In this project I was principal applicant, researcher, supervisor and project leader (2017-2024)

In 2017 I was awarded a NWO-VICI grant for the project Mind the Body: Rethinking embodiment in healthcare. I have conducted this project with 3 PhD researchers and 3 post-doc researchers.

PhD researchers:
Irene Groenevelt
Sanne van Driel
Elise Doeschot

post-doc researchers:
Annelies Kleinherenbrink
Marjolein de Boer
Sanneke de Haan

Project description
Based on the Cartesian legacy of body-mind dualism, contemporary healthcare conceives of the body as a biological or neurological thing. This view causes healthcare professionals to lose sight of the body as it is experienced and to jump to types of explanations that obscure embodied dimensions of health problems. Frequently, psychological explanations are provided for physical problems without a clearly identified somatic cause (“psychologization”) and mental problems tend to be explained in terms of some brain deficiency (“neuro-reductionism”).

Criticisms of dualism often lead to monistic materialist views, thus failing to provide a broader perspective on embodiment. This project aims at tackling both dualism and monistic materialism from a phenomenological materialist perspective. To conceptualize the body’s materiality in contemporary healthcare beyond dualism and monistic materialism, the proposed project employs an empirical-philosophical methodology. It will explore the meaning of the body’s materiality against the background of current theoretical discussions on materialism, while also examining practices that target three major health problems: (1) Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS), (2) Obesity, and (3) Depression. These cases are each in their own way marked by a problematic dualistic legacy, and this calls for alternative views and vocabularies on embodiment.

The three cases will be studied in three PhD-subprojects that involve qualitative fieldwork (interviews, observations). This fieldwork combines phenomenology (unraveling experiences) and ethnography (analyzing broader context) to map relevant views of patients and professionals and to uncover how embodiment is framed in patient-professional interactions. In addition, two post-doc researchers develop philosophical analyses of “psychologization” and “neuro-reductionism” regarding the three cases. Finally, the overall project’s synthesis, to be performed by the applicant, relies on these same case-studies to offer a philosophical analysis of materialism. The project will thus produce an empirically sound theory of embodiment, to be implemented in healthcare practices in collaboration with healthcare professionals.

Main output:
Slatman, J. (2017). De geest voorbij: Geesteswetenschappelijke reflecties op gezondheidszorg. Oratie 24 november 2017: Open access

Slatman, J. (2018). Reclaiming embodiment in medically unexplained symptoms. In K. Aho (ed.). Existential Medicine: Essays on Health and Illness. Rowman & Littlefield, p. 101-114 Open access

S. Driel (2018): Herstel van een andere orde. Over depressie en ‘de wereld’ in D. Boertien, W. Kusters (eds) Opnieuw denken over geestelijke gezondheid. Utrecht: Phrenos: 115 – 125 , 

S. Driel (2018): Een kleine ode aan: Queer Phenomenology door Sara Ahmed. Bij Nader Inzien.

A. Kleinherenbrink (2018): Nieuw Feministisch Materialisme. Wijsgerig perspectief. (3): 6-15

S. van Driel (2019): Heteronormativity Awareness: Critical notes on Workplace Pride. Diggit Magazine. Open access

A. Kleinherenbrink, V. Bentley, S. Schmitz (2019). Plasticity and Spatial Stuff under Western Neoliberal Order. Neurogendrings. 15(2) Open access.

Slatman, J. (2019). The Körper-Leib distinction. In A. Murphy, G. Salamon & G. Weiss (Eds.) 50 Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology. Northwestern University Press, p. 203-209. Open access

V. Mohr, A. Kleinherenbrink, P. Varis (2020): “You Can’t Ignore a Number This Big”: Gender, Risk, and Responsibility in Online Advocacy for Women’s Brain Health. Qualitative Health Research: 677 – 690 Open access

Slatman, J. (2020). Fenomenologie van ziekte en abnormaliteit. Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte, Vol 112 (1): 1-24 Open access

J. Luigjes, S.E. de Haan (2020), Psychiatrische stoornissen zijn geen hersenstoornissen. In: D. Denys, G. Meynen (eds.), Het tweede handboek psychiatrie en filosofie. Amsterdam: Boom | De Tijdstroom, pp. 163-183.

Slatman, J. & van de Ven, I. (2021) Gut Feelings: Depression as an Embodied and Affective Phenomenon in Houellebecq’s ‘Serotonin’. BMJ Medical Humanities. 47:257-265 Open access

M.L. Boer (2021): Epistemic in/justice in patient participation A discourse analysis of the Dutch ME/CFS Health Council advisory process. Sociology of Health & Illness.43(2) 1335 – 1354 Open access

Slatman, J. (2021). Mobilizing the sense of “fat”: A phenomenological materialist approach. Human Studies. 44 (675-692) Open access

Slatman, J. (2022). Toward a phenomenology of abnormality. In S. Bredlau and T. Welsh (Eds.) Normality, Abnormality, and Pathology in Merleau-Ponty. Albany NY: SUNY Press, p. 19-39 Open access

Groenevelt, I, De Haan, S., & Slatman, J. (2022). Doing bodies in YouTube videos about contested illness. Body & Society, 28(4): 28-52 Open access

Slatman, J. (2022) To hear one’s body. A phenomenological analysis of body awareness in health and illness. Chiasmi International. 24, p. 257-273 Open access

I. Groenevelt, M.L. de Boer (2023): Contesting misrecognition online: Experiences of epistemic in/justice by vloggers with contested illnesses. Social Science & Medicine
Volume 327, pp. 1 – 8 Open access

M.L. de Boer, J. Slatman (2023): Producing ME/CFS in Dutch Newspapers. A Social-Discursive Analysis About Non/credibility. Social Epistemology. A Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Policy. Volume 37, 2023 – Issue 5 pp. 592 – 609 Open access

Slatman, J. (2023). Nieuwe Lichamelijkheid. Gorredijk: Uitgeverij Noordboek: (Recipient Hypatiaprijs 2024, shortlisted for the Socratesprijs 2024). Open access

Slatman, J. (2024). The Bodily Deficit in Contemporary Healthcare. In: Schermer, M., Binney, N. (eds) A Pragmatic Approach to Conceptualization of Health and Disease. Philosophy and Medicine, Springer, p. 241-244 Open access

Groenevelt, I. & J. Slatman (2024). On the affectivity of touch: Enacting bodies in Dutch osteopathy. Medical Anthropology. 43(7), 641–654. Open access

J. Slatman (2024): Denken doe je met je lijf. Bij Nader Inzien.