What therapeutic hope for a subjective mind in an objectified body?

Abstract

To cite this article : Michael Soth (2006) What therapeutic hope for a subjective mind in an objectified body?, Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 1:1, 43-56, Abstract This is an article based on a presentation given at the United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy (UKCP) conference 2004. Our modern attempt to re-include the body in psychotherapy brings with it the inevitable danger that we import the culturally dominant objectifying construction of the body into a field which may represent one of the last bastions of subjectivity, authenticity, and intimacy in an increasingly virtual world. The paper addresses the question how embodied subjectivity can be found within a relational matrix pervaded by disembodiment and self-objectification.The ubiquitous objectification of the body in our culture and in the field of psychotherapy is illustrated in the paper. It is described as a manifestation of an underlying experience of dis-embodiment. Two ways of re-including the body in psychotherapy are then distinguished: one based on a ''third-person'' ''medical model'' stance and the other on a ''first-and-second-person'' ''intersubjectiverelational'' model. By formulating these two contradictory and complementary ways of using the body in terms of the therapist's implicit relational stance, attention is drawn to what is considered an underlying paradox inherent in all types of psychotherapy. I am hoping that practitioners from across the approaches will be able to recognize and relate to both sides of the dilemma, and through this to both ways of re-including the body in psychotherapy.As the medical model stance was the prevalent default position of what we may therefore call traditional body psychotherapy, and the relational one has become available only in the last decade, a case illustration is used to trace some of my own development as a therapist through the shadow aspects and pitfalls of an exclusive reliance on the first towards an integration of the two and to an appreciation of their necessarily conflicted co-existence in the paradoxical core of the therapeutic position.Correspondence: Michael Soth, 14 Hawthorn Close, Oxford OX2 9DY, UK.

Book reviews

“…has infiltrated and pervaded body psychotherapy to its detriment. Marlock identifies and deals with this difficult shadow theme which I have addressed myself (Soth, 2006a). One basic principle, which is well established in hermeneutics and German epistemology, is that applying the same theories and rules to humans as to inanimate objects or animals is like mixing apples and oranges, and is not possible without reductionism.…”

“…It seems to me that these wounds remain in the background as essentially still unresolved existential and developmental issues, underpinning and structuring our collective identity, which is then still defined by identification against and opposition to other traditions and the history of our own ''character formation.'' How the potential of our discipline is curtailed by these wounds is a theme that I have struggled with (Soth, 2005b(Soth, , 2006a(Soth, , 2006b. In over-simplified terms, most chapters of the book are written from a humanistic identification against our psychoanalytic origins, reminiscent of the beginnings of my own therapeutic practice 20 years ago.…”

A grounded theory exploration of therapists’ experiences of somatic phenomena in the countertransference

“…The therapist's body as a neglected research topic Soth (2006) coined the term disembodiment to refer to a sense of loss of identification with the body in psychotherapy. He argues that while a holistic comprehension of the connection between the client's body and mind is increasingly established, the exploration of the therapist's 'being-in-relationship' in terms of an intricate psychosomatic system is still quite rare both in literature and practice.…”

Personal development groups in post graduate dance movement psychotherapy training: A study examining their contribution to practice

“…It may be appropriate for these to remain symbolic, although the practitioner needs to recognize what it is in order to assist the group/client to process the feelings/fantasies. Group facilitators and theory modules on DMT training programmes might consider how this important issue can be given an explicit consideration, particularly in relation to erotic transference, embodied countertransference (Soth 2005(Soth , 2006 and ethical practice.…”