All empirical knowledge of one’s own body derives from the Other and alienates it

Evidence

Objectivating empirical knowledge, which presently surpasses the Illness suffered toward the stomach named, is the knowing of a certain objective nature possessed by the stomach. I know that it has the shape of a bagpipe, that is is a sack, that it produces juices, and enzymes, that it is inclosed by a muscular tunica with smooth fibres, etc. I can also know—because a physician has told me—that the stomach has an ulcer, and again I can more or less clearly picture the ulcer to myself. I can imagine it as a redness, a slight internal putrescence; I can conceive of it by means of analogy with abscesses, fever blisters, pus, canker sores, etc. All this on principle stems from bits of knowledge which I have acquired from Others or from such knowledge as Others have of me. In any case all this can constitute my Illness, not as I enjoy possession of it, but as it escapes me. The stomach and the ulcer become directions of flight, perspectives of alienation from the object which I possess. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 919

Categorization

• DEFINE: Shows concretely how objectivating knowledge ‘alienates’ the lived body — the mechanism behind the escape of the body-from-itself.
• XREF: connects to: One never gains concrete intuition of one’s own character as judged by the Other; One’s own body escapes instrumental utilization unless mediated through the Other.; Body knowledge becomes cognitive only through the gaze of the Other. (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• The body is primarily known as the Other’s body, not one’s own #corroborates (0.95)
• One’s own body is lived as self, not experienced as an object. #contradicts (0.92) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 733
• The Other’s perspective reveals my own body as merely worldly #expands (0.85)
• Hostile society alienates the colonized subject from his own body #exemplifies (0.75)