Warm Fuzzies' in Healing

The Tradition of Embodied Body Touching in Folk Medical Encounters

Bibliographic Data

ID2377147
AuthorsSujit Deogharia (0009-0000-2590-0142, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University), Jaydeep Sengupta (0000-0001-7490-6196, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume25
Issue2
Pages387-399
Publication date2025-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Oriental Anthropologist A Bi-annual International Journal of the Science of Man (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0972-558X • E-ISSN: 0976-3430
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0972558x251332190
OpenAlexW4410038416
LanguageEN
References cited24

Human touch ('warm fuzzy') has a tremendous potential to communicate and heal. Although body touching is measured and conditioned in the clinical world, in the folk tradition, it is spontaneous and grounded in experiences of intersubjectivity. Watching numerous medical encounters in an Indian rural setting, we confirm haptic modalities are not just therapeutic but help patients and healers to deeply engage in intersubjective interactions. It is an emotional journey of patients and healers who come close to each other through the sequential process of experiencing 'being-apart-from-oneanother,' followed by the feeling of 'being-with-one-another,' 'being-withinone-another,' and finally 'being-for-one-another.' We believe intersubjectivity is the key to healing that starts with free body touching; it is the healing praxis of modern times

Aesthetics · Art · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Human-Animal Interaction Studies · Infant Health and Development · Philosophy · Psychology