Krop-sind-forholdet: analyse af tre tekster

1. The mind-body relationship is the relationship between a human body and its mind, which in other words is how stress and thoughts have an influence on the body. The three given texts focus on aspects of the mind-body relationship and how the mind and the body belong to a monistic or a dualistic theory. Monism means that everything is a part of a single unit. Dualism is where there are two aspects which are opposite each other. There are to In text 1, “A New Fertility Factor,” it gets clear what Alice D. Domar, an overseer on a mind-body program in Boston, thinks she is able to do through her program. She explains a situation involving the 33-year-old woman, Melissa, who has been trying to get pregnant for more than two years. The cause is not physical so Alice. D. Domar believes that she can help Melissa through her program by distressing her mind to promote her fertility. In her “hidden commercial” she refers to a dualistic theory: the mind and the body are separated, however, the mind can have an influence on the body. In text 2, “We All Need a Dose of the Doctor”, Doctor Michael C. Miller explains the theory of a Hungarian psychoanalyst Michael Balint. Balint realized that you need to have a close relationship to one’s doctor in order to get good results – it provides an emotional safety net and makes the patients feel safe. He bases his theory on patients who are willing to give up surgery or drugs in favor of more psychological care and understanding. In text 3, “How to Think About the Mind” by Steven Pinker it becomes clear, that most people believe in the Ghost in the Machine, meaning that our bodies and minds are separated. When we die our bodies die, but our minds or spirits keep on living. However, Steven Pinker explains a more materialistic view of the mind: modern neuroscience has discovered that the mind is just another body part, a machine. Mentally unstable people are not crazy, they only need a chemical “to jumpstart the machinery”. Text 4 by Hanif Kureishi is a fictional extract from the novel “The Body”. The extract is about an aging man whose mind is transplanted into a younger body. The man now finds himself looking at young women while focusing on sex and giving the body what it wants. The mind and the body are cooperating in an attempt to equalize one another unlike before where they did not.