Body Language

Click Here to Read the book review by Dr. D. E. Mistry

Click here to Read the book review by Francis Treuherz, London

Contents

    • Dedication iii
    • Acknowledgements v
    • Foreword vii
    • Prologue xi
    • Publisher’s note xv
    • Nonverbal consciousness… xvii

SECTION I: INTRODUCTION

1. KINESICS: THE SCIENCE OF BODY LANGUAGE 3-23

    • Body language is all around us…
    • Body as a dynamic constellation of symbols
    • Communication: The warp and the woof
    • Kinesics-The science of human understanding
    • Body language and emotions
    • The elements of visible code
    • Decoding nonverbal messages: Some examples
    • Movements need interpretation
    • Opening up new vistas of perception in homoeopathy…
    • Why is there a need to study BL in homoeopathy?

2. HISTORY OF BODY LANGUAGE 25-34

    • Gestures first, words second
    • The writings on body language
    • Charles Darwin and other researchers’s contribution
    • Are the body language gestures inborn, inherited, ingrained or learned
    • Further evolution

3. ON LANGUAGE… 35-52

    • Can there be a world without language?
    • Definition of language
    • Language of human beings
    • Language and brain
    • The ‘living’ language: known and unknown
    • The linguistic diversity
    • Importance of language
    • Resemblance and distinction between body language and verbal language
    • Language and gesture – A single integrated spectrum
    • The ‘script’ of body language
    • Body language in relation with paralanguage
    • Neuro-linguistic programming(NLP)
    • The incompleteness of words
    • Blog discussion
    • Language as an embodied experience

SECTION II: ON COMMUNICATION…

4. BODY LANGUAGE AS COMMUNICATION 55-70

    • World as a sensory dimension
    • Problem with words
    • All behavior is communication
    • Body as a true medium
    • Role of feedback
    • Insight through awareness
    • Representational systems
    • Chronemics
    • Categories of nonverbal communication
    • Telegraphy of body language
    • Therapeutic functions of body language
    • Scientific basis of body language
    • Prodigious cosmic form of Lord Krishna

5. COMMUNICATION SKILLS : A PRACTICAL APPROACH 71-105

    • Communication: A critical component
    • Communication: Meaning
    • The critical skills: Active listening & feedback
    • Adherence
    • Barriers to communication: ‘Noise’
    • Explanation of some terms of noise
    • Basic qualities of communication: Positive & negative
    • Homoeopathic interview: Requisites
    • Techniques of communication
    • Interview hints: General
    • Hints for different types of patients
    • Conclusion

6. INTRA-PSYCHIC COMMUNICATION, BL & HOMOEOPATHY 107-118

    • IPC: A symbolic internal process
    • Types of IPC
    • Carl Jung’s contribution
    • Theories of dreams
    • The role of a homoeopathic physician
    • Talking with the self
    • Touching the self
    • Recapitulation

7. THE MUSICAL MELODY OF SILENCE 119-131

    • The silent communication
    • To listen means to be here – now
    • Silence- The ultimate musical melody
    • Types of silence
    • Resonance
    • A Human being: A multi-faceted, composite entity
    • Conclusion

8. CHARACTERS OF BODY LANGUAGE 133-144

    • Positive characters
    • Negative characters
    • The pivotal points
    • Body language: A double edged sword
    • Notes to remember

SECTION III: ELEMENTS OF BODY LANGUAGE

9. PERSONAL APPEARANCE 147-176

    • The first impression
    • Clothes and colours
    • Footwear
    • Hair-styles
    • Ornaments
    • Make-up
    • Aromas
    • Bodifications
    • Elective and non-elective traits
    • Personal appearance and body language
    • Warning signals
    • Homoeopathic perspective

10. GESTURES 177-230

    • Definition
    • What do gestures serve?
    • Each gesture is a like a word in language
    • Types of gesticulations
    • Characters of gestures
    • Head gestures
    • The neck
    • The nose
    • The ear
    • The mouth
    • Arm gestures
    • Talking hands, palms and legs
    • Walking gestures
    • Gestures with mobile phone
    • Female courtship and come-on gestures
    • Smoking gestures
    • Conclusion

11. POSTURE AND STANCE 231-284

    • The meaning of some terms
    • Gesture and posture: The ‘movement’ and the ‘still’
    • Posture and energy
    • Posture and inter-personal relationship
    • Emotional postures
    • Posture and health
    • Sitting styles in a chair
    • Sitting postures
    • Closed and open postures
    • Submissive and fearful body postures
    • Myths and knowledge about postures
    • Static positions
    • Body stance and interpretation
    • Sleeping, noble and dancing postures
    • Car and scooter driving postures
    • Postures of some remedies

12. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS 285-324

    • Face: The visual trademark
    • Face: The index of universe
    • Face: The attractiveness Halo
    • Face: The organ of emotions
    • Facial analysis: A difficult task
    • The concept of facial expression
    • Physiognomy
    • Facial signs as predictors and reflectors of disease
    • The sketching of emotions
    • Are facial expressions inherited?
    • Trustworthy or dominant face: A research report
    • Some facial expressions
    • Weeping gestures
    • Body language of ears, nose, cheeks, lips, mouth and chin in different cultures
    • Homoeopathic perspective
    • Body language of crying babies

13. EYES: THE VISION WITHIN… 325-350

    • Eye: The greatest wonder
    • Eye: A symbol of consciousness
    • Brain, face and eyes
    • The function of seeing the ‘true’ image
    • The eyes and mind: Synthesis through body language
    • How the eyes communicate
    • Eyes in parlance
    • Eye contact
    • Eye movements
    • Gaze
    • The brows, the lids and the eyes
    • Decoding eye messages: Some examples
    • Love and eyes
    • Tears in the eyes
    • Interpretation of dreams of eyes
    • Cultural variations
    • Homoeopathic perspective

14. VOICE AND INTONATION 351-366

    • Carving out the identity
    • Sound of the universe
    • Vocal cords, voice mechanism & key functions
    • Attributes of voice
    • Elements of speech
    • Interpretation of voice
    • The effect of stress on voice
    • Speech in psychiatric illness
    • Some do’s and don’ts for ensuring good communication
    • ‘Voicing’ of homoeopathic remedies

15. SPACE AND DISTANCING 367-394

    • We’ and the ‘Space’
    • Space and self-image
    • How near, how far and the boundaries…
    • Personal space bubbles
    • Personal and shared space
    • The win/win situation of shared space
    • The zones
    • Maintaining territory
    • Handling of space
    • The role of culture
    • Automatic and deliberate reactions to violations of personal space
    • Sitting postures for a doctor and a patient
    • Space, tactile communication and time
    • In the living room of a homoeopathic clinic
    • Homoeopathic remedies vis-à-vis space
    • The effect of stressors on space and distancing
    • The basic modes and their relation with space and distancing

16. TACTILE COMMUNICATION 395-421

    • Touch: The earliest sense
    • Touch: The basic form of communication
    • Touch in parlance
    • Touch: The action forward
    • Characters of TC
    • Tactile communication and self-esteem
    • Examples of tactile communication
    • Handshake
    • Hugging and kissing
    • Touch as a healing therapy
    • Homoeopathic perspective

17. VOCABULARY OF BODY LANGUAGE 423-430

    • Openness. Enthusiasm. Defensiveness. Anger. Readiness. Evaluating. Nervousness. Suspicion. Secretiveness. Rejection. Confidence. Needing reassurance. Frustration. Boredom. Acceptance. Dishonesty. Grief. Embarrassment. Indecision. Disgust. Fear.

18. UNIVERSAL GESTURES 431-439

    • Gestures are the real universal language
    • Gestures in vogue
    • Argyle’s list of universal gestures
    • Universal body language signals
    • The impact of culture on gestures
    • Differences in interpretation

SECTION IV: HOMOEOPATHIC PERSPECTIVE

19. RELEVANCE OF BODY LANGUAGE IN HOMOEOPATHY 443-466

    • Hahnemann’s view
    • Man as a multi-dimensional, composite entity
    • Homoeopathic interview
    • Alignment with vital force
    • Utility of body language for a homoeopath
    • Resemblance between BL and Homoeopathy
    • Redefining the concept of Totality
    • Body Language : An analytical process
    • From ‘symptoms’ to a ‘person’
    • The phenomenological concept
    • Fusion: The patient and the drug
    • Objective of study of BL
    • Selecting the rubrics
    • BL as pointers to diagnosis
    • Learning Materia medica through BL
    • The living Materia medica
    • Linking personality of drugs to body language
    • Conclusion

20. BASIC MODES OF BL AND HOMOEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA 467-485

    • Materia medica: An enormous gamut of human suffering
    • Understanding basic modes
    • Linking remedies with basic modes
    • The Ego: Hypertrophy, atrophy, and lysis
    • Conclusion

21. THE KINGDOMS AND BODY LANGUAGE 487-532

    • The remedy as a personality
    • The concept of karma, reincarnation and kingdom
    • Vedas and Patanjali Yoga
    • The evolution from lower to higher
    • The memory and reincarnation
    • Past life regression therapy
    • Relation of human beings with plants, animals and minerals

22. DISCOVERING THE PATTERNS 533-549

    • The study of patterns
    • Pattern: Matching, recognition & formation
    • Layers of information
    • Dynamics of pattern in interrogation
    • Patterns and personality disorders
    • Entropy and patterns
    • Message clusters and pattern formation
    • ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ positions for pattern formation
    • The vital sign
    • Deriving the vital sign
    • Pattern, vital sign and synthesis
    • Some illustrations

23. HANDY TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL PRACTICE 551-567

    • What makes practice a success?
    • Forming a psychic map
    • What Stanley Bing says
    • Guidelines concerning each element of body language
    • Follow-up patients
    • Your own aura
    • Key points
    • Need for constant polishing

24. CLINICAL REPERTORY OF BODY LANGUAGE 569-655

    • Repertory as a micro-filming of Materia medica
    • Using the tool
    • Repertorial rubrics and body language
    • Clinical repertory of body language

25. LEARNING THROUGH CASES 667-723

26. CONCLUSION 725 -736

    • Homoeopathy: The science of synthesis
    • Kinesics, machines and man
    • The unresolved maze of progress
    • Attention to body language pays dividends!
    • Analyzing the self
    • The reality beyond all change
    • Homoeopathic practice: A crusade
    • Defining an individual in totality
    • Sharpening the perception
    • Buddha on consciousness

REFERENCES 737-743

COMMENTS… 745 -750