From embodiment to emplacement: Toward understanding occupation as body-mind-environment

Polysensoriality and Aesthetics: The Lived Sensory Experiences of Adults with Mental Illness

“…This challenges the assumptions regarding sensory preferences as having a primarily biological origin in the neural machinery of a person. Although the biological origin of some sensory preferences is unquestionable, this study suggests that therapists should also be mindful of the various lived experiences and sociocultural influences that become embodied as aesthetic preferences and as pre-reflective intentionalities toward being-in-the-world (Bailliard et al, 2022; Csordas, 1990; Dewey, 1896; Hass, 2008; Merleau-Ponty 1964). Indeed, participants reported experiencing sensory quale differently depending on the situation and the aesthetics of those experiences were predicated on their embodiment of past sensory experiences that were imbued with affective content.…”

“…The biomedical model has dominated mainstream understandings of sensory processing which has resulted in assessment and intervention practices that are overly reductionistic and do not reflect the dynamic lived sensory experiences of people in real-world environments. Despite widespread uncritical uptake of the representational theory of cognition and stimulus-response paradigms, these have received significant criticism for portraying sensory processing as ahistorical, acontextual, and asocial (Bailliard et al, 2022;Csordas, 1990;Dewey, 1896;Dreyfus, 2002;Fuchs & De Jaegher, 2009;Hass, 2008;Merleau-Ponty 1964;Meteyard et al, 2012). Research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience is increasingly supporting the embodiment paradigm, which holds that sensory and motor information are a part of cognitive processing (Meteyard et al, 2012).…”

“…For decades in anthropology, many scholars have embraced the embodiment paradigm to understand how humans incorporate sociocultural practices of being and doing in everyday life (Csordas, 1990(Csordas, , 2008Howes, 2019). There is emerging occupational therapy research that has shown that, in addition to being biological, sensory experiences are also informed by sensory habits which are embodied through lived experiences with situated occupations (Bailliard, 2015a;Bailliard et al, 2022). Sensory experiences emerge in particular socio-cultural and temporal contexts through occupations, guided by dynamic, co-constitutive habits that develop through repeated "doings" that inform the individual that they are doing the occupation in a way that feels right and intuitive (Bailliard, 2015a).…”

Protocol for A Mixed-Methods Study: Dementia-Inclusive Streets and Community Access, Participation, and Engagement (DemSCAPE)

“…Exposure to different stimuli during the walk can also support the recall of issues, incidents, and thoughts that may not be top-of-mind for people living with dementia during a sit-down interview (Carpiano, 2009). Thus, the walk-along interview method helps draw out the emplaced experience of the person living with dementia, centring the role of place in shaping experience and, in turn, cognition (Howes, 2005;Bailliard, et al, 2022). The method calls for a flexible approach to allow for unplanned questions to arise from being outside and enable participants to freely reflect on the built environment and its features (Evans & Jones, 2011;Ottoni et al, 2016;Van Cauwenberg et al, 2012).…”