Description

The body is central to our sense of identity Bodily awareness says scientistwriter Moheb Costandi is key to selfconsciousness In Body Am I Costandi examines how the brain perceives the body how that perception translates into our conscious experience of the body and how that experience contributes to our sense of self Along the way he explores what can happen when the mechanisms of bodily awareness are disturbed leading to such phenomena as phantom limbs alien hands and amputee fetishes

Costandi explains that the brain generates maps and models of the body that guide how we perceive and use it and that these maps and models are repeatedly modified and reconstructed Drawing on recent bodily awareness research the new science of selfconsciousness and historical milestones in neurology he describes a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders that result when body and brain are out of sync including not only the wellknown phantom limb syndrome but also phantom breast and phantom penis syndromes body integrity identity disorder which compels a person to disown and then amputate a healthy arm or leg and such eating disorders as anorexia

Wideranging and meticulously researched Body Am I offers new insight into selfconsciousness by describing it in terms of bodily awareness