Healing the enduring wound of cartesian dualism through embodied rootedness
Abstract
Abstract: In this article I will take up the interlocking themes of breath, Cartesian dualism, and the transparent body as they are articulated in The healing body: Creative responses to illness, aging, and affliction by Drew Leder. Through an expansive reading of the breath as spirit, I contend that we can arrive at a body-concept that is still expansive and open to the world, but does not require the intermediary step of the renunciation of or distancing from the body. This preserves the porous and intersubjective openness that characterize Leder’s conception of the “transparent body” but puts more daylight between the “transparent body” and what he terms the “absent body”. My aim is to extend the metaphor of this embodied expansiveness to think through instances in which the body is interconnected but still manifestly consciously foregrounded, rooted, and felt.
Keywords: Transparent Body; Absent Body; Cartesian Dualism; Breth; Embodied Experience; Emmanuel Lévinas
Guarire la ferita ancora aperta del dualismo cartesiano con il radicamento corporeo
Riassunto: In questo lavoro mi occuperò di alcuni temi reciprocamente intrecciati, quali il respiro, il dualismo cartesiano e il corpo trasparente, così come vengono articolati in The healing body: Creative responses to illness, aging, and affliction di Drew Leder. Adottando una interpretazione estensiva del respiro come spirito, sosterrò che possiamo guadagnare un concetto di corpo che è ancora estensivo e aperto al mondo, ma che non necessita del passaggio intermedio della rinuncia o della presa di distanza dal corpo. Questo preserva la porosità e l’apertura intersoggettiva che caratterizzano la concezione del “corpo trasparente” di Leder, ponendo però in maggiore risalto il rapporto tra ciò che lui definisce “corpo trasparente” e “corpo assente”. Io vorrei estendere la metafora di questa espansività incarnata per riflettere su situazioni in cui il corpo è intrecciato al tutto, ma è evidentemente ancora radicato e percepito coscientemente in primo piano.
Parole chiave: Corpo trasparente; Corpo assente; Dualismo cartesiano; Respiro; Esperienza incarnata; Emmanuel Lévinas
Parole chiave
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.4453/rifp.2024.0013
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