It’s All Done with Mirrors: Neurological and Sociological Integration in the Case of Limb Transplants

For most sighted people, looking into a mirror helps to consolidate a visual and spatial concept of the self. This concept connects both theoretically and substantively to other elements of identity. Similarly, observing the bodies of others plays a key role in social interaction between sighted individuals. These visual inputs offer cues to identity as perceived by other people as well as cues for responding to these attributes. Both the ability to observe bodies visually and the ability to respond psychosocially necessarily involve a variety of structures in the brain. Responses to these images were historically framed as lying outside the realm of neuroscientific inquiry. However, neurosociological inquiry has since evolved as a distinct field—one acknowledging that recognizing and acting upon visual cues is equally a sociological one and a neurological one. We apply a broader neurosociological model of embodiment to the specific context of limb transplantation. We do so using anecdotes and writings from practicing clinicians that illustrate ongoing debates about how people experience and adapt to life with transplanted hands. In the process, we call for more detailed exploration of the synergistic connections between sociological and neurological processes using concepts from dramaturgy.