Part of the exploration of her own neurological condition — she is a synesthete — the American novelist and academic Siri Hustvedt continues in what are we ? Essays on the human condition the process of elucidating the links maintained by body and mind initiated at the turn of the previous decade with the essay The trembling woman. A story of my nerves.
Testifying to the stunning erudition of its author, What are we? brings together texts previously published in various scientific journals and collective works as well as scholarly speeches. Extremely rich, the work nevertheless remains difficult to access for the neophyte because of the specialized origin of its chapters.
Summoning philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neurosciences, history of medicine, history of art and literature in a dizzying dialogue, Siri Hustvedt provides plural answers to questions such as these: are the emotions experienced through fiction of the same nature as those felt in real life, what role does the personal story play in the disease?
The multiple insights thrown by the intellectual on these realities contribute to the construction of knowledge as much as to the improvement of care. In this regard, Siri Hustvedt takes sides by tracking down in medical practice the traces of the dualism of body and mind inherited from Cartesian thought. However, demonstrates Hustvedt, not only are body and mind biologically inseparable, but emotion is a constituent of reflection.
Commenting on the evolution of the understanding of hysteria, she summarizes: [Celle-ci] will require a completely different approach to this reality that is the mind-brain […]. It is the body that carries the meaning, both felt and symbolized. Our brains are in these bodies, made by other bodies in the world. We are intersubjective creatures, even before birth. The language we share is a language of communicable gestures of the body […] »
The profuse use of specialized medical terms and the absence of an explanation of the concepts evoked however make reading difficult. A brief presentation of the anatomy of the brain and a succinct summary of the main ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, on which the author’s thinking is largely based, would have facilitated understanding, for example.
That said, no one is required to do pedagogy and ” […] the inflexible will [de Siri Hustvedt] of [se] make mistress of any idea crossing [son] way” invites the reader to make efforts which will prove to be amply rewarded. Thus, Siri Hustvedt devotes luminous pages to the demystification of the creative process, detailing the interactions of memory and imagination. In these passages, the writing becomes more fluid, exemplifying the ability, repeatedly described in the book, of language to mobilize being as a whole and to make body and mind resonate in sympathy.