This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Buddhipriya (talk | contribs) at 00:17, 19 August 2007 (→Bodymind in Vajrayana and Zen Buddhism: remove unsourced content). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 00:17, 19 August 2007 by Buddhipriya (talk | contribs) (→Bodymind in Vajrayana and Zen Buddhism: remove unsourced content)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) | This article may require cleanup to meet Misplaced Pages's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can. (June 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Bodymind is a compound conjunction of body and mind and may be used differently in different traditions, disciplines and knowledges. These different understandings iterate each other. Bracken & Thomas (2002) state that: "n recent years neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have argued that this ontological separation of mind and body is no longer tenable."
Herbert V. Günther in the forward to (Mipham, 1973: pp. 15-16) Calm and Clear states:
"What we call 'body' and 'mind' are mere abstractions from an identity experience that cannot be reduced to the one or the other abstraction, nor can it be hypostatized into some sort of thing [without falsifying its very being."
Bodymind in Vajrayana and Zen Buddhism
Bodymind is informed by the Buddhist teachings of mindstream and heartmind. Arpaia and Rapgay (2004) discuss the connection of mind-body in Chapter Eight entitled "Health: strengthening the mind-body connection" (see references).
Bodymind in Eastern philosophy
In Eastern or Transcendental philosophy, the bodymind is the (usually illusory or superficial) individual (as opposed to the universal, eternal awareness). It is distinguished from the more subtle and refined, mystical bodies or planes such as the subtle, the causal, the soul and spirit.
Convergence of bodymind and mind-body
In somatic psychology there is no hierarchical relationship between mind and body, between psyche and soma. They are functioning and interactive aspects of the whole. Somatic Psychology embraces the unitary continuum of mind-body as the working model.
Biopsychosocial model
The biopsychosocial model of medicine developed by psychiatrist George Engel is a way of looking at the mind and body of a patient as two important systems that are interlinked. The biopsychosocial model is also a technical term for the popular concept of the mind-body connection. This is in contrast to the traditional biomedical model of medicine.
As well as a separate existence of disease and illness, the biopsychosocial model states that the workings of the body can affect the mind, and the workings of the mind can affect the body. This means both a direct interaction between mind and body as well as indirect effects through intermediate factors. This is also posited by psychoneuroimmunology.
Herbert Benson MD has pioneered Mind-Body research focusing on stress and the "Relaxation Response" in medicine, in part. In his research, the Mind and Body are one system, in which meditation plays a significant role in reducing stress responses. He continues to pioneer medical research into Mind-Body questions.
Bodymind in science
Prevalent paradigms in Neurology and Medicine have located the mind in the brain. There is an ever-increasing scholarly corpus to the contrary. Importantly, Hunt (1995: p.?) proffers that there is no neurophysiological research that conclusively demonstrates that the 'higher' levels of mind; namely: imagination, insight, intuition, creativity, understanding, comprehension, thought, reasoning, logic, etc.; are located within the brain tissue localised within the cranium.
For a hypothesis to be correctly referred to as 'scientific', it must be repeatable, verifiable; therefore, defensable. Mind and consciousness pose a scientific conundrum to instrumentation and quantification as it is evident to all scientists that there is such a 'thing' as mind and consciousness but it is a significant challenge to codify and explore in the climate of current scientific inquiry. Historically, EEG technology and brain-wave frequencies furnished a scientifically demonstrable measurement of states of consciousness. EEG patterns measured on the cortex are the result of electroneurological activity of the brain. Subsequently, these states have been conflated with generic propensities and qualities in the literature. They do not furnish conclusively that mind is localised within the cranium. Indeed, the brain’s electroneurological activity, in and of itself, is not mind nor consciousness. Hunt (1995: p.?) tenders the hypothesis, albeit presently untestable, that mind and consciousness is a field phenomenon which interfaces with the body and the neurological structures in the brain.
John Money develops a conception of 'bodymind' (Oxford 1988: 116), as a way for scientists, in developing a science about sexuality, to move on from the platitudes of dichotomy between nature versus nurture, innate versus the acquired, biological versus the social, and psychological versus the physiological. He suggests that all of these capitalize on the ancient, pre-Platonic, pre-biblical conception of body versus the mind, and the physical versus the spiritual. In coining the term bodymind, in this sense, Money wishes to move beyond these very ingrained principles of our folk or vernacular psychology, in understanding sexuality, and aspects of humanness.
Money suggests that the concept of threshold (Oxford 1988: 115) - relating to the release or inhibition of sexual behavior - is most useful for sex research as a substitute for any concept of motivation. It confers a great of advantage of continuity and unity, to what would otherwise be disparate and varied. It also allows for the classification of sexual behaviors. For Money, the concept of threshold has great value because of the wide spectrum to which it applies. "It allows one to think developmentally or longitudinally, in terms of stages or experiences that are programmed serially, or hierarchically, or cybernetically (i.e. regulated by mutual feedback)." (Oxford 1988: 116)
Bodymind in anthropology
Drawing on the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and other existentialists, in The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology, Berkeley Anthropogist Nancy Scheper-Hughes develops a concept of bodymind in relation to medical anthropology.
Bodymind in existential phenomenological psychology
Existential phenomenologists engage the work of Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Victor Frankl to re-conceive the bodymind for psychology.
Notes
- original quotation was not meta-enhanced
- A field in science may be defined as a dispersed and/or radiating array from an epicentre. This field phenomenon may be informed by the currently untestable Morphic Field Hypothesis.
See also
References
- Arpaia, Joseph & D. Lobsang Rapgay (2004). Tibetan Wisdom for Modern Life. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 81-208-1955-1.
- Benson MD, Herbert. 2000 (1975). The Relaxation Response. Harper. ISBN 0380815958
- Bracken, Patrick & Philip Thomas (2002) "Time to move beyond the mind-body split", editorial, British Medical Journal 2002;325:1433-1434 (21 December)
- Gallagher, Shaun. 2005. How the Body Shapes the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199204160
- 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: http://www.aboutibs.org/Publications/MindBody.html (accessed: Sunday January 14, 2007).
- Mipham, Lama (Tarthang Tulku, trans.) (1973). Calm and Clear. Emeryville, CA: Dharma Publ. (NB: with forward by Herbert V. Günther)
- 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. 1987. The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology with Margaret Lock. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. (1): 6-41.
- Hunt, V. V. (1995). Infinite Mind: The Science of Human Vibrations. Malibu: Malibu Publishing Company.
External links
 | This philosophy-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |