Body Am I

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The way we perceive our bodies significantly influences our understanding of phenomena like phantom limbs, rubber hands, and anorexia. Our bodies serve as a canvas for self-expression through clothing, jewelry, and tattoos, but they also play a crucial role in shaping our identity. Moheb Costandi emphasizes that bodily awareness is essential for self-consciousness. He investigates how the brain perceives the body and how this perception informs our conscious experience, ultimately affecting our sense of self. Costandi delves into the consequences of disrupted bodily awareness, which can lead to experiences such as phantom limbs and alien hands. He explains that the brain creates and continuously updates maps of the body that guide our perception and interaction with it. Drawing from recent research on bodily awareness, the science of self-consciousness, and historical advancements in neurology, he examines various psychiatric and neurological disorders that arise when the body and brain are misaligned. These include not only phantom limb syndrome but also phantom breast and phantom penis syndromes, body integrity identity disorder, and eating disorders like anorexia. Through meticulous research, Costandi provides fresh insights into self-consciousness by framing it in terms of bodily awareness.