ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses language and gestural mimesis as a symbiotic unity, as well as an original point for the symbolic function. The meaningfulness of gesture occurs when one views one’s own actions as if they were those of someone else. Here, self/non-self mirroring and role-reversal imitation are seen as the original point for meta-discourse. The chapter argues for a human mimetic instinct, not a language instinct. Clearly, gesturing involves the embodiment of language and cognition, and it is shown here how gesturing is continually present, even in displaced form, i.e., from one part of the body to another. The phenomenon of conversion disorder is discussed in this context.
