Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T13:50:36.666Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Body Image of the Aviator

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

G. J. Tucker
Affiliation:
Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, Connecticut, 06510
R. F. Reinhardt
Affiliation:
M.C., U.S.N., Division of Psychiatry and Neurology, Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, Pensacola, Florida
N. B. Clarke
Affiliation:
M.S.C., U.S.N., Division of Psychiatry and Neurology, Naval Aerospace Medical Institute, Pensacola, Florida

Extract

The concept of the ‘body image’ rests on a broad foundation of neurological and psychological observations. Neurological observations of phantom limbs, agnosias, apraxias, and similar phenomena led to an initial formulation of the body image as a postural, spatial image of the body (2, 6). Schilder greatly expanded the concept by delineating the importance of libidinal (instinctual) and sociological factors in the make-up of the body image (7). Current psychiatric usage has (perhaps too loosely) equated the term body image with phrases such as 'self system’, 'self concept’, ‘ego identity’, etc. (8). The importance of the body image as a postural or spatial model, a ‘base of operations' from which a person extends himself into space, with its implications for movement and motor activity, is often overlooked but vividly evident in many endeavours, particularly aviation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1968 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Ackner, B. (1954). “Depersonalization” J. ment. Sci., 100, 838872.Google Scholar
2. Charcot, J. M. (1888). Leçons du Mardi à la Salpétriêre , quoted in Bychowski, G. “Disorders in the body image in clinical pictures of psychoses.” J. nerv. ment. Dis., 97, 310335. (1943).Google Scholar
3. Critchley, M. (1950). “The body image in neurology” Lancet, i, 335340.Google Scholar
4. Fisher, S., and Cleveland, S. E. (1958). Body Image and Personality. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc.Google Scholar
5. Harrower, M. R., and Steiner, M. E. (1951). Large Scale Rorschach Techniques. (2nd ed.) Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
6. Head, H. (1920). Studies in Neurology, 2 vols., London: Frowde.Google Scholar
7. Schilder, P. (1950). The Image and Appearance of the Human Body. New York: International Universities Press, Inc.Google Scholar
8. Schonfeld, W. A. (1966). “Body image disturbances in adolescents” Arch. gen. Psychiat., 15, 1621.Google Scholar
9. Tucker, G. J. (1967). “Psychomotor adaption to flight” Aerospace Medicine, 38, 620623.Google Scholar
10. Tucker, G. J. (1966). “Perceptual distortions and the perceptual task of the aviator” The Flying Physician, 10, 1619.Google Scholar
11. Tucker, G. J. (1967). “Vertigo and Anxiety.” In: Approach. Norfolk Va.; U.S. Naval Aviation Safety Center. (In press.)Google Scholar
12. Tucker, G. J. Reinhardt, R. F., and Clarke, N. B. “Motor function, body image and aviation.” In: U.S. Naval Aerospace Medical Institute Research Report, Pensacola, Fla. (In press.)Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.