Embodying Holism: a Somatic Perspective On
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EMBODYING HOLISM: A SOMATIC PERSPECTIVE ON COMMUNICATION DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Debra Greene, B.A., M.A. ifc- * ifc * ★ The Ohio State University June 1995 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Sonja Foss Seymour Kleinman —— Asfvisorxsor Mary Garrett Department of Communication UMI Number: 9533981 Copyright 1995 by Greene, Debra All rights reserved. DMI Microform 9533981 Copyright 1995, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Debra Greene 1995 Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson I I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. 1 fall in I am lost . 1 am helpless It isn't my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. II I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe 1 am in the same place. But, it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. III I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in . it's a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately. IV I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. 1 walk around it. V I walk down another street. This project is dedicated with loving appreciation to the spiritual hierarchy who work silently, eternally to uplift all of humanity. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express sincere gratitude to Sonja Foss for facilitating my voice and allowing me to develop and give scholarly expression to these innovative ideas. (Sonja, my flow still appreciates your structure!) Thanks also to Sy Kleinman for his labor of love in creating and insuring the continued existence of somatic studies at Ohio State, without which this project would have been impossible in its current form. Appreciation is expressed to Mary Garrett, especially for her support despite her having traveled without a seat belt through this journey. Heartfelt thanks to Eleanor Criswell Hanna for continued encouragement, affirmation, and inspiration, and for providing me with a copy of Thomas Hanna's unpublished manuscript on somatology. Boundless gratitude to my soul-sister Sharon Abbondanza, my dear friends Kimberly Barnett Gibson and Mary Thienes, and my furry friend Sheru, who have provided me with abundant love, insights, and blessings throughout this process. I also deeply appreciate the ongoing support and the energy balances from my co-workers in Transformational Kinesiology— Linda Mizer, Diane Nutter, and Karen Sellhausen. Endless gratitude to the creators of Transformational Kinesiology, Grethe Fremming and Rolf Hausboel, for opening the path to me and for providing me with methods to free blocked energies so that I could continually find joy and sustenance in this undertaking. I also gratefully acknowledge the computer angels at CompuCorp, especially Wolf Lant, for cooperating with a miracle that saved my dissertation from an untimely death in electronic oblivion. iv VITA December 16, 1958 ........ Born— St. Cloud, Minnesota 1 9 8 1 ...................... B.A., College of St.Benedict/St. John's University, St* Joseph, MN 1987-1989 .................. Student Equity Specialist, St. Cloud Technical College, St. Cloud, Minnesota 1989-1991 ................. Teaching Associate, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 1 9 9 1 ...................... M.A. University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 1991-1992 .................. Research Associate, The Graduate School, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1992-Present ............. Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1994-Present ............. Transformational Kinesiologist, Columbus Psychological Center, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS Greene, D. "Toward Mainstreaming Somatics: Proprioception and Speech Anxiety." In Somatics; Magazine-Journal of the Bodily Arts and Sciences. 10 (2), 1995. Greene, D. "Communication as Spiritual: A Somatic Perspective." In James Crocker-Lakness, Mark v McPhail, and Francine Marrus, eds., Wavs of the Word: Rhetoric and th« Human Spirit. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1995. Greene, 0. "Spirituality, Feminism and Communication Unite: A Somati-C'-Perspective. " In Daniel Chandler, ed., The Parliament of the World's Relioions: Selected Speeches. Fort Worth, TX: Cyberspace, 1994. Greene, D., Araujo, A. and Kelley, V. "Cultural Diversity and Public Speaking Strategies." Chapter 2 in Mary Lee Hummert, Carol Benoit and Teri Helmick, eds., Public Speaking Competence: Theory and Practice. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991. Reprinted in Mary Lee Hummert and Karla Jensen, eds., Handbook of Speaker-Audience Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Fields: Communication Studies in: Somatics vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication............................................... ii Acknowledgments ...................................... iii Vita................................................... v Chapter I: Introduction ........................... 1 Purpose of the Study ........................... 5 Significance of the Study .................... 8 Review of the Literature ......................... 11 Method of the S t u d y ............................. 68 Limitations ...................................... 70 Structure of the Dissertation .................. 72 Chapter II: Somatic Theory ........................ 74 Purpose of Somatics ............................. 74 History of Somatics ............................. 78 Assumptions of Somatics ...................... 96 Somatic Practices ............................. 137 Somatic Concepts ............................... 148 S u m m a r y ......................................... 153 Chapter III: A Somatic Theory of Communication . 156 Definition of Communication .................. 159 Purpose of Communication ...................... 167 Scope of Communication ........................174 Sarcal Ethics ................................. 176 Modes of Communication ........................178 S u m m a r y ......................................... 201 Chapter IV: Somatic Communication Research . 203 Somatic Communication Research Method .... 205 Research Tools and Procedures ............... 209 Research Questions .................. ..... 222 Research Method Exemplars .................... 225 Criterial Adequacy ............................. 235 S u m m a r y ......................................... 236 Chapter V: Somatic Communication in the Basic Course . 238 Educational Philosophy ........................ 242 Role of the Instructor ....................... 243 Unit Objectives ................................ 245 Unit Overview .................................. 245 Unit Content and Teaching Tools .............. 246 Methods of Evaluation ........................ 271 S u m m a r y .................................. 273 Chapter VI: Conclusion ............................ 274 Redefining Communication ...................... 274 Reconceptualization of Current Approaches to the Study of Communication .... 281 Expansion of Philosophical Frameworks .... 286 R e f e r e n c e s .....................................293 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION If the body had been easier to understand, nobody would have thought that we had a mind. (Rorty, 1979, p. 239) "Communication is an embodied process" (Streeck & Knapp, 1992, p. 5) in that the human body is essential to virtually every communication act. Whether in the realms of interpersonal, organizational, cultural, or rhetorical communication, the importance of the human body is difficult to deny. Even in realms where the salience of the body may seem minimal— in textual and mediated communication forms, for example--the body is a vital, omnipresent force. For instance, although you are now reading my seemingly disembodied written text, the fact that I am hungry, my back aches, and my cat is purring on my lap are all occurrences that doubtless affect my communication with you. My hunger invokes impatience for anything but eating; thus, I am writing quickly with inattention to detail in anticipation of an upcoming meal. My ailing back causes irritability and lends a terseness to my expression. The sensation of the cat on my lap is comforting, hopefully tempering the irritation. These experiences are possible at all only because I "have" a body. Further, any combination of such embodied experiences can--and inevitably does-- affect your process of receiving/decoding/interpreting my messages. Perhaps you are hungry, tense, or uncomfortable. Perhaps you are habituated to reading in a particular, patterned manner. Or maybe you are distracted from this reading by the varied sights, sounds, and sensations that comprise human experience. Despite the empirical certainty of the role of the body in communication, the bulk of communication research, whether of humanistic, social scientific, or critical orientation, "has ignored for too long a significant part of the process" by predominantly focusing on verbal or written exchange often at the exclusion of the body (Knapp & Hall, 1992, p. 29). This lack of attention to the body is ironic because, as some nonverbal researchers insist, the act of speaking itself is accomplished by the gesturing of the tongue (Koechlin, 1992). Still, the underlying 3 supposition in communication scholarship seems to be that somehow