Body schema and body image—Pros and cons

Abstract

There seems to be no dimension of bodily awareness that cannot be disrupted. To account for such variety, there is a growing consensus that there are at least two distinct types of body representation that can be impaired, the body schema and the body image. However, the definition of these notions is often unclear. The notion of body image has attracted most controversy because of its lack of unifying positive definition. The notion of body schema, onto which there seems to be a more widespread agreement, also covers a variety of sensorimotor representations. Here, I provide a conceptual analysis of the body schema contrasting it with the body image(s) as well as assess whether (i) the body schema can be specifically impaired, while other types of body representation are preserved; and (ii) the body schema obeys principles that are different from those that apply to other types of body representation.