What is "bodymind"

Bodymind is an approach to understand the relationship between the human body and mind in which they are seen as a single integrated unit. It attempts to address the mind–body problem and is in contrast to the traditions of mind–body dualism and dualism.

In the field of alternative medicine, bodymind implies that:

• The body, mind, emotions, and spirit are dynamically interrelated.
• Experience, including physical stress, emotional injury, and pleasures are stored in the body's cells which in turn affects one's reactions to stimuli.

The term can be applied across a number of disciplines, including:

• Psychoneuroimmunology, the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body.
• Body psychotherapy, a branch of psychotherapy which applies basic principles of somatic psychology. It originated in the work of Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud and particularly Wilhelm Reich who developed it as vegetotherapy.
• Bodymind (in meditation traditions)
• Namarupa the concept of mind and body in Buddhism.
• Psychosomatic medicine, an interdisciplinary medical field exploring the relationships among social, psychological, and behavioral factors on bodily processes and quality of life in humans and animals. The academic forebear of the modern field of behavioral medicine and a part of the practice of consultation-liaison psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine integrates interdisciplinary evaluation and management involving diverse specialties including psychiatry, psychology, neurology, internal medicine, surgery, allergy, dermatology and psychoneuroimmunology. Clinical situations where mental processes act as a major factor affecting medical outcomes are areas where psychosomatic medicine has competence.
• Postural Integration, a process-oriented, body psychotherapy originally developed in the late 1960s by Jack Painter (1933-2010) in California, USA, after exploration in the fields of humanistic psychology and the human potential movement. The method aims to support personal change and self development, through a particular form of manipulative holistic bodywork.

The term overlaps in significant ways, especially in its anti-dualist intention, with the philosophical term mindbody developed independently by philosopher William H. Poteat.

Bodymind is a compound of body and mind and may be used differently in different meditation traditions. These different understandings often inform each other. The Buddhist philosopher, Herbert V. Günther, has stated:

What we call 'body' and 'mind' are mere abstractions from an identity experience that cannot be reduced to the one or the other abstraction, nor can it be hypostatized into some sort of thing without falsifying its very being.

Modern Western cultures inherited the concept of Cartesian dualism which isn't evident in many other cultures. As a result of multiculturalism and globalization, the bodymind philosophies found in other cultures, such as in Navajo and Tibetan societies, have been integrated into the bodymind concept adopted by the Western New Age movement.