Coming to our senses

by Morris Berman

Publisher: Bantam Books Published: 1990 Category: Personal Empowerment

For centuries, Western civilization has championed the rational mind as humanity's crowning achievement, elevating abstract thought and analytical reasoning above all other ways of knowing. Yet this exclusive focus on intellectual cognition has come at a tremendous cost, severing our connection to the embodied, sensory experience that grounds us in the world and to each other. What emerges is a comprehensive exploration of how modern consciousness became disembodied, and more importantly, how we might recover a more integrated way of being.

At the heart of this work lies a provocative thesis: the Cartesian split between mind and body that has dominated Western thought since the Enlightenment has created a profound crisis in how we experience reality. By privileging mental abstraction over direct sensory engagement, contemporary culture has produced individuals who live primarily in their heads, disconnected from the wisdom of the body and the immediacy of physical presence. This disconnection manifests in numerous ways, from the epidemic of stress-related illnesses to the environmental devastation wrought by treating nature as mere resource rather than living reality we inhabit.

Drawing on an impressive range of sources spanning anthropology, history, psychology, and philosophy, the narrative traces how this split developed historically. Ancient and medieval cultures understood the body as integral to knowledge and spiritual experience. The monastic traditions, mystical practices, and craft-based learning of earlier eras all recognized that genuine understanding involves the whole person, not merely the intellect. The scientific revolution, while bringing undeniable benefits, simultaneously instituted a worldview that treated the body as mere mechanism and physical sensation as inferior to rational thought.

What makes this analysis particularly compelling is its examination of how disembodiment shapes every aspect of modern life. Work has become increasingly abstract and divorced from tangible results we can see and touch. Relationships often lack genuine presence as we interact through various mediating technologies. Even our pursuit of pleasure has become intellectualized, approached through concepts and images rather than direct experience. The result is a pervasive sense of alienation and meaninglessness that no amount of material success seems able to remedy.

Yet this is far from a counsel of despair. Instead, readers discover a pathway toward reintegration and healing. The journey involves reclaiming the body's intelligence, learning to trust sensory experience as a valid and profound way of knowing. Through practices of embodied awareness, whether through movement disciplines, mindful attention to physical sensation, or craftwork that engages hand and eye together, we can begin to heal the ancient split.

The exploration delves into various traditions and practices that maintain integrated consciousness. Indigenous cultures, certain Eastern spiritual practices, and Western somatic traditions all offer models for living in which mind and body work as unified whole. These aren't presented as exotic alternatives to Western life but as resources that might inform a renewed approach to being human in the contemporary world.

Particularly valuable is the analysis of how embodied consciousness relates to social and political transformation. When we live primarily through abstract concepts, it becomes easier to ignore the concrete suffering of others and the physical degradation of our environment. Reconnecting with sensory reality makes us more responsive to the actual conditions of life, potentially fostering both personal healing and social change. The book suggests that genuine transformation, whether individual or collective, must involve the whole person, not merely changes in belief or ideology.

Readers will find here not a romanticized rejection of modernity but a sophisticated critique that honors both the achievements and the costs of Western rationalism. The invitation is to move forward not by abandoning reason but by reintegrating it with the body's wisdom, creating a more complete and sustainable way of being human. For anyone sensing that something essential is missing in contemporary life, this work offers both diagnosis and hope, illuminating a path toward greater wholeness and authentic presence in the world.