ABSTRACT
Separating mind from body—as is implied by everyday phrases such as “mind over matter” and “mind/body relationship”—might seem useful and reasonable. This chapter aims to trouble mind/body dualism, articulating the harm it does in psychology and in academe generally. The core problem is that when mind and body are separated, they are not equal. Mind matters so much more than does body that humans are effectively disembodied, rendered as ethereal, more like avatars than large bipedal mammals who, in addition to deciding, remembering, and making meaning, also breathe and birth babies, eat and defecate, scream and harmonize, kill and rescue. Moreover, mind/body dualism has contributed to the fracturing of academic curricula and institutions in ways that perpetuate gendered and raced segregation and inequality. This practical critique of mind/body dualism points to institutional and pedagogical initiatives that can increase the vitality and wholeness of psychology and academic culture by fleshing out human beings as fully embodied creatures.
