Turning Towards the Affective: Medical Semiotics of Child Maltreatment in Denmark

ABSTRACT

Signs of child maltreatment may be physical and detectable by clinical examination but may also arise as a feeling of strangeness that sparks uncertainty. Based on fieldwork in Danish general practice, and thinking along recent discussions around semiotics and affect, the article explores how feelings of “strangeness” arise in child consultations. It focuses on how subjective, embodied, and interpersonal reactions arise, how signs, however tactile and arbitrary, are felt and experienced, and how engaging with affective aspects when doing diagnosis, could expand the medical semiotics of child maltreatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Denmark
• affect
• child maltreatment
• diagnostics
• general practice
• medical semiotics

Acknowledgments

I would like to extend a profound thanks the anonymous reviewers of the article, whose insightful comments and suggestions significantly improved and lifted the analytical perspective. Moreover, I am grateful to the editors of this special issue, Expanding Medical Semiotics, for putting it forward and for offering constructive feedback on my work. Last but not least, I want to thank my interlocutors who with great patience shared their time, thoughts and experiences with me.

This study, which is based on self-reported data, requires no ethical approval in Denmark where it was carried out.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Brønderslev case was intensely covered by Danish media in 2010 and revolved around 10 children who had been physically and sexually abused and extremely neglected by their parents throughout their childhood. The extent and brutality of the case made it a high-profile political issue. Questions such as how this could have gone undetected for so many years, how could so many children have suffered within one family, and who was responsible for the apparent let down of these children were just some of those posed by the press, the public, and the political opposition, in the months following the disclosure of this tragedy.

2. A functional disorder refers to a collection of symptoms that reduces quality of life and wellbeing, but which are not fully explained by another well-defined physical disease or mental disorder.

Additional information

Funding

The author has received financial support from The Danish Victims Fund. The execution, content, and results of the materials are the sole responsibility of the author. The analysis and viewpoints that have been made evident from the materials belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Council of The Danish Victims Fund.

Notes on contributors

Camilla Hoffmann Merrild

Camilla Hoffmann Merrild is an anthropologist and works as associate professor at the Center for General Practice at Aalborg University. She works at the interface between medical anthropology, primary care, and critical public health. Her research has for more than 10 years revolved around social inequality in health in the welfare state, and she has worked extensively with families living in socially disadvantaged situations, doing fieldwork and carrying out interview studies. Empirically and theoretically, she focuses on experiences and practices of the body, and interactions with the health care system, symptom experiences, and diagnostic practices, as well as targeted interventions and at-risk populations. Currently, she is responsible for a multi-disciplinary research project focusing on how and when suspicions of child maltreatment arise in general practice, and how such suspicions are managed.