Bodymind is an approach to understand the relationship between the human body and mind where they are seen as a single integrated unit. It attempts to address the mind–body problem and resists the Western traditions of mind–body dualism. The term bodymind is also typically seen and encountered in disability studies, referring to the intricate and often inseparable relationship between the body and the mind, and how these two units might act as one. The field of psychosomatic medicine investigates the embodied manifestations of psychological processes.
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.[citation needed]
In Eastern cultures, 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. Citta 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, judge, and decide.[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 term can be a number of disciplines, including:
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.