Between Earth and Sky…Experience of Own Corporeality by People Practicing Body Suspension—Sociological Study

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyze the experience of the body of a person suspended by the skin from hooks, adopting the perspective of the subject as an embodied entity. The empirical basis for the paper is the author’s own sociological research conducted in the group of 30 people practicing body suspension, the selection of whom had the character of purposive sampling, determined by at least two-time participation in this corporeal practice. Gathering and analyzing of the research material were subordinated to the procedures of grounded theory methodology, within the framework of which the technique of free-form guided interview was used. As the practice of body suspension takes place according to the specific order, the analysis of the empirical material has the form of discussion of the body experience at its six consecutive stages, four of which are strictly related to the act of body suspension itself, while the last two refer to body experience after the act of body suspension. In the practice of body suspension by the skin from hooks, the human body is experienced primarily as a source of pleasure, the achievement of which is determined by the prior experience of the body as a source of pain. Pain is an indispensable sensation here because it determines the dynamics of this corporeal practice. The suspended body is also regarded as an object of ownership, controlled by the subjects to a different extent, as a place of contact with one’s own “ego,” a tool of expression and communication, and, finally, as an object of aesthetic and hygienic care. In the analysis of the suspended body experience, consideration was given to the phenomenological perspective where the body is treated as a physical object, which is a body alive, sensitive, and emotional.