Diane
04-06-2004, 10:59 PM
Hi SS-ers,
I posted a short part of a long Hanna essay on my website. I decided to post it here, in hope of assisting the whole discussion regarding 1st and 3rd person. I think we need to bear in mind that Hanna was first an existential philosopher and only secondly, an exercise system inventor. I get from his writing that to him the meaning of something was really important. However, he wasn't a PT so he never knew or used our language. Be that as it may, here are his thoughts, in his words:
"There are two distinct ways of perceiving and acting upon physiological processes: first, one can perceive a body and act upon a body; second, one can perceive a soma and act upon a soma. The first instance is a third-person standpoint that sees an objective body "there", separate from the observer -- a body upon which the observer can act, for example, a doctor "treating" the patient.
The second instance is a first-person standpoint that sees a subjective soma "here": namely, oneself. The soma learns to change itself. A soma, then is a body perceived from within.
The word soma describes the rich and constantly flowing array of sensings and actions that are occurring within the experience of each of us. The somatic viewpoint offers insights and possibilities that are categorically not possible from the bodily viewpoint that is the established perspective of physiological science and medical practice.
What each human experiences is himself -- an acting, sensing being. Experience (this is a cognate of the more traditional terms "consciousness" and "awareness") is a sensory-motor event, in which sensing cannot be separated from moving and moving cannot be separated from sensing -- they are the warp and woof of personal reality. This inseparability means that what we do not sense, we cannot move; what we cannot move, we cannot sense.
Our experience is comprised of two layers: the phylogenetic and the ontogenetic. What is given to us phylogenetically are the myriad sensory- otor programs that have evolved through the mammalian, vertebrate lineage back to the earliest life forms. These programs, reflexive and autonomic in nature, are the ancient biological ocean upon which experience floats. ... It embodies the "unconscious" processes upon which somatic life depends. Its functions are "involuntary".
The ontogenetic layer is composed of the myriad sensory-motor programs that have been learned since birth. They are elaborated during childhood growth out of the ocean of reflexes beneath them. The ontogenetic layer of experience is, then, the result of learned adaptations. It constitutes that part of our experience which we call "conscious" and that part of our actions which we call "voluntary".
Our conscious, voluntary experience arises out of -- and totally depends upon -- our unconscious, involuntary layer of experience. At birth, we are little more than involuntary reflexes and autonomic processes. Only gradually do we learn our way into the realm of conscious, voluntary control. If, however, something occurs to evoke strong involuntary, autonomic reflexes, we can find our sensory-motor realm taken over by unconscious control against which we can do nothing directly; we can only, once again, learn our way out of this loss of volition.
Neurologically, this distinction between phylogenetic and ontogenetic layers is the distinction between subcortical, lower brain structures and cortical, upper brain structures. When sensory-motor amnesia occurs, we can say with certainty that subcortical reflexes have robbed the cortex of its learned controls."
The full article first appeared in SOMATICS, Magazine-Journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences, Volume VIII, No. 1, Autumn/Winter 1990-91
Copyright ©1990 Thomas Hanna
Definition: SOMA: The body experienced from within.
..(spelling mistakes are in the original.)
Cheers,
Diane
I posted a short part of a long Hanna essay on my website. I decided to post it here, in hope of assisting the whole discussion regarding 1st and 3rd person. I think we need to bear in mind that Hanna was first an existential philosopher and only secondly, an exercise system inventor. I get from his writing that to him the meaning of something was really important. However, he wasn't a PT so he never knew or used our language. Be that as it may, here are his thoughts, in his words:
"There are two distinct ways of perceiving and acting upon physiological processes: first, one can perceive a body and act upon a body; second, one can perceive a soma and act upon a soma. The first instance is a third-person standpoint that sees an objective body "there", separate from the observer -- a body upon which the observer can act, for example, a doctor "treating" the patient.
The second instance is a first-person standpoint that sees a subjective soma "here": namely, oneself. The soma learns to change itself. A soma, then is a body perceived from within.
The word soma describes the rich and constantly flowing array of sensings and actions that are occurring within the experience of each of us. The somatic viewpoint offers insights and possibilities that are categorically not possible from the bodily viewpoint that is the established perspective of physiological science and medical practice.
What each human experiences is himself -- an acting, sensing being. Experience (this is a cognate of the more traditional terms "consciousness" and "awareness") is a sensory-motor event, in which sensing cannot be separated from moving and moving cannot be separated from sensing -- they are the warp and woof of personal reality. This inseparability means that what we do not sense, we cannot move; what we cannot move, we cannot sense.
Our experience is comprised of two layers: the phylogenetic and the ontogenetic. What is given to us phylogenetically are the myriad sensory- otor programs that have evolved through the mammalian, vertebrate lineage back to the earliest life forms. These programs, reflexive and autonomic in nature, are the ancient biological ocean upon which experience floats. ... It embodies the "unconscious" processes upon which somatic life depends. Its functions are "involuntary".
The ontogenetic layer is composed of the myriad sensory-motor programs that have been learned since birth. They are elaborated during childhood growth out of the ocean of reflexes beneath them. The ontogenetic layer of experience is, then, the result of learned adaptations. It constitutes that part of our experience which we call "conscious" and that part of our actions which we call "voluntary".
Our conscious, voluntary experience arises out of -- and totally depends upon -- our unconscious, involuntary layer of experience. At birth, we are little more than involuntary reflexes and autonomic processes. Only gradually do we learn our way into the realm of conscious, voluntary control. If, however, something occurs to evoke strong involuntary, autonomic reflexes, we can find our sensory-motor realm taken over by unconscious control against which we can do nothing directly; we can only, once again, learn our way out of this loss of volition.
Neurologically, this distinction between phylogenetic and ontogenetic layers is the distinction between subcortical, lower brain structures and cortical, upper brain structures. When sensory-motor amnesia occurs, we can say with certainty that subcortical reflexes have robbed the cortex of its learned controls."
The full article first appeared in SOMATICS, Magazine-Journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences, Volume VIII, No. 1, Autumn/Winter 1990-91
Copyright ©1990 Thomas Hanna
Definition: SOMA: The body experienced from within.
..(spelling mistakes are in the original.)
Cheers,
Diane