Martha Graham claimed that “movements never lie.” I’d like to believe this. However, contemporary research shows that bodily actions can be used purposefully to mislead the observer.
Thus human movement is both genuine and artificial. If one wishes to understand the nonverbal dimensions of an individual’s behavior, it becomes necessary to distinguish between authentic expressions and actions that are meant to create a certain impression.
Warren Lamb grappled with this problem. As a business consultant, he was often asked to make hiring recommendations among short-listed candidates. Lamb recognized that some candidates interview better than others, simply because they are more adept at image management. In attending closely to nonverbal behavior, Lamb had to find a way to discern honest expressions from actions “put on” for effect.
This led to Lamb to distinguish gestural actions, movements limited to a part of the body, from actions that involved a consistent process of effort or shape change throughout the body as a whole. Lamb dubbed these “Posture-Gesture Mergers” and interpreted such whole-bodied expressions as more genuine than mere gestures.
Paying attention to postural versus gestural expression has been a bedrock of my practice as a movement analyst for many years. I have found that when people are comfortable in a situation and involved or excited about what is being discussed, they tend to integrate gestures with postural actions more consistently.
On the other hand, gesturing and posing also have their uses. Politicians in formal state visits are understandably constrained in their physical behaviors. As a consequence, their true feelings are difficult to discern. Similarly, I once observed interviews with American soldiers who had been abused in Japanese prisoner of war camps. I am sure they felt deeply about their experiences. But they did not merge gesture and posture as they described these experiences. It seemed to me that gestural isolation of movements provided a way to contain painful recollections.
In short, discerning gesture from Posture-Gesture Mergers opens a window on human life and coping mechanisms. For this reason, the opening session of the Motus Humanus celebration of Warren Lamb’s legacy is dedicated to Posture-Gesture Merger and how to identify this significant aspect of movement behavior.