?“The Body”

The body as Object of medicine

History of anatomy goes back to ancient Greek and Roman traditions

Galen, second century Roman physician

- Andreas Visalius’?1543 publication of De Humani Corporis Fabrica

- Systematic description of anatomy

- accurate, objective; romantic posture, beauty of body

- artistic & scientific - ideal human body representation

- used to aid to train physicians

- Body: object, no specific person, abstract representation. Not subject we know in the world, but some object we, in the world, know.

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Cartesian Dualism

Rene Descartes, 1596-1650

Mind-body dualism:

The body is material - unthinking, the mind is immaterial - thinking.

Body distinct from the mind. Mind - shared with god, reasoning occur, rational being, mind is what the person is. Body - everything else.

“I think, therefore I am.”

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Phenomenology of the Body

Phenomenology = a philosophical approach concerned with understanding subjective experience

Associated with Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty

- Study of the world from the human subjective perception

- Who we are through our experiences, and the body makes experience possible via senses.

- Sense of self is inseparable from the body. The body is thinking, sensing, feeling, communicating.

“In phenomenological terms, the body is not just a caused mechanism, but an?"intentional" entity always directed?toward an object pole, a world.”?Sensing exhibits a bodily intelligence and affectivity.

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- Embodiment

Manifestation of social experience in the body.

Individual experiences with the social/cultural contexts create different bodies - different bodily habits, bodily senses / perceiving the world... often happen unconsciously.

- Example: different ways of men walking (masculinity: Confident / Respect)

- Embodiment: experience shapes our bodies - so habits etc. come to be natural for us [cultural values become natural (eg. in the way of we move)] - muscle memory

- Culture changes the body - body necessary to sense the world - culture changes how we perceive the world.

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Two different types of Paradigms of the Embodiment

- two ways of thinking about the body in different cultural models

(1) Object-Body

- The body is separate from the mind/self

- The self “owns”?and “operates”?the body, but it is not the body

- Meaning does not inhere to the body, but is a property of mind

(2) Lived-Body

- Mind, body, and self are united (part of one whole), situated in the world

- Intentionality: the body is directed toward and attentive to the world in particular ways (object is not)

- Communication and meaning are made possible (afforded) by the body.

- Body image: Awareness of one’s body-in-the-world. Body - senses the world & shaped by the world.

- Intersubjective - one’s understanding or experience of its own body is made possible through interactions with others.

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[Illness - breakdown of meanings...people feel separate from the body]

[Medicine - reintegrate the body]

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Embodiment?in the medical encounter

Patient?presents the lived-body for treatment while the doctor treats the Cartesian or object-body.

The patient as well may have come to regard his/her body in an objectified mode.?This process is often begun by the illness itself.