Le schéma corporel (1): d’un passé confus à la clarification

Abstract

The history of the body schema concept derives from a long and complex story. First proposed by Bonnier as “the sense of attitudes” and by Head and Holmes as “postural schemata”, it gave rise to several confusing debates until the 1980's. Dolto in France and Gallagher in the Anglo-Saxon world, cleared that notion by letting it go to the physiological equipment. Since then, conceptualization has become clearer but yet needed the neurosciences and the imagery technologies to become modern enough. Thus, neuro-anatomical structures and sensorial systems involved have been identified. The definition of the body schema is now much more stable than near a century ago. Body image, as far as it is concerned, has been a very attractive field for psychoanalysts in France. This paper is the first of two and concerns the complex history of the body schema. The second one will give rise to the most recent data in neurosciences. It will propose a new definition of the body schema.