Psyche and Soma : Physicians and Metaphysicians on the Mind-Body Problem from Antiquity to Enlightenment

A multi-disciplinary exploration of the conceptions of the human soul or mind and body, through the course of more than 2000 years of Western history. Figures including Hippocrates, Galen, Plato, Descartes, Aquinas and La Mettrie are discussed.

Psyche and Soma is a multi-disciplinary exploration of the conceptions of the human soul or mind and body, through the course of more than two thousand years of Western history. Thirteen specially commissioned chapters, each written by a recogized expert, discuss figures such as the physicians Hippocrates, Galen, Stahl, and Cabanis; theologians St Paul, Augustine, and Aquinas; and philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes, Leibniz, and La Mettrie. The chapters explore in chronlogical sequence the views of these writers on such questions as the soul''s immortality, the control it exerts over the body, how mental disturbances arise out of bodily imbalances, and the roles of the priest and the physician in promoting spiritual and mental health. Psyche and Soma will be a key point of reference and a rich source of illumination in this central area of human inquiry.