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Faculty of Nursing Works

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14078/32

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Browsing Faculty of Nursing Works by Subject "abjection"

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    Abjection and the weaponization of bodily excretions in forensic psychiatry settings: a poststructural reflection
    (2021) Johansson, Jim A.; Holmes, Dave
    Nurses working in forensic psychiatric settings face unique challenges in practice, where they take on a dual role of custody and caring. Patient resistance is wide-spread within these restrictive settings and can take many forms. Perhaps the most disturbing form of resistance entails a patient's weaponization of their bodily fluids, with nurses as their target. The tendency in assigning motive for this act is to relegate to the psychopathology of the patient. This paper will adopt a post-structuralist perspective to reexamine this phenomenon as an act of resistance through the lens of Kristeva's concept of abjection. Patients confined in these set-tings have little sense of control, and in resistance may resort to the only thing available: their bodily fluids. By weaponizing the abject, patients actively violate and permeate the physical and psychological boundaries of nurses—the very boundaries considered crucial to safe and professional forensic psychiatric nursing practice. By recognizing this phenomenon as an act of resistance to confinement and loss of control, nurses may reorient their approach to care in forensic psychiatric settings.
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    The clean and proper self: the relevance of Kristeva’s concept of abjection for nursing
    (2022) Johansson, Jim A.; Holmes, Dave
    Nurses regularly encounter feelings of disgust in practice, from bodily fluids and wounds to the criminal histories of patients. Though these experiences are widespread in nursing practice, there exists a culture in which they are regularly and intentionally ignored by nurses, and have received little attention in the literature. French-Bulgarian philosopher Julie Kristeva described these feelings of disgust within her psychoanalytic concepts of abjection and the clean and proper self. When nurses experience abjection, they work to protect and maintain the boundaries of the clean and proper self. This paper will employ a conceptual analysis to explore the implications of abjection and the maintenance of the clean and proper in nursing practice, with a specific focus on forensic nursing. A literature review of scientific articles and monographs addressing issues of disgust and abjection was conducted. The work of Kristeva provides the theoretical framework for this analysis. The analysis illustrates that nurses erect boundaries between themselves and patients, with significant consequences for patient care. An enactment of rituals to avoid the uncomfortable feelings of abjection and an effort to maintain the clean and proper self is widespread in nursing practice. Acknowledging the presence of abjection in nursing practice, recommendations are given on how to both embrace and overcome this experience.