“A completely isolated individual, if
such a thing ever existed, could not blush. As Darwin explains, “we cannot
cause a blush … by any physical means—that is by an other action of the
body. It is the mind which must be affected … [by] thinking of what others
think of us.”55 Here we can see the sympathy not just of a person’s body parts
with each other—brain with facial muscles and blood vessels—but also with
the emotionally charged presence (sometimes imagined) of another person.
Blushing is a physiological habit, a way of transacting with the world that
illustrates how other beings are entangled in the psychosomatic functioning
of a person’s body.”