A Phenomenological Discussion of Early Imitation

The following pages are devoted to an attempt to examine Andrew Meltzoff’s discoveries concerning neonatal imitation in the light of Husserl’s discussion of Fremderfahrung. We criticise Meltzoff’s explanatory model AIM (Active Intermodal Mapping), which is introduced to account for his empirical findings, for two main reasons. First, the AIM model does not seem to properly reconcile the vindication of the intermodal character of imitation with the idea that early imitation is based on organ identification: these two claims seem to be reconcilable only at the cost of sacrificing the active, non reflexlike character of imitation. Secondly, the account of AIM does not fit in with the ordinary first-person experience of adult imitation. In its stead we propose a different explanatory approach, which is consistent with a basic phenomenology of imitation and does not depend on organ identification, but on the “rhythmic resonance” of gestures.