Mimicry

MIMICRY (from Greek mimeomai—to imitate), movements of the musculature in coordinated complexes that correspond to various psychological states. Mimicry belongs to the so-called expressive movements (see) and is one of the links in the chain of various forms and means of communication among representatives of the animal world. As Darwin pointed out, mimicry is a rudiment of movements that once had a purposeful character but gradually lost their initial significance, yielding to speech (oral and graphic). However, mimetic movements have not disappeared completely and, remaining companions of speech, they enhance and sometimes replace this higher form of communication (gesture language, facial mimicry). Mimicry is a material of great value in the analysis of personality in its normal and pathological states. The poverty of mimicry in its various degrees determines the general poverty of the intellectual fund and the emotional-volitional sphere in various forms of mental deficiency. On the contrary, brightness and variety of mimicry testify to a high endowment of personality. Although all muscles and all parts of the body participate in mimicry in general, the main mimetic organ is the face. Every psychological experience—grief, joy, fear, pain, fatigue, tension of attention—is reflected in the mimicry of the face (Fig. 1-6); all the richness of internal experiences can be conveyed only by it. Facial mimicry plays a great role in early childhood, where, as in a mirror, all internal sensations are reflected. Although word is the main means of communication of people and the instrument of judgment and conclusion, word without mimicry is dead. Word conveys only individual concepts, while mimicry conveys the state of the psyche in its entirety, in its dynamics and fluidity. The speed of change of the mimetic play of the face, corresponding to the play of the finest emotional experiences, is so great that photography (and even cinema) cannot reflect it; therefore, only an artist, having chosen typical moments from the complex psychological play of the face, can give a realistic portrait reflecting its emotional experiences. Being in a considerable part involuntary, mimicry is the best "mirror of the soul," sometimes its "traitor," and often plays an important role in the correct understanding of the psyche of another person. In addition, the basic forms of mimetic movements are common to all peoples, are international, and therefore understandable to everyone. True, mimetic movements in the broad sense of this word (expressive movements) are subject to our will, and these movements are no longer entirely international, in a certain part conventional (class and tribal ways of "holding oneself"); true, facial mimicry can also be artificial, and bourgeois culture sees in the ability to master the expression of one's face even one of the highest signs of culture, but the long preservation of an artificial expression of the face is extremely difficult, and the study of mimicry is a very important means of knowing the psyche. The study of mimetic movements has been engaged in by artists (Leonardo da Vinci), actors, doctors, starting with Hippocrates and up to our time (Duchenne, H. Virchow, Krukenberg, Sommer, Sikorsky, Kirchhoff), and psychologists (Wundt, Klages). Duchenne in 1862 carried out extensive studies, striving to find the exact anatomical basis of each mimetic movement of the face. The work of Gersing (Hersing) on the cause of the expressiveness of the eyes is also of great interest. The majority of other works strove for the most accurate description of individual mimetic movements in connection with the psychological experiences, diseases they denote, striving to use the peculiarities of mimicry as a fine diagnostic sign of somatic and psychological diseases. Despite the mimetic mobility of the face, individual people, however, possess certain stable mimetic peculiarities, transmitted by inheritance and determining a subtle family resemblance. This resemblance rests not only on the inheritance of the type of musculature but also on the peculiarities of neuromuscular dynamics. In connection with the modern teaching on the connection of physique and types of character, the study of stable individual types of mimicry acquires special interest. However, in the study of these types, as in the study of the inheritance of other signs, one must not forget that the features of a stable facial expression reflect on themselves and often repeated emotional influences of the environment, profession, etc.; there are known, for example, types of face of the intelligent, haughty, etc.; it is known that long-living spouses begin to resemble each other (imitation). On the other hand, the observation noted by Kant and confirmed by Wundt that a corresponding facial expression can cause and corresponding emotions is of great interest. Soh (Soule) in his methods of psychotherapy (autohypnosis), which have attracted attention in recent times, uses, among other things, the method of artificially calling by mimicry the emotional state he needs. Being connected in anatomical-physiological relation to the activity of the cerebral cortex and subcortical formations (visual tubercle), mimetic movements are important in diagnostic relation for the neuropathologist. Various forms of disturbance of mimicry (dysmimia) are observed: excessive vivacity of mimetic movements (hypermimia) can appear in subcortical motor aphasia, when a patient, deprived of a sufficient stock of words, supplements his speech with excessive mimicry. The discrepancy of mimicry to the experienced affect is called paramimia (see Will and its disorders). Symptoms of hemimimia also have essential diagnostic significance. In disease of the visual tubercle, the corresponding half of the face, preserving the ability to voluntary movements, remains immobile during psychological affects (laughter, crying). The opposite phenomenon is observed in hemimimics without lesion of the visual tubercle, namely—the half of the face, incapable of voluntary movements, during affects shows energetic movements. In some diseases there is an absence of mimicry (amimia) of both sides, the so-called "mask-like face" (Parkinsonism after epidemic encephalitis, progressive paralysis). Lit.: Reich M., Ausdruck der Augen, St. Petersburg, no year (Ricker's edition); Sikorsky I., Allgemeine Psychologie mit Physiognomik in illustrierter Darstellung, Kiev, 1904; Cuyer E., La mimique, Paris, 1902; Duchenne de Boulogne, Mécanisme de la physiognomie humaine, Paris, 1862; Hersing F., Der Ausdruck des Auges. Stuttgart, 1880; Hughes H., Die Bedeutung der Mimik für den Arzt, Berlin, 1901; Kirchhoff Th., Der Gesichtsausdruck bei inneren Krankheiten, Sammlung klin. Vorträge, neue Folge, Inn. Med., Nr. 156, Leipzig, 1909; he also, Der Gesichtsausdruck und seine Bahnen beim Gesunden und Kranken. Berlin, 1922; Klemann E., Mimik und Pantomimik, Physiognomik und Charakterologie, Arch. f. Krim., Anthrop. u. Kriminalist., Bd. LIV, 1913; Krukenberg H., Der Gesichtsausdruck des Menschen, Stuttgart, 1913; Sommer R., Experimentelle Physiognomik, Zeitschr. f. d. ges. Neurol. u. Psych., Bd. LXVIII, 1920; Sonnensberger M., Physiognomik und Mimik, Med. Klin., Bd. XI, p. 56 u. 84, 1915; Virchow H., Gesichtsmuskeln und Gesichtsausdruck, Arch. f. Anat., 1908, Heft 5-6, p. 371-436. See also literature to the article Expressive movements.

MIMICRY

Realistic portrait, reflecting its emotional experiences. Being in a considerable part involuntary, mimicry is the best "mirror of the soul," sometimes its "traitor," and often plays an important role in the correct understanding of the psyche of another person. In addition, the basic forms of mimetic movements are common to all peoples, are international, and therefore understandable to everyone. True, mimetic movements in the broad sense of this word (expressive movements) are subject to our will, and these movements are no longer entirely international, in a certain part conventional (class and tribal ways of "holding oneself"); true, facial mimicry can also be artificial, and bourgeois culture sees in the ability to master the expression of one's face even one of the highest signs of culture, but the long preservation of an artificial expression of the face is extremely difficult, and the study of mimicry is a very important means of knowing the psyche. The study of mimetic movements has been engaged in by artists (Leonardo da Vinci), actors, doctors, starting with Hippocrates and up to our time (Duchenne, H. Virchow, Krukenberg, Sommer, Sikorsky, Kirchhoff), and psychologists (Wundt, Klages). Duchenne in 1862 carried out extensive studies, striving to find the exact anatomical basis of each mimetic movement of the face. The work of Gersing (Hersing) on the cause of the expressiveness of the eyes is also of great interest. The majority of other works strove for the most accurate description of individual mimetic movements in connection with the psychological experiences, diseases they denote, striving to use the peculiarities of mimicry as a fine diagnostic sign of somatic and psychological diseases. Despite the mimetic mobility of the face, individual people, however, possess certain stable mimetic peculiarities, transmitted by inheritance and determining a subtle family resemblance. This resemblance rests not only on the inheritance of the type of musculature but also on the peculiarities of neuromuscular dynamics. In connection with the modern teaching on the connection of physique and types of character, the study of stable individual types of mimicry acquires special interest. However, in the study of these types, as in the study of the inheritance of other signs, one must not forget that the features of a stable facial expression reflect on themselves and often repeated emotional influences of the environment, profession, etc.; there are known, for example, types of face of the intelligent, haughty, etc.; it is known that long-living spouses begin to resemble each other (imitation). On the other hand, the observation noted by Kant and confirmed by Wundt that a corresponding facial expression can cause and corresponding emotions is of great interest. Soh (Soule) in his methods of psychotherapy (autohypnosis), which have attracted attention in recent times, uses, among other things, the method of artificially calling by mimicry the emotional state he needs. Being connected in anatomical-physiological relation to the activity of the cerebral cortex and subcortical formations (visual tubercle), mimetic movements are important in diagnostic relation for the neuropathologist. Various forms of disturbance of mimicry (dysmimia) are observed: excessive vivacity of mimetic movements (hypermimia) can appear in subcortical motor aphasia, when a patient, deprived of a sufficient stock of words, supplements his speech with excessive mimicry. The discrepancy of mimicry to the experienced affect is called paramimia (see Will and its disorders). Symptoms of hemimimia also have essential diagnostic significance. In disease of the visual tubercle, the corresponding half of the face, preserving the ability to voluntary movements, remains immobile during psychological affects (laughter, crying). The opposite phenomenon is observed in hemimimics without lesion of the visual tubercle, namely—the half of the face, incapable of voluntary movements, during affects shows energetic movements. In some diseases there is an absence of mimicry (amimia) of both sides, the so-called "mask-like face" (Parkinsonism after epidemic encephalitis, progressive paralysis). Lit.: Reich M., Ausdruck der Augen, St. Petersburg, no year (Ricker's edition); Sikorsky I., Allgemeine Psychologie mit Physiognomik in illustrierter Darstellung, Kiev, 1904; Cuyer E., La mimique, Paris, 1902; Duchenne de Boulogne, Mécanisme de la physiognomie humaine, Paris, 1862; Hersing F., Der Ausdruck des Auges. Stuttgart, 1880; Hughes H., Die Bedeutung der Mimik für den Arzt, Berlin, 1901; Kirchhoff Th., Der Gesichtsausdruck bei inneren Krankheiten, Sammlung klin. Vorträge, neue Folge, Inn. Med., Nr. 156, Leipzig, 1909; he also, Der Gesichtsausdruck und seine Bahnen beim Gesunden und Kranken. Berlin, 1922; Klemann E., Mimik und Pantomimik, Physiognomik und Charakterologie, Arch. f. Krim., Anthrop. u. Kriminalist., Bd. LIV, 1913; Krukenberg H., Der Gesichtsausdruck des Menschen, Stuttgart, 1913; Sommer R., Experimentelle Physiognomik, Zeitschr. f. d. ges. Neurol. u. Psych., Bd. LXVIII, 1920; Sonnensberger M., Physiognomik und Mimik, Med. Klin., Bd. XI, p. 56 u. 84, 1915; Virchow H., Gesichtsmuskeln und Gesichtsausdruck, Arch. f. Anat., 1908, Heft 5-6, p. 371-436. See also literature to the article Expressive movements.