THEORIES OF BODY EXPRESSION IN THEIR HISTORICAL RELATIONSHIP TO PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS
Tory Hoff
York University
Psychology Department
Ph.D. Dissertation
July 17th, 1990
ABSTRACT
This
dissertation documents the decline of physiognomical theory and the rise
of theories pertaining to expressive movement. The Scientific Revolution
of the seventeenth century laid the foundation for an objective and technological
approach to the world that viewed material being, including the human
body, in terms of quantifiable objects. Supported by the semiotical framework
of external signifier and internal signified, the Scientific Revolution
ushered in the notion that the body is an instrument that accurately
represents the nature and states of the internal mind and is therefore
expressive. The spread of the Cartesian and Lockean philosophies challenged
the Aristotelian notion of substantial form and hence the belief that
the shape of the body and its parts convey personality. This new perspective
comprises a first step in the decline of physiognomical theories, especially
those containing astrological notions
A
revival of physiognomical theory occurred in the second half of the eighteenth
century, above all, due to the acceptance of the notion that the expression
of the passions has a cumulative effect on the shape and features of the
body, especially of the face. Supporting this idea of an acquired physiognomy
was the notion that the body is not a mechanical object but operates according
to vital properties such as nervous sensibility and muscular irritability.
The body was thought to start out as a psychological blank slate, but
over time Greater emphasis on the role of the brain in animal life inevitably
led to the idea that physiognomical expression is limited to the skull.
But the phrenological movement, initiated by Gall's theory of the expressive
physiology of the brain, proved to be the last major contribution to the
physiognomical tradition prior to its final decline. Greater objectification
in the first half of the nineteenth century led to a physiology which
rejected earlier notions of sensibility and therefore removed all psychological
notions from its terrain. The expressive aspects of the body were not
a primary concern of the psycho-physiologists before 1860.
When
the subject of body expression again reappeared in the 1860's within established
scientific and academic circles, it was further removed from anatomy and
especially physiology as well as from the arts and semiotics. It was for
the most part limited to theories on the expression of the emotions. Darwin,
in particular, established a new approach when he presented a theory of
how various expressive movements may have developed in the course of phylogenetic
evolution. Wundt, however, placed emotional expression, and particularly
gesture, within a theory of interpersonal communication.
For
the most part, North American psychologists of the twentieth century continued
to theorize in the traditions of Darwin and Wundt, but they limited their
topic to the judgement of facial expression, sometimes concluding that it
was not particularly accurate. Theories imported from Europe, however, took
an entirely different approach. The gestalt psychologists posited isomorphic
structures between mind, brain and expressive behaviour. At the same time
the psychoanalytic theory of Freud presented a radically new approach to the
psychological meaning of the body. Erotogenic parts of the body were thought
to contribute to personality development and idiosyncratic gestures were thought
to reflect unconscious conflict. Only Sheldon was able to produce a research
methodology which suggested that the overall shape of the body might correlate
with personality.
An
historical survey of theories of body expression reveals that certain
modern psychological terms at one time referred indiscriminately to somatic
and psychological aspects. It appears that concepts of body expression
constitute the origin of some current psychological terms, notably character,
temperament, passion, emotion and attitude. Up to the eighteenth century
'character' referred to the signs and marks in the form and figure of
the body. During the Medieval period 'passion' referred to transitions
as a result of being the passive recipient of an external agent, while
'emotion' referred to feeling from the viewpoint of its body movement.
By the nineteenth century 'character,' 'emotion' and 'passion' generally
referred to that which is exclusively psychological yet which nevertheless
correlates with certain physiological states. During the Renaissance 'temperament'
referred to the humourally-based colour, shape and mental dispositions
of a person. A mental definition of 'temperament' started at the beginning
of the nineteenth century, but it remained a psycho-physical concept
among popular physiognomists and phrenologists who still thought that
the form of the body had something to do with the nature of the person.
Most twentieth century theorists held that 'temperament' is primarily
mental but that it is in rapport with 'constitution' which is physical.
Up to and including the nineteenth century 'attitude' almost always referred
to psychologically meaningful postures and actions. It was not until the
beginning of the twentieth century that academic psychologists defined
attitude as a mental orientation, and not until the 1930's that this orientation
was considered to be independent of the postures of the body.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I first of all want to thank Kurt Danziger for all
the time, effort and guidance that he has put into this dissertation. He
read several drafts sentence by sentence. Each time I was given clear indication
of what improvements needed to be made.
I also want to thank others on my committee,
Ray Fancher, David Bakan, Gary Brooks and Peter Alexrod for reading the
dissertation and making comments. Other professors in the Department of
Psychology at York University contributed to the dissertation and to my
graduate training. Deserving recognition are Dave Wiesenthal and Peter
Waxer who read an earlier paper which proved to be the prototype of this
dissertation. Thanks to Mac and Paige Westcott and Fred Weismann for taking
an interest in my work and for the encouragement they gave me.
So many others deserve acknowledgment. Writing
these paragraphs give me the opportunity to reflect back and recall with
some fondness the numerous people who helped. Perhaps at the top of the
list should be the librarians working out of Interlibrary Loans at York
University, namely, Gladys Fung, Mary McDowell, John Carter, Joan McConnell,
the late Gary MacDonald and in particular Mary Hudecki. The secretaries
for the Graduate Program in Psychology, Marg Lewis and Connie Scalzullo,
led me by the hand through many procedural labyrinths and bureaucratic
mazes that were beyond my present level of institutional acumen. Special
thanks goes to fellow graduate student, Jim Parker, for helping me master
the CMS mainframe at York, for coming to the rescue on numerous occasions,
and for delivering numerous copies of drafts to Kurt and other members
of my committee when I doing re-writing in Saskatoon but using iNet
to print copies at York. I also want to thank Daniel Bloom and Jamie Savage
of York Computing Services for helping me with embedded commands on the
York CMS System and for setting up my iNet phone line to my York computer
account. Perhaps I should thank York University for providing me with
this free service.
Here at the University of Saskatchewan
I want to congratulate Elena Corrigan of St. Thomas More College for winning
our race to see who would finish their dissertation first and to thank
her husband, Kevin Corrigan, for reading a portion of the dissertation.
In the Department of Psychology in Arts and Sciences I thank Norv Spence
for making detailed comments on a last draft and Jim Cheesman for telling
me to get the dissertation done or else. I also want to thank Maria Fortugno
for doing some of the library research necessary for writing the last
chapter. Lastly, may Jonathan Dent successfully complete his dissertation.
DEDICATION
This dissertation, which slowly
materialized over a seven year period, finally came to a quick completion
due to the care of my friends. To them this dissertation is dedicated.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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| CHAPTER
ONE: |
THE LANGUAGE
OF THE BODY PRIOR TO
THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
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10-52
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| Section
One: |
Ancient
Theories on the Significative Body |
12
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| Section
Two: |
The
Medieval System of Correspondences |
17
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| Section
Three: |
Metoposcopy
as a Planetary Physiognomy |
21
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| Section
Four: |
The
Signatures and Characters of the Body |
25
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| Section
Five: |
The
Temperaments of the Body |
31
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| Section
Six: |
The
Passions and Emotions |
39
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| Section
Seven: |
The
Physiagnomical Theory of Porte |
45
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| CHAPTER
TWO: |
THE IMPACT
OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION ON
THEORIES OF THE BODY AND ITS SIGNS
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53-99
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| Section
One: |
The
Late-Medieval Anatomy of Mondini |
55
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| Section
Two: |
The
Renaissance Anatomy of Vesalius |
57
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| Section
Three: |
Santorio
on the Objective Weight of the Body |
60
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| Section
Four: |
Descartes
on the Body as Res Extensa and on the Passions of the Soul |
63
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| Section
Five: |
La
Chambre as Representative of Theories of Body Expression in the Seventeenth
Century |
71
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| Section
Six: |
Expressive
Passion and Physiognomy according to Le Brun |
86
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| Section
Seven: |
Bulwer
on Gesture as a Natural Language |
93
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| CHAPTER
THREE: |
THE DECLINE
OF NATURAL PHYSIOGNOMY AND THE ASCENDANCE OF ACQUIRED PHYSIOGNOMY
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100-141 |
| Section
One: |
Medical
Theory and the Arts in the First Stage of the Enlightenment |
102
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| Section
Two: |
The
Mental Philosophy and Semiotics of Locke |
109
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| Section
Three: |
The
Rejection of Traditional Physiognomies |
115
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| Section
Four: |
A New
Habitude of the Passions |
119
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| Section
Five: |
The
Acquisition of an Individual Character and Physiognomy |
132
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| Section
Six: |
Parsons
and Buffon on the Cumulative Influence of Pathognomical Expression |
137
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| CHAPTER
FOUR: |
NEW THEORIES
AIDED BY CONCEPTS OF SENSIBILITY
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142-205 |
| Section
One: |
The
Sensibility of the Scientific Body |
144
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| Section
Two: |
The
Revival of Expressive Movement in the Arts |
147
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| Section
Three: |
Natural
and Cultured Body Expression according to Chodowiecki |
154
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| Section
Four: |
The
Semiotics of the Natural Body |
158
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| Section
Five: |
The
Role of Imitation and Sympathy in Natural Expression and Communication |
162
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| Section
Six: |
The
Revival of a Language of the Body based on Form |
172
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| Section
Seven: |
Lavater's
'Physiognomische Fragments' |
178
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Section
Eight:
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Lichtenberg's
Critique of Lavaterian Physiognomy |
192
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| Section
Nine: |
The
Notion of a Reciprocal Relation between the Mind and its Signs |
198
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| CHAPTER
FIVE: |
THE RISE AND
FALL OF EXPRESSION THEORY WITHIN ESTABLISHED CIRCLES
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206-275
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| Section
One: |
The
Craniology and Pathognomy of Gall as Two Kinds of Language of the
Body |
208
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| Section
Two: |
Bell's
Respiratory System of Nerves in Relation to his Theory of Expression |
218
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| Section
Three: |
The
Aesthetics of Gall and Bell in Relation to a New Concept of Imitation |
229
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| Section
Four: |
The
New Physiology Begun in France |
239
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| Section
Five: |
The
End of the Doctrine of the Temperaments |
251
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| Section
Six: |
The
Divergence of Romantic Art and Semiotics from Objective Science |
259
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| Section
Seven: |
The
Relocation of Body Expression in the Imagination |
268
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| CHAPTER
SIX: |
THE CONTINUATION
OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE BODY IN POPULAR CULTURE
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277-331
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| Section
One: |
The
Re-marginalization of Theory |
279
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| Section
Two: |
A Tripartite
Theory of the Temperaments |
283
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| Section
Three: |
The
Return of Phrenology to Physiognomy |
299
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| Section
Four: |
Esoteric
Physiognomies plus a Silent Majority |
308
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| Section
Five: |
Popular
Theories of Body Expression in the Graphic and Performing Arts |
320
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| CHAPTER
SEVEN: |
THEORIES OF
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENT AFTER 1860
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332-403
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| Section
One: |
The
Continuation of Theory in Germany |
334
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| Section
Two: |
The
Revival of Theory in France |
342
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| Section
Three: |
Expression
according to the British Psycho-physiologists |
354
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| Section
Four: |
Darwin
on the Origin of Emotional Expression among Species |
363
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| Section
Five: |
Wundt's
Classification of Gesture |
381
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| Section
Six: |
The
Decline of the Traditional Concept of Expression |
390
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| CHAPTER
EIGHT: |
THEORIES OF
BODY EXPRESSION DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
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404-473
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| Section
One: |
Theories
of Expression in Germany |
406
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| Section
Two: |
The
Gestalt Theory of Body Expression |
411
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| Section
Three: |
Freud's
Theory of Body Expression |
419
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| Section
Four: |
Sheldon
in Defence of Constitutional Psychology |
422
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| Section
Five: |
Psychologists
Against the Physiognomists |
440
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| Section
Six: |
The
Emergence of a Mental Concept of Attitude |
448
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| Section
Seven: |
Debate
Regarding Facial Expression |
459
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| CONCLUSION |
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474-480
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| ILLUSTRATIONS |
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481-538
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| BIBLIOGRAPHY |
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539-602
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Primary Material:
Up to the Twentieth Century |
539
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Primary Material:
Twentieth Century |
570
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Secondary Source
Publications |
580
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PREFACE
Body language is a subject which interests most
of us. We are fascinated with what the expressive body reveals about the
person and sometimes wonder what a certain nuance in posture and gesture
discloses. Some people are surprised when told that the discussion of body
language has a long history, that in the past far more people attended to
the matter and put their ideas in print than academic psychologists have
done in twentieth-century North America. It is also not widely known that
many theorists from previous centuries thought that the lines, shape and
figure of the body and its parts are indicative of personal qualities. Nowadays
most educated people would find this tradition amusing, although some might
suspect it of fostering stereotyping and prejudice.
The goal of this dissertation is to trace the
decline of theories about what we would call the disclosure of personality
through the form of the body and its parts, a subject known over the centuries
as physiognomy and the rise of theories about expressive movement, a subject once
known as pathounomy because it was thought that the most expressive
movements are those involving the passions. My main purpose, in other
words, is to describe and partially explain the gradual shift from a broad
concept of body expression to one which attributes communicative meaning
primarily to certain movements of the body. How might one go about accomplishing
this goal? I have chosen to document the changes in theories of body expression
from one historical period to the next, and to take steps towards an explanation
of this slow transformation in Western thought by demonstrating that these
changes occurred within the context of concurrent changes in concepts
regarding the body and, secondarily, theories of signs and language. For
each historical period prior to the last third of the nineteenth century,
I show how scientific and artistic theories of the body as well as theories
of signs influenced theories of body expression. Hence this dissertation
includes a historical study of theories of the body and of language to
the extent that they supported various theories regarding the 'language
of the body.' A history of theories of body expression, however, also
requires a consideration of changing ideas about what is expressed.
One cannot discuss theories of body expression, past or present, without
involving the categories used to discuss the nature of a person. Any theory
of body expression at least assumes a given psychological theory, in particular
a theory of personality. In the process of identifying changes in theories
of body expression from one period to the next, I necessarily make reference
to changes which have occurred regarding various psychological concepts.
What becomes apparent is that certain psychological concepts, namely,
character, temperament, passion, emotion and attitude, have their origin
as concepts directly referring to the expressive body. In sum, theories
of the body, of its semiotic capabilities, and of the psychological nature
of the person provide a context within which to understand the history
of theories of body expression.
Any study of events prior to this century has to confront
the problem of changing definitions of key terms. I know of no way to
employ current definitions of terms and at the same time do justice to
the historical material at hand. Use of current terms makes it more difficult
to understand previous usage and the framework within which these terms
then operated, and yet this dissertation is not the place to create new
words. In particular, I need a term which presumes that the features
and shapes of the body as well as its postures, gestures, facial expression,
colour, texture and vocalization other than speech all convey psychological
(psycho-social or interpersonal) meaning about the person. The only candidates
are 'physiognomy,' 'body expression,' 'body language' and 'non-verbal
communication.' But they are all problematic.
Prior to the middle of the eighteenth century, 'physiognomy'
referred to the meaning of the lines and figures of the body and its parts.
Since the eighteenth century, however, it has also referred, sometimes
exclusively, to expressive movement, especially that of the face. Particularly
in the twentieth century, the phrase 'body expression' conjures up little
more than expressive movement. The term is also troublesome because it
does not necessarily include reference to the important topic of the perception
of body expression.
'Non-verbal communication' avoids this problem, but labels 'body expression'
in terms of what it is not. It implies that body expression is a secondary
kind of communication to be defined through reference to verbal communication.
Moreover, 'non-verbal communication' draws on the current notion
that the communicative meaning of the body lies with posture, gesture
and facial expression and not with the line and figure of the body. However,
a historical treatment demands that the issue of a supposed psychological
meaning of the form of the body be included within the subject of communication.
The term 'body language' has the same problem, though at least avoids
identifying its referent in the negative. A further difficulty, however,
is that, ever since the middle of the nineteenth century, academics have
challenged the idea that the meaning of the body can indeed be understood
as a 'language.' The term 'body expression' does not seem to imply current
notions which do not do justice to beliefs common during previous centuries.
In this dissertation it first of all means the ability of the body to
disclose and reveal the individual person in the broadest sense of disclosure
and revelation. I employ the common designation for the term 'body language,'
but use the phrase 'the language of the body' specifically in reference
to the once predominant notion that the body contains a set, system or
formal organization of signs which constitutes a language. l
Reference to 'body expression' includes all aspects of the body
that theorists at various times in Western history have believed communicates
aspects of the person.
1 The idea that body expression indeed
constitutes a language which can be 'heard' or 'read' has been
around for centuries. From the Renaissance to the middle of the nineteenth
century it was common for people to refer to a language of the body
in the same sense that they spoke of the book of nature. For instance,
Lavater" (1775-78; Eng. tr., 1789-98) referred
to "the universal truth and language of Nature" Cvol. 2, p.
97) while the entry "Physiognomy" in Rees' Cyclopaedia
(1807) equates the word with "the language of the face" (col.
2). The term closest to our present use of the phrase 'body language'
was probably the word 'attitude' in its older meaning of posture.
'Physiognomy' is used in its original, limited
sense. The older assumption was that the relatively fixed form of the
body and its parts indicate the relatively permanent nature of a person.
The 'physiognomical tradition,' therefore, refers to theories about body
form as distinct from those of expressive movement. From the seventeenth
century to the beginning of the nineteenth most theories of expressive
movement went under the term 'pathognomy' because of the connection made
between body movement and the passions. My definitions of physiognomy
and pathognomy are therefore consistent with those used by Lavater, Lichtenberg
and Gall at the end of the eighteenth century. This choice of definitions,
however, has its difficulties because other definitions of 'physiognomy'
emerged in the nineteenth century that included or exclusively meant expressive
movement.
Theorists before the middle of the eighteenth
century generally assumed that body expression includes its communication
to an observer. Afterwards, theorists started to emphasize that miscommunication
can occur via body expression, in part due to the cultural constraints
against uninhibited expression and in part due to perceptual difficulties
by an observer. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between expression
and perception via the body. I conceive of 'body
expression' as a reality submitted to the social arena. It is not
communicated unless observers, for whatever reason, have the social skills
to perceive it. This emphasis is different from that of the gestalt psychologist,
Arnheim C1949), for instance, who refers to expression as "a product
of perceptual properties" (p. 156) and "an integral part of
the elementary processes of perception" (p. 167). While I support
his desire to counter the scepticism toward body expression that he observed
among his colleagues of the 1940's, the matter of communication between
a subject and an observer raises the issue of projection and hence the
involved question, "who expressed what?" (p. 158). Judgements
regarding what another person's body expresses can reflect the personality
of the observer more than that of the person observed. Recent discussion
about 'body semiotics' or the 'semiotics of the body' (Mukarovsky, 1978;
Sebeok, 1985; Poyatos, 1983, 1985) seems to offer a viable solution to
the subject of body expression in relation to its perception by an observer
because it attempts to place body expression where it belongs -- within
the context of a relationship between subject and observer. A sign acts
as a sign only when a match occurs between what is sent and what is received.
This semiotical approach requires a clear distinction between 'body expression'
and 'body perception' and it is here employed as well.
In order to set limits on an otherwise unmanageable
dissertation topic, I have generally avoided what would be considered
the medical, psychiatric, and legal aspects of body expression. That is,
I pass by various theories regarding the possible role of the body in
the diagnosis and treatment of various pathological states, even
though the use of the normal body for diagnostic purposes is an important
concern throughout the history of theories of body expression. For instance,
I have left out Cesare Lombroso's atavistic theory of criminal types.
Because of far reaching socio-political implications, this theory,
as well as other late nineteenth and early twentieth century theories
of physiognomic degeneracy, would have required the introduction of matters
that transcend the defined scope of the dissertation. Furthermore, the
extensive treatment that this topic deserves would have significantly
increased an already excessively long text.
For the most part, I exclude from my topic extensions
of body expression such as clothing, hair style and cosmetics. Nor do
I discuss handwriting and its analysis, a subject which has generated
a considerable amount of interest over the centuries. Moreover, I do not
focus on the interesting subject of body expression as Practiced
in Western culture, except to illustrate specific points about theory
and to speculate occasionally on the historical relation between body
expression as theorized and as actually practiced. This dissertation is
necessarily limited to theories of body expression. However fascinating,
a comprehensive history of the meaning of actual body shapes or movements
is too large and difficult a subject to cover at the same time.
What follows is primarily an intellectual history without reference to
social history, even though any intellectual history should be
placed within the context of social history. Indeed, the history of theories
of body expression to a significant extent reflects changes in Western
social organization and the psychological life which has emerged within
it. But inclusion of the social context would take this dissertation beyond
its goal, which is simply to present and discuss the relevant theories.
Such a discussion, which has seemingly not been attempted before, is required
before one moves to a fuller consideration of the more complex issues
of why these theories arose when and where they did. My explanation
of historical changes regarding theory extends only to a presentation
of concurrent beliefs about the scientific and artistic body, about signs
and language, and also about psychological concepts used to describe the
person.
Any historical survey must reckon with the issue
of selectivity. Recognized works specifically on the expressive ability
of the body of course demand coverage. However, in order to put these
works in perspective, important theoretical contributions from anatomy
and physiology, the fine arts and literature, philosophy, and linguistics
must also be included. Examples are Aristotelian philosophy, the anatomy
of Vesalius, the rationalism and mechanism of Descartes, the semiotics
and Newtonian psychology of Locke, the physiologies of Haller and then
Magendie, the evolutionary theory of Darwin and the psychoanalytic theory
of Freud. 2
2 I make no claim to a scholarly contribution
toward the various disciplines into which I enter in order to cover
my topic thoroughly. Particularly treatment of the history semiotics
and art, have relied on secondary sources.
English, German, and French speaking regions present slightly different
versions of the story about the decline of physiognomical theory and ascent
of theories of expressive movement. Therefore, an attempt is also made
to indicate regional differences from one historical period to the next.
Because this dissertation was designed to end with a discussion of theories
that circulated within North American academic psychology in the first
half of the twentieth century, theorists writing in German and French
after the beginning of the nineteenth century are given less coverage.
A history of theories of body expression might make
a contribution to the history of psychology for several reasons. Presently,
psychologists doing research on non-verbal communication do not have access
to a good presentation of the broad historical roots of their subject.
In English they have available a few works which discuss research on expressive
movement going no further back than Darwin. Therefore, few conduct their
research with a good knowledge of the ascendance of theories of expressive
movement over those of body form. Few have a sympathetic understanding
of physiognomical theories, and most know only of the constitutional psychology
constructed by Sheldon a few decades ago. This dissertation gently challenges
those who study aspects of the communicative meaning of the body to consider
their own research within the context of a broad concept of body expression
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