Revisiting Clifford Scott's “Body Scheme” with a Dash of the Postmodern: A Personal Appreciation

The author has chosen, for a commemoration of Clifford Scott, to review and expand upon one of his principle areas of study: the body scheme. Originating in the neuro-psychoanalytic work of Paul Schilder, Scott's contribution conceptualizes oscillating primordial forces of “cosmic bliss” and “catastrophic chaos” that affect the somato-psychic boundaries of persons with severe narcissistic disturbances. The phenomena that Scott described lend themselves less to a stratified vertical classificatory approach than to systems of thought that highlight boundlessness, multiplicity, and less tangible horizontal connections associated with such postmodern thinkers as Deleuze and Guattari. Always the consummate clinician, however, Scott joined his theoretical perspectives with material gleaned from his analytical work with a spectrum of patients and, newly documented in this article, from his knowledge of the work of an important 19th-century figure in Canadian psychiatry. Vignettes of some of the most well-known patients of Scott accompany theory-based elaborations by him and those familiar with his work. The author, who has already written extensively on Scott's work, offers personal comments about the role the eminent Canadian psychoanalyst played in the unfolding of his own professional career.