Delmarva Today 9-10-21
Harold Wilson’s Guest is Dr. Jane Gagliardi associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and associate professor of Medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine.
Is there actually a mind/body dichotomy?
In his, Les Pensées, the great 17th century philosopher, Blaise Pascal tells us,
The human being is only a reed, the most feeble in nature; but he is a thinking reed. It isn't necessary for the entire universe to arm itself in order to crush him; a whiff of vapor, a taste of water, suffices to kill him. But when the universe crushes him, the human being becomes still more noble than that which kills him, because he knows that he is dying, and The Universe has no idea of the advantage it has over him.
Pascal went on to develop a theory of the mind/body relationship which is called Cartesian Dualism. Today the dualistic nature of the mind and body is under serious question and even dispute by the scientific community. But in his Pensées, Pascal does offer us a great insight, and that is our capacity for self-awareness. The neuroscientist Stephen Fleming calls it metacognition. A nice fifty cent word which means that not only are we a thinking reed but we can even think about our thinking. This capacity for self-reflection has a great impact on our mental health and our physical health.
What then is the relationship between our mental health and our physical health; between mind and body? When you visit your doctor, what does he or she see? Is it only the reed and its malady, or is it the reed thinking, reflecting, caring, responding? To consider this question, my guest is board-certified in internal medicine and board-certified in psychiatry. She is currently director of the combined residency training program in Internal Medicine-Psychiatry. Individuals who complete training in combined residency programs experience many opportunities to observe and think about where the body ends and the mind begins, or vice versa.
Indeed, where does one end and the other begin? Listen in and hear Dr. Gagliardy talk about the interface between our minds and our bodies.