Hodges' Model: Welcome to the QUAD: spirit

Hodges' model is a conceptual framework to support reflection and critical thinking. Situated, the model can help integrate all disciplines (academic and professional). Amid news items, are posts that illustrate the scope and application of the model. A bibliography and A4 template are provided in the sidebar. Welcome to the QUAD ...

Showing posts with label spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirit. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Person-centredness, Holistic approach, Prevention c/o Hippocrates

“It is more important to know what sort of person 
has a disease than to know 
what sort of disease a person has.” 
Hippocrates

 
Individual
|
      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               
HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      
 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 
|
Group
To say that Hippocrates was ahead of his time is a gross understatement. Hippocrates recognised the importance of person-centredness and prevention, and contributed to the emergence of several medical specialties. (Kostakopoulos, et al., 2024). 


'Holistic Approach

One of the most significant innovations of the founding father of clinical medicine was the holistic approach for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. This approach is based on the assumption that the human body is a sum of many parts that function in harmony and that if one part is ill, the balance will be affected and the whole person will suffer. Hippocrates considered that patients consisted of body, mind, and spirit and this is also the modern physicians' approach when treating a disease [2].'
 

Health and social care are still playing catch-up. The vitriolic 'debate' on X over psychiatry - anti-psychiatry and DSM-X. The total inability now to shift to preventive healthcare due to the perverse, entrenched economic incentives, which facilitate increasing inequity, inequality.

Whichever Government does switch to preventive medicine, perhaps other governments had better take note? 

I think Hippocrates would have approved - wholeheartedly - of Hodges' model. 

 

'Prevention of Disease

Another important aspect of Hippocrates' works that is widely applied in 21st-century medicine is the prevention of disease. The phrase “Κάλλιον το προλαμβάνειν του θεραπεύειν,” which means that it is better to prevent than to treat a disease, was the cornerstone of his teachings and is based on the observation that healthy Mediterranean diet and daily moderate physical activity can prevent disease. The ancient Greeks believed that all maladies started from the gut and that walking was the best available medicine [2].'



Kostakopoulos NA, Bellos TC, Katsimperis S, Tzelves L. Hippocrates of Kos (460-377 BC): The Founder and Pioneer of Clinical Medicine. Cureus. 2024 Oct 1;16(10):e70602. doi: 10.7759/cureus.70602. PMID: 39483540; PMCID: PMC11526839.

Gabbard, G. The Person with the Diagnosis. Psychiatric News. 49;6. 19 March 2014. 
https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2014.3b19.

Brigić, A., Hasanović, M., Pajević, I., Aljukić, N., Hamidović, J., & Jakovljević, M. (2021). Principles of Hippocratic Medicine from the Perspective of Modern Medicine. Psychiatria Danubina, 33(Suppl 4), 1210–1217. 

See also: 'medicine' : 'person' : 'diagnosis' : 'prevention'

Friday, October 24, 2025

Come on Healthcare: catch up will you!

Within philosophy it is recognised that Immanuel Kant provided a means by which the rationalists and empricists can be reconciled. Some background:

In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge"[1] or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge",[2] often in contrast to other possible sources of knowledge such as faith, tradition, or sensory experience. More formally, rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive".[3]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalism
In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological view which holds that true knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience and empirical evidence.[1] It is one of several competing views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empiricists argue that empiricism is a more reliable method of finding the truth than purely using logical reasoning, because humans have cognitive biases and limitations which lead to errors of judgement.[2] Empiricism emphasizes the central role of empirical evidence in the formation of ideas, rather than innate ideas or traditions.[3] Empiricists may argue that traditions (or customs) arise due to relations of previous sensory experiences.[4]

Historically, empiricism was associated with the "blank slate" concept (tabula rasa), according to which the human mind is "blank" at birth and develops its thoughts only through later experience.[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism

If health and social care, must be evidence-based, then as far as Hodges' model is concerned we are then duty-bound to use the most readily available 'evidence' to us, including (while taking liberties?):

  • The structure of national health and social care organisations (NHS, DHSS ...)
  • Physical infrastructure
  • Human Resources Organisation
  • Unions and Labour relations
  • Texbooks, journal papers, conferences
  • Organisational structures from the regional to the local
  • Professional bodies and governance of licensing/registration
  • Curricula that students follow^
  • Models, frameworks, teaching and learning tools and methods
  • Data, statistics, information and reporting (national, international)
  • Research projects ongoing (whatever scale, methods, methodology)
  • Accounts from lived experience of patients, carers and public (^and students)
  • Policy
  • Funding
  • Law relating to Health and Social Care
  • Public (Mental) Health? Discuss
  • Media (Social) Control, Advertising
  • . . .

Hodges' model: Structure and Content


Using this evidence, we still see the Cartesian divide, the mind-body distinction writ large in health and social care. The continuing impact is evident in theory, practice, (hence) lived experience, policy and managment. Since its creation in the 1980s, Hodges' model mirrors (literally) this philosophical, epistemological and ontological legacy, thereby acknowledging the ancient history of medicine, and 'modern' development of healthcare and nursing. Through this device, Hodges' model can facilitate debate, critique, reflection, and critical thinking; to encourage progress in our thought, motivations, action and subsequent evaluation.


This explains the structure of Hodges' model and predicts the range (contextual signature) of content when the model is applied.

Evidence permitting of course!

See also: BBC The Great Philosophers:

Series 1: 4. Descartes

Series 1: 5. Spinoza and Leibniz

Series 1: 8. Kant

n.b. I video taped this marvellous series when first screened. When studying for my BA(Hons), audio taped, they also provided a great learning resource in the car. The programmes are on BBC 4 (UK) once again, but are readily accessible.

Thursday, September 26, 2024

They keep saying - 'duty of care' . . .

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group

duty of care


duty of care

duty of care

'fiduciary duty'


Fritjof Capra, Pier Luigi Luisi (2014) The Systems View of Life - A Unifying Vision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (I will add the page number soon.)
https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/life-sciences/genomics-bioinformatics-and-systems-biology/systems-view-life-unifying-vision?format=HB&isbn=9781107011366 

Previously on W2tQ - 'duty'

Sunday, June 23, 2024

Book for review: ii "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"

What I like here is being drawn (rescued then!) from the torrent that is the near reaches of the 

    bit, byte ... data, information, knowledge, wisdom

continuum, to its latter realm. The forever incomplete project of wisdom in 'care':
"Care, which is prior to all curing, identifies a fundamental availableness that has not yet been appropriated in the expert and technical discourses of care specialists." p.9.
This goes back to Pierron's 1st chapter focus upon 'Care: A New Arrival in the History of Philosophy'?

J. Braga & M. Santiago de Carvalho (Eds.), Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer.

A real gift for me (Hodges' model) is:
"Narration .. In opposition to the mathematization of the world, which reduces human problems to theoretical questions and to a universalized and rational formulation of moral dilemmas, the philosophies of care present a conflict of interpretations which deconstructs official and stereotyped narratives. Amy (or the voice of care) does not conceive a dilemma as a mathematical problem but rather as a narration of human relations, whose effects extends over time. (Gilligan 2008: 53)." p.13.
In addition to Tronto "Care is <<a species of activity that includes everything we do to maintain, contain, and repair our 'world' so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, ourselves, and our environment>> (Tronto 2009: 143)." p.15. (see i) - I must add Gilligan to the list. 

In this weekend's FT, there's an item about the sorry state of the UK's statistical infrastructure (a post will follow, and mention of another book). I remember* Derek Hoy (RIP) doing a presentation about using data, and nursing informatics to make nursing visible. I wonder how he would make sense of the contrast between nursing whilst in COVID and post?
"Gilligan puts forward a distinction between a feminine ethics of care, which makes use of the idea of the natural solicitude of women by associating self-sacrifice and concern for others, and a feminist ethic of care, thought of as a critical approach that brings to light the mechanisms which favour the "invisibilisation" of care. The latter makes it possible to analyse the ways in which we lose the capacity to care for the other when relations of mutual caring are damaged." p.14. 

As usual below I've mapped some concepts to the domains of Hodges' model. 
Many thanks again to Springer for my copy.

Please note, also - as usual I am trapped in chapter 1! :-)

Individual
|
      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES                   
HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      
 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 
|
Group

"Amy - voice of care"

relational

situated


data, information, informatics

visibility

statistical infrastructure



context

equity - equality

social justice

context

feminism

data - reporting

accountability of government(s)



See also:
body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy

*https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2010/08/drupal-musings-12-semantic-web-icnp.html

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

IO Magazine #41 Being = Space x Action


"The Parmenides poem in fact opens a rather impressively large range of philosophical issues which remain unresolved to this day: the questions of the unity of knowledge, the unity of being, the unity of knowledge and being, the nature of proof, the nature of thought itself, the nature of justice, the relations between thought, proof, knowledge and justice, the possibility of rational cosmology and the relationships between logic and cosmology, the existence and nature of abstract entities, the privileged status of philosophical knowledge - all these questions became explicitly formulatable questions immediately following the production of Parmenides poem, none of them are definitely resolved today, and the future of science, culture and the human spirit all depend to a far from trivial degree on how these questions come to be reflected upon." pp.3-4.



IO Magazine. Reveal Digital, 01-01-1988
Contributed by: Charles Stein; Don Byrd; A.S. Yessenin-Volpin; Christer Hennix; Henry Flynt; Henry Flynt; George Quasha; Charles Stein; Christer Hennix; Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer; L.E.J. Brouwer; L.E.J. Brouwer; Charles Stein. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28038534

The poem: http://philoctetes.free.fr/parmenidesunicode.htm

Friday, June 14, 2024

Book for review: i "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"


Among the questions that research might answer regards Hodges' model I have in mind:
  • At what age can Hodges' model be introduced in the general curriculum?
  • Is there consistency in how people view/interpret and apply Hodges' model?
  • How simple is it (or complex)?
  • Is it a meta-model?
  • How can Hodges' model relate to the spiritual?
My B.A.(Joint Hons) is in Philosophy and Computer Science, so the 'Philosophy of Nursing' is a preoccupation. In January 2022 I discovered:

J. Braga & M. Santiago de Carvalho (Eds.), Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer.

I requested a copy but ever distracted did not register any further action beyond acknowledgement and being forwarded. Discovering I'd missed this, I picked it up again. I must admit two years ago I was expecting a book with 'care' in the nursing, medicine, health context. Revisiting the 'blurb' I saw that this is not the full picture. Last year and this however drawn to conferences that combine the environment and religion this book really did fit the bill. Requesting a 'review copy' so late in the publishing cycle presents a challenge. 

Hodges' model provides a long-tail, surely a defining property of a lifelong learning resource? This plus a history of cataract surgery brought a print copy and many thanks to Daniela Rohrmann and team. I've now reached Part V, chapter 19 and 'medical care'.

The book's physical quality (printed hardcopy) is up to Springer's usual high quality standard. The fact that much of the contents have, I believe, been translated appears to show at times, in one chapter especially, with missing, or additional words. Perhaps this also reflects proof reading, an important part of production I would have thought (and still best not left to AI)? The font and print size is very readable and the format and design - architecture - of headings and layout are inviting and engage the reader. There are Any problems with grammar, flow were readily overcome. 

In meeting this text I oscillated in expectation - philosopher of care, as in the clinical context; and then the spiritual, pastoral. Which is it? The emphasis is on the latter with the final part focussed more on medicine. The book has extended my appreciation of 'care' in the wider sense, it is rewarding and well-worth reading.
"Finally, the fifth part – Care and Therapy – examines issues relevant to medical
care. This volume would be remiss if it did not take therapeutic care into account.
Practical and theoretical knowledge mutually influence each other. This highly specialized
domain imparts a significant amount of the status that care is given in our
daily lives. Thus, in this last part, the previous themes of otherness and ipseity converge
systematically. Through the theoretical emphasis that is placed on the issue of
suffering – whether it concerns physical illnesses or those of the psychological and
psychiatric realm – the authors of these chapters show us the urgency of thinking
about therapeutic care practices in the light of a theory of intersubjectivity, where
the disease itself and its cure are understood within the communication processes
and not only as exclusively technical-scientific processes." p.vii. (Introduction).
Don't worry I'm not going through each chapter, but Chapter 1 is a fascinating read, the title 'Care: A New Arrival in the History of Philosophy?https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-75478-5_1 presented an immediate challenge. For me, love, compassion, philosophy - as the love of wisdom, knowledge, what it is be, think, exist, the human condition and more all imply 'care' including care of thought and argument. I'm probably begging the question and I realise the Peirron's purpose is more specific, nuanced. I'm reassured though as care is defined by three criteria:
"(a) care is contextual and anti-essentialist... The characterization of care requires a great deal of attention to the precise details of each situation (Tronto, 2012: 35)."

"(b) care is relational and accepts that human beings , other beings, and the environment are interdependent  (Tronto, 2012: 32)."

"(c) In human societies which would like to assume the equal value of all human life, care needs to be democratic and inclusive  (Tronto, 2012: 36)." p.6.
I must read Tronto - who work has elevated vulnerability as flagship concept of her politics of care (Tronto, 2009) (p.8); 'dialectical' too (p.10). The book is full of many leads, the writing scholarly and authoritative.

With some studies in education and philosophy the pragmatic school of thought quickly surfaces. I see Hodges' model as a pragmatic solution. In addition to the 'pragmatics of care', Peirron opens the door even further in respect of 'care':
"Giving through care involves much more than what is described in the interactional framework of exchanges characteristic of homo economicus (economical animal) paradigm. Giving is not exchanging because care involves so much more than just the provision of a service. Care, as understood as a politically relevant anthropological position, is thus very different from a Hobbes-inspired anthropology which supposes a social epistemology based on a an atomistic approach to individuals. It provides a fundamental interpretation of our social intelligence by thinking it, starting from a relational anthropology within which the concept of vulnerability plays, as we will see, a strategic role. A pathetics of care rethinks the balance between reason and feeling, argument and emotion in the spirit of the tradition of Scottish philosophy, in order to allow a "different voice" to be heard in the analysis, the description, and the support of the human world." p.7. 
The pathetic view of care requires a language, methods, aesthetics that can manage 'the singularity of an enduring life history' (p.10). This equates for me with the health career in Hodges' model.

As usual below I've mapped some concepts to the domains of Hodges' model. I will add to this post too.

Individual
|
      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES                   
HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      
 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 
|
Group

contextual

anti-essentialist

relational

situated


context

human being, other being 

and environment -

interdependent


context

interdependence

care in human societies 

equality within human societies

context

situated

human societies are democratic

and inclusive


See also:
body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy

Monday, June 10, 2024

body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy

Near the end now of Braga & Carvalho's (2021) Philosophy of care on page 318 I came across:
"When we come up against the demon of acedia, then with tears let us divide the soul and have one part offer consolation and other receive consolation. (Pr. 27)."

Individual
|
      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               
HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      
 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 
|
Group

soul

body








- and a footnote (42):

"The generally accepted treatment for depression, with or without pharmaceutical intervention, is gentleness. Eat well, avoid stress, do not feel guilty; be kind to yourself, seek quiet but real amusement, rest a lot. But such a regime would find little sympathy with the spiritual directors of those afflicted with accidie. The classic cure for accidie is penance, a strict 'rule' of life, self-discipline and hard work" (Maitland, 2008: 113).

Maitland, Sara. 2008. A Book of Silence. London: Granta.

Interesting, the similarity between afflicted and affected?

A lot more to follow ...

Carvalho, C.A.S. Acedia and Its Care. In J. Braga & M. Santiago de Carvalho (Eds.), Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer. pp.297-323.

Abbrev. (Pr. 27) Evagrius of Pontus. 1971. Praktikos. ...

With thanks to Springer for hard copy - helps greatly. 👀

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Peter Higgs - Boson and Field

"Higgs theorised that particles would acquire mass by interacting with a new type of field. That field had a very special excitation of its own, another particle called the Higgs boson. The Higgs field solved a huge question in theoretical particle physics, and the Higgs boson was a tantalising target that experimentalists could hunt for in order to tie theory to reality.


“If you remove everything from the vacuum, all matter or quantum fluctuations, all electromagnetic stuff, all gravity, you will be left with the Higgs field,” says Frank Close at the University of Oxford. “And we need that just like a goldfish needs water. It stabilises empty space.”

Working independently from Higgs, Belgian physicists Francois Englert and Robert Brout reached the same conclusion, also in 1964."
On BBC Radio 4 11th April 1500 UT, Frank Close extended the goldfish analogy: "as if some clever goldfish have proved that they are immersed in something because they have found a molecule of H2O."

BBC Inside Science

The following is from a previous post:

UK Higher Education Research Excellence Framework - Disciplines
https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2023/07/ref-uk-higher-ed-h2cm.html


INDIVIDUAL
|
     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               
HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      
SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 
|
GROUP

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Archaeology

Theology and Religious Studies

Philosophy

[Mathematics & Logic]

^Communication 
as Intra- Interpersonal (Skills) Neurodiversity
hence an individual's
sense-making

Clinical Medicine (Neuroscience)
Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care
Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy
Biological sciences 
Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Sciences

Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
Chemistry
Physics
Mathematical Sciences
Computer Science and Informatics
Engineering
Architecture, Built Environment and Planning
Geography and Environmental Studies
Archaeology
Area Studies
Sport and Exercise Sciences, 
Archaeology
Social Work and Social Policy
Sociology
Anthropology and Development Studies
area studies
Education
Modern Languages and Linguistics
English Language and Literature
History
Classics
Communication^, Cultural and Media Studies, Library and Information Management
Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
Leisure and Tourism





Archaeology

Economics and Econometrics

Business and Management Studies

Law

area studies

Politics and International Studies

34 subject-based Units of Assessment (UOAs)



1st April 2030 From Person to Planet:

First Call for the First Transdisciplinary Health 
and Social Care Conference -
Everyone is Invited!


Open to all health and social care professions and disciplines:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_healthcare_occupations

A celebration of the Hodges' field.😉

RIP Peter Higgs

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Raymonda ...

... Care Aesthetics :: Care Architecture :: 

Care Choreography :: Care Design :: Care Journeys ...


"An epic journey of love and courage.

Taking inspiration from the ground-breaking spirit of Florence Nightingale and the women who supported the war effort in Crimea, Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director of English National Ballet, creates a new version of the classic story ballet, Raymonda.

England, 1854. Raymonda runs away from her comfortable life to become a nurse in the Crimean War. There, she becomes engaged to a soldier, John, but soon develops feelings for his friend Abdur, a leader of the Ottoman army. As turmoil grows around and inside her, who will she give her heart to?

Starring a huge cast of dancers and a full orchestra, this lavish adaptation keeps the best of the 19th-century original – its glorious and sensuous score by Alexander Glazunov and the classical choreography of ballet genius Marius Petipa – and updates it with a dramatic new story.

Introducing a heroine in command of her own destiny, and celebrating the courage of nurses and women who fought for emancipation, this beautiful production is guaranteed to thrill, move and inspire.

The original Raymonda is very rarely performed in the UK, where no dance company performs it in its entirety. This highly-anticipated version marks Tamara Rojo’s debut in directing and choreographing, building on her illustrious career as dancer and artistic director.

..."




The Trailblazing Nurses of the Crimean War


My source: RCN Bulletin 394: Winter 2021, p.26.

 

Sunday, November 14, 2021

Opening windows always ...

takes  effort ...
 
takes work ...
 
takes energy ...

Window pulleys - by Peter Jones @h2cm
Window pulleys

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group - population
windows on the soul

I can reflect

Hey! No looking!
frosted glass

windows of opportunity?
the eye
- touch -
the senses

(night) sky
windows on the universe

 

a mirror

science
Window on
GREEN spaces


shared
vision

rich-er picture

role models

stained glass wonder awe fear
social media window to identity
(glass ceilings)
transparency
/ opacity



Windows™

barred window
no light

 perseverance too ...

 

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Book: Poetry Pharmacy

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group








Saturday, February 24, 2018

Trauma: A definition c/o @fomsf_UWE




Resized image @fomsf_uwe
Trauma "a universal aspect of human experience in which individuals and groups have to undergo or bear certain burdens, troubles and serious wounds to the body and spirit". p.205.

INDIVIDUAL
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES         
humanistic -- UNIVERSAL HUMAN EXPERIENCE -- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
GROUP

SPIRIT
burdens troubles

BODY
serious wounds

(ethnography, multicultural practice)

 (refugees, mental health providers)


Elzbieta M. Gozdziak (2004) Training Refugee Mental Health Providers: Ethnography as a Bridge to Multicultural Practice. Human Organization: Summer 2004, Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 203-210.

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Le Quattro Volte (The Four Times) & h2cm

This week I am looking forward to going to see Le Quattro Volte (The Four Times) at Cornerhouse. According to the interview with Director Michelangelo Frammartino on BBC Radio 4's The Film Programme a key theme behind the film is Pythagoras' belief in four-fold transmigration. This sounds a fascinating way to explore the relationship between the spirit, human experience and nature.

 My take on this in terms of Hodges' model:

Human - Memory & Rational
(thought)
Mineral - Bones (skeleton)
Plants - Sap - Blood
(kith & kin)
Animals - Movement (power)


Saturday, August 21, 2010

Rooms with a View (and without) ...

Rooms: Book cover




There are times ... when to understand body, mind - and the things that people do to themselves and others - we need to consider the four care domains.

Then we can appeal to the fifth. ...









Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Hodges model: The realm of the Centaur...?

I've rather messed about here before with ideas for the new website, banners and graphics. In reading I've switched from SF to Ken Wilber, who with David Bohm I have intended to read for many years.

In Wilber's book No Boundary I found a gift of an iconic image, as in health and social care we constantly strive to achieve integrated and holistic care.


Much of my day-to-day work involves mind-body : body-mind and the suffering between.

In No Boundary we read about the Centaur:

Let us return to the level of the total organism and continue with the story of the growth of the spectrum. At this level, the individual is identified solely with her organism, existing in time, in flight from death. Nevertheless, she is at least still in touch with her entire psychophysical being. This is why we usually refer to the level of the total organism by a simpler name: the centaur. A centaur is a legendary animal, half human and half horse, and so it well represents a perfect union and harmony of mental and physical. A centaur is not a horse rider in control of her horse, but a rider who is one with her horse. Not a psyche divorced from and in control of a soma, but a self-controlling, self-governing, psychosomatic unity. p.72

Related posts:

Holistic care and 'where' it means....

20/20 vision minus 1, 2, or 4 blind spots....

Physio-Political ... musings, songs and dances...


Ken Wilber (2000) No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth. Paperback / Shambhala Publications, ISBN 978-1-57062-743-9.

Image source:
http://ancientcoinsforeducation.org/gallery2/d/3116-1/CentaurGreekPotteryRed.jpg