Body schema and body image in motor learning: refining Merleau-Ponty’s notion of body schema

The aim of this chapter is to explicate the interrelated roles of body schema and body image in motor learning and to shed light on the phenomenology of body image from a fresh perspective. The chapter revisits how Merleau-Ponty conceptualized body schema in terms of the lived body. Second, the chapter will have a short review of the scientific research on motor learning. And then, comparing with Gallagher and Cole’s analysis of Ian Waterman, the chapter examines the symptom of Schneider, the case of whom Merleau-Ponty referred to in considering the function of body schema. The argument presented in the chapter will show that Merleau-Ponty’s idea crucially lacked the theoretical distinction of body schema and body image, though his idea of ‘intentional arc’ involved a certain aspect of the latter. And finally, the chapter comes back to the theme of motor learning in order to describe the roles of body schema and body image in the actual process of motor learning. On the one hand, this chapter aims to brush up the phenomenology of embodiment by refining Merleau-Ponty’s notion of body schema. But on the other hand, it also aims to push forward the sciences of motor learning from a theoretical perspective.