Kalendář

Vystoupení na společné výroční konferenci Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) & European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) s názvem "Acting with science, technology and medicine", Rotterdam, Holandsko, 20.-23. srpna 2008 (Sekce 1.4.3: Modern diseases)

We study how catholic quasi/religious experiences are dealt with in psychiatric care. We ask how it happens that, in particular therapeutic or pastoral settings, phenomena such as hearing the voice of God or having an apparition of Virgin Mary are enacted by participants as, on one hand, a legitimate religious experience or, on the other hand, a symptom of mental illness. To understand this border-work carried out, from time to time, in psychiatric (and also pastoral) practice, we used a symmetrical approach, in which no preference is a priori given to spiritual or medical explanations. That is also why we interviewed, among others, not only psychiatric professionals, but also catholic priests. Our interviewees frequently manifested their genuine interest in our research. Facing their curiosity (but also initial hesitations) we started thinking about the value of symmetrical approach somewhat differently. We appreciated that the “politics of symmetry” has implications far beyond what and how is known and started thinking more of what the symmetrical perspective means for “acting with our scientific knowledge” in the medical and pastoral fields. We decided to set up an experiment. In our early paper on the topic, we discussed a horror/court drama “Exorcism of Emily Rose” (Scott Derrickson, 2005), which tells about a catholic priest accused of negligent homicide of a young woman, Emily Rose, who had been considered by her family and the priest as possessed and did not survive attempted exorcism. Two competing versions of the case were confronted during the trial: while the prosecutor argued that Emily had been sick and exorcism directly led to her death, the defendant – with the help of an anthropologist – tried to take seriously the reality of possession. In this early paper, we show how the movie on Emily Rose carefully develops a balanced view of the phenomena and we also use this analysis to explain the principle of symmetry in our own research design. In the experiment, we have asked some mental health professionals and clerics, to watch the movie and read our early paper to prepare themselves for subsequent focused discussions with us. In the paper proposed for the 4S/EASST conference, we thus want to offer a close analysis of these discussions and shed some light on how the (explained and applied) principle of symmetry might be understood or misunderstood, accepted or rejected as relevant by the concerned professional audiences. We therefore want to contribute to the STS literature on symmetry by a small empirical exercise focused not so much on the “cognitive” relevance of this methodological standpoint, but rather on how symmetrical accounts can be accepted, understood and used by actors in the field(s) under study.

Turnaj dvojic, Brno - Slatina

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Vystoupení na festivalu Pacovský poledník

Vystoupení v rámci festivalu Colours of Ostrava (Divadelní scéna)

Klub Mlejn, Praha 13 - Stodůlky, Kovářova 1615/4, začátek 20h.

Turnaj dvojic v petanque, pořádaný PK 1293 Vojnův Městec

Vystoupení na 5. obroční evropské konference Society for Literature, Science & Arts "Figurations of knowledge", Berlín, Německo, 2.-7. června 2008 (Stream 1: Inspiration & intuition)

In our research we focus on the thresholds, passages and incommensurabilities between psychiatry and spirituality. More specifically, we ask: How it happens, in terms of observable and accountable practices, that phenomena such as hearing the voice of God, having an apparition of Virgin Mary or suffering from demonic oppression are sometimes understood as symptoms of mental illnesses or, other times, as elements of true spiritual or religious experience? Assuming that it simply is psychiatry, which produces the former, and pastoral practice, which pushes such cases to the latter end, is misleading. The field of practices we study is much more complicated. A useful methodological tool for observing subtleties of our phenomena is taking a symmetrical stand toward them, i.e., taking the spiritual and the psychiatric equally seriously. In our paper we would like to discuss the movie “Exorcism of Emily Rose” (Scott Derrickson, 2005), a combination of horror and court drama, in which a priest is sued for causing death of a young woman by performing exorcism on her. We analyze various means by which the film maintains undecidability for us, as audience, as for the key point of the story: was the young woman, Emily Rose, sick, or possessed? The aim of our analysis is to show what such a symmetrical approach might mean and what implications it could have for research practice, which also can be seen, after all, as a kind of trial.

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ZK & KM (oba PK 1293, Vojnův Městec) - 5. místo (ze 40 dvojic). Zámecký park v Jaroměřicích byl pěkný, počasí nádherné. Hrálo se na cestičkách, neohraničená hřiště. Napřed čtyřkolový "švýcar", šestnáct nejlepších pak vyřazovací zápasy. Vyřazení dohrávali o umístění. Dostali jsme se mezi nejlepších osm, vypadli v krásném a dramatickém zápase o postup do čtvrtfinále. Nakonec jsme vybojovali páté místo v bratrovražedném boji s Oldou Brožem a Vlastou Vejmělkem od nás z Vojnova Městce. Dobrý den to byl.

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