In the first volume of Somatics: Magazine-Journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences (Volume I, No. 1, Autumn 1976) Tom Hanna published an article titled, The Field of Somatics: The House that Darwin Built stating:
Charles Darwin built a great mansion: There were countless rooms, studios, salons, corridors and grand halls; and the towering entry doors were thrown open to the world, inviting all to enter. The edifice built by Darwin was The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, completed in 1872. The work of 1872 was in advance of its time, not only for theoretical reasons but, more practically, for the lack of sufficient observations, experiments and scientific tools to flesh out that theory. It required a century of research in genetics, cytology, biochemistry, biophysics, anthropology, ethology, neurophysiology, ecology, cybernetics, psychology and much more to make the house that Darwin built livable, useable and tolerable. That century of work and anticipation is now coming to fruition and, despite some needs for repair and redesign, Darwin's invitation can now be accepted.
Tom Hanna revered the work of Charles Darwin. When I was a young child, Tom explained the theory of evolution to me with great passion and clarity and because of this, the theory of evolution made perfect sense to me. At a 1st grade parent teacher conference my teacher said to my parents, “Your daughter Wendell is quite precocious, for example she explained the theory of evolution to our entire class last week”. Up to this day, a deep appreciation for Darwin’s work has stayed with me and I think that perhaps it remains one of the most important discoveries ever made in science. In this blog I want to explore how The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals influenced Tom’s formulation of his theory of Somatics.
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
A central point that Darwin makes in Expression is that both man and animals express the same state of mind and emotions by expressive movements. Emotions serve the purpose of linking mental states with bodily movement, and these movements are genetically determined, deriving from purposeful actions. For example, in both humans and animals, surprise and fear result in widening the eyes and arousing the dermis, whether hair or feathers, causing them to be raised. Further, Darwin’s noted that expressive gestures retain their usefulness through natural selection and continual genetic mutation, eventually becoming involuntary in nature through unconscious reactions and reflexes. Darwin termed these as Serviceable Associated Habits. For instance, we will involuntarily blink to protect our eyes at the same times as jumping backwards from the thing which startled us. These are serviceable habits because they serve a useful purpose of protecting us from the source of danger.
Some habits, over time however, no longer serve a purpose but are genetically retained anyway, such as when a dog tries to burrow into the floor before it settles down to sleep. This behavior developed before dogs were domesticated and has become an inherited trait even though it no longer serves a purpose for the modern pet.
Similarly, for the modern human, some inherited traits and reflexes no longer serve us in the ways they were initially intended. We rarely come face to face with imminent danger, such as a grizzly bear startling us, yet our involuntary reflexes react to lesser stressful situations in similar ways. This can cause involuntary fixed motor patterns to remain stuck and not return to a normal relaxed state.
Tom Hanna referred to these involuntary fixed motor patterns as the Red Light, the Green Light, and the Trauma Reflexes. These reflexes which were once serviceable habits in ancient times can become a liability for the relatively safe 21st century human.
There are some habits we can voluntarily control but there are also ones we simply cannot. Organs like the heart cannot be consciously controlled at will. Darwin explains how expressions, both voluntary and involuntary, work together but cannot be controlled in the same way. "A man when moderately angry, or even when enraged, may command the movements of his body, but he cannot prevent his heart from beating rapidly."
Antithetical Behaviors and Expressions
In Expressions, Darwin also discusses the principle of antithesis in both animals and man. This is that opposite states of mind induce directly opposing movements and he points to the existence of some expressions which can only be accounted for by antithesis. For example, the facial expressions in a placid, calm animal are completely different in a happy, pleased animal. This can been seen today when a dog being taken for a walk expresses extreme happiness trotting along happily with its mouth open and a wagging tail, but when the walk is over, the same dog sulks on the floor with sad eyes and lowered head. Darwin also uses the principle of antithesis to explain why a relaxed slumping of the body is the opposite expressive position of standing up straight, puffing out the chest and holding the head high. These two opposing expressions, known in Hanna Somatics as the red light and green light reflexes, are directly opposing movements, one expressing passiveness, the other indignation. Darwin argues that "The antithesis is complete in every detail not only in the movements of the features but also in the position of the limbs and in the attitude of the whole body." Antithetical behaviors and expressions have no logical origin other than developing specifically to contrast to other expressions of emotions. These antithetical expressions and behaviors also use completely different muscle groups as if to underscore their opposite meaning. Slumped shoulders in the red light reflex are contracted by muscles in the front of the body while raised chest and shoulders use the opposite back side muscles.
In seeking to develop a theory of Somatology, Thomas Hanna outlined a set of assumptions about somas and somatic processes. These assumptions are outlined below.
Somatic Assumptions
1- Somatic Identity. All somas are holistic processes of structure and function integrated into one entity.
2- Somatic Tendencies. All somas simultaneously tend toward homeostasis and balance while at the same time tending toward change and imbalance.
3- Internal Interactional Processes. All somatic process takes place in rhythmic, cyclical patterns of alternating internal movement. (diastole/systole, expansion/contraction, parasympathetic/sympathetic, extensor/flexor, turning outward/turning inward, wakefulness/dormancy- these are alternating cycles of organic life.)
4- Relation to Environment. All somas tend toward autonomy and independence away from the outside environment yet remain dependent on the environment at the same time. (functions and structures of opening and closing create the apertures of interchange with the environment)
5- Intentionality. All somas mobilize themselves holistically in order to act within the soma for an intentional action in relation to the environment. (a wondrous ability of somas to coordinate all of their “parts” in forming a single, whole action or reaction is a fundamental feature of somatic process.)
According to Hanna:
These five somatic assumptions are neither exhaustive of the somatic field nor exclusive of each other. They are complimentary and overlapping polarities which make up the warp and woof of somas and their process. But together, these assumptions delineate the field of the life sciences precisely to the degree that they describe the general features of the unique center and focus of the life sciences: the individual somas that are the unique exemplars of life.
The bodily structures which allow an animal to reach out and seize an object are, for example, immensely varied, but the function of reaching out and seizing is the same somatic function. Living structure is an artifact of its own integral functions--a whole which carries with it its own laws and imperatives that are as primeval and enduring as Darwin saw them to be.
Further, Tom Hanna outlined six primordial somatic functions, which work within the holistic structures of the soma. Timing, Standing, Facing, and Maneuvering are primordial somatic functions in the sense that in order for the soma to be in this universe, it must constitute itself first of all within the four dimensions of time and space: temporality, depth, length and width.
1. The Timing function is the way in which the soma coordinates its processes. Timing is the somatic function that works with what we call “nervous systems”. Temporality
2. The Standing function is the active way in which the soma individuates itself against the field of universal gravitation. In standing, the soma distinguishes itself from all that is not itself. Depth
3. The Facing function is the active way in which the soma moves across the field of universal gravitation toward its intention. Facing is the elongating directional function that orients the soma in its movement forward across a given plane. Length
4. The Maneuvering function is the active way in which the soma handles what its appetite intends. In maneuvering the soma seizes and possesses that which its appetite desires. Maneuvering is the lateral somatic function whereby the soma passes toward its intention. Width
5. Wanting is the soma’s needs and desires and its bond with the world, an unstable bond whereby the soma reaches beyond its own integrity to be conditionally integrated into the world. Energy needs
6. Intending is the particular shape of action which functionally mobilizes the soma to fulfill its appetite within the world. Intending is a process whereby the soma fulfills itself by choosing a select part of the world. Intending is a specific somatic stratagem for a specific interchange with the world; it is a mobilizing and guiding function which selects and differentiates what in the world can fulfill the soma's wanting. This function is as coordinated with the world as it is with the other inward primordial functions of the soma. While timing is a coordinating function, intending is the specific mobilization of the soma for a temporal process that begins and ends: the soma intends the closure of its needs through fulfillment. Shape of action
Single somatic cell 3.5 billion years ago and first cell division 1 billion years ago
Tom Hanna considered these functions primordial because these are all somatic characteristics of the earliest stage of development of any organism. A primordial soma is inclusive of both structure and function reflected in the study of evolution itself.
At the heart of Darwin's discovery is the living, cell-like soma, which is the individual exemplar of the singular event of life--life that has evolved unbroken since its first cellular formation. Living structure is an artifact of its own integral functions--a whole which carries with it its own laws and imperatives that are as primeval and enduring as Darwin saw them to be.
A soma is any individual embodiment of a process which endures and adapts through time, and it remains a soma as long as it lives. The moment that it dies it ceases to be a soma and becomes a body. Each soma is a process in time, yet its ambiguous secret is that its life is the same stable, still enduring succession of layers and branches that root backward into the origins of life. It is because life has continued unbroken through its evolving branches, that somas are unique events: they bear within them their entire history of millions of years.
Tom Hanna was a clever person and loved to play with words and ideas. I believe his use of the phrase, The House that Darwin Built, was a play on this traditional nursery rhyme.
This is an additive poem which adds an extra line to the one before. I think that Tom felt that Darwin’s careful and insightful research, which was the basis for the theory of natural selection and evolution, was like this rhyme, a story of causation linked backwards in time. By examining Darwin’s work, we are tracing one of the most important branches of somatic thought back in time and into smaller and more primal elements of who we truly are.
In Tom Hanna’s essay, One, he gazes up at the night sky reflecting:
The being of myself--this person sitting quietly under the stars--is a being that stretches backward through infinite layers of roots branching backward into further roots and still further roots, until there is no way of telling where the roots end, or even if there is an end. Those rootlets branch downward from multi-celled beings into single-celled beings, simple beings, just as present to the world as I am on the star-filled night.
The strands of my being reached downward and backward through seamlessly connected layers into the originative oneness of being itself. My being, at this moment of nighttime awareness, was linked in loving, unbroken continuity with the primal oneness that was just an ancient as was the starlight that fell into my eyes.
Just like the light of those inconceivably distant starts, this self of which I am aware, now at this moment, has traveled an inconceivably distant space and time to arrive at this place and instant. This which is deep in biological time is also deep in space and elemental roots.
Looking up at the umbrella of starts. I reflect on the immense similarity between those ancient celestial bodies and my own body. They and I are, finally one.
References
Darwin, C., & Prodger, P. (1998). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. Oxford University Press, USA.
Hanna, T. (1976). The Field of Somatics. Somatics: Magazine-journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences, 1(1), 30-34.
Hanna, T. (1983). One: Somatics: Magazine-journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences, 4(3), Inside front cover.