Judith Ida Kestenberg (née Silberpfennig; 17 March 1910 in Tarnów, Austria-Hungary – 16 January 1999 in Sands Point, New York) was a child psychiatrist. She worked with Holocaust survivors. She founded the International Study of Organized Persecution of Children (ISOPC), which conducted extensive interviews with over 1,500 survivors worldwide. Kestenberg also developed the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP), an assessment tool based on movement patterns.
The Kestenberg Movement Profile
A History the Kestenberg Movement Profile
The Kestenberg Movement Profile profile was developed by Dr. Judith Silberpfennig Kestenberg and her colleagues after years of observation of children and adults at The Sands Point Study Group on Long Island, New York. Its structure and focus are based on the psychological profile developed by Anna Freud, with a strong emphasis on child development. Its movement language is based on the Laban System of Movement Notation with modifications adaptive to its psychological focus. The goal is to find a nonverbal modality from which to gain psychological insight without reliance on words and tone in cases where the absence of words and tone prevent psychologically informed interpretations. With Dr. Kestenberg’s system, non-verbal or barely verbal patients like infants, small children, and uncommunicative adults can be analyzed by the way they move.
Kesternberg, who was born in Tarnow, Poland, and trained in medicine, neurology and psychiatry in Vienna, came to New York in 1937 and completed her training at Bellevue Hospital and the New York Psychological Institute. While in Vienna, she was strongly influenced by Charles Darwin’s 1872 studies of facial expressions and body movements as a means of revealing a person’s true emotions.
In the early 1950’s there were few models for the study of nonverbal behavior. Kestenberg, a child psychologist, had difficulties creating her own method of movement notation until she was introduced to the work of Rudolph Laban and Warren Lamb (Laban & Lawrence, 1947: Laban, 1960) and Warren Lamb’s (1965) interpretation of their use and structure (Ramsden, 1973).
Laban and Lamb conceived of and generated a system of dance notation and movement analysis that provided a system that qualitatively and quantitatively perceives and describes elementary components of movement. The system is applicable to many fields of study for it is the process itself that matters, “not the end product or goal of the action” (Bartenieff and Lewis, 1980 p.ix). The movement components described by Laban are readily observable and the interpretive scheme is logical and accessible to any lay person.
Kestenberg and her colleagues elaborated upon the Laban system to reflect the ways in which movement patterns evolve within the context of development. To make this new profile readily available for psychological assessment, they highlighted the correspondences they discovered between movement qualities and Anna Freud’s developmental scheme (1965).
Though often outside of our awareness, all people regularly rely on nonverbal cues to assess the feelings and personality traits of others. We each have our own informal lexicon of movement patterns that becomes an untaught, yet essential, reference guide, enabling us to respond and adjust to others. Freud (1905) pointed out that patients unconsciously reveal inner anxieties and feelings through body movements. Psychologist A. Lowen suggested that “even when a person tries to hide his true feelings by some artificial postural attitude, his body belies the post in the state of tension that is created. The body does not lie (Lowen 1971 p.100). The Rapper Jay-Z wrote that in wordless encounters, we watch body language to learn intentions of others, especially in life and death situations.
If the mind, emotions, and body are a closely integrated, mutually interacting system, then it is reasonable to conclude that we could gain information about the mind by observing the body. The body and its manner of moving reveals aspects of current feelings and emotions, and can also give us insight into an individual’s past. As Loman and Foley wrote in 1996, “…experiences get stored in the body and are reflected in body movement.” A person who feels rejected may develop a hollow, narrowed body attitude which expresses and reinforces such feelings throughout life. Because physical and emotional experiences leave long-term traces upon the way people hold themselves and move, the study of movement opens a door to the study of patterns of early development, coping strategies and personality.
Movement qualities studied in the KMP reflect individuals’ styles of learning and cognition, expression of needs and feelings, modes of relating, styles of defense, and dynamics for coping with the environment. The psychoanalytically-oriented analyst can use the KMP to access information about drives, object relations, ego development, the superego, and defense mechanisms. The KMP is equally accessible to those with other orientations and can be used to pursue varied research goals.
History and Methodology
By 1953, Kestenberg began longitudinal studies of the movement patterns of three children, and followed them for 20 years. She discovered persistent qualities and developmental patterns. Later, her investigations into the role of nonverbal behavior in treatment and assessment were pursued further as a collaborative effort at the Sands Point Movement Study Group. Kestenberg made important clinical and theoretical contributions through her observation of infants, children and adults.
The KMP evolved during more than 30 years of research by Kestenberg and her colleagues (Kestenberg 1975, Kestenberg & Sossin, 1979, Kestenberg Amighi, Loman, Lewis, & Sossin, 1999). Their findings linked the dominance of specific movement patterns with particular developmental phases and psychological functions. Movement observation complemented Kestenberg’s (1975, 1976, 1980a, 1980b) investigations of gender studies, pregnancy and maternal feelings, and of obsessive-compulsive disorder. The dominant focus of much of this research was the development of techniques for the primary prevention of emotional disorders. The KMP systematizes the mind/body links we use in our daily lives and singles out key movement qualities and patterns with the most psychological significance for describing, assessing and interpreting nonverbal behavior.
The Importance of Understanding Movement: We Are Embodied
Because both physical and emotional experiences leave long-term traces on the way people hold themselves and move, the study of movement opens a door to the study of patterns of early development, coping strategies, and personality configurations.
The use of movement analysis for psychological assessment and treatment rests on our understanding of the mind, emotions and body as closely integrated, mutually interacting systems. “When traumatic events or obstacles impede the normal growth process, maladaptive [and adaptive] experiences get stored in the body and are reflected in body movement” (Loman and Foley, 1996, p.4). A person who feels rejected may develop a hollow, narrowed body attitude which expresses and reinforces such feelings. A small child whose caregiver has a hollowed torso may accommodate to it and develop a similar body attitude and associated feelings. This mind/body integration means that not only does the way we move reflect the psyche, but the way we move can affect the psyche as well. We have learned, for example, that mental imagery can improve movement skills and that movement can affect cognitive and emotional patterns (Eddy, 1992).
What does this mean in practice?
The Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP) provides
1) a Laban-derived method of labeling and categorizing elementary movement qualities,
2) a system for psychological assessment through the observation and analysis of movement,
3) a theoretical framework which guides the interpretation of movement repertoires in developmental terms, and
4) a framework for the prevention and treatment of a wide variety of psychological, physical, and cognitive problems.
Using the KMP, an observer notates the frequencies of specified movement qualities of a mover. These qualities are organized into nine different categories (termed diagrams) which relate to qualities such as affects, needs and drives, coping mechanisms and self feelings. The data collected is then represented graphically in eight diagrams. From these, the analyst can view a descriptive profile of the subject observed. The analyst can also develop hypotheses which will help guide a treatment or guidance plan.
The KMP’s information about intrapersonal psychological functioning is applicable to all age groups; some patterns may even be studied in the womb (Loman, 1992). Any two or more profiles (e.g., mother and child) can be compared with each other to yield information about areas of interpersonal conflict and harmony.
Those who are interested in specific questions rather than a comprehensive profile may collect data on just certain types of movement qualities, e.g. relating to learning styles, or responsiveness to stimuli in the environment or modes of interpersonal relationships.
The Foundations of Maternality in girls and boys
As a result of additional research, the group discovered the existence of two more phases of development, urethral and inner-genital, amplifying the original Freudian model and demonstrating the basis of maternality and paternality of all children. By inviting both fathers and mothers to attend the Center, the group was able to help parents build upon what was then called the feminine qualities in men and masculine qualities of women, which today we speak of in terms of inner and outer-genital phases of development.
Kestenberg postulated additional phases characterized by distinct movement patterns, each of which has distinct psychological correlates. One of these phases, the “inner genital phase,” an early childhood phase linked to functions of maternality, is characterized by long gradual rhythms which facilitate nurturing, relationship building, and integration (Kestenberg 1967, 1975). The movement and psychological constellations which typify children in this phase occur among boys as well as girls suggesting the biological, maturational preconditioning of both genders for parenting capabilities.
Results
Based on long term movement observation of children, clinical practice, and research, Kestenberg and the study group differentiated efforts, as described by Laban, into four movement clusters: tension flow rhythms (which reflect unconscious needs) tension flow attributes (which reflect temperament and affects), pre-efforts (which reflect immature ways of coping often used in learning and defensive behaviors), and efforts used in coping with space, weight, and time elements (Koch 1997). Similarly they differentiated shape flow into bipolar shape flow (movements which reflect self feelings) and unipolar shape flow (involved in responses to specific stimuli). They added movement qualities which relate to how we move and gesticulate in the kinesphere around us (shape flow design); developed the developmental and psychological understanding of shaping in directions (used in defenses and learning), and shaping in planes (used in complex relationships).
What emerged was a movement-based profile, consisting of qualitative information and nine diagrams which display more than ninety different possible qualities of movement in an individual’s movement repertoire. These nine frequency diagrams of movement quality clusters are arranged to reflect developmental sequences and the alternation of mobilizing and stabilizing qualities in development. Comparing diagrams within the profile can illuminate how movement qualities are used in varied harmonious and clashing combinations.
Once a Kestenberg Movement Profile is completed, it serves as a movement portrait upon which to base a developmental assessment, and in clinical contexts, a treatment plan. As described above, it can also be used to assess learning styles, personality characteristics, styles of relationships, creative intelligence. By comparing two profiles one can discover areas of accord and conflict with between individuals.
The original and primary arena for KMP study has been “primary prevention.” This has involved the appraisal of parent and child movement patterns, contributing to the identification of risk and to the development of facilitative and interventive methods appropriate for particular child-rearing situations.
Although Kestenberg’s work arose from a Freudian paradigm, it emphasized the non-verbal, but did not easily blend with contemporaneous Freudian thinking and thus suffered from under appreciation. In addition, Kestenberg pioneered direct infant observation at a time when it was controversial to privilege psychoanalytic data from anywhere but the psychoanalytic situation. Finally, her work is extremely difficult to master. The KMP requires a set of cognitive talents that are not congenial to most analysts. She began using drive theory just as it fell out of favor and used a methodology that does not interest remaining adherents. Her specificity and attention to detail makes demands that are difficult to meet. However the effort will be rewarded by the appreciation of an entirely new integration of varied dimensions of psychoanalysis.
The scope of KMP interpretations and applications has grown over the many years since its germination, and it appears that there is great potential for the KMP to be employed in further clinical, developmental, interactional and inter-cultural research. The next generation of KMP students, dance/movement therapists, clinical and developmental psychologists, educators, anthropologists, and parents, are exploring ways in which the KMP can be integrated with diverse theoretical frameworks and thus offer a bridge to diverse disciplines and interests.