General Semantics
Comment to The ladder of abstractions
A highly convincing demonstration of the map-and-territory relation is given by
the phenomenon of Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), the feeling some
people have that a certain part of their body does not belong to them (From:
wikipedia.org, saved 01-01-2011):
| Body integrity identity disorder
Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), formerly known as Amputee Identity Disorder, refers to a neurological and psychological mental disorder implying a psychological feeling that one would be happier living life as an amputee and is usually, if not always, accompanied by the desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs in order to enact that desire. The most widely accepted theory on the origin of BIID at present is that BIID is a neurological failing of the brain's inner body mapping function (located in the right parietal lobe). According to this theory, the brain mapping does not incorporate the affected limb in its understanding of the body's physical form. ... |
This demonstrates that our conscious appreciation of our own body is not a direct connection between the neocortex, the residence of consciousness, and the nerves associated with the body parts. Apparently, in between there is a process that forms an image from all the internal body connections, which image is then related to the conscious mind. In BIID there goes something wrong in the relation between latter two.
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| 1 jan.2011 |