Bodily individuation, bodily relationality – Scheler’s phenomenology of the body and infant research

This article analyses two interrelated aspects of the phenomenological body – the fact of allowing a basic individuation and its being socially oriented from the beginning. To do that, I first present Scheler’s theories on the lived body, focusing on the notions of Leibschema and of a primary individuation. I then assess Scheler’s theory of the “undifferentiated flux” to show that it is only a prima facie impasse, and that an implicit body schema is present from birth; this seems to apply to the infant studies that find in newbors a “level 1” of detachment from the environment and an embodied self-awareness (Rochat, Fogel). However, the body schema shows an intrinsic relational aspect too. In the third part, I propose to apply Scheler’s theory of the direct perception of expressivity to the psychological theories of an innate intersubjectivity (Trevarthen) and a core intersubjectivity (Stern). Moreover, the development of pre-linguistic infants seems to be possible thanks to lived-body and expressive interactions, that show co-regulation (Fogel) and affective attunement (Stern) in interaction.