Body Self

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Notes

I am assuming that the neurophysiological components necessary to the formation of the body self exist. First, of course, is an intact sensory system, with the innate ability to distinguish one’s own body from the body of another and to develop imaging capacity.

Beginning at 16–18 months, the infant discovers that he is what creates the image in the mirror. He reaches for the label on his own forehead (Modaressi and Kinney, 1977) and touches a smudge placed on his own nose rather than the image in the mirror (Lewis and Brooks-Gunn, 1979). Mahler (1968) and Piaget (1945) agree (from different theoretical vantage points) that in normal development a cognitive sense of separate existence and of body self can exist by 18 months. Exploration and familiarity with body parts have already begun by this age.