Question

What effect did Cartesian dualism have upon modern medicine?

Do you think the Cartesians got it wrong and the mind and body do interact in the health and disease of individuals?

Answer 1

Cartesians believed that body and mind are two different entities but they interact with each other to make a complete human being because in their point of only humans have this capacity. Traditional medicine thought all ailments were physical and psychological ailments were considered as possessed by devil. I think the Cartesians were right in determining the separation of body and mind and thinking is a major component that makes the physical body work in the way it works. With the birth of psychology, modern medicine acknowledged the mind’s part in physical ailments. This is one of the major development in the modern world where the physicians and the psychologists work together to identify the connections between the physical body and the mind, thus making the treatment very holistic. A person’s thinking affects the way the body cells react with each other changing the hormone levels thus resulting in physical illness. So correcting the thought process and behaviors will restore physical illness too.