DESCARTES' DUALISTIC INTERACTIONISM IN THE LIGHT OF CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOSOMATIC MEDICINE

Abstract

Up to the present time, René Descartes' postulation that there are two distinct categories of reality is still problematic because he created a dichotomy between material world and the meta-physical world (Matter and Mind). Besides, he asserts that the mind and body mutually influence and interact with each other. This leads physiological and psychological thinking into difficulty, reason being that there is no known causality of this mind-body mutual relationship since the mind-body are separate entities. Nevertheless, René Descartes further claims that the causality is located in the pineal gland but it is still unknown how the mind takes primacy and control over the body. The Researcher employs the method of analysis to depict the influence of Cartesian Dualism of mind-body relationship in the contemporary psychosomatic medicine. However, in the last century of Western philosophy, with nervous system investigation, and with recent advances in neuroscience, the potential avenue to explore the understanding of the knowledge and effect of Cartesian Mind-Body has expanded. Only recently, however, there have been an increase in primary focus of medical care on the mind-body illness and it has been discovered that most disorders lack an organic explanation. Since, this problem is psycho-rational metaphysic, this study recommends the acceptance of psycho-epistemic logical soundness of mind-body dualistic interactionism, instead of seeking the logical causal validity of biological intrinsic interactional relatedness of mind and body.