Nina Bull: A Somatic Pioneer
N
ina Bull was a pioneer in the study of the mind/body relationship and the role of the musculature in subjective emotional experience, yet little has been written about her work or her life. I am currently trying to piece together a coherent narrative from many tidbits of information I have picked up in disparate sources such as a poem printed in a 1915 journal of the Audubon Society (see page 45) as well as journals, letters, and writings of her acquaintances, and even books about buildings in which she happened to live. This has been quite an adventure! She came from wealth and privilege so could do pretty much as she pleased. In the early part of the twentieth century she was active in progressive politics and alternative education. She was also interested in and lectured on Latin American culture and translated the works of at least one Latin American author. She was acquainted with many leading cultural figures, including D.H. Lawrence, Gertrude and Leo Stein, and John Dewey. She was already in her late fifties when she began her research, although her interest in the mind/body relationship appears to date from much earlier. From the late 1930's through the 1950's she investigated the role of what she called the "motor attitude" in our emotional lives. Her thesis was that the motor attitude, in other words, physical
By Dan Lewis preparation for action, followed by a delay in actually carrying out the action, gave rise to the subjective experience of emotion by stimulating nervous pathways from muscle and viscera to the brain. For example, if I am ready to cry but not actually crying, I feel sad. When I am actually crying, I do not feel sad. Similarly, if I am prepared to strike an enemy, but not actually carrying out that action, I feel angry. Once I am actually carrying out the strike, I no longer feel angry. She wrote of ". . . the absolute dependence of mental attitude on motor attitude. Thus, a mental attitude may follow and accompany a motor attitude . . . [but] can no t p o ssib l y p reced e it" (Bull, 1951, p. 19). Bull's theory seems radical even today, even among many practitioners of somatic psychotherapy. She gave primacy to the role of the body, the musculature in particular, in initiating subjective feeling states. Bull tested her theory in a series of ingenious experiments. First, an emotion or postural attitude was induced in the experimental subjects, either by asking them to assume a specific postural attitude that was described to them, or to form an emotion named by the experimenter. Then the subjects received a hypnotic suggestion to hold and sustain this emotion or postural attitude. Finally, they were asked to form a different emotion, still holding the postural attitude, or asked to form a different postural attitude while sustaining the prescribed emotion. Subjects could not experience a different emotion unless they first adopted
a different postural attitude. In this way, Bull demonstrated that emotion is invariably preceded by a motor attitude specific to that emotion. Bull was an unusual Somatic Psychology pioneer in that she was neither a clinician, as was, for example, Reich and Lowen, nor did she develop a somatic growth practice as did Elsa Gindler, Moshe Feldenkrais and F. M. Alexander. She was a research psychologist who contributed Attitude Theory and a body of experimental evidence in support of the theory. Her role in the development of the field underscores the importance of research. She also made another contribution, the mentoring of another pioneer, Stanley Keleman (USABPJ, 2007, 5). Bull’s work is one of the foundations of Keleman’s Formative Psychology. My understanding of Somatic Psychology has been enriched through studying the work of Nina Bull. For example, a turning point in my understanding of Formative Psychology came after immersing myself in Bull's idea of the motor attitude. Reading Bull helped me to read Keleman with fresh eyes, moving me away from the neo-Reichian ‘lens’ through which I had been viewing his work. Once I came to appreciate the role of motor attitudes in our functioning, I found that I understood Keleman's work much better. My investigation into Bull's life and work has been an exciting adventure for me. I invite you to come to my talk at the upcoming USABP conference and learn more about this fascinating somatic pioneer.
Somatic Psychotherapy Today Spring 2012 page 43
Bull's theory seems radical even today, even among many practitioners of somatic psychotherapy. She gave primacy to the role of the body, the musculature in particular, in initiating subjective feeling states.
Dan Lewis, M.P.H., is an MFT Trainee at JFK University. His lifelong interest in Somatic Psychology led him to studies with Charlotte Selver, John Heider, Michael Kahn, and Stanley Keleman. He is currently transitioning from a long career in computer programming and data analysis towards a second career as a clinician/ researcher. References Bull, N. (1951). The Attitude Theory of Emotion. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Monographs. USABPJ. (2007) Stanley Keleman. The USA Body Psychotherapy Journal, 6(1), 5.