ABSTRACT
Until recently, the body has been almost completely ignored in theories and empirical research in psychology in general, and in developmental psychology in particular. This neglect is partly due to Descartes’ split between mind and body, which has held sway over philosophy and psychology for centuries. Lately, increasing dissatisfaction with Descartes’ dualism has been expressed in different scientific disciplines, including biology and neuroscience (Damasio, 1994; Gallese & Lakoff, 2005), philosophy (Gallagher, 2005; Taylor, 1995), anthropology (Sheets-Johnstone, 1990), and psychology (Barsalou, Simmons, Barbey, & Wilson, 2003; Hobson, 2002; L. B. Smith, 2005). Common to this movement is the conviction that Descartes’ dualist conception does not adequately capture the relation between body and mind. Hence, several alternative conceptions of the relation between body and mind have been developed that share the idea that the body plays an important role in human emotional, social, and cognitive life.
