Key Arguments

• He notes that psychologists move toward a second definition: 'it will no longer be the mere result of associations established in the course of experience, but rather the global awareness of my posture in the inter-sensory world, a “form” in Gestalt psychology’s sense of the word.'
• But this too is insufficient unless we see it as a distinct mode of being: 'It is insufficient to say that my body is a form, or a phenomenon in which the whole is anterior to the parts. For how is such a phenomenon possible? Because a form, when compared to the mosaic of the physico-chemical body or to that of the “cenesthesia,” is a new type of existence.'
• The example of anosognosia shows selective integration: 'If the paralyzed limb of the anosognosic patient no longer counts in the subject’s body schema, this is not because the body schema is neither the simple copy, nor even the global awareness of the existing parts of the body; rather, the subject actively integrates the parts according to their value for the organism’s projects.'
• He condenses this in the term 'dynamic': 'Psychologists often say that the body schema is dynamic. Reduced to a precise sense, this term means that my body appears to me as a posture toward a certain task, actual or possible.'
• From this, he concludes that bodily spatiality is of a different kind from objective spatiality: 'And in fact my body’s spatiality is not, like the spatiality of external objects or of “spatial sensations,” a positional spatiality; rather, it is a situational spatiality.'

Source Quotes

If the need was felt to introduce this new word, it was in order to express that the spatial and temporal unity, the inter-sensorial unity, or the sensorimotor unity of the body is, so to speak, an in principle unity, to express that this unity is not limited to contents actually and fortuitously associated in the course of our experience, that it somehow precedes them and in fact makes their association possible. Thus we are making our way toward a second definition of the body schema: it will no longer be the mere result of associations established in the course of experience, but rather the global awareness of my posture in the inter-sensory world, a “form” in Gestalt psychology’s sense of the word.7 But the psychologist’s analyses in turn overflow this second definition. It is insufficient to say that my body is a form, or a phenomenon in which the whole is anterior to the parts.

For how is such a phenomenon possible? Because a form, when compared to the mosaic of the physico-chemical body or to that of the “cenesthesia,” is a new type of existence. If the paralyzed limb of the anosognosic patient no longer counts in the subject’s body schema, this is not because the body schema is neither the simple copy, nor even the global awareness of the existing parts of the body; rather, the subject actively integrates the parts according to their value for the organism’s projects.

Because a form, when compared to the mosaic of the physico-chemical body or to that of the “cenesthesia,” is a new type of existence. If the paralyzed limb of the anosognosic patient no longer counts in the subject’s body schema, this is not because the body schema is neither the simple copy, nor even the global awareness of the existing parts of the body; rather, the subject actively integrates the parts according to their value for the organism’s projects. Psychologists often say that the body schema is dynamic.8 Reduced to a precise sense, this term means that my body appears to me as a posture toward a certain task, actual or possible.

If the paralyzed limb of the anosognosic patient no longer counts in the subject’s body schema, this is not because the body schema is neither the simple copy, nor even the global awareness of the existing parts of the body; rather, the subject actively integrates the parts according to their value for the organism’s projects. Psychologists often say that the body schema is dynamic.8 Reduced to a precise sense, this term means that my body appears to me as a posture toward a certain task, actual or possible. And in fact my body’s spatiality is not, like the spatiality of external objects or of “spatial sensations,” a positional spatiality; rather, it is a situational spatiality.

Psychologists often say that the body schema is dynamic.8 Reduced to a precise sense, this term means that my body appears to me as a posture toward a certain task, actual or possible. And in fact my body’s spatiality is not, like the spatiality of external objects or of “spatial sensations,” a positional spatiality; rather, it is a situational spatiality. If I stand in front of my desk and lean on it with both hands, only my hands are accentuated and my whole body trails behind them like a comet’s tail.

Key Concepts

• it will no longer be the mere result of associations established in the course of experience, but rather the global awareness of my posture in the inter-sensory world, a “form” in Gestalt psychology’s sense of the word.
• Because a form, when compared to the mosaic of the physico-chemical body or to that of the “cenesthesia,” is a new type of existence.
• the subject actively integrates the parts according to their value for the organism’s projects.
• Psychologists often say that the body schema is dynamic.8 Reduced to a precise sense, this term means that my body appears to me as a posture toward a certain task, actual or possible.
• my body’s spatiality is not, like the spatiality of external objects or of “spatial sensations,” a positional spatiality; rather, it is a situational spatiality.

Context

Transition from the second, Gestalt-inspired definition of body schema to Merleau-Ponty’s own view, using anosognosia and the notion of 'dynamic' schema to argue that bodily space is essentially organized around tasks and projects rather than being a mere awareness of given parts.