Why we talk about “embodiment” instead of “body image” at The Body Positive

posted by Elizabeth Scott / September 27, 2020

You may have noticed that at The Body Positive we talk about embodiment instead of body image. Ever since Connie’s book Embody was published in 2014, we have used embodiment because it is a powerful way to think about inhabiting our bodies as subjects—from the inside.¹

Let me explain why.

The concept of embodiment is an extensively researched definition of positive embodiment offered as an alternative for the term body image in the Developmental Theory of Embodiment created by Niva Piran, PhD.² Piran has identified many social risk factors for disrupted embodiment as well as protective social factors that promote resilience. Her model is a rich resource for treatment providers committed to ending eating disorders in our society. Her research is also very supportive of the community-based prevention work we have engaged in for the past 25 years at The Body Positive.

We talk about embodiment, because this guides us to the subjective experience of how it feels to live inside our bodies and to identify with our own unique experience. Whereas body image is fundamentally dissociative.

Body image starts by focusing on how we are seen from outside of ourselves. When we ask a client about their body image, we are already directing the individual to move outside of their body and to look back at themselves through the eyes of a critical, judging authority.

This practice of looking at ourselves from an outside perspective, and imagining an authority figure judging our beauty and our worth, is what feminists call “the male gaze.” In an interview with Toni Morrison, James Baldwin joked about “the little white man that sits on my shoulder” judging his writing, and how he learned to “flick him off” so that he could write from his own internal experience.³

When we focus on what the more powerful, higher caste people in our lives might be thinking about our bodies, our thoughts, and our creative pursuits, we are fundamentally dissociated from our power, our beauty, and our freedom.

Trusting the authority of our own body experience is the opposite of accepting authoritarianism. Listening to our own intuition, the wisdom of our bellies and our bones, is the path to freedom and to boldly living our precious lives. In the Be Body Positive Model, we call this Practicing Intuitive Self-Care. We start by cultivating the self-love we need to “flick off” the authoritarian inner critical voice.

“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word ‘love’ here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace—not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”                         

―James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

If you are interested in learning more about how to apply the Be Body Positive Model to recovery from eating and embodiment problems, or if you want to learn more about Niva Piran’s feminist theory of embodiment, I invite you to join my upcoming Big Hearted Embodiment training beginning on October 9, 2020. This is a live Zoom intensive for treatment providers, and is rich with positive resources for inhabiting our bodies with passion and joy. This is the third training I have taught, and we are creating a wonderful community of providers committed to positive embodiment and social justice. You are welcome to join us.

Learn more about the Big Hearted Embodiment training at my private practice website or by clicking on this flyer link.

I welcome your inquiries. Please email me at escottlcsw@gmail.com.

My best to you,

Elizabeth Scott

Elizabeth Scott LCSW, CEDS-S, is Co-Founder and Director of Training for The Body Positive. She has been practicing psychotherapy for more than two decades in Marin County, CA. She studies Vipassana Meditation, a practical, embodied approach to awakening, which she finds to be an inexhaustible resource for finding joy and purpose in life.

Elizabeth Scott

Elizabeth Scott LCSW, CEDS-S, is Co-Founder and Director of Training for The Body Positive. She has been practicing psychotherapy for more than two decades in Marin County, CA. She studies Vipassana Meditation, a practical, embodied approach to awakening, which she finds to be an inexhaustible resource for finding joy and purpose in life.

[1] Sobczak, C. (2014). Embody: Learning to love your unique body (and quiet that critical voice!). Carlsbad, CA: Gurze Books.

[2] Piran, N. (2017). Journeys of embodiment at the intersection of body and culture: The developmental theory of embodiment. San Diego: CA, Elsevier Press

[3] Toni Morrison. (2019). The Pieces I Am. Prime Video.