Phenomenology and Mind

No. 11 (2016): Emotions, Normativity, and Social Life
Session 4. Emotions and Intersubjectivity – Typical Development and Pathologies

Intercorporeality and Interaffectivity

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  • Thomas Fuchs
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13128/Phe_Mi-20119

Published 2017-01-04

Keywords

  • empathy,
  • intercorporeality,
  • interaffectivity,
  • bodily resonance

How to Cite

Fuchs, T. (2017). Intercorporeality and Interaffectivity. Phenomenology and Mind, (11), 194–209. https://doi.org/10.13128/Phe_Mi-20119
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Abstract

According to phenomenological and enactive approaches, human sociality does not start from isolated individuals, but from intercorporeality and interaffectivity. To elaborate this concept, the paper introduces (1) a concept of embodied affectivity, regarding emotions as a circular interaction of the embodied subject and the situation with its affective affordances. (2) This leads to a concept of embodied interaffectivity as a process of coordinated interaction, bodily resonance, and ‘mutual incorporation’ which provides the basis for a primary empathy. (3) Finally, developmental accounts point out that these empathic capacities are also based on an intercorporeal memory that is acquired in early childhood.

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