Historical epistemology of the body-mind interaction in psychiatry

Abstract

This paper deals with the history of the relationship between the mind-body dualism and the epistemology of madness. Earlier versions of such dualism posed little problem in regard to the manner of their communication. The Cartesian view that mind and body did, in fact, name different substances introduced a problem of incommunicability that is yet to be resolved. Earlier views that madness may be related to changes in the brain began gaining empirical support during the 17th century. Writers on madness chose to resolve the mind-body problem differently Some stated that such communication was not needed; others, that mind was a redundant concept, as madness could be fully explained by structural changes in the brain; and yet others described psychological spaces for madness to inhabit as a symbolic conflict. The epistemology of the neurosciences bypasses the conundrum, as it processes all together the variables representing the brain, subjectivity, and behavior and bridges the “philosophical” gap by means of correlational structures.

The lived experience of depression: a bottom‐up review co‐written by experts by experience and academics

“…This suggests that, in order to fully understand experiences of depression, we should avoid imposing dualistic distinctions upon them. The traditional dualism of mind and body is derived from the Cartesian dichotomy of positive sciences 133 ; it locates the mind and affects exclusively inside the brain, a container contemplated in abstraction from the rest of the living, moving, environmentally situated unity of the organism 5 . On the other hand, psychological reductionism tends to attribute depression to intrapsychic mechanisms (e.g., faulty information processing 134,135 ).…”

Sin embodied: Priest-psychiatrist Asser Stenbäck and the psychosomatic approach to human problems

“…In a review on mind–body interactions in the history of psychiatry, the historian German Berrios recounts the popular myth of René Descartes's metaphysical dualism, which ‘freed the human body from religious control’ (Berrios, 2018: 8). Stenbäck's psychosomatic ideas, founded on Christian principles, aspired to reinstate this connection.…”

Integrating Neurology and Psychiatry throughout Educational Curricula for Healthcare Professionals

“…Psychosocial behavioral disorders and treatment are taught in psychology and psychiatry courses and are characterized by descriptions of behavior and mental status. This separation reflects the historical tendency for neurologists and psychiatrists to view brain dysfunction differently [2,3]. PD is a brain disease associated with pathology or anatomical changes in neurotransmitter substrates of particular brain regions (e.g., lesions in the dopaminergic neurons of the basal ganglia).…”