The dynamics of personal action
Each one of us speaks, moves, thinks, and feels in a different way, each according
to the image of himself that he has built up over the years. In order to change
our mode of action we must change the image of ourselves that we carry within
us. What is involved here, of course, is a change in the dynamics of our reactions,
and not the mere replacing of one action by another. Such a change involves
not only a change in our self-image, but a change in the nature of our motivations,
and the mobilization of all the parts of the body concerned.
These changes produce the noticeable difference in the way each individual
carries out similar actions--handwriting and pronunciation, for instance.
The four components of action
Our self-image consists of four components that are involved in every action:
movement, sensation, feeling, and thought. The contribution of each of the
components to any particular action varies, I . just as the persons carrying
out the action vary, but each component will be present to some extent in any
action.
In order to think, for instance, a person must be awake, and know that be
is awake and not dreaming; that is, he must sense and discern his physical
position relative to the field of gravity. It follows that movement, sensing,
and feeling are also involved in thinking.
In order to feel angry or happy, a man must be in a certain posture, and in
some kind of relationship to another being or object That is, he must also
move, sense, and think.
In order to sense--see, hear, or touch--a person must be interested, startled,
or aware of some happening that involves him. That is, be must move, feet,
and think.
In order to move, he must use at least one of his senses, consciously or unconsciously,
which involves feeling and thinking.
When one of these elements of action becomes so minute as almost to disappear,
existence itself may be endangered. It is difficult to survive for even brief
periods without any movement at all. There is no life where a being is deprived
of all senses. Without feeling, there is no drive to live; it is the feeling
of suffocation that forces us to breathe. Without at least some minimum of
reflex thought, even a beetle cannot live too long.
Changes become fixed as habits
In reality our self-image is never static. It changes from action to action,
but these changes gradually become habits; that is, the actions take on a fixed,
unchanging character.
Early in life, when the image is being established, the rate of change in
the image is high; new forms of action that had only the previous day been
beyond the child's capacity are quickly achieved. The infant begins to see,
for instance, a few weeks after birth; one day he will begin to stand, walk,
and talk. The child's own experiences, together with his biological inheritance,
combine slowly to create an individual way of standing, walking, speaking,
feeling, listening, and of carrying out all the other actions that give substance
to human life. But while from a distance the life of one person appears to
be very similar to that of any other, on close inspection they are entirely
different. We must, then, use words and concepts in such a way that they will
apply more or less equally to everyone.
How the self-image is formed
We confine ourselves therefore to examining in detail the motor part of the
self-image. Instinct, feeling, and thought being linked with movement, their
role in the creation of the self-image reveals itself together with that of
movement.
The stimulation of certain cells in the motor cortex of the brain will activate
a particular muscle. It is known today that the correspondence between the
cells of the cortex and the muscles that they activate is neither absolute
nor exclusive. Nevertheless, we may consider that there I is sufficient experimental
justification to assume that specific cells do activate specific muscles at
least in basic, elementary movements.
Individual and social action
The newborn human can perform practically nothing of what he will carry out
as an adult in human society, but he can do almost everything the adult can
do as an individual. He can breathe, eat, digest, eliminate, and his body can
organize all the biological and physiological processes except the sexual act-and
this may be considered a social process in the adult, for it takes place between
two persons. In the beginning, sexual activity remains confined to the individual
sphere. It is now widely accepted that adult sexuality develops from early
self-sexuality. This approach makes it possible to explain inadequacies in
this field as a failure in the development of the individual toward full social
sexuality.
Contact with the external world
The infant's contact with the external world is established mainly through
the lips and mouth; through these he recognizes his mother. He will use his
hands to fumble and assist the work of his mouth and lips, and will know by
touch what be already knows through his lips and mouth. From here he will gradually
progress to the discovery of other parts of his body and their relationship
to each other, and through them his first notions of distance and volume. The
discovery of time begins with the coordinating of processes of breathing and
swallowing, both of which are connected with movements of the lips, mouth,
jaw, nostrils, and the surrounding area.
