Body-mind

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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: "[i]n recent years neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have argued that this ontological separation of mind and body is no longer tenable."[1]

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."

Contents

[edit] 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).

[edit] 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.

[edit] Convergence of bodymind & 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ original quotation was not meta-enhanced

[edit] References

  • Rothschild, Babette (2000). The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment. W W Norton & Co Inc.
  • 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).
  • Arpaia, Joseph & D. Lobsang Rapgay (2004). Tibetan Wisdom for Modern Life. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 81-208-1955-1.
  • 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.
  • Bracken, Patrick & Philip Thomas (2002) "Time to move beyond the mind-body split", editorial, British Medical Journal 2002;325:1433-1434 (21 December)
  • Mipham, Lama (Tarthang Tulku, trans.) (1973). Calm and Clear. Emeryville, CA: Dharma Publ. (NB: with forward by Herbert V. Günther)

[edit] See also