Neurodynamics: The Art of Mindfulness in Action by Theodore Dimon Jr. & G. David Brown

Author:Theodore Dimon Jr. & G. David Brown [Dimon, Theodore Jr. & Brown, G. David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Health; Fitness & Dieting, Alternative Medicine, Meditation, Diseases & Physical Ailments, Nervous System, Psychology & Counseling, Neuropsychology, Medical Books, Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Religion & Spirituality, Alternative Therapies, Counseling & Psychology, Medical eBooks, New Age, PSY051000 Psychology / Cognitive Neuroscience & Cognitive Neuropsychology
ISBN: 9781583949801
Amazon: B00TCI40EI
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 2015-11-02T22:00:00+00:00

Dewey and the Reflex Arc Concept

Although we have come very far in understanding the nature of the problem of harmful use of the body in action, it is clear that we will not be able to solve this problem until we understand something of the nature of instinctive or subconscious action as an integral part of what is involved in acting voluntarily. It is so much in the nature of action to think of it as being directed from the conscious mind, like musicians in an orchestra being directed by the conductor, that it is difficult to imagine that it operates any other way. And yet the muscular system, the nervous system, sensation, and behavior operate as a complex whole, and to speak of one or another element, such as conscious choice—which is, after all, only a constituent part of this totality and does not somehow act as a discrete agent that directs action—separately from the whole is somewhat of an abstraction.

In a seminal article entitled “The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology,” written in 1896, John Dewey critiqued the popular conception of action as a series of discrete elements forming a reflex arc. The reflex arc concept was based on the widely accepted view that the nervous system is designed to receive incoming sensory data, to process this information in the brain as an idea, and to send an outgoing message in the form of a motor response (Fig. 3-4a). But where, Dewey asked, are these three components of the reflex arc that mysteriously trigger each other in a causal chain? In an example of a child who sees and then reaches for a light, Dewey challenges the notion that the light acts as a stimulus and that the child’s reaching for it is the response. The child, Dewey points out, doesn’t see the light, but must first possess a total sensorimotor coordination that allows the child to turn its head; in this sense, the stimulus—the seeing of the light—doesn’t exist as a sort of psychical entity, but takes place within a preexisting whole; he calls this view “contextualism.” Nor does the stimulus precede the formation of an idea, which then leads to a motor act; all three elements are present throughout the act, which involves a constant transformation of the various components (Fig. 3-4b). Without such a coordinated whole as an antecedent condition, the elements of the reflex arc would have no relation but would be a series of mysterious entities that somehow affected each other. As Dewey wrote, “It is the coordination which unifies that which the reflex arc concept gives us only in disjointed fragments.”12

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