Uniqueness (of being) is about (the question of) how individuality (distinctiveness / irreplicability) of each human being functions in everyday life and in psychopathology.
It is about how singular bodies and minds generate unique flows of internal biocognitive states, subjective experience and observable behaviors and then project them onto each other to be marked as (the reality of) “I” , “you” and the “other”.
Essentially, we ask, What is “I”?; What is “You”?; What is “body“?; What is “person”?, What is “subjective experience”? What is “consciousness”? How are they related?
“In-everyday-life” means here how we experience and treat ourselves and each other in moment-to-moment interpersonal transactions.
“In-psychopathology” means all signs and symptoms of human suffering, primarily disorders of personality and the self, but also any other aspects of psychopathology that are related to the interplay of the body, subjective experience and behavior observable to others.
What is uniqueness?
Uniqueness is a fundamental constitutive attribute of being and being human. Beings and things (objects) “exist” and manifest as such to the extent they are distinct and different in relation to each other. Uniqueness is, essentially, about (the question of) how one “is” as a human being among others.
Fundamentally, we exist as distinct and separate physical bodies. Our genetic code, biochemistry and appearance are unique for each of us. We develop idiosyncratic set of memories, personality and a sense of self with its own narrative. We are identified by time and place of our birth, by our parents and their personal history, our names and unique alphanumeric tags assigned to each of us by the society. We desire, speak and act differently and our lives evolve into unique mosaic of relationships, families, personal and professional accomplishments, societal roles, perceptions and stories, which can continue in time, endlessly.
Uniqueness of a being is a wonder of existence and subjective experience, a miracle of our singularity, of one life, of existing as a separate body and mind, separate desire and consciousness. The uniqueness of genius, insight and enlightenment.
It is also the challenge of separateness, of being different, often even in the most intimate moments of love and communion. Or thereafter, when they end. The challenge of exclusion and abandonment, despair of aloneness and alienation, agony of the dark night of the soul and, ultimately, of illness, pain and death.
Uniqueness is also a natural extension of biological singularity, an essential attribute of life itself evolved as progressively more complex systems of distinct organisms, self-organizing into particular biological bodies demarcated by their boundary, the skin. This fundamental singularity of most biological organisms is not only the evolutionary precursor of our inherent individuality as separate human beings, the origin of “me” and “you”, but also it still functions as the biological vehicle of the fundamental separateness of our bodies and subjective experience.
Uniqueness of the body
Sum, ergo cogito.
In reversing Descartes’ dictum we acknowledge that, in most respects, it is being (existing) that makes experience (cognition) possible.
I am therefore I experience.
One lives as a body, a spatiotemporal biophysical formation within the fabric of life. Uniqueness of the body is an epigenetic and developmental individuality of one’s biophysicality, neurocognition, appearance and behavior. A specific DNA (genotype) (through a series of epigenetic transformations and subsequent development and learning) matures into a distinct biophysical body (endophenotype) and its unique appearance and behavior (phenotype). One is unique genetically, becomes a distinct biochemical and neurocognitive organism and matures into an irreplicable individual appearance and behavior.
Each body is (i) uniquely located and positioned in space at any given time, (ii) a biophysical foundation of one’s being (alive); (iii) a repository of memories, language, knowledge and identity, (iv) a locus of subjective experience of existing (being), (v) an external (surface of the skin) venue and means of one’s appearance and behavior observable to others, and (vi) an object / subject of societal markers and perceptions by others.
BODY as an actual LOCATION in space and time
Uniqueness of location is the positioning of the body as a three-dimensional mass enclosed in space by uniquely patterned skin, a unique vantage point of experience, consciousness and exchange with the world around. It is one’s specific and unique location among other people and objects, a unique set of spatiotemporal coordinates of being-there among and with others.
The body not only determines the vantage point of one’s experience but also, it is what others perceive as one’s presence or being-there.The body can be experienced via all five senses and is felt as one’s internal experience or seen / heard / felt by others as its appearance and behavior.
Body as an internal biophysicality – an ORGANISM
One becomes (alive as) a biophysical organism (body).
The biophysicality of the body is the very essence of life and being alive. It is a distinct epigenetic entity (organism) with the totality of its distinct structures and processes – all micro and macro physical and chemical activities (“events”) taking place within the body from the quantum to the kinesthetic and behavioral level. The biophysical processes are typically not available to observation or to direct subjective experience but many of their derivative attributes can become a content of (subjective) experience and of external observation (e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, size) or registered and measured using existing technologies (X-rays, blood work, MRI, etc) (e.g. hormones, metabolism, BP, etc.)
Body as MEMORY – repository (archive, locus) of all memories, language, knowledge and identity
Over the lifespan, the body, the brain mainly, becomes a neurocognitive repository of all experiences and learning encoded by the nervous system as a long term memory and knowledge enabling survival, adaptation, development and continuity of one’s identity. The body, the brain and the entire nervous system function as a uniquely organized storage warehouse for distinct long term memories (episodic, semantic, procedural) and their chronology underlies and reflects the trajectory of one’s development, adaptation and identity, including the experienced identity (how one feels and thinks about oneself). All learning and memory are encoded and maintained in the central nervous system, mainly the brain, including language, all personal memories, all acquired knowledge about the world, how it works and how to navigate in it including all complexities and nuances of interpersonal transactions and one’s identity. Everything that one does automatically, routinely, with limited or no conscious awareness, is, essentially, a function of the BODY-as-MEMORY – enacted and controlled by one’s body with no or only limited conscious experience of it – unique body language and behavior and their idiosyncrasies, complex learned behaviors (walking, riding a bike, driving, etc), speech, ways of relating to others, desires, urges, impulses. One has access to the contents of one’s memory and one is one’s memory. Having access is not the same as being it, though. Contents of MEMORY can be experienced and the questions of MEMORY and EXPERIENCE and who / what is the EXPERIENCER are addressed below.
Body as the locus of subjective EXPERIENCE of existing (being)
Experience is subjective and predicated on the existence of the (human) body. One’s awareness of own being (here and now) and one’s construction and experience of reality in one’s mind are only possible because of the biophysicality of the body, its sensory organs and the evolutionary availability of the central nervous system and the brain. The most basic, rudimentary (proto-) awareness of own being (“I am”; I exist”) is a pre-reflexive aspect of awareness of own body and its activities, resulting in the experience of “existing” as a separate body, an entity which, in time, evolves to function as the “subject”, the “I” of all subjective experience. This very fundamental, primordial, preverbal, pre-reflexive awareness of own being (existing) is predicated on the evolution and availability of the central nervous system and the brain so neuronal detection and awareness of own boundaries (body mass delineated by skin) became possible and offered a distinct survival enhancing capacity. Distinct pattern and flow of sensory and neurocognitive activity in the brain forms the foundation of the experience of being-there as a unique organism, body and identity.
Body as observable appearance and BEHAVIOR
A biophysical body is an organism delineated by its skin and occupies a particular temporospatial location, it is-there. Outside of its skin-boundary, the body can be observed by others as its appearance and behavior.
Some of the main aspects of what can be observed are (i) natural – reflective of biophysical phenotype,e.g. height, coloring of skin, eyes, hair, body build, temperamental, maturational and developmental variables, etc. (ii) performative – intentional and agentic, (iii) nonconscious – outside of one’s awareness but observable to others.
The BODY’s being-there makes it possible for it to be noticed – to become a content of awareness and consciousness of others and enables one to participate in the public, interpersonal / societal transactions.
Body as a PERSON
The body is perceived and experienced by others as one’s appearance (surface of the skin plus clothing) and as one’s behavior (any observable activity of the body) and is encoded as a person.
The body as a PERSON becomes a cultural construct with unique societal markers (name, date / place of birth), identification numbers, addresses, names of parents and relatives, community affiliations, education, degrees, professional titles, societal roles and functions, etc.) which jointly describe, identify and recognize one within the society of others. The markers exist (as semiotic signs) and are maintained by societal documents and in the collective memory of others.
The BODY (the signified) and the PERSON (the totality of all its signifiers) are dialectically related and, fundamentally, the body is the person and the person is the body, at least during one’s life. However, the PERSON can precede (anticipate) the conception and birth of an actual body in time and can function (“exist”), indefinitely, after one’s death, as long as it is maintained by societal signs and documents and in collective memory and awareness of others (as history).
Formation of the BODY
The BODY is a reflection, a representation, a story of one’s epigenetic, maturational / developmental, temporospatial, experiential and societal / interpersonal (public) history.
With respect to the LOCATION, the body becomes (is) an embodied reflection of the trajectory of all temporospatial locations one has ever occupied over one’s lifetime until this present moment of here and now. As an ORGANISM, the body becomes (is) a product of all biophysical, metabolic processes since the moment of conception (and likely before). As a MEMORY, the body becomes (is) a reflection of all events and all learning in one’s life, encoded as a system of neurocognitive representations by and in the central nervous system, including temperamental / personality traits (endophenotype) and identity, as well as an (aggregated history of) all (subjective) EXPERIENCE and all interpersonal transactions with others (BEHAVIOR).
As a PERSON, the body becomes (is) the totality of all societal / interpersonal markers (semiotic signs as signifiers) assigned to it, as a person, by the society and culture, before, during or after its biophysical life, including the collective experience and memory of others.