Disentangling Family Life and Hair Pulling: Trichotillomania and Relatedness

Trichotillomania (hair pulling) remains a relatively unknown form of body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). Sufferers tend to conceal both the action and its effects from others because of stigmatization, which is strong in both public and domestic spheres. Negative responses from close family mem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMedical anthropology Vol. 37; no. 7; pp. 568 - 581
Main Authors Bradley, Bridget, Ecks, Stefan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Routledge 03.10.2018
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Families & family life
family relations
Hair
hair pulling
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Relatedness
Relatives
Repetitive behaviour
Stigma
Suffering
Trichotillomania
United Kingdom
United States
relatedness
trichotillomania
United Kingdom
hair pulling
family relations
United States
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Summary:Trichotillomania (hair pulling) remains a relatively unknown form of body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). Sufferers tend to conceal both the action and its effects from others because of stigmatization, which is strong in both public and domestic spheres. Negative responses from close family members can add significantly to the suffering. Based on fieldwork in the United Kingdom and United States, we explore how hair pulling troubles ties even among close family members. We show why ethnographic methods reveal impacts of hair pulling that structured assessments do not yet capture and argue for a more nuanced study of BFRBs through anthropologies of relatedness.
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ISSN:0145-9740
1545-5882
DOI:10.1080/01459740.2018.1476509