Rev Fac Med Univ Nac Colomb 2005 Vol. 53 No.

2
57

ORIGINAL RESEARCH
THE BODY, IN THE STUDY FIELD
OF PHYSIOTHERAPY

Adriana Prieto Rodriguez one, Sandra Patricia Naranjo Polania two,

1. Professor at the National University of Colombia - Bogotá. Professor at the Universidad del Rosario.
2. Professor, Universidad del Rosario Research Group on Physical Exercise and Human Development, Faculty of
Rehabilitation and Human Development Universidad del Rosario ,.

* Correspondence aprietor@unal.edu.co

Resume material or spiritual of the body. From dualism, the

study of the body in the profession is
Aim: describe the concept of the body as it directs its functional capacity and adaptation or part of
the research on the dysganic category; from monism, physical therapy recoponibility of the body and
its explanation for the knowledge of the body with respect to its condition of physical therapy.
language, social interaction and consciousness.

Material and methods: Theoretical research, in
which the phenomenological method was
applied to define the emerging categories, the
phases of documentation, analytical
processing of documents and interpretation
and construction of subcategories were
developed. The documentary analysis
technique was used on a sample of 59
documents out of 82 collected. As a criterion of
internal validity for the interpretation process,
the documents were read by each of the
researchers and subsequent contrasting.
Conclusions: the body is recognized as a human
language with theoretical and methodological
implications for the profession. This requires
integrating the organic, symbolic and psychic
aspects of the body, in the undergraduate and
advanced training processes.
Keywords: human body, body image,
kinetic, physical therapy.
Summary
INVESTIGATION

Objective: to present a body concept

Results: Two interpretative approaches description as part of the research project were identified, monism
ORIGINAL

and dualism, which "Explanation of the corporal availability like generate relationships focused on
condition study category in physiotherapy", conducted by

Received: 05/04/05 / Sent in pairs: 06/04/05 / Accepted publication: 16/08/05 /

 The body, physiotherapeutic study A. Prieto et al.
58

the research group «Exercise and Human the field of knowledge of physiotherapy.
Development »in the Rosario University is part of the theoretical processes advanced in the
teacher Bogotá - Colombia.
Methods: this is a theoretic research with a
phenomenological method for conceptual
categories definition. The phases were:
bibliographic references review, analytic process of
selected documents, interpretation and
construction of subcate-gories. Documentary
analysis was the technique employed in this study,
where 59 documents, from 82 founded, were
analyzed. Independent reading and posterior
versus station for internal validity were done.
Results: in the body concepts its possible
identify two big interpretative focuses:
monism and dualism, in which there are
relations centered immaterial or spiritual
body condition. From dualism the study in
physicaltherapy is oriented to the functional
capacity and organic adaptation. From the
monism, this profession, recognizes the body
related with language, social interaction and
consciousness.
Conclusions: the body in physiotherapy,
considered as human language its
recognized with it's theoretical and
methodolo-gical implications for the
profession. Integration of organic,
psychological and symbolic aspects in
undergraduate and advanced formation
is necessary.
INVESTIGATION
recognition, recognizing that relationships with health and
movement have been the two fundamental elements
In the development of this, it is pertinent to describe
and expand the categories, which, like the body, can
strengthen the approaches and tendencies of the
discipline. Since the 19th century, physiotherapy
was recognized as a health support profession
especially linked to medicine, due to the particular
way in which they established a strategic link with it
from the beginning, which allowed it to develop
rapidly (5). However, it is intended to generate a
space for knowledge and interaction more
broad and in a certain way linked models such as
holistic and social (6).
Currently, there is an emphasis on understanding
physiotherapy from a not only biological field, but also a
social one. This fusion, although incipient, is aimed at
incorporating new categories to the hegemonic biological
gaze, observing two aspects: the first based on a
functionalist conception of movement and therefore on
the role of physiotherapy in caring for that capacity and
in attention to deviation from normality patterns
(7-12) and the second, focused on approximately
mar the social elements and in defining that the
physiotherapeutic action transcends the control of the
functional and biological alteration of the corporal
movement (13-17).
In this order of ideas for this project, the concept of
health is assumed from a theoretical position
comprehensive, based on the vital process where
there are variations expressed in a component

Key words: human body, body image, successive behavior with normal distribution of kinesics,
physical therapy. health and disease as contrary events but not
ORIGINAL

polarized, with variations un-interrupted,

Introduction where it is not possible to establish the beginning
and end limits of each one of them. Taking import-
This study is part of a set of substance, life itself as a process (18). Said works (1-4)
oriented towards history and process are of a historical nature, where the language
Rev Fac Med Univ Nac Colomb 2005 Vol. 53 No. 2
guaje and social representation, take an
important place in the construction of the
concept of health in the subjects. According to
Gottraux (19), illness and health are affirmed
as part of a cultural world of perception of
corporeality, which is why it is specific to each
subject involved in this reality.
Movement, in this sense, is a dimension of
existence that enables expression, the notion of
oneself and of others, the possibility of building
projects and, therefore, development processes.
Body availability, and as its expression
movement, refers to the attitude of the subject
in relation to his body, which in turn is
determined through experience and whose core
is the notion of consciousness.
The concept of the body has been associated
with the functional interpretation of movement
and its mechanical, neurological and
physiological capacity has been studied in depth.
For physiotherapy, its interpretation has been
more focused on understanding its physical
capacities and the ways in which it behaves in
relation to the functionality of movement, than
on the identification and study of the body in
relation to the construction of identity and
language in the People, a matter that from a
social line becomes relevant, in the field of
knowledge and action of physiotherapy.
Material and methods
The first phase of a theoretical investigation was
developed, from the perspective of the
phenomenological method. This type of research
makes it possible to understand the limits and
scope of the construction of the field of
knowledge of physiotherapy and implies, in a
subsequent investigation, the structuring of
procedural components that make up the
method of its exploration.
59
The phenomenological perspective (20) is
considered fundamental for the construction of
fields of knowledge in the disciplines, since
through this method it is possible to naturalize,
that is, to objectify the nucleus or the question of
knowledge, this generates:
1. The explanation of the physical world, which appears
as a probable description, from which the
subject appropriates his environment.
2. The phenomenological constitution of the object of
study, as the beginning of the understanding of the
problem. That is, the identification of a phenomenon,
either a definition or a relationship.
3. Critical effort to establish the objective and
empirical existence of the face considered as
reference of the inquiries.
The development of the method implies the use of the
documentary analysis technique, carrying out an
interpretive exercise and a reinterpretation exercise, to
establish the naturalization of the question. It covers
the following phases:
one. Documentation: consisted of the location, study and
classification of the scientific production available in the
databases of local libraries that theoretically address the
category of
In the main body, an analytical summary
was prepared for them, of which 59 were
taken as a sample, equivalent to 65% of
the 82 initially prepared for it; others
they were not considered, because they did not
respond to the category in which they were originally
INVESTIGATION
classified (Table 1).
ORIGINAL
2. Analytical processing of documents: The
theoretical information gathered was
grouped, using the analytical summary (21),
as a recording instrument, and the
information was structured in a database.
 The body, physiotherapeutic study
60
Table 1. List of analytical summaries of studies, according to defined categories
CATEGORY
BODY
TOTAL EVIDENCE CATEGORY
3. Interpretation and construction of the
category: It consisted in the identification and
conformation of the theoretical nuclei product of
the interpretive reading and its theoretical
features. As a validity criterion, the interpretation
of the data was developed in a first phase,
independently by the researchers, contrasting
their analysis in a second phase.
Results
1. Interpretation of the body
Two major theoretical perspectives are
identified in the interpretation of the body,
dualism and monism; being in each one of
them a range of expositions on the relation of
the body with the conscience, the matter and
the language.
2.1 Dualistic notions
With Plato a dualistic tendency was generated,
his most radical position was associated with
concepts that divide matter from other more
abstract aspects, attributing to it the possibility
of reproducing the real as something tangible.
Thus, the concept of matter, in the most radical
INVESTIGATION
dualism, corresponds to a notion of the natural,
the visible, made up of an atomic structure:
ORIGINAL
“matter that is within the reach of natural
sciences and spirit, which is the source of facts.
and real processes that man experiences by
introspection in his psychic life. They are two
heterogeneous substances, the one irreducible
A. Prieto et al.
SUBCATEGORY Abstracts
CONSCIENCE 3. 4
SUBJECT 12
INSTRUMENT 5
LANGUAGE fifteen
SUBJECTIVITY 9
INTERSUBJECTIVITY 7
82
to the other: spirit cannot arise from matter
by evolution. Two realities that are externally
linked by the duration of human existence:
accidental union like that of the ferryman with
his boat; they come together in the 'action',
which is an 'accident' ”(22).
Descartes, with his theory of symbolic interactionism (23),
in which he considers two different created substances:
the body and the soul or mind, where extension is the
essence of the body and thought that of the soul. He
considered that the
Interaction of these two substances was
possible through the pineal gland. The body
has an automaton nature since it operates as
a mechanism that can perform many actions
on itself without the intervention of the soul,
the soul is a pure thinking substance that can,
but not always, regulate the body. The body,
radically different from the soul, is a reality
that exists and functions by virtue of its own and
purely material organizational principles. The
soul is not needed to explain the functioning of
the body, it does so on the basis of the
mechanical movement of the atoms, since the
body in the background is nothing more than an
atomic, physical, extensive reality.
From the Cartesian approaches, positions that try to
overcome the so-called Cartesian deadlock are
generated within dualism, related to the dilemma of
how the body / mind union is made possible, given the
difference
Rev Fac Med Univ Nac Colomb 2005 Vol. 53 No. 2
61

cia of substances that make them up. Among the notion of consciousness has
different levels, both these are occasionalism one from inferior to superior; the first are
Malebranche (23). immersed in the unconscious and subconscious,
The theory of the dual aspect (23), raised by
Benedictus de Spinoza, trying to solve the
problem of the interaction body / mind,
proposes that these are not part of finite
substances, but attributes of the same infinite
substance, provided by God that is constituted
in essence of everything that exists.
In the same way, the psychophysical
parallelism, strengthened by
GottfriedWilhelmLeibniz, through his theory of
pre-established harmony, tries to overcome
the need to constitute a divine interaction “by
comparing the soul and the body with two
clocks that are in perfect agreement, Leibniz
argued that there are only three possible
sources to match. It can occur by mutual
influence (interactionism), through the efforts
of an expert operator who regulates the clocks
and keeps them in accordance (casualism), or
by virtue of the fact that they have been built
from the beginning so that their future
harmony is assured. (parallelism). Leibniz
rejects interactionism because it is impossible
to conceive material particles passing from one
substance to another, and occasionalism
because it invokes the intervention of a Deus ex
machina in the natural series of phenomena.
What remains is the parallelism, the notion
that the mind and the body exist in a harmony
that has been pre-established by God from the
moment of creation ”(23).
while the highest level of consciousness becomes
It is framed in the formulation of thoughts with
the character of statements and arguments, either
orally with a group of friends, writing or simply
carrying out the process mentally without
expressing it to others, in any way when carrying
out these processes one is aware of the facts.
Some authors have interpreted the notion of
Consciousness as conformed by the
introspective, corresponding to the notion of
oneself as body and soul and by the perceptual
one that is the one that is had of the external
world (25). According to Jung, the corporeal
being is considered as a symbolism of two faces
that are reflected in each other. The first
corresponds to the consciousness that each
being has about his body according to his own
thought and the second with the consciousness
that each being has about the body according
to society (25). This can also lead to
self-alienation, by causing each individual to
lose their own body awareness to become
aware of the body of the society in which they
live, but self-awareness can vary from one
person to another, depending on the areas of
discrimination and understanding that are best
mastered,
From a more biological point of view, the
body-world system that man comes to know will
have one of its conditions, in the ranges of stimuli
that are adequate to excite the team of sensory
INVESTIGATION

organs and build

ORIGINAL

According to Popper (24) from dualist positions, the bodily relationship with the world, for example, the

1. Absolutizes the distinction between body and consciousness and maintains that since thought and will
cannot directly dominate the movements of the body, it is necessary to appeal to God, who moves the body on
the occasion of thoughts and acts of the will .