This division between mind and body is a persistent one. It makes sense that this ‘I’ that takes decisions and controls the body, is separate in some way from the body it controls. But things aren’t apparently as we experience them (or at least as we experience them cognitively).
Accounts of depression describe a long list of bodily symptoms resulting or accompanying the depression. Matt Haig describes the physicality of his depression and anxiety: ‘the heart palpitations, …aching limbs, …sweaty palms, …tingling, and …total-body fatigue’.
Authors seem to be less aware of how the body influences the brain, but there are plenty of such examples hidden in their narrative. For example, both Gwyneth Lewis and William Styron report that their depression deepened soon after reducing alcohol intake. Matt Haig swears by running to keep his brain moods right.
Science is beginning to work it out: Antonio Damasio reported on several gambling ‘games’ that showed that bodily changes were a much earlier identifier of card pack patterns than the opinions offered by the cognitive brain attempting to work out those same patterns. He called the mind-brain division ‘Décarte’s error’.
And the papers have just reported that the immune system seems to be connected with the development of schizophrenia – i.e. a pathological state of the mind is determined by the state of the physical body. (One instance of developing schizophrenia even seems to have been the result of a bone-marrow transplant from a sibling with the condition.) New drug trials at Oxford and London are investigating whether using a monoclonal antibody anti-inflammatory drug could change the immune system mode of acting in people with schizophrenia and thereby change the schizophrenia (Guardian 4/11/17).
All very interesting, but I bet we’ll still talk about mind and body, as though they were different. (See review of ‘It’s all in your head’ by Suzanne O’Sullivan.)
Refs:
Damasio A (1995) Descartes’ Error, London, Picador
Devlin, H (2017) Challenge to the mind-body separation, The Guardian 4/11/17
Devlin H (2017) ‘Radical new approach to schizophrenia treatment begins trial in UK hospital’ The Guardian 4/11/17