Research 4 topics
Fashion
Although I know this topic is not well researched and I would find it very hard to get my hand on academic papers, I still was very curious about this topic and how the way we dress says something not only about our personality, but about our mental health.
The fashion industry has started to raise awareness about mental health. Madhappy is a company that has built around raising mental health awareness.
Do clothes affect our mood
Clothes speak about us, but also to us, claims Sindhujaa Kumar. She says that according to the Journal of Experimental Psychology, the color, comfort fit and style of clothes can directly affect our confidence levels.
An experiment proved that when a group of doctors were given a lab coat, they performed way better than a group who performed in civil clothing. People who dress up in gym clothing after they wake up feel more energized and ready to go.
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People with different levels of anxiety and self confidence also have different relationships with clothing and fashion. While happy people tend to try dress well, people with past trauma are more inclined to under-play their outfits, while on the other end, people with high anxiety tend to obsess about their attire.
Sindhujaa also gives the example of Mark Zukerberg and Steve Jobs who cultivated the trend of dressing the same every day. Even though they were high achievers, this repetition and lack of experimentation in dressing indicates a fear of opening up to experiences and is a sign of underlying trauma.
Fashion and mental disorders-dementia, etc; make a survey on how people are fealing and what they like to wear
Clothes are our second skin? Part of everyday life?
Empowered by fashion
Fashion and lgbtq
In this article by Kristopher Fraser, fashion is seen as a form of therapy. Retail therapy, in adequate spending, can be beneficial for self esteem.
While the fashion industry takes advantage of the anxiety triggers, societal norms and … in order to make a profit, people can use clothing to improve their mood and mental health.
Sara Idacavage links fashion to more serious mental health disorders. While she also explores the many issues that fashion industry includes: taking advantage of shame, burn out and low payed labour, she also links how fashion affects her OCD episodes. Fashion has to feel ‘right’ for her, but in her own specific ways. She gives the example of socks: if one sock of the pair doesn’t seem ‘right’, as in texture, color and size, she falls spiriling into anxiety, and can’t focus on anything else for the day. For her, quote “getting dressed is like solving a complex math formula, and when the formula is successful (meaning that I managed to wear the outfit without experiencing mental distress as a result of it)”;
She also mentioned this article from Vogue:
https://archive.vogue.com/article/1958/4/what-your-looks-reveal-about-you
https://d2line.com/thatlook/dress-dont-suppress-how-fashion-betters-mental-health/
My take on this issue:
We use clothes as a way to empower, to comfort ourselves or to self punish. If our clothes or not in tune with what we need or how we want to be, that is a sign of underlying trauma or mental illness.
From my observation-needs further research:
Chronic shame and guilt-Trying to underplay the outfit
https://brainfodder.org/psychology-clothes-enclothed-cognition/
I came across this great article from BrainFodder that provided me with the starting point for my research. Fashion is seen as a form of self and identity, and it touches on these 4 topics auch as conformity, self expression, cultural identity and gender roles. This provided me with 4 starting point to look further into and a very inspiring view on fashion.
The term “enclothed cognition” is also introduced as a way to describe “the effects our clothes have on various psychological processes I found this very interesting so I looked further into it.
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Fashion and history
I picked this book for my starting point:
“Word origin=facito, latin word for “to create”, the term “fashion” has become to express a wide range of values, such as conformity, social ties, rebellion, excentricity, social aspirations and status, charm and seduction. The desire to dress transcends historical, geographical and cultural borders, even if form and content are diverse, the desire stays the same: decorating the body as an expression of identity.”
It is considered that the industrialization of XIX century is the starting point of fashion. The trends were set by a coutourier or a fashion designer. Elizabeth Hawes(1903-1971) described this theory in her book “Fashion is Spinach”, claiming “all luxury fashion is created in French fashion houses and all women desire them.
Theoreticians admit tho that in non western culture there were fashion trends alongside the traditional and regional clothes.
Interesting facts about fashion history:
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The term kimono, meaning “worn thing” was first used during “Meiji” period (1868-1912) and was introduced as a response to the raised awareness of Japanese clothing and fashion in the west, that followed after a self imposed period of isolation.
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Excesive consumerism has triggered the invention of male topper hat, simbolising the desire to get wealthy in a recently industrialised country-Victorian England
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Similar to how the luxurios fashion of The Regal Court of Italy in XIVs century developed. The fashion illustrated the desire to dress up in luxurious silks, riches that were the foundation on which Roma and Venetia were built.
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Crinoline dresses were so wide that they influenced the widening of doors architecture, was a stile that developed in Spain in the XVII th century and later spread to France and other regions in Europe. They showed material wealth and limited the wearer’s movement to only basic activities.
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Scientifical progress had influenced fashion-invention of starch in 1560 made possible the large ruffled collars of the Renaissance Period.
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Invention of steel crinoline was the trigger of the Victorian waste shape.
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Atleisure wear and bath suits were first made possible after WW1, when women enjoyed more social freedom in a more relaxed and consumerist society.
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Invention of the industrial knitting machine led to the appearance of thighs and stockings and made possible the spread of the mini skirt in 1960s.
Industrialisation and the spread of Fashion
As the western fashion industry grew as a consequence of industrialization, the demand for fashion was also increased by the wide distribution of fashion magazines. Progress in the production of garments and improvement of transport have contributed to a raise of consumption.
For long periods of time, the dress was the weapon that women used to reach power, as was considered at King Ludovi’s court in XVs century, where the deshabille dresses of the boudoir lured the king and gave power to the lover.
At the start of WW1, the long pencil skirt introduced by Paul Poiret(1879-1944) and the corset were abandoned in favour of a more confortable, practical clothing introduced by Coco Chanel and sport garment inspired by Jean Patou(1880-1936).
The film studios at Hollywood offered a form of escapism during the Great Recession of the 1930s, with their white satins, fox-furs and sensual androginous stars like Marlene Dietrich.
Trends have always borrowed from traditional garments, including ways of tailoring, cutting and sewing.
The discriminatory side of fashion is still present, with people being judged by their status, sexuality and taste shown through their outfits. As Miuccica Prada says: “Fashion is a dangerous theritory, it is very intimate as it says something about you, talks about body, about intellect. About meat. About Pathology. Reveals so much about what human nature is.”
British Historian Eric Hobsbawm commented on the ability of fashion designers to predict certain fashion trends and future demands: “How do genius fashion designers, some of the least analitycal types of people, manage to anticipate what is coming better than professional analists?(…) a question vital for any person who wants to understand the impact of change in the world of culture, arts and avantgarde”.
Fashion is based on the need of change and influenced by changes in culture and mindsets.
It has to tailor to different types of silhouettes, like an engineer for bodies. People demand a lot from fashion-it highlights ideas, shows belonging to different groups, expresses individuality, acts as camouflage, celebrates passing of times and initiation rituals.
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Red - excitement, sensuality (overuse may be a sign of seeking external validation)
Yellow - happiness
White- clean emotional state, freshness, purity, focus
Light Blue - serenity, professionalism
Dark Blue - consistency, dependability (overuse may also signify depressed moods)
Green - healing, soothing (overuse of certain shades of green may signify envy)
Orange - energy, enthusiasm
Pink - romance
Brown - grounded, reliable (overuse may mean inferiority complex)
Black - power (constant overuse may signify low energy or bad moods)
Purple - spirituality, mysticism
Grey-neutrality and balance
I really wanted to research more about fashion and mental health, but sadly It's not a very studied topic and I couldn't find enough materials. It inspired me to expand on this startig point and research more on types of fashion, trends, culture and art side of it.
I picked this book for my starting point:
Freud and the Unconscious
First, The Unconscious
“The unconscious mind (or the unconscious) consists of processes in the mind that occur automatically and are not available to introspection” Wikipedia
The unconscious is said to be underneath the conscious awareness, but exerts effect on conscious thought processes and behaviour. The unconscious includes all repressed feelings and desires, memories, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions and automatic reactions. According too Freud, everything that exists in the unconscious mind is due to the process of Repression; anxiety inducing impulses from childhood, that are barred from consciousness, but do not cease to exist. Bits of the unconscious slip to consciousness in a distorted form, through dreams and neurotic simptoms, as well as slips of the tongue and jokes. Freud wants to interpret these to understand what is repressed. The unconscious mind is the source of automatic thoughts(thoughts that appear without any obvious reason), and implicit knowledge(things that we learned so well that we do them without thinking).
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Historical use
We can find uses of the term “unconscious” since the XVIIth century. First introduced by XVIIth century philosopher Friedrich Schelling, in german- “Unbewusste”, and introduced in English by poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The idea of the subconscious was explored even in ancient times through the themes of temptation, divine inspiration and the power of the gods over one’s destiny. William Shakespear also explored the influence of the subconscious without mentioning it as such. Philosophers who used the word subconscious: Arthur Schopenhauer, Baruch Spinoza, Leibniz, Friedrich William Nietzche.
Studies in Psychology
The unsconscious was not discovered by Freud. William James examined the way the term “unconscious” was used by other philosophers such as Schopenhauer, Hartmann, Binet, in his study “The Principles of Psychology” (1890). During the nineteenth century the term was widespread and generally aknowledged by most psychologists and psychiatrists.
Freud’s View
His views play an important role in psychoanalisys. He divided the mind into a sort of topographic elements: the concious mind(or the ego) and the unconscious mind. Unconscious min is also divided into Id (Instincts and drive) and the superego(or conscience). He organized a vertical and hierarchical architecture of the mind, placing those divisions on top of each other. According to him, the most significant psychic events take place beneath the surface, and have both symbolic and actual significance. Everything that is actively represed from the conscious mind is pushed into the unconscious, which is viewed as a deposit for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires and trauma that brain discards through the process of psychological repression. Those ideas can only be shown through the simptoms the person exposes, through observation, as the conscious part of the brain is working constantly to keep them hidden. Although they are not available through introspection, they are accessible through special techniques such as meditation, free association, dream analysis and verbal slips. Those messages are generally criptic and require a psychoanalist to explain them.
Slips of the tongue is the unintentional misuse of contradicting words, that is said to show the true feelings of the person on a topic. Example: “I decided to take a summer curse”.
Freud also observed that his patients were experiencing their repressed emotions through their dreams. He claimed that personal conflicts are what trigger the repression.
Jung’s View
Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, added on Freud’s Theory. He divided the unconscious into 2 layers: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is the deepest level of the psyche, containing our genetical inheritage and archetypal experiences. They are not memories, but energy centers that are present in the culture’s usage of symbols.
The collective unsconscious is therefore the material of an entire species rather than the individual, as Jung puts it “The whole spiritual heritage of mankind’s evolution, born anew in the brain structure of every individual”. He also disagreed with Freud, in that he did not believe that sexuality was at the basis of all subconscious thought.
Dreams
According to Freud, dreams are a way of fulfilling the repressed wishes, as they cannot be fulfilled in real life. Dreams have a process to fulfill hidden wishes, process that is hard to spot because of the difference between manifest content and latent content. The manifest content is the surface or the plot of the dream, while latent content is the symbolism behind it or hidden information from childhood conflict or trauma.
Other theories on dreams
Theorist Rosalind Cartwright has come up with a different theory, in which dreams are a way for people to solve issues and act out on their feeling of the day, in a fictive setting with no consequences, and that dreams are just a continuation of our thoughts during the day. Dreams are a setting for creative thinking and problem solving.
According to Allan Hobson’s hyphotesis, dreams are side effects of the neural activity in the brain that produces Bet brain waves during REM sleep, waves that are associated with wakfullnes. According to this, neurons fire periodically during sleep and send random signals to the cortex. The cortex synthesizes a dream in reaction to these signals, in order to make sense of why the brain is sending them.
Criticism
The existence of the unconscious has been disputed. Eric Fromm claims that this is a mystification of the mind. He claims that there are only experiences that we are aware of, and others that we don’t understand, or “of which we are unconscious. If I hate a man because I am afraid of him, and if I am aware of my hate but not of my fear, I am aware of my hate but not of my fear, we may say that my hate is conscious but my fear is unconscious. Still, my fear does not lie in the mysterious place, the unconscious”;
John Searle argues that the collection of a notion of thoughts that exists in a privileged region of the mind is incoherent. “To speak of "something" as a "thought" either implies that it is being thought by a thinker or that it could be thought by a thinker. Processes that are not causally related to the phenomenon called thinking are more appropriately called the nonconscious processes of the brain”.
David Holmes examined sixty years of research on the subject and concluded that there is no evidence for it. There is a lack of evidence for many Freudian hyphoteses, and scientists have tried to strip away some of the terms, in favour of “cognitive unconscious”, “adaptive unconscious” and “dumb unconscious”, “implicit” or “automatic”.
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History
Originated in the ancient east circa 3000BCE, with early artifacts found in Egipt and Iran.
The Egyptian story The Eye of Horus records the earliest mentions of eye prosthetics (a symbol that represents wellbeing, healing, and protection), where the left eye of Horus is plucked out and restored by Thoth. Earliest archeological discovery was found in Iran, where a woman was buried with her eye prosthetic(circa 3000-2800BC), an eye made of bitumen paste covered in a thin layer of gold. The Egyptians were alsoe early pioneers of foot prosthetics-first limb prosthetic was that of a toe made of leather and wood, found circa 1000BC. It showed evidence of use, and when it was reproduced by bio-mechanical engineers in 2011, it was shown that the wearer could ack with it barefoot as well as in Egyptian sandals.
A famous and really well made arm prosthetic was that of Gotz von Berlichingen, made at the beginning of XVIth century.
Progress in the XIXth Century.
During the 15th century, prosthetics had started to become more inventive. Some early stories of an amputee that could remove his hat, sign his name and open his purse reached Ambroise Pare(1510-1590). Ambroise was a barber surgeon and was considered to be the father of surgery and modern forensic pathology. He was also an anatomist and invented several surgical instruments. Inspired by the story, he created an above-knee device with adjustable harness and knee lock control.
At the end of WWII, the National Academy of Sciences encouraged the development of better prosthetics. The government founded a development programme with the army, navy, airforce, and veteran administration.
Development
The development of new materials such as plastic, carbon, silicone have made possible the creation of lighter and more durable prosthetics, which have also developed to look more realistic.
Alongside new materials, electronics have become introduced into prosthetics. Myoelectric limbs are prosthetics that control the movement by translating muscle movements to electrical signals. “A myoelectric uses the electrical tension, generated everytime a muscle contracts, as information. Information is recorded by electrodes applied on the skin.
Robotic Prostheses
How robotic prosthetes work: biosensors detect signals from the user’s nervous and muscular systems and then send this information to a micro controller located in the prosthetic. These biosensors include surface electrodes that detect electrical activity on the skin, needle electrodes implanted in muscle, or electrodes with nerves going through them.
The controller makes the connection between the user’s nerve and muscular system and the prosthetic, and sends commands to the actuator as well as interpret feedback from the mechanical biosensors and send it to the user.
Most recently, robotic limbs have now developed to take signals from the human brain and translate it into motion in the artificial limb.
Interesting people living with prosthetics
Neil Harbisson is an artist born with extreme color blindness (achromatopsia) and he can only see black and white. He received an “electronic eye”, result of a collaboration between 3 scientists. The eye detects the color frequency and stores it into a chip installed in the back of his head. The color frequency is translated into sound, and then transmitted to him through bone conduction. He claims he is a cyborg, has been for 10 years, and has talked about the process of the integration of the prosthetic into his life: at first, he had to memorise the sound frequencies for colors, later he got used to this and it all became “sensing”, and finally, he started dreaming in colors. He claims that the device had become a part of his body and an extension of his senses and that he started to feel like a cyborg.
Kevin Warwick
He is a cybernetic professor and teaches at the university of Reading, and has been known as “Captain Cyborg”. He has experimented with different electronic implants such as a microchip in his arm that lets him operate lights, heaters and computer’s remotely.
He is founder of the “Project Cyborg” where he uses himself as a Guinea Pig in order to become “the world’s most complete cyborg”. He claims that rather than upgrading machines, humans should use technology to “upgrade their brains”.
Jerry Jalava
Jerry Jalava is a finnish programmer that lost his finger in a motorbike accident. Right after the accident, he lit a cigarette and realized he was missing the upper part of his finger.
When his doctors found out what he does for a living, they joked he should have a “USB finger drive”. This was an inspiratin for him and he started to develop the prosthetic. He is now working on a new one that fatures wireless tracking.
The fascination with cyborgs
Cyborg transcend the boundaries oh human or machine. Since the invention of mechanical machines, people have always dreamed up mechanical people. What comes to mind is a short by Edgar Allan Poe, “The man that was used up”, featuring the story of a war hero who had an extensive number of prosthetics and augumentations to his body.
Cyborgs in Pop Culture:
Robocop-The plot of the 1987 released film revolves around the story of a police officer who strives to clean a futuristic Detroit.
Iron Man-Stan Lee developed the character in order to create a capitalist rich young man. It was an instant hit and has developed to be one of the most complex in the Marvel Role.
Geordi LaForge-Star Trek was one of the first multi-ethnic cast and an aspiration fictive future where humans move beyond racism. Geordi LaForge is the brilliant scientist and intellectual aboard the USS Enterprise-D.
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