/or contact Micol to find out more about body mapping.

Micol Pizzolati is an associate professor in sociology and co-head of the Creative Methods Open Lab Research Group at the University of Bergamo, Italy. She engages in participation and co-production in the social sciences, particularly through inventive epistemologies and embodied approaches.