THE HANDS



FUNCTIONS and ACTIVITIES

This body part, (or pair of corresponding parts), is pre-eminently the one whose function is to act on the environment and "mould it to one's heart's desire". It is the organ involved in fine motor, manual activities. It, (they) grasp objects, manipulate them, e.g. move them from one place to another, rotate them, bring one object to another, put one object into some relationship with another, e.g. put one object inside, or on top of another, and so dominate and control objects, and the environment.
To present a hand, or a photo of this, or a schematic symbol, etc. to another person, can signal a range of meanings , in t.r.a., mime, picture communication, sign, and so on. Possible meanings might include, not just the object itself, but also things which a hand might be used for, the actions/events/processes it can take part in, either in an active sense, e.g. holding things, stroking someone's hair etc., or a passive sense, e.g. to have a glove put on it.
Note that in this unspecified use of the actual object, or photo symbol, or schematic symbol, etc, (see the hand photo above), in showing a hand, one has to show it in some shape, but the intention is to specify this body part but not its actual form or shape. This is the same as having a photo or schematic symbol showing a person, standing, to mean person,(in general), or a specific person (e.g. Amanda) but not to specify what they are actually doing. When one does this one generally chooses, for the neutral shape, a simple, common form. This will probably usually be the shape of the hand when the hand is at rest and relaxed, e.g. when a person is standing or walking and the arms are down at the sides of the body. Here the fingers are fairly close together and somewhat curved. One would predict that this shape should not occur in the various sign languages of the world, and will not therefore have a Stokoe-type coding. (One similarly would exclude various natural sounds, commonly made by humans, from the sounds allowed in a spoken language; not to do so might become confusing!). (This shape might also be the one which the hand assumes while the arm is moving it to some object, for interaction with it, e.g. grasping; only when the hand has reached this position might it assume the specific shape required).
From an evaluative aspect, we can divide the functions of the hand into nice, good actions, and bad actions, e.g. from the child's viewpoint. In the former category we can place stroking the child's arm or head, giving him nice things, e.g. sweets, toys, etc., taking the child by the hand to nice places to do nice things with the child etc.
In the latter category we can place smacking the child, taking his playthings away, stopping him from doing what he wants to do, making him do things he doesn't want to do such as school work, combing or brushing her hair roughly etc.
In contact with the world, the hands can get dirty literally, and by doing bad, (=dirty), things, can become dirty in a figurative sense. So we get the behaviour of hand-washing, an attempt to get rid of the dirt and the evil deed, the classic symptoms of guilt in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

SHAPE or FORM

The hand is an organ which can characteristically and importantly assume a number of forms or hand-shapes. Each one is suited to a particular use or function. Consequently the shape of the hand can signal the use to which it will be put, and the meaning, in t.r.a., mime, picture communication, in sign, and so on.
As a less down to earth type of meaning there may also be "Freudian" types of symbolic meaning involved.
(We must exclude from this discussion those hand-shapes, (or hand and forearm shapes), which are produced by disease, e.g. the characteristic spastic or athetotic hand and forearm position).
Hand shapes are coded by a system which we owe to Stokoe, an American pioneer in the study of sign languages. Some important hand shapes are:-

A

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This shape is a fist handshape.
If empty this hand shape could
be used aggressively, e.g. to punch someone. It is the
appropriate shape for holding some objects e.g. a hammer, and an inappropriate, crude, ineffective, and immature shape to hold other objects, e.g. a pencil 		G

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This shape is a pointing handshape.
It can be used to indicate something
near or far, by a touch or distance point.
But it can also be used to poke, or prod something/someone. 		5

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This shape occurs in various
n.r.a. actions.
Additionally it occurs in the symbolic palm-regarding behaviour discussed at length elsewhere on this site, in these three articles:-
Body Parts as Symbolic Objects, 1
Body Parts as Symbolic Objects, 2
Body Parts as Symbolic Objects, 3 		B

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This flat hand shape occurs in various actions.
It is not typically a holding shape, unless the object is being carried on top of the palm up hand. If empty the shape could be associated with stroking, patting, slapping etc 		C F
G G'''^

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This shape is associated with a
mature grasp of a pen or pencil 		5'''. <--Click for more

This is a scratching handshape.
With this handshape, and with contact of a surface, and a movement in the plane of the surface the nails can be used to scratch the surface However it can also be used to grasp something, especially a BALL 		J C' <--Click for more

This shape is one suitable for holding hands. 		L
M G='''

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This is a pinching handshape. It
can deliver a sort of small, petty aggression, favoured by little girls. 		O P Q R


Parts of the hand



The fingers, and thumb, can be inserted into various bodily orifices to give pleasure, e.g. the mouth, in thumb sucking, (oral receptive pleasure), or the vagina, or clitoris, as a more obviously sexual self-gratification.This also includes the nose, as in nose picking, etc.
The nails, in aggression towards others, as in pinching or scratching, are other favourites in the s.l.d. child's armoury of weapons. These are clearly primitive, and relate to the talons and claws of wild animals.
In 'self'-directed anger, as described elsewhere, parts of the child's own hand, especially the region around the base of the thumb, where it joins the hand, are often bitten by s.l.d. children.
As a sort of "Freudian" style symbol, the palm of the hand can represent a parent or parent figure, as discussed fully in the three articles:-

Body Parts as Symbolic Objects, 1

Body Parts as Symbolic Objects, 2

Body Parts as Symbolic Objects, 3


Go back to 'The meaning of body parts'


Go back to 'A Pencil Grip Code'


Go back to introduction



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