The Real Descartes… Believing The Mind, Body And Soul Are In Relationship
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From Descartes To Integration
I feel I need to start this post with a bit of a get-out clause… I am not a philosopher, nor am I thoroughly grounded in the huge body of works of Descartes. The intention of this post is not to provide a thorough account of the mind-body problem in philosophy. What I intend to do is to highlight how Descartes has influenced Western medicine today. From here, I will be able to focus on my goal for this post… To discuss how I believe that this philosophical position comes to bear on our understanding of Type 1 Diabetes and my ability to heal it.
Who Was Descartes?
By After Frans Hals - André Hatala [e.a.] (1997) De eeuw van Rembrandt, Bruxelles: Crédit communal de Belgique, ISBN 2-908388-32-4., Public Domain, Link
René Descartes (1596–1650) was a mathematician, scientific thinker and philosopher. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern philosophy. Descartes was born in France, where he spent the first 22 years of his life. In 1628, Descartes established himself permanently in the Dutch Republic (now Holland), where he wrote all of his major works. One of his most well-known doctrines concerned the relationship between the mind and the body. He explored this relationship in detail in two of his works: “Principia Philosophiae” [1] and “Meditations” [2].
Mind-Body Dualism
In Principia Philosophiae [1] and in the Second Meditation [3], Descartes outlines his thoughts on the mind-body relationship. Through a series of explorations, Descartes concluded that the mind and body must be made from different substances. He believed that the mind was made from a thinking substance that could not go beyond itself (it could not extend into space). This thinking substance, or “thinking thing”, he called “res cogitans”. The body, by contrast, was understood to be an unthinking substance that was able to extend itself in space. This substance, Descartes named “res extensa” or “extended thing”. Philosophers and theorists alike, since the time of Descartes, have therefore used this line of reasoning to emphasise how Descartes believed that the mind and the body were thus distinct entities. This line of thought is what is referred to today as “Cartesian dualism” or “mind-body dualism”.
The Real Descartes
Descartes [4] is well-known for his phrase “cogito ergo sum” (literally translated as “I think, therefore I am”). It is often used as a symbol to demonstrate how Descartes truly underlined the distinction between the mind and the body.
Such a statement is a debasement and truncation of the intended message of Descartes’ works. Descartes’ writings were, in fact, deeply involved in questioning not only the relationship between the mind and the body but also about the nature of the interactions between them.
A wider reading of Descartes reveals how he believed that the mind, body and soul were in fact not only in relationship with each other but connected via a small region of the brain known as the pineal gland [5, 6]. Descartes [7] posited that the pineal gland was the seat of the soul and the place where all thoughts were formed. Moreover, it was the place where the mind, body and soul interacted. However, throughout his lifetime, Descartes struggled to delineate exactly what the relationships between mind, body and soul were. In letters to friends [8], Descartes was known to devalue and dismiss his metaphysical ideas, aware of their inherent weaknesses and lack of successful theoretical foundation. However, he still maintained that there exists “experience within ourselves certain… things which must not be referred either to the mind alone or to the body alone” but “from the close and intimate union of our mind with the body” [9].
Descartes’ Division Of Mind And Body
As Descartes’ theories of mind, body and soul developed, he encountered trouble. His philosophies offended the Church, who believed that the soul was purely their remit. Thus, in 1663, the Church listed Descartes’ works on its Index of Prohibited books [10]. In order to resolve this growing conflict, Descartes and the Church came to an agreement… The Church would hold sole control over the theorising of the soul, mind and emotions. In return, Descartes would focus solely on the workings of the human body and would be provided with corpses by the Church for purposes of dissection [11]. Thus, the split between mind and body was decided.
Treating Diabetes Using Western Medicine
Mind-body dualism is at the very heart of Western medicine. In doctors’ surgeries, the patient is required to submit their body to be examined, like an object under investigation. Issues in the body are inspected, analysed and assessed. Mental, emotional and spiritual health issues are discussed separately to the physical body and each is treated separately to each other.
Diabetes is understood as a purely bodily, physical medical condition, which needs to be treated with medication [12]. The mental or spiritual elements are generally considered to be outside of the diabetologist’s remit. For me, this became wholly evident when, some years ago, I had a period of suffering from anxiety and depression. At my diabetes check-up, I discussed how my mental health was impacting my ability to maintain tight blood sugar levels. My diabetologist’s response was to refer me to see a psychologist. The diabetologist then continued to work on my blood sugars whilst the psychologist worked on my mind.
Revising Western Medicine’s Theoretical Foundation
Cartesian medicine is coming into question more and more today. With the arrival, and recognition of, psychosomatic illnesses, the line between the mind and the body is becoming increasingly blurred. Some such examples include chronic pain and fibromyalgia. Such conditions are seen as having both mental and physical components that interact with each other. For example, on days with higher pain, mental health can deteriorate. Equally, increased mental health issues, perhaps due to familial or work issues, can result in increased physical pain or decreased flexibility and motility. However, T1D appears to fall outside of that discussion and I question why. Perhaps it is because T1D’s treatment plan relies so heavily on the physical infusions of insulin. I don’t know.
Furthermore, according to Diabetes UK [13], three in five diabetics experience emotional or mental health problems as a result of their diabetes. More dramatically still, stressful life events, such as bereavement, divorce and violence, in the family environment during pregnancy and the first two years of life, increase a child’s chance of developing type 1 diabetes [14, 15]. So the link seems to be both ways… The physical condition of diabetes affecting the emotional life of the patient and the emotional life of the patient implicating the onset of the condition in the first place.
So, for me, T1D is not a medical disorder. It is a psychosomatic condition that needs to be seen through the lenses of both mental and physical health.
Going Forward…
If I remove Descartes from my understanding of diabetes, then healing T1D becomes much more multifaceted. My new understanding needs to place treatment on both the mind and the body, preferably in an integrated and holistic way. As such, I will be open to the idea that mind practices can have an effect on my body system, and particularly on the functioning of my pancreas. I will assume that healing T1D involves healing the whole of me. That my immune system can be influenced by my mind. This idea, and practical strategies that I intend to employ, will be outlined and implemented in future posts.
Summary
- Descartes’ bastardised philosophies of a disconnection between mind and body are the foundation of Western medicine today.
- Cartesian medicine understands physical illnesses and conditions in term of the mechanics of the body, usually conferring that something has gone wrong in the system that is the human body.
- Diabetes, as a physical disorder, is understood to result from a misfiring of the immune system. However, no physical cause for this misfiring has been found.
- Diabetes can be understood as a multifaceted mind-body disorder, which requires both mental and physical treatment for healing to take place.
References
- Descartes, R. (1644). Principia Philosophiae. Amsterdam: Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium. [Link]
- Descartes, R. (1658). Meditationes de prima philosophia. Janssonium Juniorum. [Link]
- Descartes, R., Sanderson Haldane, E., and Thomson Ross, G. R. (1993). Meditations on First Philosophy in Focus. London and New York: Routledge. (Original work published 1641.) [Link]
- Watson, R. (2007). Cogito, ergo sum: The life of Rene Descartes. Boston: David R. Godine. [Link]
- Descartes, R. (1972). Treatise on Man (trans. Hall, T. S.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1662.) [Link]
- Descartes R. (1989). The Passions of the Soul. Indianapolis: Hackett. (Original work published 1649.) [Link]
- Finger, S. (2000). Minds Behind the Brain: A History of the Pioneers and Their Discoveries. New York: Oxford University Press. [Link]
- Clarke, D. M. (2006). Descartes: A Biography. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo: Cambridge University Press. [Link]
- Gottlieb, A. (2016). The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy. New York and London: Liveright Publishing. [Link]
- de Bujanda, J. M. (2002). Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1600–1966. Montreal and Geneva, Mediaspaul and Librairie Droz. [Link]
- Pert, C. B. (1997). Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel. London & Sydney: Simon & Schuster. [Link]
- https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/diabetes/
- https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news/three-in-five-people-with-diabetes-experience-emotional-or-mental-health-problems
- Lundgren, M., Ellstrom, K, and Larsson, H. E. (2018). Influence of early-life parental severe life events on the risk of type 1 diabetes in children: the DiPiS study. Acta Diabetologica, 55(8), 797-804. [Link]
- Nygren, M., Carstensen, J., Koch, F., Ludvigsson, J., and Frostell, A. (2015). Experience of a serious life event increases the risk for childhood type 1 diabetes: the ABIS population-based prospective cohort study. Diabetologia, 58(6), 1188-1197. [Link]
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Natalie is a blogger with Type 1 Diabetes. Natalie's special gifts are questioning the status quo and being a rebel. She is using these gifts to question medical 'knowledge' and find a true cure for Type 1 Diabetes.
