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The Expressiveness of Perceptual Experience
Physiognomy reconsidered
A face strikes us immediately as sad, and so, too, do a mourner, a willow tree, a house on a prairie, and a group of onlookers. The spontaneous emergence of affective and other qualities of people, things, places, and events falls under the heading of physiognomy, a phenomenon discussed since at least Aristotle, and a key feature of evolutionary theory, psychology, and perception as well as professional practice (“profiling”) and popular talk. However, physiognomy is a controversial topic because of a suspect history, and is often renamed as non-verbal communication.
The Expressiveness of Perceptual Experience: Physiognomy Reconsidered examines this venerable, attractive, and contentious topic within the unique perspective of research-oriented psychology. Included are the processes involved, primarily perceptual; origins, mainly evolutionary; and social-cultural factors as supplements. Discussed within a holistic-experiential (phenomenological)-aesthetic framework are physiognomy’s ties to the arts as well as emotions, synesthesia, learning, development, and personality. Empirical investigations are summarized, including the author’s.
[Consciousness & Emotion Book Series, 8] 2013. xi, 174 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 11 October 2013
Published online on 11 October 2013
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Ch. 1. An Overview
- Part I. Background
- Ch. 2. Physiognomy described
- Ch. 3. Historical background and methods of study
- Part II. Physiognomy and the arts
- Ch. 4. Physiognomy in Paintings, Literature, and the Other Arts
- Ch. 5. The Arts, Physiognomy, Perception, and Gestalt Psychology
- Part III. The Perceptual Framework for Physiognomy
- Ch. 6. Physiognomy as an Emergent Phenomenon
- Ch. 7. The Physiognomy of Person Perception
- Part IV. Answers and Questions
- Ch 8. Theories of Physiognomy
- Ch. 9. Summing Up, Remaining Issues, and Future Directions
- Index
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
Kronshage, Eike
Auracher, Jan
Hoshi, Hideyuki, Nahyun Kwon, Kimi Akita & Jan Auracher
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