Bodymind - Other Unified Concepts

Other Unified Concepts

Herbert Benson, MD, has pioneered bodymind research, focusing on stress and the "relaxation response" in medicine. In his research, the mind and body are one system, in which meditation plays a significant role in reducing stress responses (Benson 1972).

Jack Painter Ph.D., (1933–2010), a pioneer of the human growth work, developed a conception of 'bodymind' in the 1960s. As professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Miami he engaged with many of the people who were later grouped together in the 'Human Potential Movement'. He personally explored many different approaches – Zen, Yoga, Gestalt (with Fritz Perls and Marty Fromm), Rolfing (with Bill Williams), Reichian therapy (with Raffale Estrada Villa) and many others. In the process Painter became increasingly interested in integrating influences and aspects from different approaches into an effective and coherent method of personal growth, self-development and healing, stating however that -- "the form of bodywork which I created is not an eclectic combination of techniques I experienced or learned -- it is a singular approach to the whole person". From the seventies on he developed Bodymind Integration approaches like Postural Integration©, Energetic Integration and Pelvic-Heart Integration. Bodymind Integration combines working with the physical, energetic and cognitive as well as the emotional processes in the bodymind. The International Council of PsychoCorporal (Bodymind) Integration Trainers (ICPIT) carry on and develop Postural Integration and Energetic Integration.

John Money developed a conception of 'bodymind' as a way for scientists, in developing a science about sexuality, to move on from the platitudes of dichotomy between nature versus nurture, innate versus acquired, biological versus social, and psychological versus physiological, both for science and in gender and sexuality studies. He suggests that all of these capitalize on the ancient, pre-Platonic, pre-biblical conception of body versus mind, and physical versus spiritual. In coining the term bodymind, in this sense, Money wishes to move beyond these very ingrained principles of our folk or vernacular psychology, in understanding sexuality, and aspects of humanness.

Money suggests that the concept of threshold—relating to the release or inhibition of sexual behavior—is most useful for sex research as a substitute for any concept of motivation. It confers a great of advantage of continuity and unity, to what would otherwise be disparate and varied. It also allows for the classification of sexual behaviors. For Money, the concept of threshold has great value because of the wide spectrum to which it applies. "It allows one to think developmentally or longitudinally, in terms of stages or experiences that are programmed serially, or hierarchically, or cybernetically (i.e. regulated by mutual feedback)."

Anthropologists Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Margaret M. Lock have developed a concept of bodymind for medical anthropology to provide a basis for research that is not limited by the view that the body and mind are distinct from one another.