The Myth of Normal 46

The opportunity we have today is to create a multivalent health care approach that appreciates the impact of “nonthings” on the “thinglike” bodies we’ve come to be so marvelously expert in. The “immaterial” mind and its “physical substrate,” the brain and body, are in a constant dance, as intimate as it is intricate. On closer examination, we see that this choreography of psyche and soma involves far more than two “partners” contained within one person: there is also a vital and underappreciated interpersonal component. After all, the mind and body exist inescapably in the context of relationships, social circumstances, history, and culture. If we want a clear and accurate view of human health, we will have to broaden our understanding of “bodymind” to include the myriad roles that other minds and other bodies play in shaping our well-being, indeed our very sense of self. Unity, it turns out, extends well beyond the unitary individual.