Synchronizing mind and body is not a concept or a random technique
someone thought up for self-improvement.
Rather, it is a basic principle of how to be a human being.
— Chogyam Trungpa
When I heard that NBC/Peacock was premiering Brilliant Minds, a new show in its fall line-up based on the work and writing of the brilliant neurologist Oliver Sacks, I was intrigued. Zachary Quinto plays the lead, Dr. Oliver Wolf, who explores cases following the insightful and empathetic patient-first approach that made Sacks such a phenomenal — and phenomenological — explorer of the human brain and mind.
During the second episode, “The Disembodied Woman,” a girls’ basketball coach loses her coordination and the ability to control her body. When Jesse meets Dr. Wolf, she asks, “Is this psychosomatic?” Her question highlights how she doubts her experience, leaving her wondering if her problem was real or just “in her head.”
Given how the term somatic is gaining currency in today’s world, this all-too-common use of psychosomatic misses the point that mental and physical are intertwined. If we take our bodily experience seriously as both authentic and meaningful, dismissing physical perception as merely mental seems out of step and profoundly misleading.
The other common use of psychosomatic refers to bodily symptoms or illnesses caused by the mind. These two possible meanings, that what we feel isn’t real because it’s only mental and that what’s happening with our thoughts, attitudes, and emotions causes or aggravates disease, miss the point. These misconceptions about psychosomatic interactions often lead to a misunderstanding of the mind-body connection.
Psychosomatic means that the mental and physical, the mind and body, interact in profound, significant, and significantly unappreciated ways. Dr. Sacks’ stand-in realizes that Jesse can’t move her body because she suddenly becomes blind to it and overwhelmed by the enormity of that experience. His remedy — regaining control of her body by learning to use her other senses — is based on putting this sensory-motor connection to work. This inherently psychosomatic approach, which is not about dismissing symptoms but about understanding and utilizing the mind-body connection, recognizes and utilizes the connection in an empowering, constructive manner.
Wolf’s treatment plan follows a fundamental Feldenkraisian premise that the nervous system is the key player and it doesn’t care which sensory system provides the feedback. What matters is having a channel that allows you to monitor and adjust what you do.
Makes you think that it might be worth talking about the psychosomatic basis of somatics, doesn’t it?
The photo at the top of today’s post comes from NBC’s promotional information about the show Brilliant Minds.
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Responses:
moving -October 11, 2024
This is a good one.
Sandi Goldring -October 11, 2024
Thanks!
Sandi Goldring -October 11, 2024
I don't believe the two quotes are equivalent. The earlier one regards "psyche", which, in Moshe's terms, includes "sensing", "feeling", and "thinking". "Soma" also encompasses these ingredients, in addition to "moving", all of which add up to "action" (i.e. "behavior"). My take on the current state of AI is that it is modeled on the human processing of symbols. At this point, the Turing Test has been passed. I believe it has also been surpassed because it's inherently deficient. It doesn't address the notion of purposeful behavior. Then again, perhaps the second quote actually is equivalent if one realizes that the only stuff humans can think about derives from purposeful interaction with one’s environment. Anyway, yes, lots more to ponder.
Larry Goldfarb -October 14, 2024
Thank you, Anina. I'm so glad you enjoy reading my blog and I appreciate you letting me know.
Larry Goldfarb -October 17, 2024
Thanks for following up with further thoughts, Sandi.
Sandi Goldring -October 10, 2024
(Whoops! I hit by accident.) Perhaps the second quote actually is equivalent if one realizes that the only stuff humans can think about derives from purposeful interaction with one's environment. Anyway, yes, lots more to ponder.
Doug Boltson -October 10, 2024
FYI: Here's a NY Times article about the NY Public Library archiving the good doctor's works: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/arts/oliver-sacks-archive-nypl.html?unlocked_article_code=1.RU4.56Yt.tNvP2F8-Hn33&smid=url-share “Oliver Sacks Archive Heads to the New York Public Library“ The voluminous papers of the celebrated neurologist include letters, notebooks, drafts and other traces of a man who couldn’t stop writing
Larry Goldfarb -October 16, 2024
You're welcome, Karin. Thank you for sharing your experience of miscommunications - and assumptions - about the meaning of 'psychosomatic.' I was suggesting that the use of the term in everyday conversation gives us an opening to reconsider its meaning and consequences with our students, colleagues, and friends. What a good way start the conversations about the positive aspects of the mind body connection!
Larry Goldfarb -October 12, 2024
Thank you so much, Doug, for the heads up about the NY Times article about the New York Public Library's Oliver Sacks archive. What a wonderful resource! Speaking of which, if you haven't seen it, you might want to check out the amazing documentary about Dr. Sacks on PBS: <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/stream-oliver-sacks-his-own-life-documentary/17521/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/stream-oliver-sacks-his-own-life-documentary/17521/</a>
Susanne Herzog -October 11, 2024
Thank you Larry for your explanation of Psychosomatic. All psychosomatic Symptoms Are created by the Same nervous System. Pur Brain does Not make a difference between mental and bodily. If somebody has pain he Feels pain. The Reason is a combination of somatic and mental and you can treat with pure imaginations like in pain Psychotherapy, bodyly like in Physiotherapy or Both at the Same Time with M.F method.
Anina Van Alstine -October 14, 2024
As usual Larry a brilliant synopsis and also a challenge to the idea that the mind and the body are separated, and that psychological injury is separate from a physical one! Or less valid or whatever you are such a great writer I love reading your blog
Larry Goldfarb -October 11, 2024
Hello Jerry - I get it. To unite mind and body, you have to assume that they are separate entities, which is problematic. That being said, it would take a book and even then we wouldn't resolve things. Anything anyone says about the issue probably tells us more about them than our "true nature." Practically speaking like Dennnis Leri's take on martial arts: instead of assuming mind and body are one, we can say that unity is a potential and that somatic practices are about developing it.
Larry Goldfarb -October 15, 2024
Thank you so much, Sandi, for sharing this quote from the first book Moshe Feldenkrais wrote about his methodology. Here's a later, somewhat more succinct, quote from a later article, found in <strong>Embodied Wisdom: The Collected Papers of Moshe Feldenkrais</strong>” (p.28, North Atlantic Books: "I believe that the unity of mind and body is an objective reality. They are not just parts somehow related to each other, but an inseparable whole while functioning. A brain without a body could not think." I wonder what the proponents of articifial intelligence would have to say about it . . . and how this might influence our thinking about somatics. There's so much to say on the subject. I'm definitely not done reflecting on and writing about the subject.
Larry Goldfarb -October 10, 2024
Thank you so much, Sandi, for this insightful Moshe Feldenkrais quotation from his first book about the method he developed. Here's how he expressed the thought, perhaps a bit more succintly, in one of the articles from his collected works, Embodied Wisdom: The Collected Papers of Moshe Feldenkrais (p.28, North Atlantic Books): "I believe that the unity of mind and body is an objective reality. They are not just parts somehow related to each other, but an inseparable whole while functioning. A brain without a body could not think."
Larry Goldfarb -October 11, 2024
Thank you, Marsha! I'm glad you appreciated my "Brilliant Minds" post.
Larry Goldfarb -October 11, 2024
Hello Susanne - So good to hear from you. Thank you for underlining and resonating with what I wrote. I appreciate it.
Sandi Goldring -October 14, 2024
In Body and Mature Behavior, after a lengthy exposition, Moshe concludes, "... the existence of a psyche, per se, in any way separable from the soma, is, to say the least, extremely unlikely. But we may, for the sake of convenience only, continue to group together all the functions of the human frame of diffused localisation and call them whatever we wish." Foundational thinking, eh? Best wishes. Sandi
Jerry Wylie -October 16, 2024
Hi Larry, I've been saying for many years, that you can't unite mind and body, because they are not separate entities to be combined. There is so much more that could be said on this subject. But it would take many pages. Maybe a whole book. Regards, Jerry
Karin Horowitz -October 14, 2024
Thanks for another insightful post. I've had some misunderstandings in communication when 'pyschosomatic' is used with the assumption we both know what each other means when actually neither of us knows fully what we ourselves mean! The dismissive meaning of 'psychosomatic' - that it's all in the mind or it's all caused by the mind - has sadly taken the word somewhat into disrepute. Your link with Feldenkrais and question at the end is welcome.
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