René Descartes Relationship Between The Mind And Body

1881 Words8 Pages
Introduction: Dating back to ancient times, theories concerning the relationship between mind and body have been discussed. René Descartes argued that the mind and body are separate and different entities, however the mind is able to influence the body and the body is able to influence the mind. This is a form of interactionism called ‘dualism’1. This theory raises the issue called the ‘mind-body problem’, which questions how mental processes are able to influence physical processes, due to the fact that the mind is non-physical and the body is physical2. By referring to the interactionism theories, it is therefore possible to study the relationship between stress and physical illnesses in terms of psychophysiology. Psychophysiology is ‘a branch of physiology that is concerned with the relationship between mental and physical processes; it is the scientific study of the interaction between mind and body’3. This essay will discuss the relation between the mind and body with the following research question: To what extent…show more content…
The fight or flight response is a defence mechanism that is triggered in response to danger or a threat. Stressors that normally trigger this response when danger is present may be ‘misread’ by the body as life threatening when in actuality they are not24. This results in the response being triggered in day-to-day stressful events. If this response is triggered too often, over a prolonged period of time, there are likely to be negative effects on the health of the body. Changes in the body due to the fight or flight response can include an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, increase in blood-glucose levels, irregular beating of the heart, and an increase in the likelihood of blood clots25. As these changes in the body are all able to trigger cardiovascular diseases, it is understandable that the recurrence of such symptoms is

More about René Descartes Relationship Between The Mind And Body

Open Document