The concept of dualism or duality is something that arose in early philosophy and religion to explain the “dual” nature of humanity – male vs. female and good vs. evil are some of the most common examples.
The ancient Greeks contemplated another type, the dualism of the mind vs. the body.
Further advanced by Rene Descartes, in the philosophy of mind, dualism is the theory that the mental and the physical, the mind and body (the physical brain), are, in some senses, radically different kinds of things. This thinking gives rise to the consideration of the mind as the person and the body as merely a cloak that is donned as a physical necessity and changed as desired.
Very roughly, you can think of it as how, when you leave home each day, you dress in different clothing from your closet. You may change the clothes according to your preferences and moods, but you are still the same person no matter which clothes you wear. Clothes may be a representation of how you feel that day or simply utilitarian coverings expected by society, but the clothes do not change the person that the world sees as you.
The more I dig into Queer Theory and the current fad of transgenderism, the more I begin to understand how this ideal of dualism is a factor.
Despite neuroscience research confirming the interdependence of the mind and the brain, the idea of mind/body dualism persists and rather than conceiving of one being consisting of mind AND body, transgenders see the real person as the mind and the body as merely clothing for the mind, separate and apart.
But it is not only transgenderism where dualism creates issues.
Where gender dysphoria results in the mind rejecting the male/female duality, body dysphoric disorder causes people to see bodily flaws where there are none. As a result, to “correct” the perceived flaws, people turn to things like cosmetics, dieting, drugs, and medical procedures and in some extreme cases where nothing eases the pain, suicide.
As an important aside, I’m a simple observer, I’m not here to attack any person who “identifies” as transgender. I cannot get into anyone’s brain to understand that psychological condition. I do see it as one of the most horrific mental illnesses anyone could have. I have a mild case of self-diagnosed taphophobia, a pathological fear of being buried alive. I can only imagine transgenderism is the extreme of something like that, being trapped in a container and desperately wanting to be somewhere …anywhere… else.
While I believe transgenderism is a war against nature that cannot be facilitated by society, I do have sympathy for people who exhibit the condition.
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When reading and studying the history of duality and its ties to various dysphoria’s, I ran across one I remember reading about several years ago. It is called Body Integrity Dysphoria or BID, and it exhibits as a rare urge to cut off one's own limbs.
I recalled reading a story a few years ago about a guy named David who had just graduated college when he first decided he wanted to cut off his leg. The feeling that his leg was “alien” and not really part of his body had plagued him for years, even to the point he balanced himself on his “good” leg to avoid using the “bad” one. One day, he came home, locked his bedroom door, fashioned a tourniquet out of baling twine and an old sock and propped his leg up against a wall to stem blood flow.
And proceeded to try to cut off his own leg.
He failed, but as I recall, he did so much damage to nerves and blood vessels, it was eventually amputated.
I would posit the leftist abortion fetishists have a form of BID, because it is impossible to convince them that a fetus is not an alien that has taken up residence in their body. Rather than a human being, they describe the fetus as a “clump of cells” or a “tumor”.
Back in 2014, Stacy McCain, a reporter and blogger for whom I have great respect, wrote:
“After four decades of rhetoric about “choice,” and two decades of lectures about “safe sex,” younger Americans apparently assume that it is normal for sex to be sterile, and that for sex to produce its natural result (pregnancy) is something weird.
As [Rush] Limbaugh said, people now think of fertility as a “sickness,” a “disease” that requires medical treatment. So deeply ingrained has this view become among some young people that a sex educator in Massachusetts found herself accused of being “unintentionally heteronormative,” which made her realize that her college students had ‘never thought about sex in terms of biology or reproduction’!”
Perhaps this is why the most natural and basic aspect of humanity, carrying a child and giving birth, is seen by some as nothing but sickness to be cured or a foreign body to be removed, and not the creation of another person.
Seems less logical and more like a mental illness.