Freuds Theory of the Body - Case Study Example

Comparing the Gut Sigmund Freud is a well-known in Western thought as it was this man who helped establish many of the patterns and understandings we hold about the workings of the human mind. His theories were not restricted to the mind alone, however, as he was also a practicing doctor and had to develop theories and strategies of treatment for patients with a variety of physical as well as mental ailments. Noticing that many of these ailments, such as hysteric paralysis, often presented no known biologic causation, such as lesions within the body as it was examined in autopsy, Freud developed the concept of a duality of nature when it came to the body. At one and the same time, a person existed as a physical entity that could be obviously affected by outward forms such as blood clots or muscle injury, and also existed as a metaphysical entity with a mental image, or hysteric body, that could fall victim to internal forms of injury such as severe emotional distress. This line of thinking led to the present body of human knowledge in which the mind and the body are only now beginning to be linked again within medical science. This is the basic argument provided by Elizabeth Wilson and Elspeth Probyn. Providing much of the necessary information regarding the details of Freud’s theory of the body, Wilson comments Freud’s ideas led to a situation in which “The body had become the instrument of the unconscious rather than its symbiotic ally, and relatively little intellectual energy was given over to thinking about the nature of biological substance. More and more, the organic was envisaged according to the flat topology of conventional biological knowledge, even though Freud and others were exploring the strange vicissitudes of the hysterical body and even though they were taking certain aspects of the body to be central to psychic structure” (Wilson, 2004: 38). In this passage, the author is making the argument that as long ago as the 1930s, a distinction was being made between the body as an organic unit and the metaphysical hysterical body, which were virtually unattached and rarely affected by the same processes. This division in thinking is directly attributed to Freud’s theories about the hysterical body. Wilson establishes that this approach to the body introduces a flat process in which there are simple linear causes for the manifestations of the hysterical body that remain unlinked to the biological body and thus introduces a flat approach to treating patients. This limited view of hysteria and other psychosomatic illnesses has provided the foundation upon which subsequent treatment was based. The process of breaking the body down into mechanical parts that are linearly affected by other parts only within the specific system seems to be a symptom of the modern age. The hysterical body approach seems highly detailed and too simplistic both at the same time. While the philosophy of the hysterical body seems to provide the explanation for why hysterical restrictions do not seem to produce any lasting physical correlations, it seems obvious that more must be brought into play as the body reacts to a given issue. A modern example of how this vision has led to a general view of the body as a mechanistic element, that can be broken down into various systems that either do or do not work together to perform a function, can be found in the theories of the cyborg – that a human being can have numerous systems replaced by machines without suffering any loss of their humanity, regardless of the nature of the surgical implant. The author’s disagreement with this line of thinking is brought forward later in the article as she discusses the views of Ferenczi, expanding these ideas in almost direct refutation of Freud’s concepts. She says, “The gut is sometimes angry, sometimes depressed, sometimes acutely self-destructive; under the stress of severe dieting, these inclinations come to dominate the gut’s responsivity to the world. At these moments any radical distinction between stomach and mood, between vomiting and rage is artificial” (Wilson, 2004: 44). In this passage, she is arguing that more factors are involved in the bodily processes and manifestations of mood than most doctors or theories are currently willing to give credit for. In the above statement, she illustrates how the body is subjected to various moods and states which are reinforced, associated with or simply occurs in conjunction with physical limitations of some sort. As these occurrences, both mental and physical, continue to occur in conjunction with one another, the body itself begins to make these associations to the point where it begins to respond to the world according to a ‘preset’ conditional response that may depend on emotion, chemical reaction, physical stresses or any combination of a number of things. The approach to the body taken by the author seems much more appropriate. There has been recent scientific evidence of chemical reactions within the brain and body that occur only in response to emotional output. As scientists become more capable of mapping the functions of the brain, this only becomes more and more evident. Perhaps the biological elements that were sought by Freud and his followers could be found if a more holistic approach to human conditions were followed. Rather than simply concluding, without having had the opportunity to test the myriad pathways, chemicals and reactions produced, that there is no biological connection to the emotional response of the body as Freud does, Wilson argues that the body is fully interconnected and interoperational, with each part contributing and being affected by the rest. The author uses the example of bulimia patients who respond well to anti-depressant medications as a treatment for their condition even when they are not necessarily displaying any overt signs of depression. The author of “Thinking with Gut Feeling” seems to also recognize an approach in medicine where the body and mind are seen as somehow divided. This is illustrated when she says, “We live in such a medicalized world, but normally when I go to the GP, I’m told its stress and to take up yoga and herbal tea. One doctor I saw about grinding my teeth suggested sleeping with a hockey mouth guard and doing strenuous exercise before bed” (Probyn, 2004: 52). Within this quote, the author is making the case that medicine has traditionally been approached with the perspective that the various elements are somehow completely detached from one another. Her problems with sleeping were seen to be symptomatic of stress which should be solved through ‘yoga and herbal tea’ while her teeth grinding was diagnosed as a medical condition for which there was no reliable treatment other than sleeping with an uncomfortable mouth guard in place. Although both treatments suggested exercise, presumably as both were considered to be caused by stress, none of the doctors she had been to in the past seemed to have been able to find a valid means of treating her symptoms or to have considered the possibility that there was a biological function at work. The ideas brought forward in the above statement reflect the ideas of Wilson as the body is divided into ‘medical’ solutions and ‘mental’ solutions where one cannot possibly bring about the solution for the other. This reflects the influences of Freud brought out to much greater detail in the lengthier article by Wilson as the body is divided between biological and mental lines. Current practice typically holds that either a person has a medical problem that can be treated through the use of various prescription medications, or they have a mental problem for which the typical diagnosis is exercise and proper rest. That the medical field has indeed developed along these lines can be found in the sharp distinctions that are made between the medical doctor and the psychologist in which each is given only rudimentary instruction in the field of the other and neither seems to hold the other in much regard. Also like Wilson, the author suggests that times are beginning to change as scientists, doctors and psychologists are recognizing the multiple interrelationships that exist between the mind and the body as they function both together and independently of each other. She says, “The dominant mindset has so obsessively focused on sameness and difference that we may have overlooked the point: Instead of posing sameness and difference as opposing and static blocks, how refreshing it would be to think about the varying degrees and hues of similarity and difference that constantly inform human life” (Probyn, 2004: 54). Her argument relies on the gray area that exists in current medicine as distinctions are made between the operations of various body systems and the ‘finer functions’ of the mind. In making this statement, she is acknowledging the vast areas that might have gone unexplored as a result of the divisionist focus of the previous generation coming out of Freud’s work and suggesting that rather than being hypothetical, these gray areas have a solid basis in reality. In making this argument, the author has a great deal of recent evidence to support her claims. Within the past decade or so, there have been numerous commercial marketing ploys to try to encourage average consumers to seek medications to treat their psychological disorders and psychological help is often quite useful in treating medical illnesses. Scientific experimentation on the various areas and messages of the brain further support the idea that there is a definite and undeniable link between mind and body that could never have been uncovered by Freud with his earlier technology. The author uses her own example as support for this argument as her doctor diagnoses her with a relatively newly recognized disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which itself is a combination of mental, emotional and physical disorders that are best treated through a variety of approaches and includes the active involvement of the patient him or herself. Works Cited Probyn, Elspeth. “Thinking with Gut Feeling.” Eating Things. Scott McFarlane (Ed.). 2004: 101-112. Wilson, Elizabeth. “Gut Feminism.” A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. Vol. 15, N. 3, (2004): 66-94. Read More

The process of breaking the body down into mechanical parts that are linearly affected by other parts only within the specific system seems to be a symptom of the modern age.  The hysterical body approach seems highly detailed and too simplistic both at the same time.  While the philosophy of the hysterical body seems to provide the explanation for why hysterical restrictions do not seem to produce any lasting physical correlations, it seems obvious that more must be brought into play as the body reacts to a given issue.  A modern example of how this vision has led to a general view of the body as a mechanistic element, that can be broken down into various systems that either do or do not work together to perform a function, can be found in the theories of the cyborg – that a human being can have numerous systems replaced by machines without suffering any loss of their humanity, regardless of the nature of the surgical implant.

            The author’s disagreement with this line of thinking is brought forward later in the article as she discusses the views of Ferenczi, expanding these ideas in almost direct refutation of Freud’s concepts.  She says, “The gut is sometimes angry, sometimes depressed, sometimes acutely self-destructive; under the stress of severe dieting, these inclinations come to dominate the gut’s responsivity to the world.  At these moments any radical distinction between stomach and mood, between vomiting and rage is artificial” (Wilson, 2004: 44).  In this passage, she is arguing that more factors are involved in the bodily processes and manifestations of mood than most doctors or theories are currently willing to give credit for.  In the above statement, she illustrates how the body is subjected to various moods and states which are reinforced, associated with, or simply occurs in conjunction with physical limitations of some sort.  As these occurrences, both mental and physical, continue to occur in conjunction with one another, the body itself begins to make these associations to the point where it begins to respond to the world according to a ‘preset’ conditional response that may depend on emotion, chemical reaction, physical stresses or any combination of a number of things.

            The approach to the body taken by the author seems much more appropriate.  There has been recent scientific evidence of chemical reactions within the brain and body that occur only in response to emotional output.  As scientists become more capable of mapping the functions of the brain, this only becomes more and more evident.  Perhaps the biological elements that were sought by Freud and his followers could be found if a more holistic approach to human conditions were followed.  Rather than simply concluding, without having had the opportunity to test the myriad pathways, chemicals, and reactions produced, that there is no biological connection to the emotional response of the body as Freud does, Wilson argues that the body is fully interconnected and interoperation, with each part contributing and being affected by the rest.  The author uses the example of bulimia patients who respond well to anti-depressant medications as a treatment for their condition even when they are not necessarily displaying any overt signs of depression. 

The author of “Thinking with Gut Feeling” seems to also recognize an approach in medicine where the body and mind are seen as somehow divided. This is illustrated when she says, “We live in such a medicalized world, but normally when I go to the GP, I’m told its stress and to take up yoga and herbal tea. One doctor I saw about grinding my teeth suggested sleeping with a hockey mouth guard and doing strenuous exercise before bed” (Probyn, 2004: 52). Within this quote, the author is making the case that medicine has traditionally been approached with the perspective that the various elements are somehow completely detached from one another.

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