Apotemnophilia straddles the boundary between neurology and psychiatry. It is a condition in which individuals experience the strong and specific desire for amputation of a healthy limb. Research suggests this disorder may be of neurological origin, specifically that the body image centers of the brain lack a cortical representation for a particular limb. A curious aspect of this condition is that sufferers often report an attraction to amputees in addition to desiring their own limb be removed. We postulate that sexual 'aesthetic preference' for certain body morphology is dictated in all individuals in part by the cortical representation of one's body image.
Physiognomic perception, a term coined by Heinz Werner, refers to a mode of perception attuned to expression or expressive attributes. The term applies readily to the perception of faces, gestures, intonation, and mood. It has also been implicated in the perception of the arts and music and is therefore relevant to understanding the perception of film that is accompanied by music. The concept of physiognomic perception distinguishes perceptual experience from emotional response. It is proposed that this distinction must be maintained in analyzing the film-music experience and its dynamics in order that perceptual properties of music and film be identified as such instead of spuriously attributed to emotional responses on the part of the film spectator. Furthermore, the concept of physiognomic perception provides an alternative to the view that music contributes to film perception by simply adding associations. In making this argument, the paper reviews the theory of physiognomic perception, citing historical antecedents in classical Greek philosophy relative to physiognomy and physiognomies, and ideas subsequently derived from that intellectual tradition in terms of the musical modes and affections in music, as formulated in medieval and baroque music theory, respectively. Connections are also made with the general notion of "aesthetic perception," Lipps' theory of "empathy," and more contemporary psychological aesthetic ideas of Arnheim and Gibson.
Picture music-a new art form-is coming into its own. George Antheil, Modern Music (1937) encouraged within the academic community, the study of film music has become a burgeoning multidisciplinary if not transdisciplinary endeavor. Today writers utilize not only the concepts and technical vocabularies of music and film making, but variously terms and concepts from musicology, film theory, media and communication studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, literary criticism, critical theory, philosophy, semiotics, psychology, cognitive science, sociology, feminist theory, gender studies, and marketing researchand that is probably not an exhaustive list of all the disciplines and areas represented. With the resulting profusion of technical language there is the potential for a veritable Babel. Like different languages, two disciplines may, for instance, have different terms for the same thing, and writers may 1
The geometrical incongruence between patterns in visual space and structures and patterns of activity in the visual cortex, long known to investigators, serves as a criterion for evaluating physical theories of visual space. The problem of determining the geometry of the visual world (visual geometry) is compared with that of determining the geometry of the physical world (physical geometry). Theories as to the possible physical locus of visual space, whether in the brain or elsewhere, are reviewed, analyzed, and criticized accordingly. It is concluded that on the basis of congruence alone it would be predicted that visual space is not to be found in the brain, even though it is seemingly linked to it causally, as experimental neurology and neurophysiology demonstrate. Alternative theories as to the nature of visual space are considered, but are also found to be inadequate in explaining visual space in terms acceptable to contemporary science.
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