Abstract
There is a growing body of research indicating that bodily sensation and behavior strongly influences one's emotional reaction toward certain situations or objects. On this background, a framework model of embodied affectivity1 is suggested: we regard emotions as resulting from the circular interaction between affective qualities or affordances in the environment and the subject's bodily resonance, be it in the form of sensations, postures, expressive movements or movement tendencies. Motion and emotion are thus intrinsically connected: one is moved by movement (perception; impression; affection2) and moved to move (action; expression; e-motion). Through its resonance, the body functions as a medium of emotional perception: it colors or charges self-experience and the environment with affective valences while it remains itself in the background of one's own awareness. This model is then applied to emotional social understanding or interaffectivity which is regarded as an intertwinement of two cycles of embodied affectivity, thus continuously modifying each partner's affective affordances and bodily resonance. We conclude with considerations of how embodied affectivity is altered in psychopathology and can be addressed in psychotherapy of the embodied self.
Highlights
Emotions may be considered some of the most complex phenomena of subjective experience
We may add that the connections of affectivity and embodiment that we have presented in a general model show considerable cultural and individual variations
What is obviously lacking in alexithymia is the proximaldistal structure of affective intentionality: Whereas bodily resonance normally functions as the proximal medium of our affective perception, for alexithymic patients their bodily reactions seem unrelated to affective affordances of a given situation, which means that the full circle of affectivity does not come about
Summary
Emotions may be considered some of the most complex phenomena of subjective experience. A framework model of embodied affectivity1 is suggested: we regard emotions as resulting from the circular interaction between affective qualities or affordances in the environment and the subject’s bodily resonance, be it in the form of sensations, postures, expressive movements or movement tendencies.
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