"Mind and Body"
A glaring problem in modern psychology and psychiatry is that we are unwilling to admit a glaring disconnect, or contradiction, in our thinking.
It boils down to the thought that there is no distinction between the “mind” and the “body.” If there is no difference between the “mind” and the “body” then at there is a lot to explain.
That is the contradiction is that, first of all, the old “mind” “body” distinction that we like to believe in is defended and believed in so much because if there is a “mind” separated from the body then there is a “place” where we can go to be “safe” and “control” “everything.” We can invent “there in our mind” everything about ourselves; our fantasies, our hates, loves, cultures, relations, everything about ourselves. Our “mind” is our retreat.
Does the mind exist? Well of course it does as we do exactly what I just explained. But on the other hand the mind is “only” part and parcel of the “body.” Or maybe better stated the body is only part and parcel of the mind. The brain is three pounds of physical flesh and I am fond of pointing out that the rest of the body is “nothing more than a projection of the physical brain.” Everything about us is bound and determined by the brain.
But since the brain is in control of everything, it is in effect the mind and the body.
Our problem is that often “the mind” is not as in control as we think it is. We think that we are in rational control. This is, of course, the only way it really can be. We, for the most part, are not going to jump to the conclusion that we are “wrong” about the world.
But why can this happen? This can happen because our “body”, our nervous system is sophisticated and the brain is a copy of our entire body, or as I said our body is a copy of our brain. Not just the “mind.” It is doing everything and so much can get confused. A lot of damage can be done. We can indeed think that white is black when it is white to everyone else.
There is a famous drawing called the “rat man” In psychology you show it to people and some people see a rat and some the face of a man. Reality is not the same for all of us. It is not. You cannot say the picture is of a rat or a man, it is of both.
Our emotions will often take over the more rational part of our brain and sabotage us. We are increasingly aware that the nervous system “maps” our “scripts” throughout the body. These “scripts” determine “rat” or “man.”
The only reason we can do anything is due to memory. We anticipate much of everything we do. Getting up and walking across the room is a complex task. Your body responds “instantaneously” but that does not mean it still does not “instantaneously” prepare itself to do the action. Movement does not start from zero. The action involves an “image’ of what I will do next and this image immediately follows a road map to get it done. We are “scripted” to do most everything and these scripts are laid down not in some “thought” that is not physical. They are laid down as the wiring in our house or the computer this was typed on. Most everything we do is programmed. We are indeed “knee jerk” responders.
All of this is “good” and “bad”. Without this total integration, we would be bound up in complex rituals to do anything. Scripts free up much of our capacity so we can do other things like pay attention to one another. On the other hand, if the “script” can be one that “solved” a problem early on and it turned out to be a not-so-good but temporary solution. Such as the urge to use physical violence, get high or spend money each time we feel bad.
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