The End of Physiotherapy by David A. Nicholls

Author:David A. Nicholls [Nicholls, David A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General
ISBN: 9781317202622
Google: hJcuDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-07-31T05:14:43+00:00

A brief history of posture and movement

Posture, or ‘relative position or arrangement of each portion of the body in relation to the adjacent body segment and in relation to the body as a whole’ (Hines 1965), has been a concern and interest for natural philosophers and scientists throughout history. Consider the statues of Greek and Roman warriors and noblemen, for instance. Fredrick tells us that Roman orators were identified by their posture and gestures, and that ‘There should be no unmanly softness of the neck, and the fingers should not make delicate gestures’, that the orator will ‘regulate himself with his entire torso by the vigorous and manly modulation of his upper body’ (Fredrick 2002, p. 251)2. Figures and images of Christ with outstretched arms, Buddha sitting cross-legged or the protective stance of Vishnu, represent symbolic icons that have been used by all faiths and religions for millennia. Even the secular age has had its iconic images, most notably Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, embodying the mathematical and scientific pursuit of ‘man’s’ understanding and command of the natural world3.

By the 19th century, Darwinian ideas of natural selection, a fascination with taxonomy and the uncovering of nature’s mysteries, and sanitary science, with its concern to police the boundaries between nature and man, created an anatomical image of the human form as a static and analysable object (Armstrong 2002). This is the image of the body that came to be represented in so many anatomy textbooks: male, Caucasian, naked, hairless, standing, arms externally rotated, almost Vitruvian. To all intents and purposes this was an image of a cadaver, or an idealised body, a territory to be mapped. The suggestion offered by this image is that the normal body is consistent in its design and orientation; that one semimembranosus muscle is the same as any other, regardless of a person’s lived experience, culture or history. Using this body map as its referent, medical science could explore deviations from the norm. The body could be passively manipulated into new, more desirable shapes (corsetry); it could be measured for minor deviation (scoliosis, flat feet) and could be used as a cultural marker of human development (from ape to human).

Following Darwin, enormous social capital was placed on the idea that humans had developed beyond their genetic ancestors and that this could be seen in their bipedal gait, the free use of their hands for manipulation and their higher consciousness. Humans did not crawl on their hands and knees, bellow or howl. Proof of man’s elevation beyond his more primitive cousins could be seen in the fact that the ill, injured, mad and deformed often resorted to animalistic ways, and so the management of these tendencies was more than merely a medical interest. Managing people’s posture and movement carried social and political significance because they were expressions of human sophistication and particularly the sophistication of Anglo-American culture.

Armstrong, Linker and others have argued that a scientific interest in posture – and particularly the posture of children – was a significant feature of 19th century medicine (Linker 2012; Armstrong 2002; Gilman 2014).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.