The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: Part I - Body Image, Our Thoughts, and the Art of Sculpting

Fall on the Mountain by Anne Rule-Thompson

I recently visited my friend Anne, who is a figurative sculptor.  When I arrived at her studio, she was in the process of sculpting the upper portion of a human figure. She was working on the clavicle, the long bone that runs from the shoulder blade to the sternum. “I hope I am not interrupting your flow,” I said.

She responded, “No. Not at all.” She went on to say that my arrival was helpful, because she was really needing to step away from her piece for a moment…that she had been so focused on the clavicle, it was starting to look like part of a bicycle to her.

She then stepped back to take a look at her entire creation. “That is the difficult thing about sculpting,” she said. “Sometimes you can get so over-focused on the details that you lose sight of the big picture. As I was sculpting, I kept thinking that this clavicle is really just looking like a bicycle part, but after I stepped back for a minute and looked at the entire sculpture, I realized my sculpture actually looks just fine. The whole thing looks like a person.”

 I was fascinated as I began to gain an understanding of that delicate balance between detail and perspective which seems essential to the art of sculpting. I had never really thought of sculpting, other than to admire the final product, and this new understanding was enlightening. I thought more about how easy it must be to get stuck on a detail – be it a clavicle, jawbone, or other portion of the human body – and was hit by another epiphany.

“Anne,” I said, “This is the exact same thing that happens with my clients who are struggling with body image. So many of them tell me they hate their stomachs, their hips, the width of their shoulders, their thighs.  They will literally get stuck in front of the mirror, dissecting the appearance of their body parts.” I shared with Anne how these clients tend to lose perspective of their “whole” appearance. Though they aren’t typically thinking their stomach or thighs look like bicycle parts, their thoughts are more like, “My stomach looks disgusting.  It’s all anyone will notice”. “I hate my thighs”. “My arms are too big.” Their lists will go on.

 I continued to ponder how representative this struggle with the balance between detail and perspective in sculpting seems to reflect the inward battles of so many of my clients – and not just the ones with eating disorders or body image distortions. What I was hearing from my friend was such a perfect example of this tendency we all have to lose perspective when we are focusing too much on detail. Whether we are placing that focus on our stomachs, a brief interaction with a friend, or a sour comment made by our spouse, the end result is ultimately the same - we lose track of the big picture. We think that our appearance is repulsive. We think that we’ve tarnished a friendship. We think that our spouse is a jerk. And (to take things further), when we lose perspective, if we haven’t cultivated the skill of stepping back – like my friend Anne with her sculpting - what happens? We keep losing perspective. Then we become stuck in the land of the lost perspective.  How many of us become stuck on our mistakes (or perceived ones) or shortcomings – whether it’s a bad grade, or something we said or did that felt embarrassing. If we aren’t able to step back from these thoughts, we will likely find ourselves inside of them – much like a gigantic snowball (with us in the middle) rolling down, down, down. We can easily convince ourselves that we are going to fail, or that we’ve lost a friend – hence becoming an artist in the creation of our own catastrophic production.

I reference my clients because these are the people I talk to about this. But really, this struggle to fall full force into the details, and lose perspective, is universal. Though some of us have “stickier” thoughts than others, and a tendency to get stuck in a snowball of fantasy, this does not just reflect the people who decide to enter counseling. It’s just that the people who decide to enter counseling are the people who I have the privilege of talking to about this. Furthermore, in many ways – culturally speaking (the United States and most other western countries) - we are “taught” this way of thinking. We are taught to think and define ourselves in “parts,” and we are taught to over focus on details. Essentially, there is so much about our culture that trains us to lose perspective. In her book, “Quiet,” Susan Cain writes about the onset of our culture’s value of extroversion, years after the American Industrial Revolution, and a need to sell not only our product, but also ourselves. She furthers this with a discussion of advertising, specifically a shift in the 1920’s for ads to “focus obsessively on the hostile glare of the public spotlight.” Still today, advertising’s most effective tactic is to try to make us believe that we are not good enough, and won’t be successful enough, unless we buy the particular product being sold.  In essence, advertising teaches us to over focus on what really should be a detail. And, it not only teaches us to over focus on these details, it teaches us that if we don’t we might just be doomed. It teaches us to think catastrophically! Here’s an example: What if you are on a crowded subway, and you raise your hand up to hold on to the hand bar hanging down from the ceiling, but you’ve worn the wrong deodorant. And then, everyone on the subway gives you dirty looks – they hate you. And you lose confidence, you suddenly aren’t good enough, and you probably won’t be successful… all because you’ve worn the wrong deodorant. For those of you who might not be quite old enough to remember, you can probably still guess that this was a deodorant commercial. And, come on now. Personally, there are days that I don’t wear any deodorant. These are the days that start with a super hectic morning, when I am bound to forget something. Thank goodness, I am not losing friends or clients over this.

This concept of advertising’s making us feel “not good enough” unless we purchase the advertisement’s product is present in its most extreme when it comes to the promotion of fitness and beauty products. Talk about messages that teach us specifically to over-focus on parts of our body. If only we can obtain that “washboard stomach,” lose ten pounds, have the perfect muscles, the perfect skin tone, the perfect hair color….it’s all we need to be the “new you.” And who wouldn’t want to be the “new you,” because we are constantly bombarded by messages that the “you” you are just isn’t good enough. And we wonder why we have a culture filled with individuals with depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.

One of the most influential educators on the affect of advertising on the American culture is the author and lecturer, Jean Kilbourne. Since the 1960’s, through lectures, films, and articles, Kilbourne has been striving to mainstream the effects of advertising on our culture. Specific to the concept of body image, and our tendency to over focus on “ parts” of ourselves, Kilbourne keenly demonstrates how advertisements often show, particularly women, “in parts.” She discusses in her film Killing Us Softly (a film about the effects of advertising on women), how “everywhere we look, women’s bodies are turned into things, and often just parts of things.” Just look around in magazines and commercial ads – you will see what she means.  Kilbourne further states that, “Turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person. We see this with racism. We see it with homophobia. We see it with terrorism. The person is dehumanized and violence becomes inevitable.” This is a concept deserving of it’s own blog entry, though certainly worth mention here. The trailer, by the way, for Killing Us Softly can be found on Jean Kilbourne’s website, jeankilbourne.com.

So…how again might this all tie into sculpting? My friend Anne, at the end of her day, leaves her studio, closing the door on her sculpted creation. Then, she walks away. When our creations are our thoughts it isn’t quite as easy.   With her sculpture my friend can physically step back, away from her piece, in order to gain some perspective. When our creations are inside of our minds, those creations can not only be difficult to get away from, but also difficult for us to recognize that… in essence… they are just creations inside of our minds.

Personally, I believe that mental health consists of much more than aspects of one given individual. More than we would probably like to think, we are influenced by the culture and shape of the world around us. One of my favorite sayings (because it is so true) comes from Steven Hayes, the founder of the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (“ACT”) approach. I heard him say this at a conference I was attending: “You Can’t Unlearn What You’ve Learned.” And we can’t. We can only strive to increase our awareness of messages we’ve internalized. Be it messages that are harmful and oppressive to our selves, or messages that are harmful and oppressive to others. Though we ourselves can change, the messages we've internalized don't vanish. And the first step toward any type of change is awareness of these messages.

Not only do aspects of our culture (especially from the media and advertising) contribute to our brains’ tendencies toward getting stuck in our thoughts and over-focusing, but there is some research that our brains themselves are actually a part of this problem. Russ Harris, in his book “The Happiness Trap” (also ACT based), states, ”evolution has shaped our brains so that we are hardwired to suffer psychologically: to compare, evaluate, and criticize ourselves, to focus on what we are lacking, to rapidly become dissatisfied with what we have, and to imagine all sorts of frightening scenarios, most of which will never happen.” If you would like to research this further, Harris gives a lot of background and supporting evidence to this conclusion in his above mentioned book.

 In his self-help workbook, “Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, ”Steven Hayes writes that… “Thoughts are like lenses through which we see our world. We have a tendency to cling to a particular lens and allow it to dictate how we interpret our experiences, even to the point of dictating who we are.” To further Hayes's concept, the stronger the emotional reaction we have to a thought, the more likely we are to get stuck - falling into over-focus - in that thought. For example, if you have the thought that you might have…let’s say…worn the wrong outfit for the occasion, and you react to that thought with anxiety and fear, then you will be more likely to over-focus on your outfit had you not had the emotional reaction of anxiety and fear. Do you see, too, how our social narratives/ rules can come in to play here? Other examples may include the following thoughts, “What if I mispronounced something in front of that person I was hoping to impress?” “What if my house isn’t clean enough, and the meal I made tastes terrible?” “What if I smell bad (because I wore the wrong deodorant)?”  These “what ifs” are all just thoughts, but coupled with a strong fear response, they can become their own fixation…causing us to fall yet again into the land of lost perspective.

It is often not only this over-focus (or “clinging,” as Hayes described) on a thought that can perpetuate the process of losing perspective, it can also be an over-focus on a physical sensation. And with a damaging social narrative about appearance (setting the stage for anxiety arousal), this over-focus (of thought and/or sensation) can more than likely segue into what is called, “body dysmorphic disorder,” or BDD. This is an OCD related disorder seen often, though not by any means exclusively, in individuals with eating disorders. Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) involves a preoccupation with an aspect of ones physical appearance, with the belief that this aspect of their appearance may cause others to perceive them negatively. In extreme cases of this disorder, individuals may avoid people all together…for fear of judgement, embarrassment, and shame. Here is an example of an over-focus on a physical sensation, coupled with a damaging social narrative – one that breaks down our wholeness, disregards our essence, and defines our value as a physical feature, or “part.” It’s called the “thigh gap.”

The thigh gap concept is one that is not exclusive to individuals with BDD. In fact, it’s a pretty mainstream, yet damaging, narrative…one that is especially percolating in many of the middle schools and high schools that my pre-adolescent and adolescent clients attend. In case you haven’t heard of the thigh gap phenomenon, it is essentially this:  If your inner thighs touch, then you don’t have what is called a “thigh gap,” and therefore you are inherently flawed. And if you do have a thigh gap…well, then you are okay. So, here’s how this process of over-focus and lost perspective can happen: Our thighs touch. We notice the sensation of our thighs touching. We feel a sense of dread, anxiety, and even shame. Because we have such a strong emotional reaction to our thighs touching – because we receive messages so often (depending on our school and/or social circle) that we are inherently flawed if they do touch - we are then set up to over-focus on just how much our thighs touch. The thing is, whether or not our inner thighs touch is really just a detail. But we (of course) lose perspective…. believing ourselves to be a “disgusting,” shameful, individual.  Not a person whose thighs just touch from time to time (which I think all of ours do), not a person with hopes, dreams, passions, and personality …but a dreadful person. All because we don’t have a thigh gap. And this idea is perpetuated – straight from the outside-in, from the mouths of others right into our own incorporations of how we see ourselves. So you see, the more we notice we don't have a thigh gap, the more we notice we don't have a thigh gap, and the more perspective we lose…to the point that we’ve horrifically redefined ourselves. This same (BDD) phenomenon, by the way, is similar to the psychological process of someone who may deal with hypochondriasis - that person notices a bodily sensation (maybe a slight head ache), they have an anxious response to the thought of their headache, they over focus (over-focusing creating over focusing), they lose perspective and soon start to fear the worst (a tumor, cancer) about their headache.

We all have a tendency toward over-focus and losing perspective. And truthfully, because of the make up of our minds and the make up of our culture, most of us (at least in the Western parts of the world) display at least some tendencies toward OCD and body dysmorphic disorder. The trick is to be able to pull ourselves out…to back away from our thoughts, and away from the stories our thoughts have created for us. How can we do this, you might be wondering?  The first step is to increase our awareness of the separateness between our thoughts (i.e. our stories) and our selves. With this, it can be useful to know where these thoughts, ideas, and stories may have come from. A hope I have is that this blog entry may help with that.

Another useful reminder when it comes to pulling back from our thoughts is this: A thought is just a thought. And like everything else in this world, our thoughts too will pass. Ironically, the more we try to fight our thoughts, the longer we will stay stuck in them. What are our “helpful thoughts?” What are the harmful ones? How can we focus our attention to the thoughts and ideas that are the helpful ones. And leave behind the ones that aren’t. There are many techniques to facilitate with this.  If you are interested in a book full of these techniques, do check out the “Happiness Trap” by Russ Harris. Essentially, the better able we are to recognize that “our thoughts are just thoughts,” to let them float on past us, the better we will be able to move toward what is most purposeful and meaningful in our lives. Conversely, the more we move toward meaning and purpose in our lives, the greater our ability becomes to pull away from our unhelpful thoughts. Steven Hayes gives a great example of this, which I love. My memory may not be serving me 100 percent accurately, but here it is: You are driving a bus, and there are a bunch of monsters/bullies (i.e. your not so helpful thoughts) on the bus. They keep yelling at you, really mean things. But you have somewhere to go (i.e. your meaning, your purpose). You could stop the bus, go to the back and fight with the bullies, or you could just keep on driving. Pulling ourselves away from our thoughts is often facilitated by striving toward a greater sense of what feels meaningful and purposeful to us, which lead us to….perspective.

And back to my friend Anne. It seems fairly easy (or at least not painstakingly difficult) for my sculptor friend to realize when she is over-focusing on the details of her sculpture and losing perspective. She is able to focus on the detail as much is necessary (for as long as it is helpful), to recognize when the clavicle is starting to look to her like a part of a bicycle, and to step back…away to witness her greater sense of meaning in that moment – her sculpture. Her creation as it is. In it’s whole.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed this entry, and that you’ve found it interesting and helpful. The purpose of many of my blog entries will aim to make these connections between mental health and our culture, while also incorporating the world of the arts. Our internal worlds are in so many ways defined by the external world that surrounds us. Art – in its many forms – can assist us with understanding not only others, but also ourselves. The field of psychology sometimes underestimates the impact of our social world on our emotional health and well-being, or our inner worlds. Our culture is both limited by and defined by its language, and our knowledge of the world is defined by a social narrative, which is constantly being redefined (though hopefully for the better). Art can stand outside of this narrative. It can be it is its own expression, or it can facilitate our descriptions and understanding of what we already know. Art, in all of its forms, can represent and reflect powerful emotions. It can facilitate connection with others, as well as connection with our selves. Art allows us not only to gain a deeper, more fulfilling, experience of ourselves, but also others. Art can bring us joy.

If you have questions or comments about this entry, please feel free to contact me.

If you would like to know more about the books and website I mentioned in this blog, here is that information.

Jeankilbourne.com

“Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Taking,” by Susan Cain

“The Happiness Trap – How to Stop Struggling and Start Living,” by Russ Harris

“Get Out of Your Mind and Into your Life – The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy,” by Steven Hayes.

And special thanks to my friend Anne Rule-Thompson, at Rivers Studio and Gallery, whose sculpture and conversation inspired this writing.