Descartes on the body-mind split

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on Descartes’s vision on how the dimensions of the organism connect with each other. Re-reading Descartes is proposed as an antidote against endemic cultural dualism, in a world in which medical institutions, still describe human beings using dualistic terms such as ‘psychosomatic’, ‘body psychotherapy’, or ‘body-mind’ systems. It also introduces Descartes as an early scientific medical researcher who developed a scientific interactionist and organismic approach of embodiment. This paper is framed by my interest in the development of an ‘organismic psychology’, which assumes that physiological, behavioural, and psychological routines are embedded heterogeneous cogwheels of a human being. I have observed that such an approach is particularly useful with psychosomatic patients, and most forms of body psychotherapy.

KEYWORDS:

• Blood
• nerves
• connecting devices
• moving
• passions
• thoughts

Acknowledgments

I thank my team at the Psychosomatic Unit, developed by Dr Duc Lê Quang at Le Noirmont Clinic, for their inspirational and warm support.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michel Heller

Michel Heller trained in experimental psychology and Biodynamic Psychology in Geneva. His psychological research focused on nonverbal communication using video-analysis in experimental settings. As a clinician, Michel became a body-psychotherapist, supervisor, and trainer. He published several books and articles on these domains. He is now a psychologist, with expertise in psychosomatics, at Le Noirmont Clinic in Switzerland.