Overeating, Edible Commodities and the Global Industrial Diet: How Somaesthetics Can Help Psychology and Nutrition

Abstract

The clinical disciplines of psychology and nutrition have both arguably failed to prevent or curtail widespread obesity and overeating.  One reason for that may be that the bifurcation of the two disciplines as part of a broader Cartesian tradition, discouraging body consciousness and ultimately undermining personal well-being and public health.  Somaesthetics has much to offer in reconciling the two disciplines into a unified philosophy and practice of body-mind awareness, in that it speaks to the biological, cognitive, and health sciences as fluently as it does to the humanities.  Somaesthetics as a translational bridge between these two applied disciplines promises an approach in which body, mind, and culture are thoroughly integrated.