Hypochondria

 

Hypochondria (hypo – “under” / chondrus – “cartilage”)

“Over and again it is his gut which is the culprit, a body zone still barely understood in the mind set of the Enlightenment and the nineteenth century.” (Cultures of the Abdomen 113) 

In a society “concerned” with numerous issues – poverty, health, welfare, education, etc. – it seems appropriate to invoke discussion of hypochondria; the very corporeality of the hypochondriac.  This term, and the plethora of connotations that it provokes, is used as a means of approaching several issues related to contemporary youth movements in Detroit.  This term is not meant to connote the invalidity of such social concern.  Instead, it is used to suggest a certain paranoia that might seem, to some, exaggerated.  The term is also useful in that it identifies a means of perceiving illness as something intimately associated with the body.  The body of the hypochondriac is placed under constant surveillance.  The body takes precedence, as it is constantly the interstice of concern; it perpetually becoming a sight of conflict.  As a result, the hierarchy of mind over body, the privileging of intellect, consciousness, or spirit over the corporeal, dissolves, or is, at the very least, inversed.  As the discourse continues, the body takes on a third equally significant connotation. 

Perhaps, it can be argued that the body of the hypochondriac is most desirable.  Is it not the paranoid body that catches the cancer or abscess first?  Or conversely, does the overly concerned body become more problematic – leading to neurosis or, most appropriately, an overly generalized paranoia that destabilizes the overall capacity the social body has to remedy such situations?  More simply, does the problematic continue to plague this society because of oversight, or, more controversially, due to an over abundance of concern?  Is it possible that the amount of concern that we devote to every facet of our lives debilitates us?  In light of these means of approaching the term, these very questions, the life of one renowned hypochondriac provides an advantageous initiatory point.  Here, Coleridge, the paranoid Romantic author, provides two divergent approaches to youth social concern and youth action; two paths to be considered. 

First, it might be suggested that college students, similar to Coleridge, turn to opiates as the implements of displacement.  Here, as in Coleridge’s life, the drug takes on something of a medicinal value.  It rids the body, very temporarily, of the pain that plagues it.  The tendency of the anxious person towards dependency is well documented.  College students are often perceived of as a socially aware, concerned, and involved body.  Interestingly, though, one remedy that is inextricable from this very social group recalls the biography of Coleridge’s life.  We drink, allow pot to fill our lungs, inject our forearms and legs, and snort various powders.  It might be suggested that students undertake these measures in some ill-fated attempt to make Detroit culturally viable; to restore this particular social body, that of the city, to its historic vibrancy.  This is an attempt to return or, perhaps, forget the vibrant euphoria lauded emphatically by nostalgic professors, urban studies, and “innovative” university curricula.  Here, the body of the hypochondriac, that of the socially concerned student, turns to substances for relief.  More interestingly, though, these substances are hailed as a solution.  By smoking pot in Detroit, one contributes to the very success of the city.  Needless to say, this is a very strange form of advertisement.

Second, taking Coleridge’s cue, we might turn to the stomach, the so-called “belly of the beast,” to remedy the “mind’s” illnesses; the rampant and utterly brutal homelessness that plagues this city; the failure of inner city schools in lieu of increased funding initiatives, the means by which industrialization destroyed the environment, and, similarly, the ways in which deindustrialization reaped havoc on those that couldn’t afford, or refused, to participate in urban sprawl. 

Although the two could be considered one in the same – one interested in remedying the stomach might turn to opiates – the first still seems much less effective than the second.  Here, the point is not to cast the drug user into an already stigmatized abyss.  Hopefully, instead, this will register as an attempt to understand both the ineffective and effective measures of the student populous.  Perhaps, furthermore, it provides a suggestion of a more appropriate means of proceeding in light of contemporary social issues.

Here, the following work serves two important functions.  First, it centers discourse on various social actions that respond to the issues plaguing the body, especially those mentioned previously.  The body concerned response to malnutrition, in its most explicit form, that of the hypochondriac, takes the form of the provision of food stuffs.  Second, and equally as important, the following attempts to focus on these movements by allowing the body to register.  Here, the body exists as a means of approach.  It becomes evident in light of research concerning various social movements that the body, despite its significance, is very much absent in social and political discourse.  It is by means of achieving these two objectives, that the following text is structured:

I. Feeding a Homeless Stomach

II. Pregnant with Plant Life