Embodiment and self in reorientation to everyday life following severe traumatic brain injury.

Embodiment and self in reorientation to everyday life following severe traumatic brain injury. Physiother Theory Pract. 2014 Nov 28;:1-7 Authors: Sivertsen M, Normann B Abstract Abstract People with severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) are often young and need long-term follow-up as many suffer complex motor, sensory, perceptual and cognitive impairments. This paper aims to introduce phenomenological notions of embodiment and self as a framework to help understand how people with sTBI experience reorientation to everyday life, and to inform clinical practice in neurological physiotherapy. The impairments caused by the sTBI may lead to a sense of alienation of ones own body and changes in operative intentionality and in turn disrupt the reorganization of self, identity, everyday life and integration/co-construction of meaning with others. Applying a first-person conception of the body may extend insights into the importance of an adapted and individualized approach to strengthen the sensory, perceptual and motor body functions, which underpin the pre-reflective and reflective aspects of the self. It seems important to integrate these aspects, while also paying attention to optimizing co-construction of meaning for the person with sTBI in the treatment context. This requires understanding the patient as an experiencing and expressive body, a lived body (body-as-subject) and not just the body-as-object as is favored in more traditional ...
Source: Physiotherapy Theory and Practice - Category: Physiotherapy Authors: Tags: Physiother Theory Pract Source Type: research