Introduction: Minding the Body and the Embodied Mind

This edited volume presents diverse perspectives on the mind-body problem, drawing on psychoanalytic theories (Freudian, Jungian, Lacanian, Winnicottian), neuropsychoanalysis, mentalization theory, biosemiotics, evolutionary anthropology, literature, psychedelics, and cyborg technology. Chapters engage metaphysical first principles, critique materialism, dualism, monism, and realism-irrealism, and address the hard problem of consciousness, psychic energy, and unconscious agency. The collection argues that comparative psychoanalytic approaches offer fresh insights into the mind-body problem.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This collection of chapters in this volume is both diverse and weighty, tackling the mind-body problem (MBP) from sundry and nuanced perspectives with competing agendas, both complementary and critical. The contributors consider arguments from Freudian and post-classical revisionist psychoanalytic theory, Jungian, Lacanian, and Winnicottian thought, neuropsychoanalysis, mentalization theory, biosemiotics, evolutionary anthropology, literature, psychedelics, cyborg technology, and how practicing psychotherapy affects the analyst's mind and body. Some chapters also provide metaphysical discourse on first principles—from causation to cosmopsychism—engage traditional mind-body literature; and offer spirited critiques of materialism, dualism, monism, realism-irrealism, the hard problem of consciousness, psychic energy, and the question and unconscious agency. As a whole, this book offers an exciting and fresh take on the MBP from a cornucopia of comparative psychoanalytic approaches.