Hand to Face: A Phenomenological View of Body Image Development in Infants

Abstract

This paper attempts to theoretically reconsider body image development in infants from a phenomenological viewpoint of the body. Because body image is defined as the mental picture of one's whole body, our main question is how we obtain the perspective to view our own body as a whole in constituting body image. First, focusing on the development of mirror self-cognition in the first 2 years of life, we find that this perspective derives from that of others in embodied interactions with infants. We then trace the process whereby others' perspectives appear in dyadic interactions between infants and caregivers. Since joint attention is established around 9 months, this dyadic interaction is transformed into a triadic relationship between the infant, caregiver, and object, which is experienced as “secondary intersubjectivity.” Infant body image is constituted gradually within this intersubjective context. Based on phenomenological descriptions, we propose that the hands are the first organ and the face the last organ to be incorporated into one's body image. We conclude that the constitution of body image is not merely a sensory task of integrating proprioceptive and visual images of the body, but a social task of internalizing others' perspectives regarding one's own body.