ABSTRACT
For a prolonged period, Western medicine and society have considered the mind and the body to be individual entities, acting separate from each other in influencing the psychological and physiological functions of the body. Even though William James advocated in his text The Principles of Psychology that the scientific study of psychology should be grounded in an understanding of biology, this concept has been slowly embraced by researchers. To date, investigations addressing topics of a psychobiological nature are often addressed from a unidirectional perspective, with the physiological or psychological aspects of responses often addressed singularly. Hence, researchers have tended to selectively ignore pertinent findings in the divergent areas. The reasons behind this disconnect between the psyche and the body is a paradox. Although mind-body interaction must be considered to gain greater understanding of the human experience including the stress response and associated health outcomes, both investigative efforts and application of these principles are in their infancy.
