The ontogenesis of narrative: from moving to meaning

Abstract

Narrative, the creation of imaginative projects and experiences displayed in expressions of movement and voice, is how human cooperative understanding grows. Human understanding places the character and qualities of objects and events of interest within stories that portray intentions, feelings, and ambitions, and how one cares about them. Understanding the development of narrative is therefore essential for understanding the development of human intelligence, but its early origins are obscure. We identify the origins of narrative in the innate sensorimotor intelligence of a hypermobile human body and trace the ontogenesis of narrative form from its earliest expression in movement. Intelligent planning, with self-awareness, is evident in the gestures and motor expressions of the mid-gestation fetus. After birth, single intentions become serially organized into projects with increasingly ambitious distal goals and social meaning. The infant imitates others’ actions in shared tasks, learns conventional cultural practices, and adapts his own inventions, then names topics of interest. Through every stage, in simple intentions of fetal movement, in social imitations of the neonate, in early proto-conversations and collaborative play of infants and talk of children and adults, the narrative form of creative agency with it four-part structure of ‘introduction,’ ‘development,’ ‘climax,’ and ‘resolution’ is present. We conclude that shared rituals of culture and practical techniques develop from a fundamental psycho-motor structure with its basic, vital impulses for action and generative process of thought-in-action that express an integrated, imaginative, and sociable Self. This basic structure is evident before birth and invariant in form throughout life. Serial organization of single, non-verbal actions into complex projects of expressive and explorative sense-making become conventional meanings and explanations with propositional narrative power. Understanding the root of narrative in embodied meaning-making in this way is important for practical work in therapy and education, and for advancing philosophy and neuroscience.

Prospective organization of neonatal arm movements: A motor foundation of embodied agency, disrupted in premature birth

“…It is therefore self‐referenced and may be uniquely positioned to convey information about the particular affective experience of the infant within the form of the action pattern, what Stern calls vitality affects (Stern, 2010), precisely because it is not instrumental (seeking a functional result in object manipulation). Rather, in early life these movements are predominantly communicative, forming the basis of sharing intentions, arousal, and interest with other persons (De Jaegher, Perakyla, & Stevanovic, 2016; Delafield‐Butt & Trevarthen, 2015; Gallagher, 2008; Trevarthen & Delafield‐Butt, 2015). It will become interesting in future work to measure and define differences in form of movement (action pattern) during different social and affective conditions to better understand the possible expressive content of subsecond adjustment to these movements (cf.…”

“…It stands in agreement with a growing philosophical psychological account that basic, embodied intentions are part‐and‐parcel of the core sense of self (Alcaro, Carta, & Panksepp, 2017; Delafield‐Butt & Gangopadhyay, 2013; Feinberg & Mallatt, 2016; Fuchs & Koch, 2014; Gallagher, 2000, 2005; Hohwy, 2007; Merker, 2007; Northoff & Panksepp, 2008; Pacherie, 2008; Stern, 2010; Trevarthen & Delafield‐Butt, 2017; Zahavi, 2005, 2006). This non‐verbal modality of expressive gesture made in communication with a caring and attentive other underpins preverbal, embodied intersubjective communication important for psychological development and health (Delafield‐Butt & Trevarthen, 2015; Di Paolo & De Jaegher, 2015; Rochat & Gallese, 2016; Trevarthen et al., 2015) and, in cases where the infant's mental health or development is threatened, may require professional assistance to support (Brazelton, 2006). …”

Multimodal Study of Adult-Infant Interaction: A Review of Its Origins and Its Current Status

“…Some researchers argue that certain daily action patterns and the exchange of objectives, motives and feelings that guide them constitute the base of cultural and embodied knowledge on how to establish intersubjective exchanges in a given culture (Delafield-Butt & Trevarthen, 2015). In that framework, Negayama et al (2015) analyzed the intersubjective bodily involvement between adult and infant in daily actions in Scottish and Japanese mothers with their infants between six and nine months of age and found cultural differences in the intersubjective movement keys.…”

“…Socio-cognitive and communicative development rests on the first interactions between adult and infant (Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda, 2010;Delafield-Butt & Trevarthen, 2015). They are a basic condition for development.…”

“…Therefore, understanding the organization modes of adultinfant interactions represents one of the great challenges in developmental psychology. Nowadays, embodiment theory is an alternative perspective to classical cognitive psychology, which defends that the adjustment processes to the social context and the body's role in them are keys to understand complex psychological processes (Johnson, 2007;Needham & Libertus, 2011;Delafield-Butt & Trevarthen, 2015). In view of the predominantly kinesthetic nature of experience in the first years of life, the field of early development particularly needs further depth in the embodied perspective of cognition, and this research area includes studies on adult-infant interactive movement.…”