STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF THE BODILY SELF: CONCEPTUAL DIMENSIONS OF THE BODY SCHEMA, BODY IMAGE, AND BODILY SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

Abstract

The article presents a holistic concept of the bodily self as a multilevel structural and functional system that includes three interrelated modules: the body schema, body image, and bodily self-consciousness, integrated with personal identity, emotional regulation, and psychological resilience.The body schema is described as a dynamic, largely non-conscious sensorimotor architecture that underpins spatial orientation, action planning and execution, integrating proprioceptive, tactile, vestibular, visual, and interoceptive signals and serving as an operational platform for "higher" levels of psychic organization.Body image is conceptualized as a multidimensional, consciously accessible representation that combines cognitive beliefs about the body, perceptual accuracy or distortion, emotional and value-based attitudes, and behavioral strategies of relating to one's own corporeality; its sociocultural and gender determination is emphasized, as well as its key role in forming psychological vulnerability, particularly in eating disorders, dysmorphophobia, depressive and anxiety states.Bodily self-consciousness is interpreted as an integrative level of experiencing oneself as an embodied subject, associated with multisensory integration, interoceptive accuracy, the functioning of a wide neural network (somatosensory cortex, parietal and premotor areas, insula), and the narrative selfconcept that links bodily experience with identity and a person's life history.The bidirectional, non-linear character of interactions among these three levels is emphasized: changes at the sensorimotor level (trauma, neurological lesions, bodily illusions) can transform body image and disrupt bodily self-consciousness, while chronically negative cognitive-affective schemas regarding one's body, internalization of stigmatizing social norms, and experiences of social rejection can affect basic modes of bodily experience and the interpretation of interoceptive signals.Disturbances of the bodily self are shown to be systemic in nature, simultaneously encompassing microdeficits of sensorimotor integration, stable negative body-image schemas, and disorders of bodily self-presence, manifested in depersonalization experiences, somatization, chronic shame about one's body, and a sense of "alienation from the body."On this basis, the article substantiates a shift from fragmented, symptomfocused interventions toward comprehensive integrative psychotherapeutic and Журнал «Перспективи та інновації науки» № 2(60) 2026