Dr. Jennifer Guzmán on The Language of Healing

Dr. Guzmán conducts research at the intersection of linguistic and medical anthropology. Her research in Chile and the United States examines provider-patient communication across a range of conventional, CAM/IM, and indigenous medical paradigms. Dr. Guzmán's theoretical and methodological interests include: Speaking rights and speaking obligations in medical settings The epistemics of illness experience The cultural constitution of clinical reality Medicina intercultural / cross-cultural medicine The ethnography of communication Conversation analysis for the study of talk in institutional settings Dr. Guzmán teaches a course called The Language of Healing. This course addresses two interrelated questions. What sorts of language practices support good health and promote healing and what sorts of language practices impair health and impede healing? We explore these questions cross-culturally through focused reading, critical discussion, and a participatory project in the tradition of embodied anthropology. Course themes include: symbolic healing, meaning response (placebo/nocebo effect), talk therapy, illness narratives, racialization and public health messages, and enduring debates concerning effective and humane doctor-patient communication. ---- Show notes (courtesy of Dr. Guzmán): Robin Wall Kimmerer, whose book and ideas I talked about, is an ecologist and Distinguished Teaching Professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where she is the Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. She is also a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her beautiful book Braiding `Sweetgrass is one of the most impactful I've ever read. Folks can read the Haudenosaunee creation story on the webpage of the Oneida Indian Nation (a member group of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy). The story retells the creation of Turtle Island (i.e. North America) when Sky Woman descended from the Upper World. I mistakenly referred to Sky Woman as First Woman when we spoke. There is also a film version of the Creation Story that features dance and animation. For anyone who lives or travels in Western New York, you can see the film at the Seneca Art & Culture Center at Ganondagan. And the film is available for purchase through their Gift Shop. I'm thankful for the privilege of living in the historic territory of the Seneca Nation of Indians and the Tonawanda Band of Seneca. I'm still learning what it means to be a steward here in this place. If folks are interested in learning more about the successful campaign to expand driver's licenses to all New York residents, regardless of immigration status, they can check out the Green Light NY: Driving Together page. The New York Times featured an article about Mapuche medicine in Chile a few years ago. MapuExpress (mostly in Spanish) is an online resource that compiles Mapuche news. All my best, Jennifer