arts health

Arts Health – Background

Philosophical underpinnings

These can be varied but for majority of projects this would be existential phenomenology, which considers the body as primary (acc to Merleau-Ponty) from two aspects:

1. Happens first—instinctive bodily reactions to stimuli, for example a ball being thrown in your direction, and your arm moving to catch it, or eye lids shutting if any debris comes towards it, pre-cognition

2. Comes first—instinctual, infants react with their bodies instinctively before they are able to mentally process/ devise their reactions with their minds

Merleau-Ponty also considers the subjectivity of experience, which could be helpful with tailoring research projects to a very specific outcome. 

Body knowledge will take precedence over the mind, EG mentally one may feel low but physically looking up stimulates positive feelings, which is a premise often used in Arts health work – by adjusting the body, we aim to help the mind adjust also.

By concentrating on the body, arts health aims to realign the communication between body and mind and therefore facilitate a positive/ helpful outcome.  

See below for more details about my Arts Health involvement activities in WORKSHOPS, PROJECTS and read relevant BLOG POSTS to find out more. Also, if you would like to read more about it, check out my RESOURCES page.

If you would like to have a look at available literature by the French Philosopher, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, click HERE for phenomenology of perception, or HERE to see all the books by the author, and find out more about him.

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