Developing a Capacity for Bodily Concern: Antonio Damasio and the Psychoanalysis of Body-Mind Relationship

The author starts from the assumption that the body is the mind's primary object. He explores the link between his clinical research about the Body-Mind relationship and neuroscience, by focusing particularly on the contribution by Antonio Damasio who has emphasized the importance of the bodily roots of mental functioning. In many patients nowadays, developing a capacity for concern for one's own body is a stepping stone toward a genuine non-imitative mental functioning. This perspective contrasts with psychoanalytic orientations that give priority to recognition of the other and intersubjective dynamics.