and stigmatised illness. The ethical implications of the diary methods are then
examined.
Health and Emotions
In his review of the medical geography literature, Kearns (1996) called for a change
of direction which recognised not only the distribution and diffusion of the HIV virus,
but also the emotional experiences and well-being of people living with HIV/AIDS.
In response, geographies of health and illness have been at the forefront in
acknowledging that physical and emotional experiences are intrinsically linked (Basu
2006; Davidson and Milligan 2004; Kearns and Moon 2002), and must be seen within
the context of the changing embodied relations, discourses and socio-cultural
environments in which they are located (Thien 2005; Bennett 2004). Attempting to
recast “subjects of research as persons rather than as patients” (Kearns 1995, 252),
increasing focus has been placed on the emotional and subjective perceptions of
people themselves, with growing acknowledgement that well-being is largely
determined by a person’s capability to “choose a life one has reason to value” (Sen
1999, 74). Ill-health and ill-being may therefore encompass not only the physical
impacts of the ‘disease’ or ‘affliction’, but a range of more emotional factors such as
exclusion, insecurity, powerlessness, self-respect and personal beliefs (Dean 2003).
More recently, an emerging interest in emotional geographies has brought
increasing recognition that social relations are lived and experienced through
emotions (Bennett 2004; Zautra et al. 2004; Anderson and Smith 2001; Laurier and
Parr 2000; Widdowfield 2000). Rather than being irrational, disruptive and overly
subjective, it is argued that emotions are intrinsically bound up with wider structures
and processes (Basu 2006; Thien 2005; Bondi 2005) and thus affect the changing