Body Thoughts by: Andrew Strathern

"Body Thoughts" is a book which "takes its inspiration from an essay that quickly established itself as a classic in its field: "The Mindful Body" by Margaret Lock and Nancy Scheper-Hughes (1987)." In it Strathern analyzes, from different theoretical perspectives, the interplay between the gross body, mind, spirit, and social body or body politic. The following excerpts are my highlights from the book.

"In the spirit of holism, which they have restimulated in social thinking, Lock and Scheper-Hughes begin 'from an assumption of the body as simultaneously a physical and symbolic artifact, as both naturally and culturally produced, and as securely anchored in a particular historical moment' (1987, 7). We have to consider here what is meant by 'simultaneously.' Essentially, they are arguing that the body is a discrete entity that nevertheless carries separate meanings and aspects. It therefore becomes of interest to know not only what these separate aspects are but also, and perhaps more crucially, how they are related to or influence one another. They themselves distinguish 'three bodies,' by which they mean three semantic realms of representation and practice that use the image of the physical body as their locus of reference. The three bodies are the individual body, or the experiencing body in the phenomenological sense; the social body, in the sense used earlier by Mary Douglas, referring to the use of body imagery as a means of picturing social relations; and the 'body politic,' referring to the regulation of physical bodies by political and legal means (1987, 7-8)." (2)

"Once we recognize that there is a mental component in all bodily states and, conversely, a physical component in all mental states, the boundary between mental and other illnesses disappears. Here, then, is a benefit to be derived from the idea of the mindful body." (4)