Theories of body expression in their historical relationship to psychological concepts

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.;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.;When the subject of body expression again re-appeared 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.;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.;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. 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. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).