Somatization and embodiment

• Published in: Philosophical psychology Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 1318 - 1345
• Main Authors: Morujão, Carlos, Leite, Ângela Maria Teixeira
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 19.05.2025; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Embodiment; psycho-physical unity; psychosomatics; somatization
• ISSN: 0951-5089; 1465-394X
• DOI: 10.1080/09515089.2023.2241498

This paper aims to explain the concepts of somatization and embodiment, clarifying their meaning and establishing points of contact and differentiation between them. To this end, a review of the concepts was carried out both in the psychological and the philosophical literature. We claim that a psychological account of somatization of psychical processes (whether of a pathological nature or not) must take into account the basic anthropological feature of human beings that consists in the fact that they are psycho-physical units. Philosophical literature on the subject can be of some help to psychologists (we also claim), since it enlightens the fact that there is no lived experience of the world and of others, at least in the so-called normal cases, where the abovementioned unity is not immediately present.