Ghost gestures

phenomenological investigations of bodily micromovements and their intercorporeal implications

Elizabeth Behnke

pp. 181-201

in: Human Studies 20 (2), 1997.

Abstract

This paper thematizes the operative kinaesthetic style of world-experiencing life by turning to the ongoing "how" of our habitual bodily comportment: to our deeply sedimented way(s) of "making a body"; to schematic inner vectors or tendencies toward movement that persist as bodily "ghost gestures" even if one is not making the larger, visible gestures they imply; and to "inadvertent isometrics," i.e., persisting patterns of "trying," "bracing," "freezing," etc. All such micromovements witness to our sociality insofar as they are not only socially shaped, but perpetuate certain styles of intercorporeal interaction and sustain certain modes of responsivity. "Reactivating the sediment" -- retrieving the tacit "choreography" of everyday life from its anonymity and sensing our ongoing ways of living out the legacy of our "communal body" -- not only allows one's individual bodily style to shift, but can open new possibilities for healthy interkinaesthetic comportment. Such work can thus contribute to an "embodied ethics" in both theory and practice.