Mind-Body Correlation and its Logic: the Experience of “Invisible Body”

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate mind-body correlation and to propose an understanding of the unique movement of the invisible body in psychotherapy. The author examined the intermediate field of mind and body with reference to concepts of mind-body boundary in different schools. And they were examined once put into clinical practice based on bodily micro events sensed in the relational field. It intends to explain how the in-between area of mind and body was generated based on a clinical picture gathered through listening to clients' dream narrative. It was shown that a logic different from linear causal theory is significant to explain mind-body correlation. Based on the theory of Buddhism, the author introduced a nonlinear logic of Utsushi (projecting, transferring, and reflecting) as an attempt to present an explanatory model of mind-body correlation. In conclusion, the phenomena of disease can be described not only through physiological and biological viewpoints but also through the narrative meaning of the illness in the client's life history. The logic of Utsushi was effective in bridging a dual description of the biological and the narrative/biographical.