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Alienation of the Body

The body, the individual phenotype, is the genotype’s pawn, which humans have the peculiar ability to experience as though it were something other than one’s self. It is the body that is the playing piece in the game of natural selection and which binds one’s subjective experience to the premises of the system of nature. It is understandable, then, that the human consciousness could turn not only against the natural world as the body’s environment, but against the body itself as the immediate environment for consciousness—one’s own body, and the corporality of the world in general. The notion of transcendence and the rejection of the body are suggested by the interior subjective space that seems to be distinct from it and from the external world. Withdrawal into the realm of mind, spirit, and the Ideal expresses alienation from the body. But such withdrawal is not logically or psychologically inevitable; it is far more a masculine than feminine theme. The developing consciousness of the male collective—as of the male child—finds expression in ascensionism, asceticism, and mortification of the body; in intellectualism, metaphysics, and spirituality; in the rejection of the feminine, and domination, if not hatred, of women.

RELATED TAGS: [phenotype (and) genotype, genetic pawn, game/contest of natural selection/ system of nature, body as environment, environment for consciousness, corporality (of the world), rejection of the body, interior/inner subjective space, realm of mind/spirit/mind and spirit, alienation from the body, ascensionism, mortification of the body/flesh, rejection of the feminine, hatred of women, misogyny]


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