Metaphors of body transformation: experience, perception, posture and the relations with Rolfing - Structural Integration

Author(s)

Maria Lucia Moreira Merlino

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Artes
• Defense date: 2014-06-24

Examining board members

Cassiano Sydow Quilici; Matteo Bonfitto; Holly Elizabeth Cavrell; Pedro Otávio Barretto Prado; Ana Maria Rodriguez Costas

• Advisor: Cassiano Sydow Quilici

Abstract

This research investigates the relationship between the concepts of body re-education and body awareness, promoted through the somatic approach of Rolfing® Structural Integration, and also the notion of experience, from which emerge new insights, new body images and mental representations that put metaphor as a possible product of the process of perceptual exploration and processing. Rolfing is a system of postural and movement re-education in which, by touch and word, it is possible to produce structural and functional changes in the musculoskeletal system, in perceptions, and in the sensations processed in the body. As a result, changes may occur in the relationship with the environment, with the self and with others. The concept of body memory comprises dispositions, skills and habits acquired in a social and political context that influence the experience and behavior of a person, resulting in a complex web of bodily sensations of particular importance in somatic approaches. The investigation unfolds through three case studies, addressing the relationship between instructor and client, and the situation in which occurs a "process" analogous to the making of art. The quality of touch, attention and presence of the instructor, results in a specific listening to the demands of the person, involving both gestural and verbal discourse. Insights may occur in the course of this journey and, when this happens, metaphor emerges as an expression of transformation and as a mechanism of appropriation of these changes, providing self-understanding from the recognition of the 'sensitive body'. This research proposes a categorization of the bodily metaphors that emerge from a somatic approach - metaphors that have resonance with aesthetic, creative, emotional and ethical aspects (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/20292-0 - Metaphors of the body in transformation: experience, posture and perception and relations with the Rolfing® Structural Integration
• Grantee: Maria Lucia Moreira Merlino
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate