Holism
One part of the mission of the Center for Bodymind Education is to articulate and promote the study of the somatopsychic perspective. The somatopsychic point of view focuses on the study of body consciousness as part of a holistic healthcare perspective. The study of body consciousness has never been a central component of holistic healthcare and the Somatopsychic Studies courses offered here are designed to fill this academic gap. Ultimately, what we are teaching is not a set of tools, but a different way of seeing embodied consciousness: the Somatopsychic Perspective which is the amalgam of holistic thought, neurophilosophy, and insights from body psychology.
The healthcare sciences have been slowly evolving in the past several decades with the influx of complementary and alternative medical perspectives and its continued integration depends on several factors. The first is the further grounding of the CAIM perspective in evidence-based research. This is an obvious necessity for CAIM’s acceptance in the medical profession.
A second factor, and one that is purely philosophical, is the need for the continued development of holistic thought in the CAIM approach. Both factors—hard evidence and deeper philosophical examination—are two fundamental items supporting CAIM’s continuing adaptation in the medical field. But there is just one small problem and that is that holism as a philosophy and a potential method has never been fully elaborated within CAIM. To paraphrase Mark Twain’s famous comment about the weather, everybody likes to talk about the holistic approach, but nothing much is done to explain exactly how it works. Therefore, a moment must be devoted to defining the nature of holistic thought within the context of bodymind practices.
One thing is assured is that holism is useful broadening perspectives in biology, health, and psychology. It is the usefulness of holism within these last two areas which concerns us here.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Holism as: “…a theory that the universe and especially living nature is correctly seen in terms of interacting wholes (as of living organisms) that are more than the mere sum of elementary particles [atomism].” This definition makes the distinction between holism as an operating whole versus its philosophical opposite seeing the whole as a being a mass of particles, i.e., holism vs. atomism. The philosophy of Newtonian science is based on atomistic thinking. Its method of reductionism reduces down whole phenomena into sub-parts. Atomism—that reality is nothing but a mass of particles has greatly informed the scientific theories and methods formulated in the nineteenth-century which, if loosely grouped together, may be termed as Positivism. The cornerstone of Positivism is the “verification principle” which states that all scientific theories must be verified or confirmed by experiments, and that the results must be able to be replicated by others. If these two essential conditions are met then the theories are judged to be valid. Any theory that cannot be subjected to this method is dismissed as irrelevant. This view originated with Thomas Hume (1711-1776) who famously argued for a skepticism of all knowledge that could not be verified via the senses. Since the scientific method calls for physical measurements, it tends to reduce phenomena into separate pieces for more precise measurement. This “bottom-up” approach has supplanted the more global approaches of scientific investigation that seek to understand a given phenomenon from a broader perspective without reducing it into discrete parts; the top-down or holistic approach.
From where does the term holism originate? Jan Christian Smuts (1870-1950), a biologist turned politician who became the prime minister of South Africa in 1919-1924 and 1939-1948, coined the term to describe his central belief that the whole is the most important category of thought. The nature of an organism and a political-social body are governed by similar laws as he argued in Holism and Evolution in 1926. While hardly an important book due its negligible influence in the history of science, it was important in introducing a new word in the philosophical lexicon as well as spreading Smuts’ beliefs about the nature of organic and inorganic wholes (Brush, 1984; also see Erickson, 2007 and Jörgenfelt & Partington, 2019).
Holism is currently defined as:
…either a theory or a type of philosophy in which the claim is made that the elements or parts of reality form an interconnected, interdependent whole in such a manner that the element or part, if isolated or divorced from the whole would be radically different from what it is; also, the whole, if separated, isolated, or divorced from the individual element or part, would be very different from what it is because of that separation (Settanni, 1990, p. 8; original emphases).
This definition covers the essential aspects of Holism as well as its strengths and weaknesses.
The Biopsychosocial Model of Health
What makes a perspective holistic are the essential priorities of interdependence among the parts as the starting point for any inquiry into the nature of physical reality. It is the interconnection among the parts which makes the world, including all living things, a process rather than a collection of inert substances; all are living systems in motion.
It is within this philosophical conundrum and historical tradition that today’s holistic therapists find themselves. They are the heirs to a holistic tradition that has been, to a great degree, co-opted and absorbed by traditional medicine, but that does not mean that must be confined to a dealing with the patient as a Cartesian corpse as well, far from it. The answer to bridging the divide between the benefits and constraints of scientific reductionism and the insights of the holistic approach is via studying and understanding the nature of body consciousness: the bodymind. Science is the foundation. Holism broadens the vision and CAIM is the enhancement. The Somatopsychic Perspective allows us to see between the two halves of the whole experience of reality. Somatopsychic understanding of the bodymind deepens the holistic vision of the manual therapist in his or her daily work.
Neurophilosophy
Neurophilosophy is defined here as combination of the findings of neuroscience about body consciousness combined with the discipline of philosophy of mind. At the heart to neurophilosophy is what is known as a The Hard Problem which is about the nature of consciousness in general and how the mind and body co-operate together (Westphal, 2016).
Body consciousness is a composite neural construction. New research in neuropsychology proves that body consciousness is composed of four neural streams that give each of us the experience of having a body (ownership), being located in a particular time and place (location), a sense that we are able to move and control our bodies (self-agency), and that we are a distinct, embodied being separate from others (first-person perspective). Every time a therapist touches a client, or, for that matter, any time a human being is touched, there is a change in the bodymind as a whole. This is only natural given that body experience is a neural representation in the brain. A manual therapist or other healthcare professional may be working with a person’s body, but that body is actually within the client’s brain. Bodily existence is paradoxical, but the scientifically-confirmed reality is that it is highly plastic and very responsive to psychological influences and somatic experience especially touch (see Blakeslee & Blakeslee, 2008; Gallagher, 2005; De Vignemont, 2018).
The Somatopsychic Perspective of the Bodymind for Holistic Practitioners
This perspective focuses on body consciousness and its relation to psychophysical experience, health, and interpersonal behaviors. It frames the person not as a body and mind, but a bodymind which is the functional unit of brain-body-environment. The somatopsychic perspective deconstructs Cartesian dualistic thinking and replaces it with a holistic approach of embodied consciousness.
Practitioners of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (CAIM) often use manual methods to evoke health improvements in their clients. Manual therapists are often referred to as bodyworkers. It is an apt term for these professionals because they apply their hands to the healing and recovery of their patients’ bodily ailments. But, to think that a therapist merely affects a patient’s body and that’s all is limited in its perspective of the whole human being. Such a limited view is imprisoned by dualistic blinders which isolate thinking, perception, and approach to merely one side of human consciousness, the body. Just as René Descartes (1596-1650) founded modern dualistic philosophy by giving the mind dominance over the body, which he thought was nothing more than a machine-like mechanism, manual therapists take the opposite tack; instead of all-mind-no-body it is all-body-never-mind. Both attitudes are dualistic, constrained, lopsided, and call for broader integration. This is the modern rebirth of Aristotle’s synolon as fleshed out by the latest developments in neuroscience and neurophilosophy. The synolon is the Aristotelian body-soul made up of physical matter and a specific form. The form of the body is the soul and gives the body both its shape, organization, and structure but its animating life-force as well (Aristotle, 1983).
It has been known for centuries that manual and movement interventions modify psychological functioning in terms of mood, stress response, and others; a fact that has received increased scientific support in recent years. Manual therapists are not bodyworkers, but more accurately, bodymind workers. They work with the soul of the body.
What are the essential qualities and characteristics of a good manual therapist? While the answer may vary with each individual therapist asked, at the very least, such a list would include:
- Positive healing attitude.
- Refined sense of touch.
- Heightened sense of empathy and compassion.
- Strong personal boundaries.
- A desire for continuing self-improvement.
- Education in manual intervention techniques, anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, postural & gait analysis, pathology, and ethics.
- Excellent communication skills.
- Basic business acumen.
- Respect for scope of practice.
- An understanding of the many facets of bodily consciousness.
#1 to 5 are innate sensibilities, but can be developed over time with awareness, guidance, and much practice. #6 to 10 are all standard parts of most training programs with the exception of #10. And here is where the CBE comes in.
As a former psychology and massage therapy instructor I have never been able to figure out why some type of body psychology is not taught in training programs or in health science programs or just as part of the general curriculum at trade schools, community college, or university. I have several possible answers. The first is that nobody has ever really articulated a psychology of the body as an academic subject and so no one is aware of its existence and importance. Worse, no one, as far as I can tell, has articulated somatic psychology as a legitimate subject. This is why I have authored Principles of Somatic Psychology: An Evidence-Based, Transdisciplinary Approach for the Holistic Healthcare Professions to fulfill this need. (See our CBE Bookstore for more information.) Another possibility is that most programs restrict themselves to whatever criteria their governing bodies specify and so their awareness of embodied consciousness as a larger context is restrained. Finally, our culture is based on Cartesian thinking which splits the mind from the body. This schism has existed now for four centuries and so those areas dealing with body tend to avoid the mind and those that focus on the mind tend to ignore the body.
In any event, I am here to argue that this area of study is useful, interesting, and essential for anyone who works with the body be it in traditional healthcare, CAIM, or mental health. I invite all interested readers seeking more knowledge about the mind-body relationship to avail themselves of the resources offered to them here by the CBE.
Welcome, fellow colleague. If you have an interest in somatic psychology then please do contact me via email from this website if and when the spirit so moves you.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Academic Director
__________________________
References
Aristotle (1983). De Anima (On the Soul). H. Lawson-Tancred (Trans.). London, UK: Penguin Books.
Blakeslee, S. & Blakeslee, M. (2008). Your Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better. New York, NY: Random House.
Brush, F. (1984). Jan Christian Smuts and his doctrine of holism. Ultimate Reality and Meaning 7(4), p. 288-297.
De Vignemont, F. (2018). Mind the Body: An Exploration of Bodily Self-Awareness. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Erickson, H. (2007). Philosophy and theory of holism. Nursing Clinics of North America 42, p. 139-163.
Gallagher, S. (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Jörgenfelt, C. & Partington, H. (2019). A critical analysis of J.C. Smuts’ theory of holism. European Journal of Integrative Medicine 31, p. 1-7.
Merchant, C. (1980). The Death of Nature. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
Settanni, H. (1990). Holism: A Philosophy for Today: Anticipating the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: P. Lang.
Smuts, J. (1926/1999). Holism and Evolution. London, UK: Macmillan and Co.
Westphal, J. (2016). The Mind-Body Problem. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.