Bodymind

In the field of philosophy, the theory of dualism is the speculation that the mental and the physical parts of us, like our minds and our bodies, are different or separate.[1] Holism is the idea or speculation that all the properties of a system- such as the system of our thoughts, and the system of our body- cannot be determined or explained by looking at its components individually. Rather, the whole system looked at a complete whole is a determiner in understanding and viewing the idea, concept, or theory being questioned.

On the Western side of the globe, popular culture tends to be more on the side that there are two centers of our being that makes us who we are and how we see and interact with the world. The first is the mind – the center of our thoughts, and the heart (or body) – which is the center of our feelings. In Western culture, there is more of a debate on whether these different parts that make us unique are separate or connected.

In Eastern culture, especially in areas such as surrounding India and the Middle East, the idea of body-mind is the exact opposite. The words "mind" and "heart" both translate into "chitta", which refers to the mind. "Chitta" is one of the three overlapping terms used that refers to the mind. The other two are "manas" and "viññāṇa". Together, they are parts that make up the whole or entirety of our minds, and our mental processes as a whole. Often used in practices such as yoga, commonly used and followed in more "self-help" medicines, in the Indian model, this heart-mind has three aspects: the capability of paying attention and sensory processing, the creation of our identity or self-image (more commonly known as Ego), and the capacity to imagine things, form judgements, and making decisions.[2]

An important figure in the concept and belief of body-mind is an American philosopher, scholar, and professor of philosophy, religion, and culture, William H. Poteat (19 April 1919 – 17 May 2000). Throughout the course of his lifetime, Poteat was known for his contributions to post-critical philosophy and for being the leader of formative and influential ideas such as "bodymind".[3] It is said he identified himself as a "practicing dialectician". He was known to encourage and challenge not only himself, but those around him, to question, understand, and challenge the reasoning and facts of the confusing aspects of modern life. Poteat drew his inspirations and ideas from Michael Polanyi, who wrote "The Stability of Beliefs" in 1952. In this essay, Polanyi spoke about how there are two ways of holding beliefs. He stated, "Some are held by the explicit profession of certain articles of faith, as the Apostles' Creed when recited in the words of the Book of Common Prayer. The other form of belief is held implicitly by reliance on a particular conceptual framework by which all experience is interpreted."[4] Other influential people Poteat looked to for further inspiration were the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), a man considered to be the first existential philosopher (philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom, and choice), the Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961), and Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), a German-American philosopher and political theorist and many others. Together, these people and their ideas, along with Poteat's own ideas and theories, helped him further understand and share the concept and ideas of what bodymind is in the 21st century.

"The mind is composed of mental fragments- sensations, feelings, thoughts, imaginations, all flowing now in an ordered sequence, now in a chaotic fashion…. On the other hand, the body is constructed under the underlying laws of physics, and its components obey the well-enumerated laws of physiology. It is these characteristic differences between these two – between mind and body – that lead to the Mind-Body problem.".[5] While Western populations tend to believe more in the idea of dualism, there is also good research on the neurophysiology of emotions and their foundation in human meaning making, the function of the mind, such as the research of Candace Pert.[6] Many throughout the world who try to understand and live the idea of holism say they feel more connected with themselves, with the environment, and with those around them. Bodymind shows the significance of how connected everything is- both in and outside ourselves. Bodymind is brought up in many different situations today in the modern world- especially in modern and alternative medicines.

In the field of alternative medicine, bodymind implies that

• The body, mind, emotions, and spirit are dynamically interrelated.[7]
• Experience, including physical stress, emotional injury, and pleasures are stored in the body's cells which in turn affects one's reactions to stimuli.[8]

The term can be a number of disciplines, including:

• Psychoneuroimmunology, the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body.[9]
• Body psychotherapy,[10][11][12][13] a branch of psychotherapy[14] which applies basic principles of somatic psychology. It originated in the work of Pierre Janet and particularly Wilhelm Reich.
• Neurobiology, the study of the nervous system[15]
• Bodymind (in meditation traditions).
• Namarupa the concept of mind and body in Buddhism.
• Psychosomatic medicine, an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, and behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals. Clinical situations where mental processes act as a major factor affecting medical outcomes are areas where psychosomatic medicine excels.[16]
• Postural Integration, a process-oriented body psychotherapy originally developed in the late 1960s by Jack Painter[17] (1933–2010) in California, USA, after exploration in the fields of humanistic psychology and the human potential movement.[18] The method aims to support personal change and self development,[19] through a particular form of manipulative holistic bodywork.[20]

The term overlaps in significant ways, especially in its anti-dualist intention, with the philosophical term mindbody developed independently by philosopher William H. Poteat.

The term bodymind is most generally used in the academic field of disability studies. Disability scholars use the term bodymind to emphasize the interdependence and inseparability of the body and mind. Disability studies scholars who have written academically about the bodymind include Eli Clare, Margaret Price, Sami Schalk, Alyson Patsavas, and Alison Kafer. Clare and Price have proposed that the bodymind expresses the interrelatedness of mental and physical processes, and Schalk defines the bodymind similarly as it pertains to disability and race.

• Ableism
• Bodymind (disability studies)
• Developmental disability
• Disability
• Disability and religion
• Disability culture
• Disability in the United States
• Disability rights
• Disability studies
• Emotional or behavioral disability
• Inclusion (disability rights)
• Invisible disability
• List of disability studies journals
• Medical model of disability
• Services for the disabled
• Sexuality and disability
• Social model of disability
• Society for Disability Studies

• Benson MD, Herbert; ( 2000) (1975), The Relaxation Response, Harper ISBN 0-380-81595-8
• Bracken, Patrick & Philip Thomas; (2002), "Time to move beyond the mind-body split", editorial, British Medical Journal 2002;325:1433–1434 (21 December)
• Dychtwald, Ken; (1986), Bodymind Penguin Putman Inc. NY, ISBN 0-87477-375-X
• Gallagher, Shaun; (2005) ‚ How the Body Shapes the Mind Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-920416-0
• Hill, Daniel (2015) Affect Regulation Theory. A Clinical Model W. W. Norton.& Co ISBN 978-0-393-70726-7.
• Keinänen, Matti; (2005), Psychosemiosis as a Key to Body-Mind Continuum: The Reinforcement of Symbolization-Reflectiveness in Psychotherapy. Nova Science Publishers. ISBN 1-59454-381-X.
• Mayer, Emeran A. 2003. The Neurobiology Basis of Mind Body Medicine: Convergent Traditional and Scientific Approaches to Health, Disease, and Healing. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20070403123225/http://www.aboutibs.org/Publications/MindBody.html (accessed: Sunday January 14, 2007).
• Money, John; (1988) Gay, Straight, and In-Between: The Sexology of Erotic Orientation. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505407-5
• Rothschild, Babette; ( 2000) The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment. W W Norton & Co Inc.
• Scheper-Hughes, Nancy, and Margaret M. Lock; (1987) The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology with Margaret Lock. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. (1): 6–41.
• Seem, Mark & Kaplan, Joan; (1987) Bodymind Energetics, Towards a Dynamic Model of Health Healing Arts Press, Rochester VT, ISBN 0-89281-246-X
• Clare, Eli. "Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure"
• Schalk, Sami. "Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction"
• Patsavas, Alyson. "Recovering a Cripistemology of Pain: Leaky Bodies, Connective Tissue, and Feeling Discourse"
• Price, Margaret. "The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain"
• Kafer, Alison. "Feminist, Queer, Crip"
• Hall, Kim. "Gender" chapter from "Keywords for Disability Studies".[1]
• McRuer, Robert, and Johnson, Merri Lisa. "Proliferating Cripistemologies: A Virtual Roundtable".[2]
• Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. "Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature".[3]
• Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. "Becoming Disabled".[4]