THE UPRIGHTPOSTURE*

B Y E R W I N W. STRAUS, M. D.

I. INTRODUCTION
Upright Posture, Which Distinguishes the Human Genus from All
Other Species, Pre-Establishes a Definite Mode of Being-
in-the-World
II. HUMAN KINEMATICS
a. Acquiring Upright Posture
Counteraction to Gravity Calls for Learning, Activity, Attention,
Awakeness
The Direction Upward Divides Space Into World Regions with
Specific Emotional Values
b. Standing. The Natural Stance of Man Is Resistance
Upright POsture Brings Man Into Distance:
1. From the Ground
2. From Things
3. From His Fellow-Men
Expressive Values of the Vertical
c. Walking
Human Gait Is a Continuously Arrested F a l l i n g - - ~ a n Has to
Find a Hold Within Himself
Physiological Considerations
The Freedom Gained in Upright Posture Permits the Instru-
mental Use of Limbs
III. U P R I G H T POSTURE AND T H E D E V E L O P M E N T OF T H E
HUMAN HAND AND ARM
a. The Hand as a Sensory Organ and as a Tool
Differences in Anatomical, Physiological and Psychological Cate-
gories
The Hand as a Motor-Sensory Unit
"Experienced D i s t a n c e " ~ R e l a t e d to Upright P o s t u r e - - A n In-
dispensable Condition of Epicritical Discrimination
Distance Dominates Manual Expression and Communication
b. Expebnsion of the Body Scheme by the Arms
The Acquisition of Lateral Space
The Social Significance of Lateral Space
~Reviewed in the Veterans Administration and published with the approval of the
chief medical director. The statements and conclusions published by the author aro
the result of his own study and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy of the
Veterans Administration.
530 TI-IE UPRIGHT POSTURE

Upright Posture Constitutes the Anatomical Condition of This

Development
Lateral Space and the Crafts
"Handedness"
c. NeurophysiologicaI Cons4derations
IV. UPRIGHT POSTURE AND THE FORMATION OF THE HUMAN
HEAD
The Relation of Sight and Bite
5Ian Surrounded by a World-Panorama
Transformation of Animal Jaws Into HumanMouth and an
Organ of Articulation
Language and the Threefold Distances Peculiar to Upright Pos-
ture
Contemporary Psychiatry Has Neglected the Phenomenon of
Upright Posture
V. SUMMARY
I. INTRODUCTION
A breakdown of physical well-being is alarming; it turns our
attention to functions which on good days we take for granted. A
healthy person does not ponder about breathing, seeing, walking.
Infirmi~ties of breath, sight, or gait, startle us. Among the pa.
tients consulting a psychiatrist, there are some who can no longer
m a s t e r the seemingly banal arts of standing and walking. They
are not paralyzed; but, u n d e r certain conditions, they cannot, or
feel as if they cannot, keep themselves upright. They tremble and
quiver. Incomprehensible t e r r o r takes away their strength. Some-
times a minute change in the physiognomy of the frightful situa-
tion may restore their strength. Obviously, upright posture is not
confined to the technical problems of locomotion. It contains a
psychological element. I t is p r e g n a n t with a meaning not ex-
hausted by the physiological tasks of meeting the forces of grav-
ity and keeping the equilibrium.
L a n g u a g e has long since taken cognizance of this fact. The
term "to be u p r i g h t " has two connotations : to rise, to get up, and
to s,tand on one's own feet; and the moral implication, not to
stoop to anything, to be honest and just, to be true to friends in
danger, to stand by one's convictions, and ~o act accordingly, even
at the risk of one's life. We praise an u p r i g h t m a n ; we admire
someone who stands up for his ideas of rectitude. T h e r e are good
 ERW~N W. STRAUS, ~. D. 531

reasons to assume t h a t the term " u p r i g h t " in its moral connota-

tion is more than a mere allegory.
The upright posture distinguishes the h u m a n genus from other
living creatures. To Milton, A d a m and Eve a p p e a r e d as "
Two of f a r nobler shape, erect and tall, God-like erect, with native
honor c l a d . . " Some biologists, however, would like to take
exception to this praise, and, in slightly more prosaic statements,
they indict the u p r i g h t posture as a cause of hernias and flat feet.
However this m a y be, whether the poet is right or his misanthropic
opponents, whether upright posture is an excellence or not, in any
case it is a distinction. It does not cccur in any species besides
man. ~
Upright posture, while unique, is also essential. This is no nec-
essary consequence. The exceptional might be nothing but a
peculiarity, an accidental caprice of nature. However, there is no
doubt that the shape and function of the h u m a n body are deter-
mined in almost e v e r y detail by, and for, the u p r i g h t posture. The
skeleton of the foot, the structure of the ankle, knee, and hip, the
c u r v a t u r e of the vertebral column, the proportions of the l i m b s - -
all serve the same purpose. This purpose could not b;e accom-
plished if the muscles and the nervous system were not built ac-
cordingly. While all parts contribute to the u p r i g h t posture, up-
right posture in t u r n permits the development of the forelimbs
into the h u m a n shoulders, arms, and hands, and of the skull into
the human skull and face.
W i t h u p r i g h t posture, the vertebral column takes on for the
first time the architectural function of a column. The skull rests
on the articular surfaces of the atlas (which here, indeed, deserves
its name) like an architrave on the capitals of columns. This ar-
r a n g e m e n t makes it possible and necessary for the atlanto-occipi-
~P. Weidenreich, in his book Ages, G~ants az~ Man (University of Chicago Press,
1946), discusses the relationship between man and his simian ancestors. There he
enumerates the main peculiarities which, compared to the condition of the apes, charac-
terize man in his u p r i g h t posture. The h u m a n leg, which he mentions among other
things, " i s stretched in hip and knee joints to its maximum extent and adduced toward
the midiine, so t h a t the knees touch each other, while in anthropoids, even i f the l a t t e r
succeed in standing and walking upright, the legs remain bent in hip and knee joints
and are held in abduction, so that anthropoids always stand stooped, with their knees
crooked and turned outward. ~ I n the so-called normal attitude of man, therefore, the
lines connecting the centers of hip-, knee-, and ankle-joints axe all located i a the same
frontal plane. The plumb line passes through this plane. Furthermore, the center of
the hip j o i n t is, for each leg, vertieally above the center of the knee and ankle joints.
532 TI-IE U P R I G H T POSTURE

tal joint to be moved forward toward the center of the base of the
skull, resulting in the typical configuration of the human skull, the
extension of the base, and the closing vault, which in turn provides
wider space for the orbitae. The skulls of the other primates still
show the shape characteristic of (~ther quadrupeds, in which the
head does not rest on the vertebral column but hangs down from
it. The foramen magnum accordingly is in a more caudal position;
the clivus cuts the vertical at a more obtuse angle. The other pri-
mates--as it has been sMd--are built to stand upright but not for
upright posture. ~
Because upright posture is the "Leitmotiv" in the formation of
the human organism, an individuM who has lost or is deprived of
the capacity to get up and keep himself upright depends for his
survival completely on the aid of others. Without their help, he is
doomed to die. A biologically-oriented psychology must not forget
that upright posture is an indispensable condition of man's self-
preservation. Upright we are, and we experience ourselves in
this specific relation to the world.
Men and mice do not have the same environment, even if they
share the same room. Environment is not a stage with the scenery
set as one and the same for all actors who make their entrance.
Each species has its own environment. There is a mutuM inter-
dependence between species and environment. The surrounding
world is determined b~ the organization of the species in a pro-
cess of selecting what is relevant to the function-circle of action
and reaction. 1 Upright posture pre-establishes a definite attitude
toward the world; it is a specific mode of being-in-the-world.
Relating the basic forms of human experiencing to man's upright
posture may well be called an anthropological approach, if that
term is used with its original connotation. It was not until the
middle of the nineteenth century that the meaning of "anthropol-
ogy" was confined to zoological aspects, to a study of man as an
~The comparison of mtm and other primates is ~ time-honored topic, widely discussed
among pre-Darwinistic zoologists. Most of the characteristic differences enumerated by
Weidenreich were known to the anatomists of the eighteenth century, who also con-
sidered the possibiIity of a common origin. Daubenton published, in 1764, a paper
about the different positions of the foramen magnum in man and animals (Mdmoires de
l'Ac~d~mie de Paris, 1764, quoted a f t e r Herder). Even the sentence passed on upright
posture because of its inherent evils is old enough. Moskati, in 1771, comparing the
essential differences of man and animals, came to the conclusion t h a t upright posture
disposed heart, circulation a n d intestines to ma~y defects and diseases (Vom Koerper-
lichen Wesentlichen Untersch~ede tier Thiere ~nd Mensche~, Goettingen, 1771).
 ERWIiV W. STRAUSt IV[. D. 533

animal in his evolution and h i s t o r y as a race. The nineteenth-

c e n t u r y view a i m e d to see m a n exclusively, and u n d e r s t a n d h i m
completely, as an animal. It was m o t i v a t e d by an a n t a g o n i s m to
theology. I n s t e a d of seeing m a n created in the image of God, it
w a n t e d to see m a n as the d e s c e n d a n t of the monkey. This anti-
theological v i e w r e m a i n s theological because of its concern with
refutation, t t o w e v e r , one can and should consider m a n in his
own right w i t h o u t either theological or anti-theologieM bias. An-
t h r o p o l o g y can be developed, indifferent to both the Biblical ac-
count and the evolutional t h e o r y of genesis.
The writer's interest is in w h a t m a n is, not in how he s u p p o s e d l y
became w h a t he is. P a l a e o n t o l o g y tells w h a t m a n or his ancestors
once were, not w h a t m a n actually is. E v e n if one concedes to
p a l a e o n t o l o g y t h a t it has discovered the living or extinet ancestors
of man, it has little to say as to how the change to m o d e r n m a n
came about or as to w h a t its final result was. L o o k i n g f r o m m a n
to the hominids ~ or the other p r i m a t e s , we see w h a t m a n is no
longer. L o o k i n g f r o m the other p r i m a t e s to man, we see w h a t the
other p r i m a t e s are not yet. A n y explanation of the causes of eve-
lution d e m a n d s a knowledge of both the old and new forms. No
d e s i g n e r of an automobile would t r y to explain its p r e s e n t f o r m
a n d shape by m e r e reference to its f o r e r u n n e r s . It is t r u e t h a t a
m o d e r n , ear has some basic t r a i t s in c o m m o n with the old buggy,
but j u s t t h a t which gives an automobile its characteristic shape is
n o t l e a r n e d f r o m the old form. I t is the automobile's o w n func-
tion a n d d y n a m i c s t r u c t u r e t h a t d e t e r m i n e i t s shape.
P a l a e o n t o l o g i s t s are inclined to e x a g g e r a t e their g r a t i t u d e to
the ancestors of h u m a n s . I n a v e r y i l l u m i n a t i n g s u r v e y of the de-
v e l o p m e n t of the h u m e r u s f r o m fish to man, G r e g o r y ~ s t a t e s t h a t
m a n has i n h e r i t e d the basic p a t t e r n of locomotion f r o m the earliest
v e r t e b r a t e s , and that he owes the modeling of a p o t e n t i a l h u m e r u s
a n d a potential u l n a to the c r o s s o p t e r y g i a n s of the D e v o n i a n age.
Still, man's gait and b e h a v i o r seem slightly remote f r o m the
S i l u r i a n ostracoderms.
~The early Darwinists were on the search for the " m i s s i n g l i n k " connecting modern
man with the living anthropoids. Today, the opinion prevails that the human branch
parted from the modern anthropoids " m u c h earlier than we ever r]reamed." Weiden-
reich believes that this separation occurred in the Miocene period, or not very long after-
ward. Portman places it in the late Cretaceous period. From there on, a fragmentary
line of hominids, documented by fossils in Europe~ Asia, and Africa, leads toward
modern man. There is also another line, still more hypothetical, leading to the living
anthropoids: chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan.
534 THE UPRIGHT POSTURE

With all due respect for the accomplishments of those early

ancestors, we should not f o r g e t to investigate our own situation,
Man is not only the end of a long development; he also represents
a new beginning. One may doubt if old rocks will reveal all the
secrets of human existence.
II. HUMANKINEMATICS
a. Acquiring Upright Posture
Upright posture has a delayed beginning in the life of an indi-
vidual. The heart of the unborn beats in the mother's womb.
Breathing starts with the first cry at birth. Upright posture keeps
us waiting. Even when the physiological conditions--such as the
maturation of fibers, the development of postural reflexes, or,
later, the elongation of the legs--are fulfilled, the child will not
master upright posture at once. He has to learn it, to conquer it.
The acquisition will pass through several phases, which, although
not completely separate, are sufficiently distinct. Progress is
slow; it takes a number of years. This development will be fol-
lowed here from the getting up, to standing and finally to walking.
The origin and the beginning of upright posture do not coincide,
just as the first cry, the beginning of the functioning of breathing,
does not mark the origin of breathing. The conditions surround-
ing the beginning of a function, whether it be breathing or speak-
ing or standing, do not at all give an account of the structures of
breath, .speech, upright posture, or of their origins. As long as
one speaks about breathing and walking, the distinction appears
banal and not worth mentioning. There are, however, situa-
tions where the distinction is less obvious but not less true. The
writer wonders whether genetic psychologists sometimes actually
do confuse beginning and origin?
Upright posture characterizes the human species. Neverthe-
less, each individual has to struggle in order to make it really his
own. Man has to become what he is. The acquisition does no~
make him an "absentee landlord." ~Vhile the heart continues to
beat, from its fetal beginning to death, without our active inter-
vention, and while breathing neither demands nor tolerates our
voluntary interference beyond narrow limitsi upright posture re-
mains a task throughout our lives. Before reflection or self-reflec-
tion start, but as if they were a prelude to it, work makes its ap-
pearance within the realm of the elemental biological functions of
 ERWIN }V. STRAUS, M . D . 535

man. In getting up, in reaching the upright posture, man must

oppose the forees of gravity. I t seems to be his nature to oppose,
with natural means, nature in its impersonal, fundamental aspects:
However, gravity is never fully overcome; u p r i g h t posture always
maintains its character of counteraction. It calls f o r our activity
and attention.
Automatic regulation alone does not suffice. An old horse m a y
go to sleep standing on its four legs; m a n has to be awake to keep
himself upright. Mueh as we are p a r t of nature with every breath,
with every bite, with every step, we first become our true selves in
waking opposition to nature. In sleep, we do not w i t h d r a w our in-
terest from the world so much as we s u r r e n d e r ourselves com-
pletely to it. We abandon ourselves to the world, relinquishing
our individuality. We no longer hold our own in the world, op-
posed to it. Awakeness and the force of g r a v i t y are mutually in-
terdependent. While awakeness is necessary for upright posture,
that is, for counteracting gravity, g r a v i t y determines waking ex-
periencing. The dreams of one night are not related to the dreams
of another night, but days are related to each other. They f o r m a
continuum, where every hour, every moment, anticipates the next
one and p r e p a r e s for it. Held back by gravity to a precise point,
we can overcome distance only in an orderly sequence. D u r i n g
our waking hours, sequence means consequence. Gravity, which
holds us in line, imposes upon waking experience a methodical pro-
eeeding. I n sleep, when we no longer oppose gravity, in our
weightless dreams, or in our lofty fantasies, experiencing becomes
kaleidoscopic and finally amorphous. Sequence, then, no longer
means consequence. Awakeness is no mere addendum, still less
an impediment, to an otherwise happily functioning id. The wak-
ing man alone can preserve himself, and he alone can help drives
to reach their goal.
In the Hobbesian philosophy, man, hunted by fear of violent
death, creates the commonwealth to keep disruptive natural tend-
eneies in cheek. A permanent, never-resolved, discord ensues be-
tween man in state of nature and man as a member of society.
Locke, Rousseau, Freud, and m a n y others took up the theme and
added to it variations of their own. If only these m a n y descrip-
tions of man's state of nature were more than historical fantasies !
Yet, one need not invent p r e h i s t o r y ; we can make use of a v e r y
concrete experience. We can read man's natural endowment from
536 THE UPRIGHT POSTURE

his physique. Considering man in his upright posture, we do well

to envisage the possibility that, not society, has first brought man
into conflict with nature but that man's natural opposition to na-
ture enables him to produce society, history, and conventions.
T h e direction upward, against gravity, inscribes into space
world-regions with spatial-emotional values, such as those ex-
pressed in high and low, rise and decline, climbing and falling,
superior and inferior, elevated and downcast, looking up to a~d
despising. On Olympus, high, remote, inaccessible, exalted, dwell
the Homeric gods. On Mt. Sinai, Moses receives the Ten Com-
mandments. Below in the depths, is Hades and the world of
shadows. There, also, is the Inferno. However, such evaluations
are not unequivocal. "Base" and "base"--these two words have,
in spite of their phonetic resemblance, different etymologieM roots
and opposite meanings. "Base," the adjective, is derived from the
Latin root "bassus" with the connotation "short" and later "low,"
while "base," the noun, originated in the Greek root "baino"--
"walking, stepping." The earth that pulls us downward is also the
ground that carries and gives support. The weighty man signifies
by his dignified gait that he carries a heavy burden but sustains it
well. Upright posture as counteraction cannot lack the forces
agMnst which it strives.
b. Standing
In getting up, man gains his standing in the world. The parents
are not the only ones who greet the child's progress with joy. The
child enjoys no less the triumph of his achievement. There is a
forceful urge toward the goal of getting up and of resisting, in a
state of dangerous balance, the downward-pulling forces. There
need not be any other premium, like satisfaction of hunger, atten-
tion, or applause .....The child e__ertainlvdoes not strive for security.
Failure does not discourage hinl. He enjoys the freedom gained
in upright posture, the freedom to stand on his own feet, and the
freedom to walk. Upright posture, whieh we tearn in and through
falling, remains threatened by falls throughout our lives. The
natural stance of man is, therefore, "resistance." A rock reposes
in its own weight. The things that surround us appear solid and
safe in their quiet resting on the ground, but man's status demands
endeavor. It is essentially restless. We are committed to an ever-
renewed exertion. Our task is not finished with getting up and
 E R W I N W. STRAUS~ 1Vi. D. 537

standing. We have to "with-stand." He who is ~ble to accomplish

this is called constant, stable.
Language expresses well the psychological meaning of standing,
with all its facets. The coupling of the transitive and the intransi-
tive meanings "to stand" and "to stand something" characterizes
them as resisting, and therefore enduring against, threat, danger
and attack. The etymological root of standing--"sta"--is one of
the most prolific elements, not only in English, but also in Greek,
Latin, French and German. It may suffice to mention only a few
derivatives of an almost inexhaustible store. Besides combina-
tions like "standing for," "standing by," "making a stand," there
are many words where the root has undergone slight changes but
is still recognizable, as in "state," "status," "estate," "statement,"
"standard," "statute," "institution," "constitution," "substance,"
"establish," "understand," "assist," "distant." This whole family
of words is kept together by one and the same principal meaning.
They refer to something that is instituted, erected, constructed,
and, in its dangerous equilibrium, threatened by fall and collapse.
Falling is not always tragic. Clowns, modern and old, primitive
and sublime, all have made use of falling as a reliable trick to stir
up laughter.
With upright posture, an unescapable ambivalence penetrates
and pervades all human behavior. Upright posture removes us
from the ground, keeps us away from things, and holds us aloof
from our fellow-men. All of these three distances can be experi-
enced either as gain or as loss.
1. (Dis, t ance from the Ground.) In getting up, we gain the
freedom of motion and enjoy it, but at the same time we have lost
secure contact with the supporting ground, with Mother Earth,
and we miss it. We stand alone and have to rely on our own
strength and capacities. With the acquisition of upright posture,
a characteristic change in language occurs. In the early years,
when speMdng of himself, a child uses his given name. However,
when he has reached the age when he can stand firmly on his own
feet, he begins to use the pronoun "I" for himself. This change
marks a first gaining of independence. Among all words, "I" has
a peculiar character. Everyone says "I," but for himself alone.
"I" is a most general word. At the same time, it has a unique
meaning for every speaker. In using the word "I," I oppose my-
self to everyone else, who, nevertheless, is my fellow-man.
538 ~HE uP~IGH~: POSTUR~

Because to get up and stand are so demanding, we enjoy rest-

ing, relaxing, yielding, lying down, sinking back. There is the
voluptuous gratification of succumbing. Sex remains a form of
lying down, or as language says, of lying or sleeping with. Addicts,
in their experiencing, behavior, and intention, reveal the double
aspect of sinking back and its contrast to being upright. A sym-
posium found the ancient Greeks, a convivium the Romans,
stretched on their couches until, after many libations to Dionysus
and Bacchus, they finally sank to the ground. Symposium means
"drinking together, a drinking party." It could be well trans-
lated by the characteristic German word, "gelage." Plato's dia-
logue first helped the word "symposium" to reach its modern con-
notation. The old and new are not so far apart as one might as-
sume. Their relation can also be expressed--Plato clearly indi-
cates this--as the difference between being upright and sinking.
2. (Distance from Things.) In upright posture, the immediate
contact with things is loosened. A child creeping on his hands and
knees not only keeps contact with the ground but is, in his all-fours
locomotion, like the quadrupeds, directed toward immediate con-
tact with things. The length-axis of his body coincides with the di-
rection of his motion. With getting up, all this changes. In walk-
ing, man moves his body in a parallel transposition, the length-
axis of his body at a right angle to the direction of his motion. He
finds himself always "confronted" with things. Such remoteness
enables him to see things, detached from the immediate contact of
grasping and incorporating, in their relation to each other. See-
ing is transformed into "looking at." The horizon is widened, re-
moved; the distant becomes momentous, of great import. In the
same measure, contact with near things is lost.
Thales, the philosopher and astronomer, while watching the
stars, fell into a ditch. A young child is close to the ground; to
him the stars are far off. He does not mind picking things up from
the ground; but, growing older, he will learn to accept our table
manners, which remove even food to a distance. We set the table;
we serve the meal; we use spoon and fork. Our feeding is regu-
lated by a ritual, which we like to discard at a picnic. Artificiality
and tools interfere with the direct satisfaction of hunger. The
mouth is kept away from the plates. The hand lifts the food up to
the mouth. Spoon and fork do not create distance; tools can only
be invented and used where distance already exists. In the early
 ERWIN W. STI~AUS, M.D. 539

months of life, hands hold on to things in a grasping reflex. Not

until the immediate contact of grasping is abandoned is the use
of tools possible. This development is not simply the result of
motor maturation. An imbecile may never learn, a paretic may
unlearn, manners, not so much because of failure of the motorium
as because of the loss and lack of distance. Pointing likewise pre-
supposes distance. It appears to be a human activity. Animals
do not easily, if at all, understand pointing to d i s t a n t things. ~
Pathology reveals an antagonistic relationship between grasping
and pointing. There are cases where pointing is distorted, while
grasping either remains undamaged or is later intensified and be-
comes forced grasping. **
3. (Distance from Fellow-men.) In upright posture, we find
ourselves "face to face" with others, distant, aloof--verticals that
never meet. On the horizontal plane, parallel lines converge
toward a vanishing point. Theoretically, the vanishing point of
parallel verticals--to which we are comparable, standing vis-a-vis
---is in infinite distance. In the finiteness of seeing, however, par-
allel verticals do not meet. Therefore, the strict upright posture
expresses austerity, inaccessibility, decisiveness, domination, maj-
esty, mercilessness, or unapproachable remoteness, as in catatonic
symmetry. Inclination first brings us closer to another. Inclina-
tion,t just like leaning, means literally "bending out" from the
austere vertical.
The dictators, reviewing their parading troops, tried to show by
their rigid poses their imperturbable and unshakable wills. For-
malized attitudes, and pantomimic, signifying gestures, follow the
pattern set by spontaneous expressions. When we lower our heads
or kneel in prayer, when we bow or bend our knees in greeting, the
deviation from the vertical reveals the relation to it.
~It is the hunter who understands and interprets the d o g ' s aiming as pointing. The
" p o i n t " is the natural outgrowth of the d o g ' s pausing previous to springing the game.
~Goldstein~ K u r t : Ober Ze~gen und Gre~fe,~. der Nervenarzt. 1931. Exerimental
ablations of cortical areas indicate t h a t grasping is under the control of Brodmann~s
Area 6.
tThe root is Latin, el~o, to bend. I t Js il;teresting to see how greatly language is
shaped in accordance with expressive phenomena. Not only does the English language
have two words of the same structure from different roots; but there is the German word
"z~g~g," with still another etymological derivation, which, however, expresses the
same meaning with the corresponding space-experience. All this points to the f a c t that
metaphors do not simply carry over a meaning from one medium to another. There is
a much more intimate relation~ that between expressive motion and emotional attitude.
OC~]L--1952--B
540 T H E U F R I G H T ,POSTURE

So it is with the expressions of reverence, of asking and grant-

ing a request, and many others. The formalization and shortening
of social gestures sometimes make it hard to recognize their ori-
gin ; but even the stiff forms of military greeting may, with a slight
courteous bending of the head, be revitalized by spontaneous ex-
pression.
There is only one vertical but many deviations from it, each one
carrying a specific, expressive meaning. The sailor puts his cap
askew and his girl understands well the cocky expression and his
"leanings." King Comus at tile Mardi Gras may lean backward
and his crown may slip off-center. :However, even the disciples of
informality would be seriously concerned if, on his way to his in-
auguration, a President should wear his silk hat (the elongation
and accentuation of the vertical) aslant. There are no teachers,
no textbooks, which instruct in this field. There are no pupils,
either, who need instruction. Without ever being taught, we un-
derstand the rules governing this and other areas of expression.
We understand them, not conceptually, but, it seems, by intuition.
This is true for the actor as well as the on-looker.
One may argue that these are cultural patterns with which we
grow up and that our final attitudes are the result of many in-
finitesimal steps. To support this view, one may point to the fact
that gestures of greeting were different in the old days from ours,
and are different in the Occident and the Orient. Yet, in spite of
their divergences, they all are variations of one theme. They are
all related to the vertical; they are all modifications of the upright
posture. Exceptions only confirm the r u l e . We give our assent
by nodding the head, obviously also a motion that carries the head
downward following gravity, away from the vertical. It has been
observed that this gesture is not universal, that there are peoples
to whom the same vertical motion of nodding means negation or
denial. However, these two forms of expression, which indeed re-
semble each other, are not identical. Our mode of assertion, as
well as their negation, consists of a two-phased motion--the mo-
tion downward and the movement up and backward. While in
assertion the accent is on the downward motion, negation chooses
the opposite d i r e c t i o n . The head is moved from the position of
inclination back to the vertical, expressing inaccessibility and
denial.
Cultural patterns do not arbitrarily create forms, but, within
 ERWIN W. STRAUS~ M. D. 541

the given framework, formalize a socially-accepted scheme, valid

only for its group and period. With upright posture counteract-
ing gravity, the vertical, pointing upward, away from the centers
of gravity, becomes a natural determinant. The vertical is a con-
stancy phenomenon. ~ts apparent position does not change, even
if the head is tilted and, therefore, its projection on the retina
varies. At an early age, children are able to draw a vertical or a
horizontal line, to copy a cross or a square, but they fail when
asked to copy the same square presented as a diamond."
c. Walking
With getting up, man is ready for walking. The precarious
equilibrium reached in standing has to be risked again. A quad-
ruped rests with relative safety on his four legs, which inscribe an
appropriate base on the ground. The center of gravity does not
leave its position above this base even when the animal walks or
trots. The human situation is different. The center of gravity is
elevated high over the small base of support. This provides for
greater flexibility and variability of movement, but it increases
instability and the danger of falling. Man has to find a hold within
himself. Standing and walking, he has to keep himself in suspen-
sion.
The legs support the body like columns; in the hip joint, the
trunk rests upon the femur bones as upon pillars. At least, it
seems to. The appearance is convincing enough for a hysterical
person to use it as a model for his astasia-abasia. If one tries,
however, to carry through the comparison in detail, one sees imme-
diately the striking contra~t to the architectonic principles of
column and pillar. Many old temples have collapsed, leaving their
columns still standing erect. The stone pillars of a bridge are con-
structed from the foundation upward. Each lower section really
carries the upper one, which can be removed without unbalancing
the lower ones. Neither .the skeleton nor the legs will stand of
their own power. The legs could not do it, even if the muscles
could still contract and were not severed from their origin on the
pelvis. The legs have to be held in suspension by the counter-
action of the trunk muscles and by the counterweight of s trunk.
~Gibson and Mowrer (Determinants of the perceived vertical and horizontal. Psychol.
Rev., 45, 1938) assumed that our orientation in space is determined by postural factors,
while visual stimulation is of secondary importance. Asche and Witkin, however, in
their more recent experiments, came to the opposite conclusion (Studies in space per-
ception, g. Exper. Psychol., 38, 1948).
542 T I l E UI~I~IGIIT P O S T U R E

A column, a pillar, a tower, taper off. Their bases are broader

than the top. Human legs also have a conical shape, but the bulk is
high. The origin of the muscles, and therefore their main volume,
is on top. The muscles extend with Cheir tendons downward from
pelvis to knee and again from knee to ankle. Their contraction,
however, is directed upward.
With the circumference of i-he thighs near the hip joint consid-
erably larger than the circumference around the ankle, the leg re-
sembles an inverted obelisk more than a column. This leg-obelisk
cannot support itself on its tip. There is a gyrostatic system of
balance, holding the legs as much as being carried by them. The
old anatomical names of muscles and the traditional signification
of their functions are often misleading. The biceps femoris and
hamstring muscles, the so-called flexors of the leg, bend the lower
leg in one position only, while in another they extend the knee and
the hip. The erector trunci and the muscles of the legs co-operate
--with gravity as their invisible partner--as synergists, originat-
ing in adjacent areas of the ilium and the sacrum. They act upon
the pelvis in opposite directions. They turn the pelvis around an
axis, connecting the centers of the hip joints. There is a second
balancing system between the right and left which keeps tim pelvis
and trunk in balance in a sagittal plane. From clinical observa-
tion of dystrophies aad paralyses, we learn what individual
muscles--like the gluteus maxinms, the i]iopsoas, the quadriceps
femorfis, the sacrospinalis--contribute to upright posture; from
physiological experiments, we come to know how they are corre-
lated. Through the combined work, we gain information about the
means of locomotion. A.t.this point, a new horizon of problems is
opened up, the question of how a being equipped with such a mo-
torium will experience the world--and himself in this world.
Human bipedal gait is a rhythmical movement where, in a se-
quence of steps, the whole weight of the body rests for a short
time upon one leg only. The center of gravity h.as to be swung
forward. It has to be brought from a never-stable equilibrium to
a still less stable balance. Support will be denied to it for a mo-
ment until the leg brought forward prevents the threatening fall.
Human gait is in fact a continuously arrested falling. Therefore,
an unforeseen obstacle, a little unevenness of the ground, may
precipitate a fM1. Human gMt is an expansive motion, performed
in the expectation that the leg brought forward will ultimately find
 ERWIN W. STRAUS, iV[. D. 543

solid ground. It is motion on credit. Confidence and timidity,

elation and depression, stability and insecurity--all are expressed
in gait.
Bipedal gait is in fact a balance alternating from one leg to the
other, it permits variations in length, tempo, direction and accent.
In a polka step, even the rhythmical sequence of right and left and
right and left is interrupted and e~:changed. The symmetry of
rhythmically alternating locomotor reflexes is thereby broken.
Steps, varied in many ways, can be united in a scheme, in a meter.
It is not poetry alone that moves on "metrical feet" in an anapaes:
tic, iambic or trochaic meter. In marching, in dancing, we per-
form a great variety of set patterns. "Per-forming" means that
we follow a given form, that we are able to conduct ourselves in
accordance with a scheme set beforehand, that we can use our
limbs like instruments. Everyone who drives a car uses his legs
and feet as tools. No one, however, outdoes the organist, who
plays one pedal with his feet. Such an instrumental use of the
limbs, obviously not limited to the arms and hands, demands a
centralization of functions, demands a dominating hemisphere.
For symmetrical alternating movements, bilateral, segmental and
suprasegmental structures may suffice. Instrumental use depends
on an interruption of symmetry, followed by higher integration.
A breakdown of this integration should result in kinetic apraxia
of ~runk and legs. There are indeed some cases recorded~ that
confirm this expectation. Their number is small. It probably
would be greater if, as Sittig 4 pointed out, more attention were
given to this symptom. Even then, it might escape observation
for two reasons: first, paresis may cover 'the apraxia of the legs;
and, second, gait and other symmetrical motions may still be
found intact, when actions based on less symmetrical motions, like
jumping and dancing, have already failed2
III. UPRIGHT POSTURE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE H U M A N
HAND AND ARM
a. T h e H a n d as a S e n s o r y Organ and as a Tool
In upright posture, the frontal extremities are no longer asked
to support and carry .the body. Relieved from former duties,
they are free for new tasks. The anterior limb develops into the
h u m a n arm and hand, which acquire multifarious new functions.
For this development, upright posture is not only the genetic con-
dition; it continues to dominate the functions of hand and arm.
544 THE UPRIGHT POSTURE

Opposition of the thumb has been frequently mentioned as the

most essential innovation. This statemen~ is not completely true
or completely correct. It is not correct because the hands of other
than human primates are not entirely lacking in opposition of the
thumb." It is not completely true because one detail is singled
out. With the same justification, or lack of it, the index finger has
been honored as the specifically human acquisition. Those who
say this think, of course, of its function of pointing. The index
finger, however, could not point if the hand were not joined to the
arm, and if the hand and a r m were not related to upright posture.
In upright posture, the hand becomes an organ of active gnostic
touching, the epicritic, discriminative instrument par excellence.
As such, ~he hand now ranks with the eye and the ear. Anatomy
which describes the eye and the ear as sensory organs, does not
grant the same privilege-status to the hand. Anatomy dissects.
It divides the hand into different layers and, "in a systematic or-
der," describes the skin as a part of the integument and places the
bones in the osteo]ogical, the muscles in the myological, the ves-
sels in the cardiovascular systems. Not to call the hand an organ
seems strange, in view of the fact that organ originally meant
"tool." F o r Aristotle, the hand was "the tool of tools. ''~ Anatomy
has good reasons f o r its procedure; they are not, however, simply
of a pragmatical order. The hand is a tool in relation to the liv-
ing, experiencing being, to the man who stretches out his hand,
touches and grasps. The anatomical description that attributes
the tissues of the hand to different systems is an analysis of the
dead body. The wholes which function as frames of reference
differ widely.
The hand as an object of anatomy and the hand experienced as
a part of my body--these two hands are not exactly the same ob-
ject. The moment the anatomist takes up his scalpel he behaves,
in regard to his own hand, like anyone who has no knowledge of
anatomy. This change of attitude is not simply a relapse into
naive, primitive, pre-scientific behavior, unavoidable as a kind of
abbreviating procedure. The anatomist, like everybody else, does
not innervate the opponens, the interossei, the flexores digitorum.
He does not use the hand but his hand. The possessive relation
expressed by the words "my," "yours," "his," familiar and simple
*The proportions of their hands, however, especially the length of the metacarpus,
prevent the formation of the finger-thumb forceps with its characteristic effect. See
Revesz, G~za: Die MenvcM~ehe Hand. Karger. New York and Basle. 1944.
 ERWI~ W. STRAUS, !Y[. D. 545

as it appears, contains, in fact, one of the most difficult problems

for our understanding. It indicates the transition from physiology
to psychology, ~
Anatomy and physiology relate the body as a whole, and its
parts, to neutral space--as the frame of reference. In experienc-
ing, however, I experience my hand as an organ in relation to the
world. The space that surrounds me is not a piece of neutral, ex-
tended manifold, determined by a Cartesian system of co-ordin-
ates. Experienced space is action-space; it is my space of action.
To it, I am related through my body, my limbs, my h a n d s . The
experience of the body as mine is the origin of possessive experi-
ence. All other connotations of possessive relations are derived
from it. "Mine" is a distinction which has its place only in the ex-
perienced relation of myself and the world. Severed from this
basic concept of experiencing, psychology will lose its specific
theme and content.
Discussion is necessarily discursive. Analysis cannot avoid
dividing into parts that which exists as a whole. When the dis-
section is completed, synthesis sometimes will be found difficult.
It depends on the preceding methods of dividing. They may be so
radical as to prevent the restitution of the whole. _Adding part to
part does not give a full reintegration of the whole. The parts
have to be understood from the beginning as parts of that specific
whole to which they belong. With attention focused on details,
the human arm and hand appear as just one other variation in the
development of the forelegs. For every part, one can find a homo-
logue in other species. However, "homologue" means difference
as well as similarity. If one gives due respect to both, and con,
siders the arm in its entirety within the whole framework of up-
right posture, one can hardly deny that through the peculiar struc-
ture and function of arm and hand, a new relation between the
human organism and the world has been established.
Only in relation to action-space, then, will the hand be under-
stood as a sensory organ. It is true that the microscope does not
reveal any tactile receivers specific for the skin of the hands.
Meissner's corpuscles and Pacinian bodies are most numerous, but
they are also found elsewhere. Their number alone would n o t
~Sherrington, in an introduction added to the ninth edition of his book, The Integra-
tixe Action of the Nervous System, emphasizes this gap between physiological and psy-
chological approach and methods. Although he does not directly mention the problems
posed by the possessive relation, he obviously is fully aware of them.
546 T H E U P R I G H T POSTURE

justify us in speaking of the hands as sensory organs. There is a

better reason for doing so than the mere frequency of corpuscles.
It is their distribution over the multiplex, mobile structure of the
fingers, which, in their diversity, form a motor-sensoric unit. It
is not the individual finger that, in feeling, recognizes, but all the
fingers together, combined in a group. It is not the resting finger
that feels, but the actively moved digits. Tactile impressions re-
sult from motion; nevertheless, we do not experience our motion
so much as the quality of the things touched. 7 We feel the smooth-
ness of a surface in letting our fingers glide over it.
~ i l e motion is indispensable for tactile impressions, the im-
pression-guided fingers function as a working tool. This intimate
interpenetration of sensorium and motorium is well expressed in
words like "handling," "fingering," "thumbing," "groping," each
of which combines the transitive and intransitive meanings of
touching into one. The hand has, it seems, an insight of its own.
In an ata~:ia of the legs, seeing may partially compensate for the
sensory deficiencies. However, in a posterior root deficit of the
hands, seeing is of little help, neither is it an aid in finger-agnosia
and right-left disturbances.
The epicritic-discriminative functioning of the hands depends
or. still another condition. There is an inner distance necessary,
a remoteness experienced in spite of the proximity of contact. A
physician, in examining (palpating) a body, is expected to remain
a neutral observer. I-Ie should be neither attracted nor disgusted
by what he observes. His goal is not closeness, is not unification.
His action resembles that of a winetaster, who takes a sip but
spits it out again, avoiding swallowing and incorporation. The
gnostic function of touching depends on the upright posture, which
through its permanent distances produces a hiatus in the immedi-
ateness of contact.
"Experienced distance ''~ cannot be expressed in geometrical
terms. It cannot be defined as the length of a straight line con-
necting two points in space. The geometrical consideration of
distance is completely indifferent to time. The concept of a vec-
tor adding direction, and thereby time, to distance would be more
adequate. Still, it lacks any conative character. Geometrical dis-
tance relates two points in space, both detached from the observer.
Experienced distance is that which unfolds between an experi-
encing being and another person or object. It can be experienced
 ERWIR" W. S T R A U S , ~V[. D. 547

only b y a being who aims at unification or separation. The modes

of unification and separation vary. The spatial relation is only
one among others. While experienced distance cannot, therefore,
be expressed completely in spatial terms, it never lacks a spatial
element. The space to which it is related, however, is not the con-
ceptual homogenous space of mathematics but perceptual space,
articulated in accordance with the specific corporeal organization
of the experiencing person.
The role of distance is not limited to the hand as a sensory or-
gan. It also dominates manual expression, communication, con-
tact. Distance is ambivalent. Sometimes we w a n t to preserve it;
sometimes we want to eliminate it. The h a n d is instrumental in
both cases. W h e n our equilibrium is out of balance, is disturbed,
the h a n d grasps for a hold. In darkness, it functions as scout and
sentry, w a r n i n g against collision and searching for contact. Some-
times no hold is found, no contact is made. Searching hands stretch
into the void. It is as if emptiness were localized in our hands.
Indeed, only the empty hand, like the begger's hand, can receive,
Emptiness is the condition by which our hands can be filled. Only
because of remoteness can it make contact.
We u n d e r s t a n d that the phobic patient feels somewhat more
comfortable by c a r r y i n g something in his hand, maybe no more
than a cane, an umbrella, a bag. Does not each of us, if he alone is
exposed to a group, e. g., as a speaker, an actor, like to put his
h a n d s on a chair, a desk, to fiddle with a pencil, with notes?
Finally, we may even surprise ourselves with gesticulations which
help less to clarify our thoughts than to fill emptiness and cover
distance. I n such situations, we are only one step ahead of the
embarrassed child who pulls his fingers, as if in doing this he
could fill his empty hands.
All the variations of the expression of emptiness are related
to u p r i g h t posture. They are, it seems, a universal language.
W h e n D a r w i n p r e p a r e d his book on expression, 9 he sent question-
naires to missionaries abroad in order to find out the distribution
of gestures familiar to us in the western world. H e was inter-
ested, among other things, in the gesture of shrugging the shoul-
ders, an expression of the incapacity to advise or to help. H e r e
one again meets the empty hands. W i t h the lifting of the shoul-
ders, we also supinate our a r m s and demonstrate the empty hands.
S h r u g g i n g the shoulders is an expression of fruitless endeavor.
548 THE 13PRIGHT POSTURE

Darwin learned through his questionnaires that this expression is

indigenous everywhere, not imported f r o m other civilizations, not
formed by more or less local conventions and customs. Its uni-
versality proves it to be autochthonous with the h u m a n race. It is
a universal and spontaneous gesture of man, w h e r e v e r and when-
ever he, with upright posture, experiences a distance from things
and fellow-men.
b. Expansion of the Bod:q Scheme by ~the Arms
In u p r i g h t posture, the arms expand the body scheme. The
a r m motion circumscribes a sphere which surrounds the body as
territorial waters s u r r o u n d the shores of a country. This consti-
tutes a section of space which, like the three-mile zone, belongs to
the central body, yet not completely. It is not an indisputable
p r o p e r t y but a variable possession. My intervening space is a me-
dium between me and the world. As such, it has the greatest social
significance; it mediates between the other and me. In this space,
which is not completely m y own, I can meet the other as the other,
join him as my partner, arm in arm, hand in hand, and yet leave
him in his integrity. T h r o u g h this space, I hoM the other at arm's
length or let him come toward me and receive him with open arms.
It is the space of the linking of arms, of embracing,* but also of
crossing the arms, a motion in which we keep distance, "circum-
walling" ourselves in an attitude of defense, of fortification. It is
also the space of handshaking. There are m a n y nuances of hand-
shaking, like w a r m and strong, or cool and hesitant. There can
be spontaneous advance, or a no less spontaneous containment---
as by the hand of the schizophrenic. In a farewell, the hands hold
each other, press each other, move on together; they will not part:
In a handshake sealing a bargain, the hands meet each other half-
w a y in a mutual firm grasp in which the motion is arrested, ex-
pressing final agreement. E v e n the formalized gesture signifies
social acceptance. We pass through a reception line, and the
hands stretched out toward us tell us that we are welcome and
received into the group.
The "three-mile zone" is not static. I t is a borderland with fluc-
tuating frontiers. It expands or shrinks. The body-scheme is n o t
so much a concept or image which a person has of his own body as
it is an ensemble of directions and demarcations--directions in
~The etymological root of " e m b r a c e ~ is "brae," as in "bracMo~n," the Latin word
for arm.
 E R W I N W . S T R A U S t lYs D. 549

which we reach out toward the world, and demarcations which we

encounter in contact with the world) ~ The body-scheme is also ex-
perienced, therefore, as an I-world relation. Corresponding to our
conation, space itself loses its static character, opens endlessly be-
fore us, expands or represses us. The "de-pressed," with his head
bent, his shoulders lowered, his arms fallen to his sides, with his
slow, short steps, succumbs to the pressure which pushes him
down. The Christian attitude of kneeling in prayer, of bending the
head, of interlacing the hands, expresses humility, surrender to a
higher power. The hands, withdrawn from the territorial space,
joined at the midline in full symmetry--taking no sides--have re-
nounced all action. The Moslem in his pious prostration goes to
the extreme of fatalistic submission. The ancient Greek attitude
of praying--upright, arms lifted and extended--opened and wid-
ened the body space in an enthusiastic gesture--"en-thus-iastic,"
indeed, because "en-theos-iastic" means "to receive the God, to be
possessed by him."
"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
"Or what's a heaven for? ''1~
In pointing also, man's reach exceeds his grasp. Upright pos-
ture enables us to see things in their distance without any inten-
tion of incorporating them. In the totality of this panorama
which unfolds in front of us, the pointing finger singles out one
detail. The arm constitutes intervening space as a medium which
separates and connects. The pointing arm, hand, and finger, share
with the intervening space the dynamic functions of separating
and connecting. The pointing hand directs the sight of another
one to whom I show something; for pointing is a social gesture.
I do not point for myself; I indicate something to someone else.
To distant things, within the visible horizon, we are related by
common experience. As observers, we are directed, although
through different perspectives, to one and the same thing, to one
and the same world. Distance creates new forms of communi-
cation.
The organization of action-space is deeply imprinted on t h e
memory. Even after the loss of a limb, it persists in the "phan-
tom." As long as there is a phantom, there is also intervening
space through which the illusive arm stretches to a distant world,
with the illusive hand in a terminal position. It is a common ex-
perience that the phantom arm shrinks, that the phantom hand
550 T H E U P R I G H T POSTURE

moves closer to the trunk; but it never disappears completely; it

is preserved in its terminal position. The loss of the limb reduces
the reach. It modifies the intervening space but does not an-
nihilate it altogether.
The human arm owes its specific mobility to upright posture.
Many factors contribute to its development and functions, but
through all of them, upright posture is at work. First to be men-
tioned is the change in proportions of the sagittal and transverse
diameter of the chest. In quadrupeds, the sagittal diameter is rel-
atively long, the curvature of the ribs flattened, the motions of the
humerus in the shoulder joint restricted, the flexibility of the
elongated scapula limi.ted. The humerus is kept in close contact
with the trunk. The basic function of supporting the trunk pre-
vails and this imprints one definite general mark on the structure
of the shoulder girdle, in spite of all the wariations to be found in
different species. With upright posture, the transverse diameter
is increased. This change, together with the corresponding sharp,
angular curvature of the ribs, gives to the human thorax its char-
a cteristic shape, which in turn permits the developmen~ of the
shoulder girdle into a kind of superstructure. This .superstruc-
ture, which tailors like to emphasize, moves the root of the arm
upward very high and markedly to the side. F a r from supporting
the human body, the arm and the shoulder are themselves sup-
ported, or better, held in position by muscle action, especially by
that of the trapezius. The arm, separated from the trunk in its
full length, can swing from its elevated hub with the widest angle
of excursions in the greatest variety of motions.
The arm, not designed for one specific task, has acquired the po-
tentiality of a wide range of performance. The principle of grow-
ing indetermination, one of Hughlings Jackson's criteria of func-
tional evolution, is applicable to the comparative anatomy of the
shoulder girdle. ~ One should not forget that the human arm
'~The highest centers of the b r a i n are, according to Jackson, the least organized, the
most complex, and the most vohmtary. Evolution is a passage from the most to the
least organized, from the simple to the most complex, from the most automatic to the
most voluntary (Jackson, H.: Selected Writings. u 2, p. 46 ft. London. 19320.
The highest centers were not, or were little, accessible to direct experimentation in
J a c k s o n ' s time. Their functions were found by inference, reasoning backward from the
observation of peripheral performances. The diverse functions of finger, hand, arm,
and shoulder, would tell something about the organization of the corresponding highest
c~nters. Complexity of the b r a i n centers must have and does have its exact counterpart
in the organization of the limbs.
 ERWIN W. STRAUS~ M. D. 551

neither supports the trunk nor has to hold up the body, a func-
tion still assigned to the forelimb of the tree-inhabiting primates.
Small but still significant changes ensue, in the shape and position
of scapula and clavicle, in the origin and insertion of the shoulder
muscles, in the configuration of the acromio-clavicular and the
sterno-clavicular joints. All this together provides for a maxi-
mum flexibility of the arm, aiding the display of the mechanisms
of the scapulo-humeral articulation, where, because of the loose-
ness of the capsule and the shallowness of tile glenoid cavity, the
humerus can move with great ease in all directions. In the hip
joints, on the contrary, the head of the femur is deeply set in the
socket of the acetabular cavity, the capsule is tight and reinforced
by strong ligaments. While the primarily tectonic formation of
the neck of the femur also somewhat extends the range of excur-
sions, the emphasis in the hip is on stability, in the shoulder, on
flexibility.
Language, obviously inspired by phenomenological obser-
vation, takes the arm as the protoype of the articulation of
a limb and of its motions from the joint, for the root of the
word "arm" is "Var " with the meaning "to fit, to join," the same
root from which the Greek "ar-thros" and the Latin "ar-ticulc~tio"
stem.*
Within the totality of the new spatial dimensions acquired with
upright posture, lateral space is perhaps the most important one.
Through the mobility and action of arm and hand, lateral space
becomes accessible and relevant for man. In this sector, most of
the human crafts originated. Hammer and axe, scythe and sickle,
the carpenter's saw, the weaver's shuttle, the potter's wheel, the
mason's trowel, the painter's brush--they all relate to lateral
space. This li,st could b:e extended ad Iibitum but probably would
never come to an end, for lateral space is the matrix of primitive
and sophisticated skills: of spinning and sewing, stirring and iron-
ing, sowing and husking, soldering and welding, fiddling and golf-
ing, batting and discus-throwing.
The crafts of peace are followed, accompanied, or preceded, by
the techniques and weapons of war : club, sword, spear, bow, sling,
~In this paper, the writer has made frequent use of etymology, although i t is not cus-
tomary to introduce " l i n g u i s t i c evidence ~ in a biological discussion, ttowever, be.
cause the history of a word represents the sedimentation of general psychological ex-
perience, it appears to the writer to be justified to refer to etymology as an a u x i l i a r y
discipline.
552 ~:I~E UPRIGHT POSTUI~E

boomerang, to mention some elemental forms only. Lateral space

makes action at a distance possible, as David proved successfully
to Goliath. ~ Superiority has not always belonged to the light
forces. E v e n so, the importance of action at a distance, for which
throwing is the primordiM a n d perennial model, remains undimin-
ished, and with it, the importance of lateral space.
The development of primitive and elaborate weapons makes one
wonder whether "arm," the limb, and "arms," the weapon, may
have the same etymological root. To this question, the linguists
answer both "yes" and "no." Their answer is "no" because arms,
arming, armament, are historically related to the Latin root
"c~rma." The Romans' w o r d for "arm," the limb, is "brachium,"
with another derivation and meaning. However, the root for
"arma," weapon, is also ,'~/~.. ,,
In considering the phenomenon of throwing, one cannot pass
over the remarkable difference in the m a n n e r of throwing of the
two sexes. It seems the manifestation of a biological, not an ac-
quired, difference. Gesel112 illustrates the familiar facts with ~some
good photographs. They show little girls of five and six and two
boys of the same age, throwing a ball. The girl of five does not
make any use of lateral space. She does not stretch her arm side-
w a r d ; she does not twist her trunk; she does not move h e r legs,
which remain side by side. All she does in p r e p a r a t i o n for throw-
ing is to lift her right arm f o r w a r d to the horizontal and to bend
the f o r e a r m backward in a p r o n a t e position. In the final motion,
action is limited to the triceps and flexors of the hand. The ex-
cursion of her motion in the elbow joint does not exceed an angle
of about 90 ~ The length of the lever from the fulcrum at the el-
*In this BiblicM legend, a situation permanently repeating itself is told as a unique
eventi The Bible takes great pains to desc~ibe Goliath's heavy armor (I Sam. 17). I t
also tells t h a t Saul offered David his own sword, ~. " h e l m e t of brass, ~~ and a " c o a t of
m a i l . " However~ David, not trained in the use of these weapons, laid them down. We
may not go f a r wrong i f we assume that the Bible, in a poetical condensation, describes
as a duel what is really a conflict of two civilizations and of two types of military
tactics. Goliath, the Philistine~ belonged to a settled~ seafaring nation, advanced in the
techniques of metal forgery; David, described as a shepherd, belonged to a small no-
madic tribe which invaded the Philistine territory from the interior, The conflict o f the
two co-existent types of military tactics is this: Goliath~ heavily a r m e d - - t h e Philistine
'~Maginot L i n e ~ ' - - a l m o s t immobilized by the weight of his a~mor--somevne has to
carry his shield before h i m - - c a n move only directly forward to a close fight, while
David, a kind of guerilla fighter, finds his advantage in mobility, in dodging, and in
sudden attacks. This conflict between fortified defense and mobile attack is found in
all military history up to uur own time.
 ERW~ W. STRAUS, ~ . D. 553

bow to the palm of the hand coincides with the length of the fore-
arm. The ball is released without force, speed, or accurate aim-
ing. I t enters almost immediately the descending branch of a
steep parabola. At the age of six, the girl tilts her right shoul-
der slightly, moves the left foot f o r w a r d one small step, but shows
no f u r t h e r progress. A boy of the same age, when p r e p a r i n g to
throw, stretches his right a r m sidewards a n d backwards, supinates
the forearm, ~ twists, turns and bends his trunk, and moves his
right foot backward. F r o m this stance, he can s u p p o r t his throw-
ing almost with the full s t r e n g t h of his total motorium. The ex-
cursion of his final motion reaches an angle of 180 ~. I t moves
around the left standing leg as its central axis. The radius of this
semi-circle exceeds by far the. full length of the arm. The ball
leaves the hand with considerable acceleration; it moves t o w a r d
its goal in a long fiat curve.
As this difference appears in early childhood, it cannot result
from the development of the female breast. While the l e g e n d a r y
Amazons had the right breast removed to allow the use of bow
and spear, ~ it seems certain that Nausicaa and all her companions
threw a ball just like our Bettys, and Marys and Susans. How
can we explain the difference? The little girl has no more diffi-
culty in keeping her equilibrium than the boy. I t is t r u e that she
is weaker in muscle power; but, therefore, one should expect her
to compensate for this 1.ack of strength with added p r e p a r a t o r y
excursion. Instead, we find her avoiding the t u r n into lateral
space. Maybe the masculine way of t h r o w i n g corresponds to
masculine "eccentricity," while the feminine attitude reveals a
deep-seated r e s t r a i n t and an inclination to circle around one's own
center. The difference, then, would belong to the a r e a of expres-
sion; it would not be a difference of strength and build but of gen-
eral psychological attitude in relation to the world and to space.
Thus far, lateral space has been discussed as if it were a unit, a
single whole. Indeed, in m a n y motions, we lift our arms sym-
metrically in surrounding space. However, even simultaneous
movements need not be actually symmetrical. They a p p e a r sym-
metrical; they are not so in their intention. The a r m s can be
stretched, the hands can point, in opposite directions, to the right
~Supination reaches its fullest a n d freest excursion with the horizontal abduction of
the arm.
~ A m a z o n means ' ' a - , m a z o s , ' ' without breast.
554 THE Ut)I~IGHT t)OSTURE

and to the left, at the same time. It is this contrast of directions

which divides, articulates, and organizes lateral space, producing
heteronymous, unequal parts. These can be reunited into an or-
dered whole where one half dominates the other. Spatial syntax
cannot deviate from the general principle of taxis, which always
demands a leading part to which the others are subordinated. The
pair, right-left, is the true embodiment of unity, unfolding itself
into opposites, or, if we begin with the opposites, the unity of a
contrasting manifold. Both aspects belong together. Practical
discrimination between, and co-ordination of, right and left pre-
cede their conceptual distinction. The amazing cases of autotopag-
nosia demonstrates to what an extent the organization of the body-
scheme, as a manifold of directions, dominates recognition. In the
Gerstmann syndrome, we find (a) finger-agnosia, (b) agraphia,
and (c) acalculia, besides a right-left disturbance. Searching for
a common denominator, we may find it in the loss of the capacity
to organize opposite directions into one or to break the unit into
opposite directions :
(a) The fingers of the hand repeat, so to speak, the right-left
scheme for one side. Thumb and little finger point in opposite di-
rections. This maximunl of divergency (the direct opposition)
sets the pattern for the intermediary positions.
(b) Writing, the spatial construction of letters, presupposes
the same capacity to differentiate a scheme of varying directions
and to establish them simultaneously in advance. The shape of
the printed letters "b" and "d" illustrates this well.
(c) Numbers follow the same principle. The "2," the model of all
numbers, is a unit of 1 plus 1, which, while they become united,
remain separate: 1 and 1, or 2. The figure "one" is unity, the
"two" a unit. It should therefore not be surprising that a child
learns cardinal numbers a considerable time after mastering the
ordinals. While he knows the series of numerals and enumerates
the fingers of one hand, he is not able to sum them up into one
unit of 5. When he has reached the age when he can conceive of
cardinal numbers, he is usually able to distinguish right and left.

c. Neuropha4siological Considerations
The highest skills are contingent upon the unification of oppo-
sites, the co-ordination of relatively independent parts which are
not bound together by symmetry, homology or synergy. A good
 ERWI• W. S~RAUS,M.D. 555

violinist in a fast spiccato-run co-ordinates the motions of his

left hand and fingers with those of his right shoulder and arm.
He has to combine into one pattern the action of distal muscles
on one side with that of proximal ones on the other. His move-
ments should be speedy, accurate, well-timed in tempo and rhythm,
with the appropriate accentuation and phrasing. Playing from
parts, his motions will be directed by seeing, and controlled by
hearing. Here, "seeing" does not mean simply response to optical
stimuli but comprehension of symbols, which express pitch, time
proportions, dynamics; "hearing" is not merely the reception of
acoustical stimuli but the anticipation and perception of sounds
ordered in the various aspects of music. The necessary flexibility
and versatility of motion of the upper limbs could not be accom-
plished without the compensatory movements of the trunk and leg;
in other words, postural adjustments are continually necessary,
and--perhaps not yet satisfied with all this--we may have to allow
our artist to tap the basic meter with his foot, in this way setting
one, mechanical, repetitive motion against all the variations. Fin-
ally, a concert recital will vigorously, activate the autonomic
system.
A performance like this, which involves the functions of the
whole body, depends on the capacities of the nervous system for
differentiation and integration. The highest forms of integration
are proportionate to the available divisions of labor. Lateral space,
the development of handedness, has brought about the highest
forms of integration. While considerable knowledge has been ac-
cumulated relative to the co-operating parts, the organization of
the whole is still inadequately understood. Neuroanatomy and
neurophysiology have rarely envisaged the diverse mechanisms
related to lateral space as one functional unit. In a short survey,
one may enumerate its major components, their connections and
ways of interaction.
Clinical experience, more than experimental observation, points
to the inferior parietal lobule (gyms supramarginalis and angu-
laris) as the highest level of integration concerned here. It has
been found involved in cases of right-left disturbances, finger-
agnosia, agraphia, alexia, and constructive apraxia. As the high-
est level of co:ordination, it should be supplied with tactile im-
pulses, both exteroceptive and proprioceptive, with acoustical and
optical stimuli. If neighborhood relations mean anything, the in-
oc'r.--1952--c
556 THE U:PRIGI-I's :POSTURE

ferior parietal lobule may well be looked upon as a center, sur-

sounded by and connected with the somesthetic areas of the post-
central gyrus, the optical areas of the occipital lobe, the receptive
acoustical areas of the temporal lobe. It is not to be expected that
any motor activity would start from here but that motions would
be integrated, directed, and controlled from this area. Neighbor-
hood relations also indicate that the inferior parietal lobule re-
ceives impulses from Brodmann's area 22, the acoustical adversive
field, and from area 19, the occipital eye field, both areas serving
adaptation of the body to events in lateral space. The superior
parietal gyrus, Brodmann's area 7, has not yet been mentioned.
Foerster ~3believes it to be an extrapyramidal field, more important
than precentral area 6 with its subdivisions. Like areas 19 and
22, area 7 is also supposed to be in the service of motions related
to lateral space. It closes the circle of the areas surrounding the
inferior parietal lobule, which, therefore, is in close relation to an
extrapyramidal field, initiating synergistic motions, and to the
central gyri with their specified focal organization. If areas 39
and 40 function as a field of integration, bilateral representation
of sensorium and motorium is indispensable. Commissural and
association fibers, which, it seems, provide the main connections,
could well serve this purpose. With the commissural connections
of corresponding areas, a time differential may become effective
through which the minor hemisphere may be subordinated to the
dominant one.
Action in lateral space is to a great extent directed and con-
trolled by vision. The oculomotor apparatus on all its levels from
the periphery to the cortical eye fields, no less than the central
optical pathways, is intimately related to motion in lateral space.
The homonymous division of visual fields and retina which cuts
through the macula is a most appropriate device for the control of
lateral space, perhaps even more so than for binocular frontal vi-
sion. In lower vertebrates, all retinal fibers cross. The reason
may be, as Ramon y Cajal assumed, that in the absence of crossing,
the optical projection would be completely incongruent with the
visible objects. The new acquisition in mammals with overlapping
visual fields is that the temporal fibers remain uncrossed. The two-
fold cortical representation of lateral eye movements demonstrates
their great importance. The frontal eye field probably regulates
 ERWIN W. STR~.US, M.D. 557

voluntary movements of the eyes; the occipital field controls lat-

eral gaze induced by the sight of moving objects.
In the brain stem, the cortical nuclear fibers reach the pontine
center of conjugated lateral gaze, which is also influenced by
acoustical and vestibular stimuli. The final section of this path-
way has not yet been fully established. The cortico-nuclear con-
nections add conscious and voluntary control to the mesencephalic
automatic regulations of gaze and posture. I n this group, the
Moro reflex has special significance for the present problem. The
functions of the superior colliculi seem limited, in man, to the con-
trol of vertical movements ; while the wide cortical eye fields chiefly
direct rotation of the eyes to the contralateral side. Some tracts
descending from the mid-brain and ending in the cervical cord in-
tegrate the functions of the accessorius, of neck and shoulder
muscles, into the complex sensory motor system in control of lat-
eral space. On the most peripheral level, the plexus formation
seems to serve the co-ordination of proximal and distal muscles.
IV. UPRIGHT POSTURE AND THE FORMATION OF THE HUMAN HEAD
Upright posture has lifted eye .and ear from the ground. In
the family of senses, smell has lost the right of the first-born.
Seeing and hearing have assumed dominion. Now, these really
function as senses of distance. In every species, eye and ear re-
spond to stimuli from remote objects, but the interest of ani-
mals is limited to the proximate. Their attention is caught by that
which is within the confines of reaching or approaching. The rela-
tion of sight and bite distinguishes the human face from those of
lower animals. Animal jaws, snoot, trunk, be a k ~ a l l o f them or-
gans acting in the direct contact of grasping and gripping--are
placed in the "visor-line" of the eyes. With upright posture, with
the development of the arm, the mouth i s no longer needed for
catching and carrying, for attacking and defending. It sinks down
from the "visor-line" of the eyes, which now can be turned directly
in a piercing, open look toward distant things and rest fully upon
them, viewing them with the detached interest of wondering. Bite
has become subordinated to sight.
Language expresses this relation in signifying the whole, the
face, through its dominating part, the eyes, as in the English and
French word "visage," in the German "gesicht," and in the Greek
"prosopon." While the origin of the Latin word "facies"--and
therefore, also, of the English noun "face"--is uncertain, the verb
558 T H E U P R I G H T POSTURE

"to face" re-assumes, in a remarkable twist, the original phenom-

enologicM meaning: to look at things straight ahead and to with-
stand their thrust. Eyes that lead jaws and fangs to the prey are
always charmed and spellbound by nearness. To eyes looking
straight forward, to the gaze of upright posture, things reveM
themselves in their own nature. Sight penetrates depth; sight be-
comes insight,
Animals move in the direction of their" digestive axis. Their
bodies are expanded between mouth and anus as between an en-
trance and an exit, a beginning and an ending. The spatiM ori-
entation of the human body is different throughout. The mouth
is still an inlet, but no longer a beginning, the anus an outlet, but
no longer the tM1 end. Man in upright posture, his feet on the
ground, his head uplifted, does not move in the line of his diges-
tive axis ; he moves in the direction of his vision. He is surrounded
by a world-panorama, by a space divided into world-regions joined
together in the totMity of the universe. Around him, the horizons
retreat in an evergrowing radius. Galaxy and diluvium, the in-
finite and the eternal, enter into the orbit of human interests.
The transformation of the animal jaws into the human mouth
is an extensive remodeling: mandible, maxilla, teeth, are not the
only parts recast. The mark of the jaws is brute force. The
muscles which close the jaws, especially the masseter, are built
for simple, powerful motions. Huge ridges and crests, which pro-
vide the chewing muscles with an origin appropriate to the de-
velopment of power, encompass the skull of the gorilla. They
disappear when the jaws are transformed into the mouth. The
removal of these pinnacles permits the increase of the brMn case,
while at the same time the reduction of the mighty chewing muscles
permits the development of the subtle mimic and phonetic muscles.
The transformation of jaws into the mouth is a prerequisite for
the development of language, but only one of them. There are
many other factors involved. In upright posture, the ear is no
longer limited to the perception of noises--rustling, crackling, hiss-
ing, bellowing, roaring--as indicators of actual events, like warn-
ings, ~hreats, lures. The external ear loses its mobility. While the
ear muscles are preserved, their function of adapting the ear to
the actuality ceases. Detached from actuality, the ear can com-
prehend sounds in the sounds' own shape, in their musical or pho-
netie pattern. This capacity to separate the acoustical gestalt
 ERWIN W. STRAUS, t~. D. 559

from the acoustical material makes it possible to produce pur-

posely, and to "re-produce" intentionally, sounds articulated ac-
cording to a preconceived scheme.
Just as the speaker produces his words, articulated sounds,
which function as symbols, as carriers of meanings, these should
be received and understood by the listener in exactly the same way.
The articulated sound, the phoneme, has an obligatory shape. The
phoneme itself is a universal. The relation which connects speech
and speaker can be held in abeyance that speech as such can be
abstracted, written down, preserved and repeated. Speech, while
connecting speaker and listener, keeps them at the same time at a
distance. The most intimate conversation is bound to common,
strict rules of phonetics, grammar and intended meanings. A
spontaneous cry can never be wrong. The pronunciation of a
word, or the production of the phoneme, is either right or wrong.
The virtuosity acquired by the average person in expressing him-
self personally and individually in the general medium of language
hides the true character of linguistic communication. It is re-
discovered by reflection when disturbances of any kind interfere
with the easy and prompt use of language, or when the immediate-
ness of contact does not tolerate linguistic distance and the word
dies in an angry cry, in tender babble, or in gloomy silence.
In conversation, we talk with one another about something. Con-
versation, therefore, demands distance in three direetions: from
the aeoustical signs so that the phoneme can be perceived in its
pure form; from things, so that they can b.e the object of common
discourse; from the other person, so that speech can mediate be-
tween the speaker and listener. Upright posture produces such
distances. It lifts us from the ground, puts us opposite to things,
and confronts us with each other.
The sensory organs cannot change without a corresponding
change in the central nervous system. No part could be altered
alone. With upright posture, there is a transformation of sensor-
ium and motorium, of periphery and center, of form and function.
While upright posture permits the formation of the human skull,*
and thereby of the human brain, the maintenance of upright pos-
ture demands the development of the human nervous system. Who
can say what comes first and what comes last, what is cause and
what is effect? All these alterations .are related to upright pos-
ture as their basic theme. " I n man, everything converges into the
*Note the introduction to the present paper, paragraphs 4 and 5.
560 TI-IE UPRIGHT POSTURE

form which he has now. In his history, everything is understand-

able through it, nothing without it. ''14
The phenomenon of upright posture should not be neglected in
favor of the lying man, or the man on the couch. To do this, is to
ignore facts which are obvious and undebatable, .accessible without
labyrinthine detours of interpretation, facts which exact consider-
ation and permit proof ,and demonstration. It is true that sleep
and rest, lying down and lying with someone, are essential func-
tions; it is no less true that man is built for upright posture and
gait, that upright posture, which is as original as any drive, de-
termines his mode of being-in-the-world.
"The upright gait of man is the only natural one to him, nay, it
is the organization for every performance of his species and his
distinguishing character. ''1~ Human physique reveals human
nature.
V. S u ~ Y
The wound cut by the Cartesian dichotomy of mind and body is
covered over, but not yet healed, by mere reference to the mind-
body unity. This term is useful only if it is filled with definite
meaning and classified in its pre-suppositions as well as in its con-
sequences. The idea of a mind-body unit demands first of all a
revision of those traditional concepts of psychology which are
shaped in accordance with a theory of a mind-body dichotomy.
Experience can no longer be interpreted .as a train, accumulation,
or integration, of sensations, percepts, thoughts, ideas, volitions,
occurring in the soul, the mind, the consciousness, or the uncon-
scious for that matter. In experiencing, man finds himself always
within the world, directed toward it, acting and suffering.
This study discusses the mind-body relation from one well-de-
fined point of view. In analyzing upright posture, it points out in
detail the correspondence between human physique and the basic
traits of human experience and behavior. It also sets forth how
some expressive attitudes of man are related to his basic orienta-
tion in the world a.s an upright creature.
Upright posture, which dominates human existence in its unity,
makes us see that no right exists for claiming any kind of priority
for the drives. The "Rationale" is as genuine a part of human
nature ~as the "Animal."
Veterans Administration Hospital
Lexington, Ky.
 E R W I ~ W. STRAUS, 1VL D. 561

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