Feldenkrais Method

A study at UCLA released on October 10 finds that emotional and physical pain stimulate the same part of the brain. The study itself seems to be locked behind a pay wall at Science magazine, but news media coverage abounds. A good summary is at Discovery Health And Carl Zimmer's blog has a little commentary.

From the Discovery Health article:

If you feel like you've been punched in the stomach after your lover walks out on you, that may be because that is what it feels like. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), publishing in the Oct. 10 issue of Science, have found that emotional pain and physical pain can stimulate the same parts of the brain.

Although this is a newly news worthy concept, it harkens to the work of therapist Eugene Gendlin, developed when he was at the University of Chicago. The Gendlin work is called focusing, and is based on the idea that there are bodily felt senses for thoughts and emotions. Gendlin and others have trained their clients to tap into these felt senses and learn from them.

And, of course, Feldenkrais' work is based on the idea of the integration of the organism. I think he might have been keenly interested in the UCLA study.