Interwoven Embodiment: A Passionate Call to Wholeness

This is the third and final episode in a series where Adrian Harris explores embodiment with key thinkers in the field. In this episode, he speak to Lisa Blackman an established and very embodied academic.

Professor Lisa Blackman is a researcher in body studies, media, and cultural theory, with a particular interest in subjectivity and embodiment. Lisa is involved in mental health research and was one of the early pioneers of the Hearing Voices movement.

Lisa was born with a rare congenital condition that made her different from others, and this experience influenced her work in disability awareness and the implications of living with a non-normative morphology.

Her interdisciplinary education, including psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and critical psychiatry, shapes her work. Lisa is interested in challenging normative assumptions about what it means to be human and a subject, rejecting dualistic categories, and embracing radical relationality and interdependence.

In her research with a Hearing Voices group, Lisa observed transformational processes that led to changes in the embodied experience of the voices, resulting from shared experiences and a sense of community. She believes that acknowledging interdependency as the starting point is crucial for addressing the multiple crises we face and argues that the individual is porous and interwoven with others.

Lisa Blackman: https://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/blackman/

The Body. The Key Concepts: https://www.routledge.com/The-Body-The-Key-Concepts/Blackman/p/book/9781350109414