The linguistic and embodied aspect of the words

Photo: Alfred Hitchcock by Gjon Mili, 1942

On Dart: The Attainment of Poise

The linguistic and embodied aspect of the words Posture and Poise

Written by Pedro Souza

The method developed by Alexander provides freedom of our habitual patterns of thinking and moving, which can assist in how we interact with ourselves and others.

In 1947, the South African Medical Journal published Raymond Dart paper 'The Attainment of Poise'. In this paper, Dart explains the process of the development of movement, the difference between posture and poise and how the proper use of the body can promote health and wellbeing. This paper also mentions the work of F. M Alexander, which Dart intended to present to the medical community. Dart was introduced to the Alexander Technique by Irene Tasker in 1943.

Dart’s paper is a rich source of information for those interested in studying anatomy and movement. However, what came to my attention, was the semantic and embodied concept of the words posture and poise. Many of us are unaware of our patterns of feelings, thoughts and behaviours, and those patterns may serve to define our identity (Verplanken B; Sui J. 2019). The patterns that we have been carrying throughout our lives come from different sources, and language is one of them. Language pervades social life, and it is implicated in most of the phenomena that lie at the core of social psychology (R.M, C.-Y. 1998).

Many of us are unaware of our patterns of feelings, thoughts and behaviours, and those patterns may serve to define our identity (Verplanken B; Sui J. 2019).

Some theories suggest that language and its symbols become meaningful only when they are mapped to nonlinguistic experiences such as actions and perceptions (Glenberg; Havas; Becker; Rinck. 1993). The studies of embodied cognition claim that perception, imagery and actions are fundamental in acquiring knowledge. So, to give meaning to a language, we need to some degree, to associate it to some bodily experience. Considering blind children, they have difficulties learning a language that provides input about the external world (Anderson; Dunlea & Kekelis. 2008), leaving them to rely on other senses to create meaningful associations to the words.

The way we interpret language also influences the way we perceive our bodies. When our body is organised in space and gravity, and taking as an example the word posture, we carry the common idea that posture is something related to a fixed upright position where our shoulders should be back and down and the chest up.

On the other hand, the word poise has a different connotation from posture, but it can also stimulate “misuse*” of the body. However, the word poise sounds gentler than posture, which can induce softening on the body. Looking at the dictionary, we find that the word posture has its roots in the Latin verb ponere, meaning to put, to place, and in the dictionary synonym, posture is associated with attitude. Oppositely to the word posture, poise is rooted in the Latin verb pendere, meaning to hang, cause to hang, weight, which leads to balance. We can further understand poise as the momentary halt in which the muscular forces concerned are in a state of equilibrium, any position that indicates suspended motion (Dart, 1947).

The words posture and poise are just examples that invite us to explore further the link between linguistics and embodied cognition. Motor behaviour is crucial in assisting perceptual, cognitive, and social domains (Adolph. 2018). Our cognitive function is affected by how our body is organised, and it can reflect on our self-related attitudes, such as confidence (Briñol, 2009).

A language is an event that creates acoustic (speech) and optical stimulus (write and gesture), which makes linguistic information closely related to our direct perception.

So, methods that allow us to become exposed to a new way of thinking, acting and sensing the body have a tremendous impact on how we experience ourselves and the world around us. F. M. Alexander mentioned in his book, ‘Constructive Conscious Control’, that:

“..our mental processes are the result of sensory experiences in psycho-physical action and reaction, and to employ the different parts of the mechanism in the acts of everyday life we are influenced chiefly by sensory processes (feeling). Thus we may receive a stimulus through something we hear, something we touch, or through some other outside agency; in every case, the nature of our response, whether it be an actual movement, an emotion, or an opinion, will depend upon the associated activity, in action and reaction, of the processes concerned with conception and with the sensory and other mechanisms responsible for the "feeling" which we experience”.

Alexander highlighted that mental processes are the result of sensory experiences in psycho-physical action and reaction. A language is an event that creates acoustic (speech) and optical stimulus (write and gesture), which makes linguistic information closely related to our direct perception. Even if we don’t know what the linguistic data is about, our organism still responds to the perceptual processes (Wilson; Golonka. 2013).

However, depending on how our neuromuscular patterns are functioning in relation to our thinking, we can be in a state of, which Alexander called, unreliable sensory appreciation. It happens when our kinaesthetic awareness is not in synchrony with our thought and vice versa. By associating our thinking with an idea of how our body is organised in space and gravity and relying solemnly on our sensory feedback, we can be cultivating erroneous conclusions about what we are doing. Our thinking is so rooted in how we perceive our bodies that we don’t consciously think about how to use them.

So when it comes to how we interpret the world around us, we need to consider how reliable is our sensory perception and body awareness. We are constantly receiving information through our senses and subconsciously processing them. The only way to restore our sensory perception, and make it reliable again, is to consciously pay attention to how we respond (react) to the information (stimuli) and reeducate ourselves so that our habitual responses do not interfere with our overall function. F.M. Alexander has developed a method that 'accesses' our subconscious and allows us to become aware of our patterns of thought, action and perception.

Words can influence our perception, and our embodied understanding of words can alter their real meaning. When Dart mentioned the difference between posture and poise, he wanted to point out that our wrong comprehension of those words has been responsible for a great deal of confusion both in the nomenclature of and medical thought concerning movement (Dart, 1947).

Looking through the Alexander Technique lens, we find out that words and their embodied understanding are so interconnected that a teacher of this method will often use words that invite a release and freedom of the mind and body. Our bodies play a significant role in the process of giving meaning to language, the environment, and ourselves. And by understanding and using our bodies efficiently, we can open up new possibilities of thinking, acting and sensing. It can lead us to a clear understanding of our reality.

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If you like to learn more about the Alexander Technique and how it can help you, contact me directly to set up an in-person or online session.

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Contact: tecnicaalexander.pedro@gmail.com

WhatsApp: (11) 93484 3586 .

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* Walter Carrington pointed out that poise can suggest charm schools and tea parties and flowered hats and things of that sort (Carrington, 1983).

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References:

Verplanken B and Sui J (2019). Habit and Identity: Behavioral, Cognitive, Affective, and Motivational Facets of an Integrated Self. Front. Psychol.

Krauss, R. M., & Chiu, C.-Y. (1998). Language and social behaviour; Columbia University and The University of Hong-Kong, 1998. web: http://www.columbia.edu/~rmk7/PDF/HSP.pdf

Arthur M. Glenberg, David Havas, Raymond Becker, and Mike Rinck. Grounding Language in Bodily States; The case for emotion, pg115. Book: Grounding cognition, The role of perception and action in memory, language and thinking. Cambridge University Press, 2005.

(Anderson; Dunlea & Kekelis. 1993): Blind children: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/014272379301303703

Walter Carrington’s commentary (March–May 1983) on ‘The Attainment of Poise’ by Raymond A. Dart

Raymond A. Dart; The Attainment of Poise, 1947. South African Medical Journal. Department of anatomy, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Karen E. Adolph. New York University. The development of motor behaviour, 2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5182199/

Pablo Briñol. Universidad autónoma de Madrid. Body posture effects on self-evaluation: A self-validation approach, 2009. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ejsp.607

F. M Alexander. Constructive Conscious Control; 1st published 1923; reprinted by Integral Press, 1955.

Borghi, Anna; Cimatti, Felice. (2009). Embodied cognition and beyond: Acting and sensing the body. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0028393209004369

Andrew D. Wilson & Sabrina Golonka. Embodied cognition is not what you think it is, 2013. School of Social, Psychological and Communication Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK. Web: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00058/full

David Evans. Language and Identity; Discourse in the world; Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.

The development of motor behaviour https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5182199/

Embodied cognition; behind acting and sensing: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19913041/

Embodied cognition: taking the next step: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00582/full