Theoretical and empirical implications of embodied and embedded approaches to the self in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine
The aim is to explore the practical applications and the theoretical scope of an embedded, embodied approach to the self and its disorders within psychiatry and psychosocial medicine. The autumn school will bring together researchers who are already working within this new perspective. This meeting will facilitate the exchange of research data, of theoretical considerations, and discussions on their reciprocal influences. The autumn school will enable a mutual exchange between empirical researchers, whose work is informed by this embodied-embedded perspective on the one hand, and those philosophers and researchers who work with these notions from a more theoretical perspective on the other hand.
At the moment, there are few such initiatives: although inspired by the same conviction on the relevance of the embodied person embedded in her social-cultural environment as the locus of attention, different researchers are still scattered along the disciplinary demarcation-lines. It would be very useful to create a platform which is not aimed at just defending or propagating this perspective but at actually developing it further through critical discussions and exchanges of ideas. Enough theoretical background is shared so as to make communication possible while the diversity in disciplines ensures an interesting broadening of perspectives.
More specificly the topics of the lectures and discussion are:
- Conceptual clarification of the relation between current concepts of the self (e.g. core self, minimal self, experiential self, extended self, cognitive self, embodied self, fictional self, narrative self, dialogical self)
- The relation between embodied and narrative approaches to the concept of self
- The integration of first-person, second-person and third-person approaches to research on the self in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine
- The role of embodiment in interpersonal relations
- The social relatedness of the self: how to translate and test philosophical concepts in empirical research
- The validity of current psychiatric and psychosomatic diagnosis in the light of implicit self-concepts
- Psychopathologies of the embodied self and their therapeutic consequences
- Psychopathologies of the narrative self and their therapeutic consequences
- Empirical methods for studying the embodied and narrative self in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine
- New therapeutic approaches towards psychiatric and psychosomatic illness based on an embodied and narrative approach to the self
- interdisziplinäre Ausrichtung
In recent years there has been a growing need within philosophy, psychology, medicine, psychiatry and neuroscience to rise above their disciplinary boundaries in order to attain a clear understanding of the subjective experience of the self and its alterations in somatic, psychosomatic and psychiatric illness. We regard insight into the possible dysfunctions of self-experience through phenomenological analyses and embodied, embedded approaches to the self of primary importance for the development of innovative treatments.
Although the participants will come from various disciplines and backgrounds, interdisciplinary collaboration will prove fruitful because of shared research concerns and an overlapping theoretical focus. The joint research concept assumes that it is of vital importance for the understanding and treatment of psychosomatic and psychiatric disorders to take the patient into account as a person and more specifically, as an environmentally embedded, embodied person. As mentioned, the concepts of embodiment and embeddedness have inspired many recent research projects in neuroscience, philosophy, psychiatry, and psychology. However, much work still needs to be done to unite these different strands and to further develop this promising paradigm.
- aktueller Forschungsstand
During the last decade, the concept of embodiment has risen to become a key paradigm of interdisciplinary approaches from the areas of philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience [1]. This novel paradigm is based on a remarkable convergence of phenomenology, cognitive science and dynamical systems theory. Since the original work of Varela, Thompson and Rosch [2], theories of the embodied and enactive mind have gained considerable influence on philosophy and cognitive neuroscience [3-6]. Neuroscientists like Damasio, Edelman, Panksepp and others have emphasized the close connection between brains structures, whole-bodily functions and aspects of the mind such as consciousness, cognition, emotion and self-awareness. Moreover, social neuroscience as well as social psychology increasingly endorse embodied models of social cognition and behaviour [7-9]. This “recorporealization of cognition”, as it has been termed recently in a special journal edition [10], has potential influence on psychiatry as well. Embodiment is on the way to become a major paradigm of psychopathology, as is manifested in a number of recent papers and monographs [11-16]. Embodied and ecological concepts of mental illness emphasize the circular interaction of altered subjective experience, disturbed social interactions and neurobiological dysfunctions in the development of the illness [12,17,18]. Thus, they are particularly suitable for bridging dualistic gaps that still dominate medical theory, for example between mind and brain, psychological and biological etiologies, or 1st and 3rd person approaches to mental illness.
Even though this paradigm has a lot of potential to unite different disciplines, it is still very much a frontier matter. So far there are few established programmes available for the exchange between these disciplines.
- exemplarische Zuordnung zu neuer Literatur
1. Fuchs, T., Embodiment and psychopathology: A phenomenological perspective. Current Opinions in Psychiatry 2009; 22: 570-575.
2. Varela FJ, Thompson E, Rosch E. The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. Cambridge: MIT Press; 1991.
3. Lakoff G, Johnson M. Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western thought. New York: Basic Books; 1999.
4. Clark A. Being There. Putting brain, body and world together again. Cambridge: MIT Press; 1997.
5. Hurley SL. Consciousness in Action. Harvard University Press, Cambridge; 1998.
6. Gallagher S. How the body shapes the mind. New York: Clarendon Press; 2005.
7. Gallese V. The manifold nature of interpersonal relations. The quest for a common mechanism. Philosophical Transcripts of the Royal Society of London 2003; 358: 517-528.
8. Barsalou LW, Niedenthal PM, Barbey AK, Ruppert, JA. Social Embodiment. In: BH Ross BH, editor. The psychology of learning and motivation. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2003. pp. 43-92.
9. Niedenthal P, Barsalou LW, Winkielman P, Krauth-Gruber S, Ric F. Embodiment in Attitudes, Social Perception, and Emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review 2005; 9: 184-211.
10. Heiner BT. Guest editor’s introduction. Special issue “The recorporealization of cognition in phenomenology and cognitive science”. Cont Philos Rev 2008; 41:115-126.
14. Stanghellini G. Disembodied spirits and deanimated bodies: The psychopathology of common sense. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
15. Fuchs T. Corporealized and disembodied minds. A phenomenological view of the body in melancholia and schizophrenia. Philos Psychiat Psychol 2005; 12: 95-107.
16. MacLachlan M. Embodiment. Clinical, critical and cultural perspectives on health and illness. Maidenhead: Open University Press; 2004.
17. Fuchs, T. Neurobiology and psychotherapy: an emerging dialogue. Curr Opin Psychiat 2004; 17: 479-485.
18. Glannon W. Our brains are not us. Bioethics 2009; 23: 321–329.
- Vernetzung der einzelnen Fragestellungen
Psychiatric and psychosomatic illnesses are rapidly becoming more common and widespread. These conditions confront medicine with some of the limitations of the traditional paradigms, through which it has made such progress in the understanding and treatment of somatic disease. Although it seems clear that in psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders biological, psychological and social factors interplay, and that the patients’ selves are often seriously affected, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Furthermore, although these illnesses have a great impact on the lives of patients, there are no standard, universally beneficial treatment strategies. Interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange of ideas between different research groups are necessary in order to further develop new perspectives on these issues. Approaches that focus on the embedded and embodied person are very promising in this respect.
As mentioned, although the participants will come from various disciplines and backgrounds, interdisciplinary collaboration will prove fruitful because of shared research concerns and an overlapping theoretical focus.
