If I asked you to name our senses, you might quickly rattle off the top 5: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. You may even add proprioception and vestibular sensation to the list. Lately, more and more people are adding interoception.
The introduction of the concept of interoception is attributed to Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Charles Scott Sherrington in the early 1900s. He was exploring the contrast of external or extero-ceptive to internal or intero-ceptive senses (Sherrington, 1906).
From these writings, we learn that Sherrington considered interoception as sensation arising from the interior of the body, especially the viscera.
It’s been 114 years since Sherrington introduced the concept of interoception.
I can’t wait to share with you how instrumental this early work was and how far we have come in our understanding of interoception and what it means for understanding ourselves and our clients!
If you can’t wait for more, click on the link below to read an article!
Fun fact: Sherrington also coined the term proprioception.
References:
Ceunen, Erik, Vlaeyen, Johan W. S, & Van Diest, Ilse. (2016). On the Origin of Interoception. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 743.
Sherrington, C. S. (1906). The Integrative Action of the Nervous System. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1932. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2020. Sun. 6 Sep 2020.