# What is Embodiment [[25-10-2021]] What i took away was that, it is neither dualism and materialism, but embodiment. It is both our subjective experience, and physiology that affect us. We can affect physiology, and body can affect our mind. It is integrative. --- Reading a chapter on Embodiment from Source [Book - The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology](evernote:///view/463671/s5/42cc57d6-2dd0-5c6a-9cff-3e6b84769251/57ba5125-cfd0-4795-9c56-4f9115b91ae9/) --- # Section Three: Three Key Concepts ## Embodiment Eric Matthews The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology Edited by Giovanni Stanghellini, Matthew Broome, Andrea Raballo, Anthony Vincent Fernandez, Paolo Fusar-Poli, and René Rosfort Print Publication Date: Jul 2019 Subject: Philosophy, History of Western Philosophy (Post-Classical) Online Publication Date: Mar 2018 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198803157.013.41 --- What is embodied? _Dualism_ Rene Descartes - developed Dualism - that Mind and Body are separated and distinct parts. There are problem with this classification because body and mind interacts, as seen in psychiatry, certain brain dysfunction account for various form of mental disorder. There are interactions between body and mind. _Materialism_ Mind can be thought of explainable by brain processes and state. Materialism” thus usually means the identification of “mind” with “brain,” or (perhaps better) the identification of thoughts, emotions, desires, moods, and other elements in our mental life with processes going on in the brain, or states of the brain. It is then assumed that our thoughts, emotions, etc. can be fully ex­ plained as caused by other brain processes and states. This appears to avoid the dualist problem of accounting for “mind–brain interaction,” since mind and brain are one and the same. There are problem with both dualism and materalism - Dualism - detached observers, not participation in the material world - materialism - passive, and subjected to the material world in a mechanical way To say that human beings are embodied subjects is to say, in summary, that their exis­ tence—their actions, their thoughts, their feelings, and so on—is primarily as a kind of liv­ ing beings. It is rooted in their nature as a particular biological species, with needs, and with desires and thoughts relating to those needs. Like all complex animals, their deal­ ings with their environment are active and purposeful, not a matter of mechanical re­ sponses to stimuli. But they differ from other species in that they are members of a par­ ticular society, who communicate with other members through language and meaningful action. This gives a cultural context to their behavior, which they can and do develop by reflection. Merleau-Ponty says, for this reason, that “Man is an historical idea, not a nat­ ural species” (Merleau-Ponty 2012: 174). To understand human behavior, therefore, we must take account of this constant interplay between physiology, personal reflection, and cultural context. -