ABSTRACT
During illness people are confronted with what Parker (1988: 10) called ‘the boundedness of embodiment’ such that their need for assistance with privatised body functions can be both embarrassing and unprecedented in adult life. It can also be a time when patients experience a loss of control over the body, and that loss of control can also become a source of embarrassment. In a society which has privatised the body and (some) bodily functions, embarrassment is a powerful means of social control. However, we know very little about the management of embarrassment in social situations generally, and almost nothing about its management in situations when people need assistance with body care. I will argue here that the concept of embarrassment is central to understanding how nurses manage the body – but embarrassment in a nursing sense is a much richer concept than that which is used in popular language in relation to ‘normal’ social life.
