The Dangerous Doctrine of the Disembodied Body - Part 1 of 3

Trans-substantiation and Body Dissociation

I Think, Therefore I Am?

Perhaps the most famous phrase in philosophy, “Cogito, ergo sum” or “I think, therefore I am,” was said by French philosopher René Descartes in his Discourse on Method way back in 1637. Descartes created a system of methodic doubt as a means of arriving at a universal philosophy of being. According to him “I think, therefore I am” expresses irrefutable proof of existence. As his “first principle,” this phrase also became a shorthand expression for Descartes’ thesis on mind/body dualism.

Although many philosophers have critiqued the dictum, “I think, therefore I am,” it has retained popularity in Western consciousness. Since its inception, the phrase has been popularized in all kinds of literature and media. It is often quoted directly in popular culture; in television shows such as Monty Python, Cheers, Malcolm in the Middle, The Office, Glee, Upload, Russian Doll, songs like Billie Eilish’s, Therefore I Am, Twenty-One Pilots, Heavydirtysoul, and movies like Blade Runner, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Short Circut 2, Admission, and American Wedding. Cartesian theories are also explored in the blockbuster trilogy film series, The Matrix.

The phrase “I think, therefore I am” and the notion of mind/body dualism has had the incredible capacity to retain a prominent position in public discourse for hundreds of years. But despite popularity, repeatability, and historical longevity, “I think, therefore I am,” is an erroneous notion as well as a dangerous one, especially as it is manifesting in the pseudo-psychological medical practice of “transing.” This dictum and the values it encapsulates stand at the root of the nouveau trend of transgender ideology whose essential claim holds that one’s identity (mind) can be at odds with one’s sex (body.) Transgender ideology posits not only a mind-body dualism (transman/transwoman), but a mind-body pluralism with an infinite potentiality of mental identities that might be incongruent with one’s body in a myriad of ways.

The above is just one small list of identities that fall under the “trans umbrella,” not to mention things like trans-age, trans-speciesism, trans-racial, trans-abled, otherkin…. and ultimately anything anyone can imagine ad infinitum. In this ideology, human beings are simply preassembled Lego Buildables that can be disassembled and reconfigured with scalpels, silicone, and pharmaceutical cocktails until the flesh-separates match the mental-whole.

Notice that the above is the language of mind/body duality. The body is presented an image-object in the mind’s eye. Trans ideology is not simply an ideology of self-objectification, it is a medicalized practice of compartmentalization and commodification of the body as separates to be added or removed like at a Build-A-Bear Workshop at the mall. Within the trans dogma, if one “thinks” one is a man, woman, otherkin, ambigender, or transabled, then one “is” that thing. It teaches that the mind and the body exist separately and it is the mind that knows the truth about what the body should be. The ideology teaches that the body not only can be modified but should be modified to achieve mental cohesion. The body should be disregarded, ignored, and cut up to conform to the fantasies of the mind. Parents of kids who have succumbed to this social trend are warned with the dire phrase, “do you want a trans child, or a dead child?”

Kids are told that a lifetime of drug cocktails and multiple extreme plastic surgeries represent “the ability to live authentically.” They are told to ignore the pain of breast binders, tucking, multiple medical procedures, and endocrine-disrupting drugs. Authenticity within trans ideology is synonymous with pain and dissociation from that pain in the name of becoming one’s transcendental self. However true authenticity is not congruent with a dissociative state.

At its core, trans ideology is one of body dissociation: a disconnect between body and mind. Trans ideology teaches its adherents that body dissociation is not a bad thing at all, but an emergent new identity to be applauded and encouraged. So-called trans-health care, rather than attempting to heal the dissociative condition, prescribes further dissociation. Those who dissociate from their bodies are guided to lean into their dissociation and hack away at the healthy tissue they are dissociating from, including their genitals, breasts, jaws, brows, tracheas, arms, thighs, and butts. They are told that it is possible to run away from their current body and into a new one manufactured uniquely for them, care of plastic surgeons and big pharma. They are told that after undergoing a medical ritualization their mutilations are now the real thing. They are promised that these surgeries and drugs will perform the miracle of transubstantiation, where the mundane substance of silicone and flesh tubes become the real presence of the new identity they wish to become, whether that is a new sex, a sexless state, or an otherkin identity.

Trans ideology is the medicalized manifestation of “I think, therefore I am.” But the fact of the matter is that our minds are not separate from our bodies. We aren’t a ghost-in-a-machine, we aren’t self-subsistent, disembodied, transcendental egos, or minds in a meat sleeve, we are fully embodied whole human beings. Our sensed experience is not just a part of us, it encompasses the wholistic integrity of our being. And most importantly, our sensed embodied experience is foundational to our ability to listen and respond to our primary safeguarding instincts.

Encouraging and medicalizing disembodiment is both physically and psychologically harmful. The most important safeguarding tool we have is our bodies. To be fully embodied is to be responsive to the body’s signals for pain, fear, hunger, and satiation. Embodiment is also the foundation of bodily autonomy and boundaries. It is hard to have either bodily autonomy or appropriate boundaries when in a dissociated state. When grounded in primary instincts one follows the logic of the body first as a safeguarding guide. But trans ideology teaches the opposite, to disregard the body’s impulses and superimpose the mind’s will onto the body. This is treating the body like a thing rather than as the self. But the body is the self. We are our bodies. If you hit my body, you hit me. To perceive one’s mind and body as separate entities is to be in a state of disfunction. The pseudo-psychological concept of transgenderism is a dangerous material manifestation of the harmful mind/body duality notion. To revive culture back into a state of health we must reground ourselves in the understanding that the wholistic integrity of our embodiment is foundational to safeguarding.