Mind or Body? Men and Women See It Differently Females see minds and bodies as more distinct than males do. Here’s why. Posted May 13, 2023

KEY POINTS

• People view the mind as distinct from the body.
• New research shows that females consider minds and bodies as more distinct than males do.
• The mind-body divide further correlates with mind-reading ability.
• The mind-body divide may arise in us innately, rather than from culture alone.

That spring felt dark and heavy. Outside, the light was bright, the air crisp and the tulips were in full bloom. But inside, I was a mess—sad, sluggish, tears rolling down my eyes for no good reason. Nothing was wrong, and yet I just couldn’t stop crying. “Why am I depressed,” I wondered?

A simple blood test ultimately identified the culprit—an underactive thyroid gland. After a couple of weeks on medication, I was totally fine. But the notion that a little nodule in my neck could wreak havoc on my entire mental life—on my feelings, thoughts, and sense of self—was shocking. How can a bodily organ control my mind?

This division between body and mind isn’t just the stuff of philosophy. People naturally think of themselves in these terms—across many cultures. Most of the time, we aren’t even aware of that distinction. And yet it affects countless aspects of reasoning.

When we experience emotional pain, we often wonder whether the cause is “psychological” or “biological,” as if the two were different. Science tells us that they are not—our psychological life and the body are one and the same; my psyche is my brain. This is why an underactive thyroid gland made me sad. But intuitively, this seems weird—an oxymoron. It’s almost like saying that scratching my ear can turn on the light bulb. It is for this reason that people wrongly believe that if a psychological disorder has “biological” causes then it cannot be alleviated by psychotherapy—only medication can help. But if it arises from “psychological” causes, such as childhood trauma, then here, only “talk therapy” can work; medication won’t. Unfortunately, even trained clinicians fall into this mind-body trap. And, to reiterate, science shows that this reasoning is faulty.

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