Developing a Capacity for Bodily Concern: Antonio Damasio and the Psychoanalysis of Body–Mind Relationship

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe author starts from the assumption that the body is the mind’s primary object. He explores the link between his clinical research about the Body–Mind relationship and neuroscience, by focusing particularly on the contribution by Antonio Damasio who has emphasized the importance of the bodily roots of mental functioning. In many patients nowadays, developing a capacity for “concern for one’s own body” is a stepping stone toward a genuine non-imitative mental functioning. This perspective contrasts with psychoanalytic orientations that give priority to recognition of the other and intersubjective dynamics.