W POSZUKIWANIU SIEBIE. INDYWIDUALNE MOTYWY PODWIESZANIA CIAŁA PRAKTYKOWANEGO WSPÓŁCZEŚNIE W POLSCE

The paper deals with the practice of body suspension, which is one of the forms of body play, initiated and popularized by the Modern Primitive movement. The empirical basis of the paper is the author’s own sociological research focused on the issue of individual motives to practise body suspension. The research sample consisted of people who have experienced body suspension several times (N = 30). Since grounded theory methodology was selected as the research strategy, the technique of free-form guided interview was used. The theoretical framework for empirical analyses was demarcated by joint, socio-cultural and at the same individual perspective on body perception, with the latter being the most important because of the chosen research strategy. The following motives for participation of the research subjects in body suspension practice emerged from the collected empirical material: to get to know their own bodies; to overcome the limitations of the body; to exercise the right of ownership of the body; to work with the body; to experience a different state of consciousness; to reach spiritual and corporeal ecstasy; to promote neo-primitivist trend of body suspension. In thus described motives for body suspension, the body appears to be a source of knowledge and experience, place of control, object of ownership, source of pleasure, and above all – the centre of identity