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.
