Body Schema and Body Image (With Experiment) | Psychology

After reading this article you will learn about body schema and body image with the help of an experiment.

A phenomenon which fascinated physiologists and psychologists alike was that in certain conditions of brain damage or mental illness the facts regarding our body-mind complex like height, size of fingers, sensations of the limbs etc. which we normally take for granted, may be disarranged.

In other words we do come across individuals who appear to be unaware of the boundaries of their own body, show bizarre notions such as denying that their own hands are theirs and some denying that they have not lost their limbs when they have really lost them. We also come across persons who have lost the awareness of their own identity as individuals. Such phenomena, are commonly discussed under the heading body schema and body image which are parts of the major concept of ‘self awareness.

Body schema is the diagram of the body built-up in the brain of each individual by which coordinated and purposeful movements are carried out and by which the body parts and the body itself are oriented in space.

The effect of disruption of the body schema may be strikingly demonstrated in cases where the brain is damaged. For example, certain kinds of brain damage, usually those of sudden onset, might be caused by a cerebrovascular accident. There may arise a one-sided paralysis of the body or of part of the body accompanied by a psychological phenomenon known as dark-anosognosia.

In this condition the patient may deny that there is anything wrong with his body and apparently ignores the fact that the limbs of one side are paralyzed. Thus, one woman suffering from this condition denied the fact that her left arm was immobilised and without any sensations. At one time when her own paralyzed left arm was lying across her chest, she interpreted it as her husband’s arm caressing her.

Under such conditions not only disruptions of motor and sensory nerve supply to the affected parts of the body take place but also some sort of disruption of the body schema in the brain takes place. In some cases the sense of body location may be impaired to such an extent that the individual cannot locate the position of a limb by his usual cues and has to look at it to see where it is.

However, it is difficult to know how this body schema arises though there is some evidence that it is innate, in the sense that various parts of the body and their functions are made possible due to the functioning of the specific region in the cortex representing the organs.

For instance lips and hands have representation in the sensory-motor area of the cortex, eyes in the occipital area and so on. Evidence comes from the suggestion that body schema is developed and modified from the sensations, which constantly impinge on the individual right from birth. This constant exposure gradually helps the individual to fill out his body schema or make the diagram distinct.

This could be seen from the activities of babies who often treat their body parts just as they do with other objects in the environment. The way they examine themselves and even try to manipulate them suggests to the observer that they are unaware of their body organs as parts of themselves.

This becomes particularly clear when a baby bites his hand or some other parts of his body without realising that he is biting himself. However, he soon learns that biting this object leads to an entirely different sensation compared to the sensation he experiences on biting objects other than his body parts.

Thus, body schema may be innate or may be acquired due to experiences, or both, and in course of schematization the individual becomes aware of his body and the diagram takes the shape of an image which is termed as ‘body image’. Body image is distinct from body schema out of which it is derived.

The body image is the image that the individual has of himself as a physical person. It involves his own estimate of himself as strong or puny or herself as beautiful or ugly. P. Schilder in his well-known book ‘The image and appearance of the human body’ suggests that ” body image is formed from proprioceptive impulses, which involves awareness of one’s body and an awareness of its continuity, locations and positions of various parts, and identity of one’s own body as distinct from objects or other bodies” . D.O. Hebb’s concept of body image is a body percept which is similar to Schilder’s but he adds that it continues in the absence of sensations or sensory stimulation.

The Phantom Limb Phenomenon:

The phantom limb phenomenon is the most fascinating observation made in connection with body image. This is a sensation without sensory stimulation or receptor cells. People who have lost an arm or leg through amputation despite their knowledge that they do not have an arm or leg, continue to ‘feel’ their missing limbs after surgery. L.C. Kolba reported that as many as 98 per cent of amputees complained of sensations of itching, tingling, heaviness, even warmth and cold in the limb they no longer had.

Many amputees experienced intermittent or continuous pain, sometimes for years after the limb has been amputated. Sometimes the sensations seem so real that the patient momentarily forgets that his limb is no longer there and tries to reach with a missing arm or stand on a missing leg.

Some of the scientists feel that the phantom pain phenomenon results from the physiological process at the point of amputation. The nerve endings tend to branch out at the amputated end and may become unusually sensitive. Some believe that the source of the phantom limb sensation lies in the cortex. They maintain that as individuals grow and develop, they tend to build up a set of expectations about how one will experience his own body.

This image of the body’s boundaries continues to function after a part of the body has been removed, until one accepts and adapts to the radically new pattern of body experiences. Support for this explanation comes from Sinumel who reported that children who were amputated before four years of age, showed surprisingly few phantom limb experiences and also that no phantom sensations were reported by people who were born with a missing limb or arm.

Body image as a concept has relevance not only in physiology, but also in psychology, particularly in developmental psychology. Developmental psychologists claim that there are periods in human life when the body becomes a matter of considerable interest and its image becomes crucial.

This happens commonly during adolescence. It can cause serious problems, especially when an adolescent’s development and maturation is either markedly slow or fast. At adolescence, either real or imagined, defects may lead to the creation of a defective body image which ultimately may become a source of considerable embarrassment and unhappiness to the individual.

Organ Inferiority:

Justice cannot be done to the present discussion without mentioning Alfred Adler’s concept of ‘organ inferiority’. Adler who propounded ‘Individual Psychology’ was perplexed as to why people, when they become sick or suffer from some affliction or trouble, become sick or afflicted in a particular region of the body.

One person develops heart troubles, another lung troubles and the other headache. After careful analysis he concluded that the reason for the establishment of a particular affliction was a basic inferiority in that part of the body. This inferiority may arise either by virtue of heredity or because of some developmental abnormality or strain.

He then observed that a person with a defective organ often tries to compensate for the weakness by strengthening it through intensive training. Later, he included in this concept of organ inferiority any feeling of inferiority which arose from subjectively felt psychological or social disabilities as well as those that stem from actual bodily weakness or impairment. The most famous example of compensation for organ inferiority is that of Demosthenes who stuttered as a child and became one of the world’s greatest orators.

Adler asserted that feelings of inferiority arise from a sense of incompleteness or imperfection in any sphere of life. Inferiority feelings are not always the signs of abnormality. They may cause improvement and make the individual seek perfection. For example, a child motivated by feelings of inferiority may strive for a higher level of development.

However, under certain conditions inferiority feelings may be exaggerated and this may result in adverse consequences- the development of an inferiority complex. This, in turn, may drive such individuals to indulge in projecting an image of superiority as a compensation.

In this connection it is worth pointing out that the medical profession of present times respects the view that any illness may be primarily physical or psychological, but it is always a disorder of the whole person not just his lungs or limbs or mind. A bad cold or headache may lower the person’s tolerance for psychological stress.

Similarly, an emotional upset like the death of a loved one, failure in one’s profession etc. may lower one’s resistance to physical disease. In short, man is a totality, whether in health or disease. He functions as a psycho- biological unit in continuous interaction with his environment.