From body schema to the imaginal body

The first purpose of this paper is to reconsider the notion of body schema, which was proposed by H. Head at the beginning of the last century. This notion was epoch-making in the field of mind-body theory, because it showed human body could not be thought separated from the consciousness. We examine the classic works of M. Merleau-Ponty and P. Schilder on body schema to reconsider this point.

The second is to introduce my new notion,'Imaginal Body', as a revised one of body schema. Considering the relation between body schema and our everyday dreams, we will notice that the body schema has an unconscious and impersonal dimension. Body schema is not something fixed nor individual but flowing and collective. By this new notion, I want to show that our living body is not a material substance as is thought in the modern science, but it is something personal and impersonal, material and imaginal.