A
Disembodied Problem: re-learning body awareness in Contemporary culture
Justin
Thornton
Senior
Seminar
Dr.
Derek Stanovsky
Interdisciplinary
Studies Program
Appalachian
State University
December
2012
The
ability for us to think and act for ourselves is being jeopardized! The cause:
disembodiment. Disembodiment is a
serious issue that drastically alters the way we ought to think about and
operate with our bodies. Emerging
evidence in scientific study has recently been stressing the importance the
body has in social and cognitive development.
It is my belief that disembodiment is the root cause of some of the most
prevalent health issues faced in contemporary culture. This paper will use
interdisciplinary techniques to analyze the way contemporary culture's negative
approach towards the body has drastically negative effects on psychological
well-being and physical health and can prevent the proper development of
cognition and creativity.
This
paper will first clarify and define what exactly is meant by the terms
embodiment and disembodiment. From
there, it will examine the history of disembodiment in religion and philosophy
and analyze how they have shaped and influenced contemporary culture and education. Afterwards, this paper will examine
embodiment and the significance of body awareness in maintaining health,
developing cognition, and establishing our innate, intuitive and creative
nature. In the final section of the
paper, after re-establishing the importance of the body, I propose that a
dramatic reformation in the academic approach to physical education will solve
contemporary culture's crises of disembodiment.
Embodiment
and Disembodiment
Before
proceeding, the term embodiment needs to be defined in contrast to the
term disembodiment. I am using
the term embodiment in reference to cognition, in other words embodied
cognition. Cognition referring to
“judgment, intuition, empathy, assessment, thinking, reasoning, decision
making, and so on—in fact, the whole range of things we do when processing
information, whether explicitly or implicitly” (Paley
1-13). To put this simply,
embodiment, or embodied cognition, is the ability of the mind to effortlessly
coexist with the body (Knaster xiii-135). On the other hand, disembodiment refers to
the prevalent Cartesian understanding of cognition, which argues that the mind
is a separate entity from the body, knowledge and cognition occurs “top-down”
(i.e. brain-body), and that we are the mind and not the body (Odegard
87-105). Under this view, the body is
seen as being controlled and being of less value than the mind.
The
Cartesian view of the body originated from Descartes who “divided human life
into mind and body. Descartes’ assertion, “[c]ogito ergo sum (“I
think, there I am”) gave supremacy to the mind” (Knaster xiii-135). To
Descartes, a person is essentially, res cogitans or “the soul or mind”
which is essentially “a thing which thinks” (Bracken,
and Thomas 1433-1434). The essence of
the person takes residence in res extensa or “the material stuff of the
body” (Bracken, and Thomas 1433-1434).
This is the basis of Descartes mind-body dualism. It is important to note that Descartes'
philosophy was heavily influenced by Christian ideology of the body-soul
dualism. Thus, this view has
transitioned from religion and philosophy into every aspect of Western and
modern understanding, from medicine and psychology, to education and
economics. The paradigm, “a mind in the
sense of a being with mental properties is not a body, [and] a man is nothing
more than a mind” (Odegard 87-105), has had a seriously negative impact on how
the body is viewed that still affects our understanding today.
In
order to better understand the Cartesian approach to cognition in clinical
applications, we can use what is dubbed as 'the classical sandwich' model as a
reference. This approach has three
separate factors to it, an input, and output and the central processing area. In this view the input is our perception, the
output is our behavior, and the central processing area is our cognition. This model is understood in the process that,
“data supplied by the 'input' perceptual system is worked on by the central
processing unit, which then transmits a series of 'output' signals, resulting
in action” (Paley 1-13). In this view, cognition is central to
understanding and action, and works independently from the external
environment. “It merely uses data from the 'outside world' and
sends signals back to the 'outside world'” (Paley
1-13). Thus, internal and external
factors are viewed separately and the body has no role to play in cognition or
the input.
There are many negative implications
to the Cartesian approach and many cognitive psychologists and neurologists have
begun to move away from this model.
Neurologists “maintain that mental functions can be fully explained by
brain science” and cognitive psychologists claim that, while there is a purely
psychological realm, it operates like computer software that is available to
measurements and scientific investigation (Bracken, and Thomas 1433-1434). In other words, the mind is not some
immeasurable entity that cannot be determined.
However, many philosophers still argue that there is still an
“epistemological separation of inner mind from outside world” and they fail “to
recognize the problems involved in regarding the mind as a 'thing'” (Bracken,
and Thomas 1433-1434) that is separate from the body. “We are simply not 'in' a world that is
separate from ourselves. Rather, we allow a world to be by our very presence
and through our physical bodies” (Bracken, and Thomas 1433-1434). It is for this reason we need to move away
from the current Cartesian paradigm of cognition.
Merleau-Ponty
and Foucault are typically considered the figureheads of the embodied approach
to experience and cognition. Foucault is
typically accredited with the idea of 'the social construction of the
body'. Under this view, the body is seen
as “a social, cultural, and historical entity.
It is not, as we might suppose, a 'brute fact of nature'—something whose
characteristics are independent of, and can be identified without reference to,
political and economic forces” (Paley 1-13). In other words, the body is influenced by the
social and environmental factors, or situation, it was born into. This approach also implies that the body's
situation affects mental cognition and that the mind cannot be understood
properly without reference to the body and the external environment it was developed
under.
Merleau-Ponty's approach to
embodiment focuses on the phenomenology of the body. In this view, “the body itself is the subject
of experience, and not merely an experienced object” (Paley 1-13). In other words, because our bodies are the
only source in which we receive information from the external environment, it
is the body that generates experience and knowledge and not exclusively the
mind. Therefore, we must recognize that
“cognitive processes cannot be understood unless the body is taken into
account” (Paley 1-13). This is because
neurobiology and neuroscience places the brain, a physical organ, as the
control system of the biological body and that its functioning is influenced by
many bodily phenomena. Thus, cognition
and bodily action are much more intimately connected than previously thought
and that one of the “brain's critical functions is to permit the body to
negotiate its environment, whether physical or social” (Paley 1-13). Thus, the brain links the body to the
external environment as directly as possible “without first centralizing all
the perceptual data” (Paley 1-13). In
other words, the mind and the body work in tandem instead of separately in
order to comprehend and establish our place in the world around us.
Thus,
the term embodiment refers to the body's sensual and intuitive
significance as being equal to the significance of the critical and rational
mind in establishing a sense of self in relation to culture and environment.
In being embodied, we are aware of the way that external factors develop our
body and how it functions, and that these bodily phenomena affect our
psychological processes and reactions (our cognition and behavior). Adversely,
the term disembodiment is used in reference to the restrictions of
self-awareness that have negative effects on the development of cognition and
self-identity which can negatively impact our health and mental well-being.
“Conceptualizing our mental life as some sort of enclosed world residing in the
skull does not do justice to the lived reality of human experience” (Bracken, and Thomas 1433-1434); the human experience is
too complex and interconnected with physical reality to justify that the mind's
immaterial nature is all we are. The coming section will explain the history
and status of the body in Western society and how it effects Contemporary
culture today.
Disembodiment in Western and Contemporary Culture
In order to make sense of the
disembodiment taking place in our culture, it is first essential to understand
how the body is signified in Contemporary culture. What I mean by Contemporary culture is a
technologically modern or modernizing consumer culture. In our consumer culture, the body is often a
target for industries, politicians, and fashionistas to exploit in order to
gain control of a population. The way
they do this is by creating an ideal image of what a body should be, depending
on a specific gender, and attack our psychology by ridiculing the fact that
most of us do not meet the ideal standard.
“Men and women alike have grown dissatisfied with specific body areas,
height, weight, and overall looks. As a
result, we tend to “spend more on the industries that pander to that
dissatisfaction than on social services or education” (Knaster xiii-135). Therefore, in our culture, the body is not so
much our body but an idealized image of a specific body type,
developed by corporations and other external powers, that we must constantly
work on to attain, and even then, often times we are still unsatisfied.
Susie Orbach, a practicing
psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, claims to see “the impact of calls for
bodily transformation, enhancements and 'perfectibility' in the consulting
room.” She continues saying that, “[p]eople do not necessarily come in with
particular body troubles, but whatever their other emotional predicaments and
conflicts, concern for the body is nearly always folded into them, as though it
were perfectly commonplace to be telling a story in which body dissatisfaction
is central” (Orbach 1-180). This says a
lot about the way our body is understood in our culture. This constant dissatisfaction with our bodies
shows us that the body is like an unfinished sculpture and that we, the
sculptors, work and work and work on, never able to accept it in its current
state. Most of us do not even realize
why we do it we just know that something is not right with it and that it
should be fixed. They do not realize
that our dissatisfaction does not stem from us but from external
influences. The reason being, “they
[(individuals] do not like to believe that they are being unduly influenced by
outside pressures and may disdain such an idea, with its crude sense of
manipulation” (Orbach 1-180). Yet,
whether they like it or not, they are constantly exposed to those influences
and it affects the way we feel and think.
Disembodiment can have detrimental
effects on physical health, social relationships, and psychological
well-being. In establishing the mind as
being what we are and the only thing we should focus on developing, we end up
disregarding the body and its significance to the proper functioning mind. By separating ourselves from our bodies we
diminish body awareness and our bodies become more subjected and susceptible to
psychological attacks (Knaster xiii-135).
This can have drastically negative effects on psychological well-being
which can impair mental functioning and cause physical ailments. With impaired
mental functioning it becomes harder for us to think for ourselves and express
our innate creativity. With a restricted
capacity to think for ourselves and being continually disconnected from our
bodies, individuals are more likely to develop behaviors that negatively
influence our physical health.
Western and contemporary culture
typically approaches the body from a disembodied view point. The mind is seen as who we are, whereas our
bodies are often seen as hindrances to the mind's functionality. The prevalence of disembodiment in our
Western society has a long history that, when examined closely, is used as a
control tactic by authoritative powers, such as academia, religions,
corporations, and governments. “It
serves them to have us rely on an intermediary—priest, general, teacher—and
stand apart from ourselves, to view our bodies as a thing to labor or kill
with” (Knaster xiii-135). In other words, the use of disembodiment
tactics disables laymen to think for themselves and instead have rely on an
outside factor to help determine the current state of their body. In his
discourse of the body as flesh, Bryan Turner explains that, in Western society,
“the body is the ultimate origin of idolatry, which must be regulated by
religious practices, by the medical regimen, by the penitentiary, and, ultimately,
by the discipline of torture” (Turner 15-41).
He also claims that in sociological studies, while some commentators
often suggest that the “fear of the body has its origins in Christian culture,
the body was also regarded as a threat to public stability, the continuation of
government, and the maintenance of a civilized public realm” (Turner
15-41). Having to rely on an outside
source to determine how we feel internally takes away an individual’s ability
to think for themselves and allows external forces to more easily manipulate
us.
This
part of the discussion will examine how the authoritative powers in religion,
education, government, and marketing use disembodiment as a control tactic and
the negative effects it can have on physical health and psychological
well-being. “How often have we heard, 'What you don't know won't hurt you'?
It's not true. What we don't know does hurt us. What we don't know
limits us and deprives us of autonomy over our own lives” (Knaster xiii-135). Therefore, understanding the causes of
disembodiment can help us make the changes that can significantly improve our
quality of life. The first part in this
discussion will focus on the body in the context of religion and how religion
can affect our views and understanding of the body. The next section will focus
on disembodiment in education and examine what is called 'the scholar's body'
and how this affects our views of the body.
The final art of the discussion will examine the way in which the
government and corporations use media and technology to influence our thoughts
and ideas of the body.
The Body In Western Religion
The
dualist thinking towards body and mind in Cartesian ideology did not originate
in the philosophical tradition. Rather,
it developed in early Greek traditions and was further separated by the Western
religious traditions. Judaism and
Christianity have an extremely long history of dualistic thinking; both
traditions speak of the human in terms of body and spirit. “[T]here are some enduring cultural themes in
the relationship between the body and religion.
At least in the West (during the classical and Christian eras) the body
has been seen to be a threatening and dangerous phenomenon, if not adequately
controlled and regulated by cultural processes” (Turner 15-41). It was from this ideology that body-mind
dualism originated. This section will
discuss how the body was understood in both traditions and if their
understanding caused any disembodiment.
First, the discussion will focus on the image of the body in Jewish
worship and ritual, and examine certain references of the body from the Old
Testament. In the second part of the
discussion, body image in Christian traditions will be examined, specifically
in Catholic and Protestant traditions.
The
first part of this discussion will examine the thinking of the body and soul in
Hebrew tradition and determine whether or not the Judaic tradition actually
thinks of the human experience as being divided into the body and soul. “The minds of Old Testament scholars have
been much exercised in discovering whether the Biblical authors ever entertain
the notion of body and soul as two distinct entities that have become
conjoined, or whether, for these authors, there is only a single entity, what
we (but not the biblical authors themselves) call the human being or human
person” (Jacobs 71-89). It appears that the Biblical authors did not
believe in a separation between body and soul and thought of them as a single
entity. In Genesis, when God creates Adam
(Genesis 2:7), the translation is often interpreted as 'And the Lord God formed
man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life; and man became a living soul' (Jacobs 71-89). However, in the Hebrew language, the term
often translated as “living soul” is nefresh ḥayyah. This term “has no reference to the soul as a
separate entity... The nearest [contextual translation] in our language to what
is implied is rather 'a living person'” (Jacobs 71-89). This gives us no justification to imply that
a separation between an immortal soul and a corporeal body exists in the
creation myths of Jewish traditions.
Since,
there is no justification of the dualist belief in Genesis and creation, maybe
examining death and the views on an afterlife can help shed light on the
possible dualistic nature of body and soul in the Judaic tradition. The Jewish tradition believed that in death,
the breath of life, or the spirit, would return to God, but this was only interpreted
by later by Old Testament scholars (Jacobs
71-89). The original writers of the Old
Testament might not have understood death in that way. In the apocalypse stories, the fabled Day of Yahweh,
the dead will rise and join God in His kingdom (Leeming 77-78). It could be of importance to note that
“belief in the Hereafter generally is only faintly implied; possibly because,
in the early biblical period, at least, the other world was the domain of the
gods against the worship of whom the biblical authors so strongly protest”
(Jacobs 71-89). These factors indicate
that there is a possibility that the original authors of the Old Testament
might not have believed in a dualistic mind-body, or spirit-body, but that
these beliefs were created later.
Once Judaism emerged in Greece the
idea of body and soul as being separate developed. However, they still understood the
interconnectedness between the two, and believed that at the end of times both
would be judged as one entity (Jacobs 71-89).
It wasn't until the medieval period that disembodied ideology was
incorporated into the dualistic thinking that creates disembodiment. The medieval Jewish scholars began to think
of the relationship between body and spirit was not a co-operative one. The philosophical tradition around the Torah
restricted many aspects of bodily activity.
They developed a list of 613 precepts of what one should and should not
do with the body; the majority being restrictions (Jacobs 71-89). Some traditions in Judaism blindly follow
these precepts because they are believed to be the word of God. These people are often criticized for not
looking into the reasons behind the specific rules. By restricting the actions of the body to
purify the soul because the body is a tempter, creates a negative image of
natural bodily functions. These negative
images lead us to distrust our bodies which can affect our quality of life. In being unable to trust our bodies creates
an internal tension between body and mind that never goes away. How can the
mind ever be at ease if it cannot even trust the body it resides in?
The Jewish tradition is not the only
Western religious tradition that creates a discord between mind and body. Christianity often creates negative images of
the body that can be harmful to psychological well-being. Byran Turner noted that:
Although Christianity inherited from the Greek
and Roman world the vision of reality as a system split between reason and
desire, between the mind and body, between Apollo and Dionysus, the Christian
monastic tradition in particular gave this view of the body a darker meaning,
seeing the flesh as the metaphor of fallen man and the irrational rejection of
God (Turner 15-41).
Furthermore, in Christian ideology, the body “can hinder
the spiritual: it can distract it, it can try to offer a kind of fake inwardness,
the 'private', in which the spiritual self can lose itself” (Louth 111-129).
This thinking places blame on the body for our loss of divinity and makes us
angry at the body. We blame the body for
the experience of things beyond our control and we have to seek redemption from
a higher power. We, ourselves, are not allowed to forgive us for the things we
do; we can only seek for forgiveness in something beyond us—to the priests and
the church under the guise of God. Under
this paradigm we lose the ability to determine things for ourselves and become
more susceptible to manipulation.
Christian ideology also makes use of
sexism to further discriminate the body.
“Man was to woman what spirit was to matter” (Turner 15-47). Under this
patriarchal ideology, intellect and rationality is seen as a masculine quality
whereas and the body and emotionality is a feminine quality. Therefore, men
should not concern themselves with bodily affairs and instead, learn to control
them (Louth 111-129). Many stigmas
developed under this ideology which still affects thoughts of on corporeality
in modern society. Men are more valued
based on their intellect and strengths, whereas women are valued more on their
outward appearances and ability to control their emotions. This type of thinking makes women more
susceptible to value the appearance of their body over their health and mental
well-being.
In separating the body and spirit,
the Christian is in an odd place, “as bodily beings, they are slaves to
everything, everyone's inferiors; while as spiritual beings, they are free,
with dominion over all things, and inferior to none” (Tripp 131-152). This is especially reflected today in our
government and culture. “Modern
societies are, as a consequence [of the practices of civilization], caught
between two contradictory processes which both produce and regulate the body,
while also freeing it for the hedonistic pleasures of modern consumerism”
(Turner 15-41). This paradoxical
confusion between freedom and control further adds to our anxiety as an
individual; we ought to be free but we need to be controlled. Furthermore, Martin Luther “distinguished
levels of essential humanness, and, in a sense, the body comes a poor third to
the mental and the spiritual” (Tripp 131-152).
This causes a further instability within our own understanding of our
bodies.
In
current Christian practices, the emphasis of the body is still seen as a burden
or a threat. It is interesting, however,
that during the Protestant Reformation, the body was seen as “a gift and
sacrament” (Tripp 131-152). This
understanding is often times overlooked in our current culture. The image of the body is still seen as the
source of our downfall and sin. This
transpires into our Capitalist society today where the body is “the focus of
personal anguish, individual responsibility and political concern, especially
when it comes to the body going 'fat' or being sexually active” (Orbach
1-180). In this view, we have a personal
responsibility to maintain a strict control of our urges. In contrast, the idea
of just putting faith in God to repent for our sins takes away the importance
of cultivating the body. The idea that
we can just ask for forgiveness or to get rid of body ailments without
physically cultivating the body in a way that promotes that particular healing process
moves the idea of being healthy beyond our innate capabilities and into the
hands of specific authorities. In modern
medicine we keep the same concept; if something is hurting we go to the
pharmacy to get a pill that makes the pain go away and all is better (until we
run out of pills).
These
are just a few specific ways in which our past religious traditions have
affected the way we understand our bodies.
In most instances, the body, while viewed as being a gift from God, is
also where our sinful nature and loss of divinity originated from. These ideologies have had many influences of
the way modern culture and academia was formed which have also put us in a
position to reject the information our bodies tell us and deepen the split
between body and mind; thus, contributing to many influences of disembodiment
in Contemporary culture.
The Body in Academia
Beyond
our historical religious traditions, our culture has many other influences
pertaining to our disembodied nature. Is
disembodiment something we learn or is it something that is intrinsically
embedded into us? How do we learn about
the body? How does our academic
tradition understand the body or the sensations of the body? What does it mean to have a 'scholar's
body'? In our academic society, more
often than not, bodily sensations, feelings, and emotions are seen as clouding
our judgment. The scholar must have a
disciplined mind that does not reflect on the processes and sensations of the
body because they cannot be measured nor verified. The current piece of this discussion will
focus on the body in our academic setting and how our academic system
contributes to the progression of disembodiment within our society. As well as the historical influences that
played a role in the development of our current academia system.
Take
a second to reflect on your academic career thus far. How often have you found yourself hunched
over while reading and writing? What
about the blandness of classrooms in which learning takes place? Scholastic atmosphere is often static,
camping, boring, and bland; it is all together physically deadening (Knaster
xiii-135). With the rising concern of
obesity in the West there is often concern about our society's sedentary
lifestyles, yet we are engrained from the start of our social interactions with
people outside our families, not to express ourselves physically. “We had to and still have to adapt to chairs,
which contributes to muscular imbalance and joint inflexibility, compared to
cultures in which people squat. And in
order to sit still we had to block out sensations from our bodies” (Knaster
xii-135). But this is exactly what is
required of a scholar's body or of most bodies in the work place these days. It is important to understand what influenced
these ideas and why they were developed in the first place.
The
discourse in philosophy during the Romantic and Enlightenment era has a large
effect in the way modern Western society is structured, including the way
education is approached today. It was
during this period that the establishment of the self was to be the interior
privatized realm of the rational mind, which was separate from the external
sensual and emotional realm of the body.
Thus, active reasoning and the will have embedded itself in opposition
against passive feeling and emotions. In
trying to make sense of the self and the will, thinkers from the Enlightenment
era thought of the self as being our rationality which has the ability to control
the body and see past its sensual and material distractions. Crudely put, we were the “isolated will,
guided by an intelligence, arbitrarily connected to a rather unsatisfactory
array of feelings, and lodged, by chance, in an equally unsatisfactory human
body” (Midgley 131-152). The
construction of Western philosophy idealized strict control of the body and the
irrational sensations and emotions it produces when interacting with the
material world. This rational body is a
still body, it is a body that can resist the urge to move and the aches that
goes along with it.
The
body of this rational being it sometimes referred to as a 'scholar's
body'. Paul Stoller gives an artful
critique of the consequences of the scholastic life.
Stiffened from a long sleep in the background of scholarly life, the
scholar's body yearns to exercise its muscles.
Sleepy from long inactivity, it aches to restore its sensibilities. Adrift in a sea of half-lives, it wants to
breathe in the pungent odors of social life, to run its palms over the jagged
surface of social reality, to hear the wondrous symphonies of social
experience, to see the sensuous shapes and colors that fill windows of
consciousness. It wants to awaken the
imagination and bring scholarship back 'to the things themselves'.
Wants, however, are far from being deeds, for a sensuous awakening is a
very tall order in an academy where mind has long been separated from body,
sense long severed from sensibility (Stoller
ix-xviii).
The body that Stoller describes is one that reflects the
body in our education and academic system today. Our school days often consist of being seated
and confined to a desk for multiple hours a day with a few breaks to stretch
our legs in between classes, and on some days a physical education class. Elaine Summers, a dancer who developed
Kinetic Awareness which is an ideology to re-embody ourselves, believes moving
to be more restful as opposed to being stationary for extended periods of time. She speculates that “our confinement to
school desks for long periods as children is a major cause of the physical
difficulties we have as adults.... The result is too often a slumped position
that distorts and contracts the back…” (Knaster xiii-135). With a distorted back and an aching body, moving
becomes a chore which increases the likelihood of keeping a sedentary lifestyle
throughout our adulthood. Furthermore,
with an increase in today's technology and media, there are more things one can
do while 'relaxing' and not moving.
Television has more channels and shows which allows us to 'veg out'
after a long day of school or work; on top of that, the internet has developed
more and more addicting websites that someone can spend hours on without even
realizing it. With the technological
factors in play, along with the sedentary class periods, where are students
finding the time to engage with their bodies?
Physical education and health
classes are typically the only class where a student engages in moving for an
extended period of time. That is, if the
student actually participates in the class activities. “PE [physical education] is the only form of
PA [physical activities] undertaken by almost all children and has the
potential to make significant contributions to the general education and
development of young people in many ways” (Seghers et al. 407-420). The activities that take place during
physical education classes are almost always team sports. However, one of the main goals and challenges
of physical education is to get students to “think about exercise beyond the
classroom” (“The New PE” 62-63) and less than five percent of people over
twenty-four compete in team sports. In a
study that interviewed physical education teachers and students about the
content of activities done in their class suggests that
PE teachers
believe that the current content of PE courses is attractive and hold
sufficient variety. The pupils, on the
other hand, reported that they preferred more variation.... However, one has to
consider how such a dominate games-based culture fails to acknowledge
participatory trends of young people towards lifestyle activities and more
recreational sporting forms and away from competitive performance-based
sports.... Long term effect of PE on exercise habits are possibly stronger when
the PE programme is more oriented towards non-competitive, unstructured forms
of PA that can be easily transferred towards leisure time (Seghers et al.
407-420).
In other words,
team sports are often more detrimental in developing more active habits outside
the classroom. Often times, it deepens
the split between athletes and the less athletic people and furthermore creates
a stigma towards the students who are less athletic. This stigma affects the participation in
certain students further increasing their inactive lifestyles. It is important to note that “for an
increasing majority of children, the PE lesson is now the only opportunity to
engage in PA” (Seghers et al. 407-420).
Thus, when those students who feel the weight of stigma discouraging
their athletic performance so much that they stop participating in the class
activities, they lose their chance to
engage in physical activities.
The discipline and scrutiny the body
receives during education dramatically decreases the ways we can express
ourselves physically. Children are giant
balls of creative energy that engage with the world in a playful manner to help
understand it. However, in mentally
disciplining the body to such a degree, children have to find other modes of
expressing themselves or repressing desires which can build tension. Furthermore, some critics of the American
education system complain that the structure of academics
does not teach
us what is fundamental to basic self-knowledge—awareness of our bodies. It does not teach us to make effective and
efficient use of our bodies so that we don't hurt ourselves. It does not teach us how movement, sensing,
thinking, and feeling are all interrelated in the interaction of our minds and
bodies. As a result, we don't even know the true range of our potential and how
to use it properly (Knaster xiii-135).
As a result, if a
child does show signs of extra creative energy which cannot be properly
disciplined according to the specific guidelines, these children are considered
problematic and often times mis-diagnosed with having attention-deficit
hyperactive disorder or ADHD. They are
then given a pill which helps them maintain and restrict these energies instead
of helping them find a productive means of expressing their physicality. “It is known that youth prefer programmes
that include hands-on, fun activities in a physically and emotionally safe
environment where they learn new skills” (Seghers et al. 407-420). However, it is questionable whether the
physically deadening and demanding atmosphere of academic classes actually
provide children with the environment they need to develop their own innate
creative skills, while also accommodating for their individual active needs.
The Body in a
Capitalist, Consumer Culture
As we have seen thus far, our
historical background in religion and philosophy has dramatically affected the
way we learn about our bodies, as well as some of the ways in which the body
idolized in Contemporary culture. Not
only does our educational system not motivate students to engage with their
bodies in a more appropriate way, they do not properly teach the ways in which
the current trends of Capitalism and consumerism exploit the body's image for
personal wealth through the use of mass media.
The current discussion will focus on the ways corporations use media and
technology to create certain myths about the body which further influences
disembodiment in the West and other modernizing consumer cultures.
One of the most detrimental myths of
modern consumer culture is the belief of the 'natural' body. In order to understand what is meant by the myth
of the 'natural' body, we first need to understand how industries make use of
myths in the first place. In one of his
critiques, Roland Barthes makes an interesting observation of the
advertisements for Persil and Omo. Persil was a
soap-powder and Omo was a detergent, the industries made use of specific
imagery, to make it appear like the products were doing something more than the
others.
Omo
uses two of these, which are rather novel in the category of detergents:
the deep and the foamy. To say that Omo
cleans in depth... is to assume that linen is deep, which no one had
previously thought, and this unquestionably results in exalting it, by
establishing it as an object favourable to those obscure tendencies to enfold
and caress which are found in every human body.
As for foam, it is well known that it signifies luxury. To begin with, it appears to lack any
usefulness; then, its abundant, easy, almost infinite proliferation allows one
to suppose there is in the substance from which it issues a vigorous germ, a
healthy and powerful essence, a great wealth of active elements in a small
original volume. Finally, it gratifies
in the consumer a tendency to imagine matter as something airy, with which
contact is effected in a mode both light and vertical, which is sought after
like that of happiness either in the gustatory category..., in that of
clothing..., or that of soaps (film-star in her bath). Foam can even be the sign of a certain spirituality,
in as much as the spirit has the reputation of being able to make something out
of nothing, a large surface of effects out of a small volume of causes.... What matters is the art of having disguised
the abrasive function of the detergent under the delicious image of a substance
at once deep and airy which can govern the molecular order of the material
without damaging it. A euphoria,
incidentally, which must not make us forget that there is one plane on which Persil
and Omo are one and the same... (Barthes
36-38).
This observation that industries creates myths, like ones
of the extra dimension of depth at the surface of the skin or of cloth and
linen, and then reinforcing this belief by using highly appealing imagery, the
bubbles and foam that expands into the space surrounding the skin or when
washing something, is often times overlooked.
We become so focused on the specific change of the new product, that we
overlook the fact that it might not really do more than the other products; it
just does something different which produces the same results. But, alas, it is something new and refreshing
from the old and boring.
The
myth of the 'natural' body stems from this kind of reasoning. The myth uses buzz words that stimulate
different emotional responses towards an idea which is then reinforced by
certain images. Certain commercials,
like those for Dove and Olay creams or other beauty products use models with
perfect skin while asking the viewer things like “Haven't you always wanted to
have skin like a goddess?” Or, “This cream revitalize, softens, and invigorates
for more beautiful, natural skin.”
Natural is beautiful, but naturalness can only be achieved through the
use of the specific product, or even a set of projects. This technique is used in almost all
commercials and advertisements.
Feature writers
fill endless column inches with advice about how we should care for
ourselves. Television programmes focus
on the bonuses, the necessity and the moral superiority of paying attention to
individual health and beauty. Politicians
urge us to take personal responsibility.
Meanwhile our visual world is being transformed through an
intensification of images which represent the body and parts of the body in
ways that artfully convey a sense that our own bodies are seriously in need of
reshaping and updating. Without even
noticing we may willingly accept the invitation, eager to stay up to date
(Orbach 1-180).
These techniques,
however effective, are creating tension within the body and causing unnecessary
stress and anxiety which not only strains our physical health, it also consumes
up our attention and we become obsessive over it. “Commercial pressures delivered today by
celebrity culture, branding and industries which make their profits by
destabilizing the late-modern body have eradicated most of our prior feeling
towards and understanding the body” (Orbach 1-180). The myth of the natural body or the normal
body that industries create cause bias and stigma to people who do not want to
or are unable to conform the idol.
Many recent psychologists and
psychoanalysts studies have begun incorporating the belief of the body is a
cultural artefact that sociologists have started. “Orthodox psychoanalytic theory about the
mind's ability to commandeer the body has fallen short. In this time of body instability, what
becomes ever clearer is that the natural body is a fiction” (Orbach
1-180). Orbach critiques the myth of the
natural body image further, saying that it
is far more
serious than we first take it to be and it is only because it is now so
ordinary to be distressed about our bodies or body parts that we dismiss the
gravity of body problems, which constitute a hidden public health
emergence—showing up only obliquely in the statistics on self-harm, obesity and
anorexia—the most visible and obvious signs of a far wider-ranging body
dis-ease (Orbach 1-180).
Dis-ease of the body makes it
harder to socialize because we can never find comfort or confidence with who we
are. We can become so detached and
hateful of our bodies that it creates anti-social tendencies and unhealthy
behavioral problems.
In
a recent study on which types of emotions triggered unhealthy eating behaviors
found that negative emotions that deal come from interacting with others
triggered more binge eating episodes than other emotions. It was found that
the highest
desire to eat was found in the BED [binge eating disorder] group when
experiencing negative emotions. The most
relevant negative emotions were: feeling angry, hurt, guilty, disappointed or
sad – the first three of these being closely related to interpersonal
situations. Feeling 'satisfied' led to
some protection from the desire to eat (Zeeck et al. 426-437).
However, in a society where the
craze it 'the next big thing' and updates and newer models of the old things,
when can we find satisfaction? When our
bodies are criticized to look like the 'natural' image any deviation from that
image becomes stigmatized. “When body or
facial characteristics locate the individual in a disadvantaged group, then specific
bodily characteristics engender stigma and disdain. At which point an industry arises to offer
the transformation of those physical markers as a way out of the designation”
(Orbach 1-180). However, it is the
industries in the first place who create the idea. For those with binge eating disorder,
“negative and stressful emotions in relationships with others might be a
trigger as well as a maintaining factor” (Zeeck et al. 426-437) to negative
feeding episodes. Yet because of the
stigma and disdain towards overweight people they cannot maintain a healthy
relationship with others and are thus never satisfied. They can never get out of the cycle until
something changes.
Another
factor that plays a strong role in the cycle of disembodiment, are the many
escapes offered with today's technology.
Beyond the television, the development of the internet and the multiple
computer software offers us a way to change our appearance, or take on another
guise other than our unsatisfactory material form, has offered individuals who
fail to conform to the ideal bodies of society a way out of this cycle. “Mobil phones and computers have transformed
the traditional ways of communication, have eliminated (certain forms of) separation
anxieties... providing an illusion of security and 'not-being-alone'” (Szekacs-Weisz 291-298).
This illusion of security and not-being-alone can only extend so far in
the actual, face-to-face social world and with an inability to assert ourselves
'out there' and properly develop as the social creature humans are. While
electronics provide people with certain illusions of not being alone they can
also entrap the minds of people with the ability to manipulate their pictures
or even create new bodies and new personalities online.
This cyber-embodiment is causing
addiction in many teens that are unable to conform to the ideal body image and
find it easier to completely escape from the body in the online world. Recently, studies in neuro-psychopharmacology
and biological psychiatry have become particularly interested in the
relationship between adults and adolescents who are addicted to the internet
and self-identity. Of particular
interest was the relationship between disembodiment and interpersonal
relationships.
Adolescence is a period for addressing the developmental challenge of
what Erikson referred to as 'identity versus diffusion' with respect to the
stages of psychosocial development. The
adolescent period requires a stable development of the brain network that is
related to social cognition, such as theory of the mind or the ability to take
back the perspective of self and of others.
If disembodiment-related brain activation persists through addictive
internet use of if compensatory self-related brain activation is continuously
over-activated, a redistribution of the of the embodiment-related brain area
will eventually occur and may have serious effects on identity formation....
[B]oth the duration of internet use and the degree of internet addiction
were significantly correlated with the brain activity of disembodiment-related
brain activation would be long-standing – the adolescent internet addicts would
have serious problems on their identity formation (Y.-R. Kim et al. 88-95).
The industries of
modern consumer culture is getting unfathomably rich at the cost of alienating
our minds from our bodies so much that it is causing unstable bodies, negative
coping habits, unhealthy behavioral patterns, and adverse psychological
functioning and distress. Furthermore,
they are extremely good at concealing this major root cause by passing its
effects off as something else; creating an incomplete and symptomatic overture
which is targeted by pharmaceutical companies.
In other words, the pharmaceutical companies target the symptoms of
disembodiment, such as depression, obesity, internet addiction, etc., and
create pills that we can use which offers immediate relief. However, the symptoms always come back
because the underlying pathogen has not been taken care of while we, the
citizens, are stuck trying to get more pills because the symptoms keep
re-appearing and we do not know any other alternative.
It
is interesting to compare this consumer cycle with the sociologists' and
anthropologists' ideologies of the origins of body ailments. Scholars such as Mauss and Turner believe in
a strong connection between the stability of a society and the stability of
health and the body. They argue that
“[t]here appears to be an intimate connection between the exterior order of the
socio-political world and the equilibrium of the human body, so that
instabilities within the body are thought to reflect instabilities within the
wider social system” (Turner 15-14).
This has been seen from the causes influencing disembodiment. Even more unnerving is the rate at which
disembodiment-related ailments and symptoms are expanding to more countries.
The “Westernised body is captivating young people in those countries entering
modernity through globalism to take up a body that may be at odds with the body
they have... Body hatred is becoming one of the West's hidden exports” (Orbach
1-180). With more and more countries
becoming afflicted to the scrutinization of bodies, serious health risks are
sure to ensue. With industries
furthering disembodiment, the state of our current consumer social system is
tearing itself apart at the individual level which can have a drastic negative
impact on the functioning of society as a whole process.
The
Significance of Body Awareness
As
previously discussed, disembodiment has long embedded itself in the
establishment of modern culture. It is
not too late, however, to establish the importance of the sensual and intuitive
body has in the functioning of a rational mind.
Our bodies store memories, learns, and can share wisdom that can be
found nowhere else. Without the
intuitive and sensual body, the rational mind has no base to return to and
confide in. However, the amount of
distrust in body sensualization and intuition caused by the history of
disembodiment in establishing modern civilization will make it hard to learn
how to re-tune ourselves to understand what it is the body is communicating to
us. “As we stopped listening to our
bodies, we gradually stopped knowing how to listen” (Knaster,
xiii-135). Even now, discussions of the
philosophy of mind and the science of consciousness has moved to the belief
that it is the brain that is our mind, however, studies and discussions often
overlook the importance the communication of the body from the neck down in
relation to proper functioning of the brain.
This section of the paper discusses what is meant by a 'speaking body'
and how we can begin to 'listen' to it, addresses how embodiment relates to the
development of cognition, mental processing, and self-identity, and the
importance of embodiment to creativity and positive self-cultivation.
Communication within the Body
and Bodies
The
body makes itself present to us in a multitude of ways. Comforts, tension, hot, cold, etc., are all
components of the body's 'language'. The
body's language can be understood as the various sensations and feelings it
produces in order to maintain a state of homeostasis, or balance. “Each organ and each system are experts in
particular operations for the benefit of the body as a whole. Everything is intricately integrated. Whenever something happens in one part of the
body to disturb the existing condition, other parts compensate to restore the
original condition—they adjust to maintain a steady state...” (Knaster
xiii-135). There are various factors
involved that can disrupt proper functioning and cause a state of
disequilibrium within the body.
Internally, these instabilities make themselves present by specific
vibrations or pulses which are felt through our proprioceptive system. This specific system allows us to “receive
stimuli that are produced within our own bodies” (Knaster xiii-135). The way in which we react to these specific
stimuli can either re-harmonize to attain homeostasis, or further destabilize
causing chaos in the internal communication between the various organs and
systems, potentially causing damage and discomfort.
As
we have seen previously, when one is considered a 'rational being', they do not
pay attention to these sensations (especially discomfort) and, instead, ought
to ignore their heeding that something is out of balance because they are
innately understood as “distractions”.
However, this line of reasoning is faulty and potentially dangerous and
detrimental to health and quality of life.
“How we feel in our body—whether we're fighting pain or gravity or
reveling in pleasure—is as influential in how we think and feel as the other
way around.... Thinking is inseparable from electrical and chemical activity in
the brain and nervous system [, as well as] from accompanying muscle tensions
and movements” (Knaster xiii-135).
Unless the body is in a state of homeostasis, we cannot think for
extended periods of time without undergoing tension, negative emotions and sensations
within the body. These sensations are
not so much distractions; rather, they are indicators of what is going on
inside the body, to the kinds of objects around, and to the intentions of
others from within our immediate vicinity.
Many
psychoanalysts use this 'resonance' when interacting and judging the moods of
their patients and how they are responding to particular treatments. Susie Orbach often tunes herself into the
experiences of the inter-sensations between her and her patients to establish a
better relationship with them. She
writes:
In my own
practice, I am quite accustomed to experiencing what I can only describe as
wildcat sensations in my own body. When
that occurs, I know that there is a fair chance that I am receiving an
unconscious transmission of some physical state that cannot easily be felt by
the person I am working with… Psychotherapists rely on being able to pick up
feelings from their patients. It is a
guide to aspects of their patients' experience which need to be addressed and
so they get presented in ways that, to a non-therapeutically oriented ear, seem
most odd (Orbach 1-180).
Not only psychoanalysts, but
everyone has this capacity to become aware of the way our bodies communicate
with each other. All it takes is to
start becoming more receptive to certain signals our bodies communicate to our
minds.
The
awareness of these sensations is vital in establishing how we are relating to
others and with the surrounding environment.
This type of awareness has many names associated with it; however, this
paper will refer to this particular awareness as somatic perception. Somatic perception is our capacity to see,
feel, or test the world with our own bodies.
“When we're awake to it, we're intelligent: that is, we know when, what,
and how much to eat, exercise, rest, interact with others, or be alone; we know
when something is beneficial or destructive to us” (Knaster xiii-135). Furthermore, recent scientific studies on the
relationship between self-observation and awareness of others have found that
“[a]ccurate observations of the self are required for the appropriate
understanding of others” (Hölzel et al. 537-559). Thus, somatic perception is significant in
our ability to determine, not only internal homeostasis, but also how our
actions and behaviors relate to and affect others. Furthermore, recent studies have shown the
“[o]ur brains automatically ready themselves to copy the behaviour of others –
sensory systems link instantaneously with motor systems in the brain” (Claxon
78-84). This finding is significant in
establishing the link that we learn from our ability to interact and mirror
others and their behaviors. This allows
for a better understanding of how to act in response to others and how we
establish ourselves from others.
Somatic
perception plays a crucial role in establishing self-identity within the
developmental period of infancy and on into late adolescence. “Piaget thought the earliest stage of
development consisted primarily if not exclusively of sensorimotor capabilities
and saw the issue of how adult cognition arises from those limitations...”
(Laakso 409-425). What we feel, the way
we communicate and use language, and the manner in which we communicate and use
language stem from our bodily exploration in our early life. “What we learn forms the foundation of our
emotional life beyond childhood” (Knaster xiii-135). Another study has shown that “[b]ody
sensations have been ascribed a crucial role in the conscious experience of
emotions (feelings)...” (Hölzel et al. 537-559). Even more importantly, it has been shown that
“[h]elping individuals increase their body awareness can therefore be
considered a relevant aspect in the treatment of psychological disorders”
(Hölzel et al. 537-559). In other words,
increasing body awareness can help individuals become more aware of the reason
behind specific emotional states and disorders.
Furthermore, the way we feel about certain things and gesture to others,
establish who we are what we stand for.
Most importantly, the establishment of the sensual self and our identity
is the establishment of our intuition and cognition.
Somatic Perception, Intuitive
Knowing, and Cognitive Development
There
is a very strong connection between somatic perception and intuitive
knowing. Often times, intuitive knowing
is not associated with intellect and cognitive capabilities, however, it is
essential to the full process of cognition.
When we develop somatic perception we become more in tune to our
intuition. Intuition is often described
as the “gut feeling” one has about something and is the body's way of knowing
and communicating what is going on internally and externally. The reason why intuition is often disregarded
in the standard view of intelligence and cognition is because often times the
“knowledge exists even before it comes into our conscious awareness” (Lawrence
5-13). In other words, our bodies have
information of the area and happenings around us that we are not even aware
of. If the body comes across something
that is threatening or potentially useful for us, it will make that particular
knowledge accessible to our minds through the “gut feeling” or “wildcat
sensations”. With higher somatic
perception we are more likely to become aware and to trust these instincts
which can help us through many difficult situations.
This
knowledge is essential in higher forms of cognition. The way somatic perception embeds itself into
rationality and intelligence is quite understated. According to John Paley, cognition is the
ability to manipulate symbols in accordance to a specific set of rules (Paley
1-13). He explains that any intelligent
system will have
a set of symbols
which are themselves physical states of the system, and which can be
combined into various structures.... [Which are] used to represent aspects
of the world, or external states of affairs.... [And] encompasses a series of
explicit rules, by means of which structures can be created, combined,
modified, and reproduced. Finally, the
application of these rules determines the system's transition from one
cognitive state to the next (Paley 1-13).
There are people argue against this
explanation of intelligent cognition and add a “subsymbolic” cognitive process
and even a distributed cognitive process.
These two different cognitive processes are used to further develop “the
idea that the body plays an essential role, not [only] in supplying
information, but [also] in processing it” (Paley 1-13). The idea of the subsymbolic cognitive process
can be understood as being “mindful” to the various sensations going on. When someone rationalizes things over and
over again, they develop specific patterns of solving things. These patterns, or habits, of understanding
can create rigidness in figuring out a problem.
What this means is that we, often times, tend to over think or over
analyze a problem that is quite simple.
Recent scientific evidence on the effects being of being mindful has on
cognitive rigidity has shown that “mindfulness may reduce cognitive rigidity
and immune one from being 'blinded' by past experience” (Greenberg et al.
1-8). What this means is that when one
is more open and susceptible to possibilities, they can cognitively function
better.
The
other type of cognition that Paley describes is the knowledge that can only
come through the use of an outside object or another person. Of particular interest is the way somatic and
intuitive knowledge plays into what Guy Claxton calls “real-world
intelligence”. Real-world intelligence
“emerges when embodied beings with feelings and concerns find themselves in
complicated situations in which it is not immediately obvious how to
proceed.... Real-world intelligence... involves... the concerns, the
capabilities, and the current opportunities... [to answer] 'What do I do
next?'” (Claxton 78-84). This type of
cognitive distribution is critical to develop in life because we will always
have to work with someone.
In
our development stage in life, the early sensorimotor skills and interactions
with others we learned defines our mature cognitive abilities. It has been argued by many cognitive
psychologists “that development of mature cognition does not require overcoming
or abandoning these early sensorimotor skills but rather refining them and
making them more flexible” (Laakso 409-425).
Throughout our lives, our bodies hold on to specific memories in which
we use to defines and processes new information based on our past
experiences. What this means is that our
bodily actions
routinely bring an individual's various sensorimotor systems into dynamic
couplings with each other, changing the sensorimotor systems themselves. These changes, over time, transcend single
modalities and particular tasks, leading ultimately to the sort of complex,
flexible behavior that characterizes adult cognition (Laakso 409-425).
Yet, we rarely hear of this in
educational settings. We learn that
moving and exercising is good for us but we are not taught why they are good
for us. Same thing for learning the
importance of being social; we are taught to be social but not the significance
of socializing.
Furthermore,
physically indicating something, or gesturing, is important to the development
of cognition and also with linking speech to physical movements and
motions. We often subconsciously
gesture to others when we are trying to explain or argue something, or tell a
story, etc.. Some studies show gestures
“'expand the set of representational tools' that are available to us to express
and develop our thinking, and that these other channels are able to add
subtlety and creativity to our own cognitive processes. Gestures can draw on visual and spatial
imagery, and capture holistic aspects of a situation...” (Claxton 78-84). What this means is that gesturing adds
another dimension to the way we think and express ourselves. Further studies have “demonstrated that telling
children to gesture while explaining their (incorrect) answers to novel
arithmetic problems improves their ability to solve the problems correctly
later...” (Laakso 409-425). In other
words, when trying to physically express our reasons behind an answer, we are
not only developing mentally but also physically. Thus, establishing the
importance of moving and physical expression is crucial in developing
knowledge, cognition, and creativity.
Somatic Perception, Education,
and Creativity
In
establishing the importance of body sensations and intuition and our emotional
and interpersonal behaviors towards cognitive and rational development; it is
important to ascribe these factors into our educational system to help children
develop their innate creative forces.
Our innate creative nature is something that is important, not only to
ourselves and our health, but to the progression of society and culture as a
whole. Claxton writes:
Research in
embodied cognition thus leads us to a wider view of intelligence, one that is
distributed across the whole field of our embedded, embodied activity, and not
just associated with the most conscious, rational, verbal and explicit corner
of that activity. Intelligence is not in
opposition to 'emotion', 'intuition' and bodily 'feelings', but a broader concept
that includes them all – as well as deliberation and analysis. The brain automatically blends perception,
action and motivation into a swirl of affordances, opportunities and intentions
that need resolving, moment by moment, into an orderly sequence of responses to
the world as we find it.... Conscious, rational thinking is now seen not as the
epitome of intelligence, but as on sophisticated tool in the tool-kit of
intelligence which has its place, but which can be misapplied (Claxton 78-84).
Furthermore,
“Western educational systems still privilege cognitive rationality. It is as if we are being educated from the
neck up. Focusing primarily on cognitive
knowledge while ignoring what the body knows deprives us of fully actualizing
ourselves as human beings” (Lawrence 5-13).
While it is important to learn the structure of rational thinking and
the symbolic system of our culture, if we cannot establish ourselves as a piece
of the system or where we fit into this system, we cannot help to progress the
system.
The progression of a specific symbolic
system is what is known as big 'C' Creativity.
There are three characteristics that are needed in establishing whether
or not something is Creative. Firstly,
there needs to be “a culture that contains symbolic rules” (Csíkszentmihályi 1-148).
Secondly, Creativity requires “a person who brings novelty into the
symbolic domain” (Csíkszentmihályi 1-148).
Finally, there needs to be “a field of experts who recognize and
validate the innovation” (Csíkszentmihályi 1-148). These factors ascribe to the evolution of a
culture and to symbolic knowledge.
However, of particular importance is the second characteristic, the
person. A person cannot be a part of
Creativity unless they first know how they fit into a particular system. Unless they are able to develop their own
unique understanding of the way in which the world works, they cannot hope to
try and explain or communicate it to others.
Yet, each of us has a particularly unique conception of the world around
us which can further help develop it.
Learning how we understand and interact with the world is the first step
to becoming creative. Once we learn how
we best interact with the world we begin to enjoy everything we do. Full body and mental engagement can only
blossom under the enjoyment of interacting.
This full engagement is what is known as flow. Flow is “an almost automatic, effortless, yet
highly focused state of consciousness” (Csíkszentmihályi 1-148). It is through flow that we develop our innate
creative behavior. Achieving a flow
state often involves critical analyzing and intuitive knowing followed by
passive reflection which allows for a creative breakthrough. “The 'Ah ha' moment is often preceded by a
period of uncomfortable but useful impasse – which keeping your mind busy
thinking can impede” (Claxton 78-84).
Thus, critical thinking, moving and engaging with our bodies and
feelings, and passively reflecting and 'not-thinking' are all critical factors
in developing our innate knowledge and creative potential.
A Solution to Re-embody
Contemporary Culture
In
reflection of what has been discussed thus far, establishing who we are as a
disembodied mind or a bodiless head has a serious impact of the development of
the body, maintaining health, and developing complex cognition and creativity. We have also seen that because of our
influential history, education has developed and continues to develop these
disembodied minds and bodiless heads.
Without educating how the body is significant, not only to health, but
also in learning and establishing who we are and how we engage with the
external and social world with it, we are subjecting the future generation to a
lifetime of distress and social anxiety.
It is for this reason that my solution involves a reformation within the
educational system. “Education is, at
root, a preparation for life. Its aim is
to help young people develop the mental, physical, emotional and social
resources they will need to flourish at a complicated, exciting, stressful time
in human history” (Claxton 78-84). Furthermore,
the way we learn to interact and work with people outside of our own families
is through our immersion into education.
In reaction to the growing concern of the status of the body and the
rise of obesity, internet addiction, and overall health in children and adults,
there are currently a lot of reformations going on within how schools approach
and teach health and physical education.
Thus, specifically, my solution to re-embody Contemporary culture is to
replace our current health and physical education class with a class teaching
somatic awareness.
What this
would mean is that teaching health one day and playing sports and disciplining
the body would end. Team sports are
still the core of physical education, whereas learning about health is separate
and often less significant. Many studies
have shown a high percentage of people have become disinterested in sports as
we emerge further into the twenty-first century (Seghers et al. 407-420). Indicating that today, team sports are no
longer sufficient enough to engage student in physical activity nor to motivate
them to exercise and move outside with their free time. Furthermore, team sports can create bias and
stigma towards students who are unable to move and perform as well as others,
which makes it harder for them to find the motivation to participate in
physical both inside and outside the classroom.
Another detrimental aspect of team sports and the eventual emergence
into weight training is that these activities time consuming and often times
requires social engagement. This
significantly reduces the availability of physical activities to children who
cannot always leave the house and those who do not want to because they are
shy, shameful, or disabled. Team sports
cannot be the core of a physical education if students are to properly learn to
positively and actively engage with their bodies.
The roll
of team sports is not the only problem in the current approach to health and
physical education. The fact that
learning about health and engaging in activity has been separated and ought to
be that way is severely flawed. Seghers
et al. mentioned that for an increasing number of children, the class itself
often the only time they engage in physical activity (Seghers et al. 409-420).
In separating health lessons from active engagement we further reduce
the amount of time those students who, for whatever reason, cannot or choose
not engage in physical activities outside the class period. Properly teaching a healthy and active
lifestyle cannot be done in a stationary and fixed way. Health and activity are neither stationary
nor fixed; they are always flowing and spontaneous (no matter how
intentioned). Teaching a healthy
lifestyle should actively engage not only students but teachers as well, in
exploring how their health and wellness relates to their bodies and activity.
Instead of
team sports and standard health lessons as being the core of physical
education, replacing them with somatic awareness would create an environment
where students can explore how to make more efficient and beneficial use of
their bodies. A somatic education would
integrate health, wellness, and activity, while simultaneous encourage and
engage students in creating a uniquely stylized active daily practice and passively
reflecting on their experience. A
somatic education would teach and engage students in creating their own, what
Mirka Knaster coined, bodyways.
Bodyways are various body oriented techniques that were created in
response to various kinds of ailments within the body (Knaster xiii-135). The creation of all the various bodyways
starts with the awareness of three important observations: Firstly, that there
is something “constricting, restricted, blocked, misused, or out of
balance—generally because of excessive muscle tension and habit.... [Secondly,
that the] body is is not set in stone; it is plastic and moldable, repairable
and educable—[meaning] you can always do something.... [Thirdly that the] body
is the place for transformation” (Knaster xiii-135). In getting students to become more aware of
these observations will significantly improve the health and wellness of the
individual throughout their lifetime.
Teachers will teach and engage with students in multimedia learning
activities that allow students to engage and their bodies in a variety of
settings while, simultaneously, allowing them to express their own creative
nature and develop a holistic understanding of health, well-being, and body
awareness. Furthermore, students and
teachers would engage in a variety of reflection techniques such as writing and
responding in interactive journals or verbally express their experience of the
particular established bodyway they are engaging with that day.
In
conclusion, replacing physical and health education with somatic awareness
education will help disseminate embodied development and overcome the faulty
and unnecessary disembodiment that occurs as a result of modern
consumerism. While teaching students to
become more aware of their bodies and allowing students to engage with their
bodies in a variety of ways will encourage the development of constructive
exercise outside of the classroom. This
in turn will allow individual empowerment against the adverse effects of visual
and oral media and advertisements.
Education is the key to understanding the true nature of our bodies
which is we begin to learn about ourselves and our creative potential as a
human being. Without education of
and education for our bodies, we will be subjected to the manipulative
forces of disembodiment. It is time for citizens
of contemporary culture to re-embody and re-empower themselves.
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