A short history of bodily sensation

Abstract

In one of his Cahiers, Paul Valéry has the note. Somatism (heresy of the end of time),Adoration, cult of the machine for living.† Have we come to the end of time? The heresy anticipated by Valéry has almost become the official religion. Everything is related to the body, as if it had just been rediscovered after being long forgotten; body image, body language, body consciousness, liberation of the body are the passwords. Historians, prey to the same infection, have begun inquiring into what previous cultures have done with the body, in way of tattooing, mutilation, celebration all the rituals related to the various bodily functions.2 Past writers from Rabelais to Flaubert are ransacked for evidence, and immediately it becomes apparent that we are far from being the first discoverers of bodily reality. That reality was the first knowledge to enter human understanding: ‘They knew that they were naked’ (Genesis 3.7). From then on, it has impossible to ignore the body.

Cenesthopathy in adolescence: An appraisal of diagnostic overlaps along the anxiety–hypochondriasis–psychosis spectrum

“…The term was equivalent to the German Gemeingefühl or Leibgefühl, for which the French equivalent became cénésthésie or sensibilité générale [9]. Cenesthesia expresses the general sense of bodily experience and was seen as the integrative denominator for Meinhaftigkeit or I-ness.…”

From Cenesthesias to Cenesthopathic Schizophrenia: A Historical and Phenomenological Review

“…Unanimously, different authors traced the origin of the word 'coenesthesia' to the doctoral thesis of a student of Johann Christian Reil [5][6][7][8] , and recognize that the French equivalent was either 'sensibilité générale' or 'cenesthesie', with the German equivalent being 'Gemeingefühl'. Thus, according to Starobinski [5] , Reil proposed a definition of cenesthesia as, '(the) means of which the soul is informed of the state of its body, which occurs by means of the nerves generally distributed throughout the body'.…”

“…Thus, according to Starobinski [5] , Reil proposed a definition of cenesthesia as, '(the) means of which the soul is informed of the state of its body, which occurs by means of the nerves generally distributed throughout the body'. Starobinski [5] asserted that, according to Aristotelian doctrine, the information provided by the external senses reached the internal sense only after having been unified by the 'common sense' , which was equivalent to the cenesthesic sense (Latin: sensorium commune , Greek: koinon aistheterion ). The cenesthetic sense was seen as distinct from the five senses responsive to the environment.…”

“…Starobinski [5] observed that the concept of cenesthesia informed Sollier's [9] interpretation of hysteria and Seglas' [according to Starobinski,5 ] formulation of the 'peripheral' mechanism states of depersonalization and melancholic deliria state of negation. Thus, the phenomenological entity of cenesthesia seems to have been used as a basis of developing an understanding of other phenomenological entities.…”

Monsters and caricatures: spirit possession in Tana Toraja

“…From this point of view, as Ne' Dena' suggested, trance could be seen as a kind of cenesthesia ( siumpu' pa'pesa'ding , ‘sense relatedness’) through which Rompis could ‘feel’ ( nasa'dingan ) and ‘know’ ( natandai ) everything. As the internal perception of our own bodies, cenesthesia is usually associated with body consciousness or a kind of internal contact (Starobinski 1989: 353). In the case of Rompis, however, this perception appears to unfold outwards creating a ‘connection’ ( kasiumpuran ) between her body and the bodies of others (especially the patient's); she was said ‘to know all their thoughts’ ( natandai tu mintu' lalan pa'inawanna ) and ‘to feel all their feelings’ ( nasa'dingan mintu' pa'pesadingna ).…”