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The Bird Dancer: Social Rejection and Social Suffering

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Afflictions

Part of the book series: Culture, Mind, and Society ((CMAS))

Abstract

The ethnographic film The Bird Dancer depicts Gusti Ayu, a young Balinese woman diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome. Gusti’s symptoms are moderate but largely unfamiliar in rural Bali, eliciting concern, fear, and ridicule in her family and community. Gusti has spent years pursuing unsuccessful traditional and Western treatments while struggling to overcome the stigma and suffering that has resulted not primarily from her Tourette Syndrome but from the web of cultural significance spun around it. After presenting Gusti’s life story, the chapter conducts an intersectional analysis of her experience as informed by traditional healing therapeutics, gendered habitus and family practices, and the Balinese Hindu caste system. It then reflexively examines the role of psychiatric treatment and empathetic listening in Gusti’s personal trajectory and the filmmaking process.

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  1. University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Robert Lemelson & Annie Tucker

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  1. Robert Lemelson
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Lemelson, R., Tucker, A. (2017). The Bird Dancer: Social Rejection and Social Suffering. In: Afflictions. Culture, Mind, and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59984-7_4

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