Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Anthropol Med. 2021 Sep;28(3):320-340. doi: 10.1080/13648470.2021.1949942. Epub 2021 Jul 22.
Yoga is widely regarded as beneficial for physical and emotional health, and as a safe ancillary intervention for managing a range of psychological conditions. Evidence of injury, harm, and abuse in yoga traditions is difficult to square with this emphasis on healing. Drawing mainly from on online memoirs by long-term practitioners of Ashtanga yoga, this paper examines the relationship between suffering and healing in yoga, showing how long-term abuse can be perpetuated and injury sustained in a system widely understood and labelled by its practitioners as therapeutic. The paper argues that elements of healing and harm are present in the rituals of practice, the concepts that support it, and the power structure of the Ashtanga system. The system's organizational dynamics together with a therapeutic discourse that links suffering to its transcendence enabled the same kinds of abuse and trauma that Ashtanga yoga is purported to heal. The analysis raises questions about the overarching narrative of yoga as safe and healthy, and about the connections between healing and harm within therapeutic traditions.
瑜伽被广泛认为对身心健康有益，并且是管理一系列心理状况的安全辅助干预措施。瑜伽传统中受伤、伤害和滥用的证据很难与这种强调治疗的观点相符。本文主要从长期练习阿斯汤加瑜伽的在线回忆录中，考察了瑜伽中痛苦和疗愈之间的关系，展示了在一个被其从业者广泛理解和标记为治疗性的系统中，长期虐待如何持续存在，以及伤害如何持续存在。本文认为，在练习的仪式、支持它的概念以及阿斯汤加系统的权力结构中，存在着疗愈和伤害的元素。该系统的组织动态以及将痛苦与超越联系起来的治疗话语，使阿斯汤加瑜伽据称能够治愈的那种虐待和创伤得以持续存在。该分析对瑜伽作为安全和健康的总体叙述提出了质疑，也对治疗传统中疗愈和伤害之间的联系提出了质疑。
