Being-in-PLACE

So, half of what we know comes from our senses, ‘our bodily interactions in the world.’ And this half provides mostly unconscious knowing. When this unconscious knowing breaks into consciousness, it does so through metaphor, and unless the metaphor is decoded, it still remains outside of knowing, except through a metaphoric reference.

Lakoff and Johnson in Metaphors We Live By give countless examples, here is one. “Since there are systematic correlates between our emotions (like happiness) and our sensory-motor experiences (like erect posture), these form the basis of orientational metaphorical concepts (such as HAPPY IS UP). The “up arrow” is our culture’s visual symbol this read.

“Our most refined thoughts and actions, our greatest joys and deepest sorrows, use the body as a yardstick” explains neuroscientist Antonio Damasio in Descartes’ Error. Most everyone agrees that at least at times of great joys and deep sorrows, there is a deeply felt, emotional state accompanied by a feelingful physical state of being.   

Some may have missed the second Embodied-Brain Systems Science (EMBOSS) international symposium in 2018, but the organizers report it was a great success. And embodied brain enjoys ever increasing, interdisciplinary research in phenomenology (philosophy), eco-psychology, neuroscience as well as physics, chemistry, sociology, neurobiology, robotics, dynamical systems theory, architecture, linguists, mathematics, anthropology and computer science.

Here is one example of the applied research in rehabilitation medicine and computer science. Scientists are looking at neuroplasticity to understand how body representations are modeled in the brain, how motor control alters that body representation and how the embodiment process especially the motor control aspects of an active artificial limb, how this embodied brain system is changed as researchers add kinesthetic and visual stimulation (mixed virtual reality). This science has a relationship to eco-psychology and biophilia. Eco-psychology, as defined by Laurie Tarkan, is the study of the relationship between “human psyche and the natural environment.” Biophilia as defined by biologist E.O. Wison in his book Biophilia means “the rich, natural pleasure that comes from being surrounded by living organisms.”

The NIH in 2015 published an article entitled “The embodied brain: towards a radical embodied cognitive neuroscience.” The authors, Julian Kiverstein and Mark Miller offered a way to realize the potential of embodied cognitive science and underscoring the need to give up “on a brain-centered view of cognitive function. We will no longer be able to claim that the brain is the organ of the mind. Instead we will need to think about mind and the cognitive processes that make up the mind at the level of the whole brain-body-environment system.”

Could Marie Kondo involved in this?

So this might explain how Marie Kondo had a rise out of nowhere to a highly popular and celebrated ‘tidying expert.’ It has been suggested that her popularity is evidence of a revolt against consumerism. Really? Marie Kondo offers guidance and advice, but she is also selling things – small things – elegant Japanese things – things that don’t take up much room – things that could help in a more contemplative lifestyle — like a steel and wood Japanese garden trowel for $64.00. It make more sense if in her popularity is a response to the needs of a more pleasing environment for our embodied brains.

So how do places fit into an understanding of the embodied brain?  

There is a rich body of research documenting how people respond to nature. For example, just looking out a window at green has been shown to lower a person’s heart rate. There is a story in one mental hospital in Sweden where a number of patients (over time) tore modernist paintings off the wall and destroyed them, but no painting of a natural setting nor painting of flowers was ever harmed. Many hospital studies have confirmed the benefits and efficacy of patient access to natural environments speeding up patient recovery. Through a few decades of work discovering people’s embodied response to nature, Biophilia had a ‘natural merger’ with the developments coming out of neuroscience concerning the embodied brain. Natural places, are places of course. And there is a lot of work around the idea of bringing more nature into populated areas, and growing food in cities for example. But the studies on the embodied brain in other kinds of places is not yet robust.