EMBODIMENT AND EMBODIED COGNITION: EXPERIENCE OF STUDY AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The article reveals the results of the theoretical and methodological analysis and approaches to the study of the embodiment phenomenon. The analysis of numerous studies leads to the realization that the concept of embodiment is based on such a term as “embodied cognition” or “embodied mind”. The author analyzes these concepts in a number of studies by foreign scholars in the field of cognitive sciences. As a result of the analysis of psychological studies of this construct in the Ukrainian psychological and psychotherapeutic literature, the insufficient representation of its study is established. Approaches to the analysis of the embodiment gap are analyzed. It is noted that despite the existence of a number of studies that have a tradition of studying the embodiment in terms of human subordination to the central nervous system, the embodiment is not limited to one-way body-mind connections, but is an interconnected process of interaction of the body with the psyche and the psyche with the body. Embodiment concerns not only mental processes, but also the sensorimotor experience of people, their abilities. In addition, the author writes that embodiment is manifested through the integration of sensory and motor processes in the formation of cognition, and also suggests that cognitive processes often include the modeling of sensorimotor experiences in the mind, emphasizes the situational nature of cognition, that is, cognitive processes are shaped by the specific contexts and environments in which they occur. In general, an attempt to interpret the “embodiment of cognition” is to define this phenomenon as a process of understanding ideas and the connections between them. As a result of this interpretation, it was found that the embodiment of cognition refers not only to mental processes, but also to the sensorimotor experience of people and their abilities. The structure of the body and its movements, posture, and breathing determine the way we think, feel, act, and achieve. Body and brain are one. Being connected, they influence each other. The body does not forget anything. In the absence of discharge of traumatic energy, the traumatic situation remains relevant for the body. To release this energy, you need to learn to feel inseparable from the body and trust it. The main method of discharge and therapy is in specially created conditions that allow the body to independently determine an adequate way out of the situation.