| Abstract: | This paper argues and tries to demonstrate that, alongside neuroscience and relational psychotherapy, body psychotherapy can and should draw on a third important source beyond its own tradition: the social sciences and social theory of embodiment. After establishing and outlining the enormous body of relevant material, hardly used so far within our discipline, I move on to the theoretical underpinnings of this material, and in particular social constructionist approaches to embodiment. From this, I explore some of the fundamental theoretical approaches used in the social sciences, based on the work of Michel Foucault and of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and try to show their implications for body psychotherapy. |
