Why Embodiment Matters for How We Treat Each Other
“Were the worst people in history disembodied?”
We talk a lot about embodiment in somatic work — about being in your body, noticing what you feel, and making meaning of your internal experience. But embodiment is more than a personal wellness practice. It’s deeply social. How we inhabit our bodies shapes how we relate to others, how we navigate power, and how we respond to conflict, vulnerability, and difference.
Lately, I’ve been sitting with a big question:
Were the worst people in history disembodied?
And if so, what does that tell us about the connection between embodiment and psychosocial health?
Explore the neural mechanisms behind internal body awareness and discover how interoception influences emotion, decision-making, trauma, and social connection.
What Is Embodiment?
Embodiment is the lived experience of being a body — not just having one. It includes:
Feeling internal signals (interoception)
Making meaning of sensation in context
Navigating your emotions, boundaries, and values through your body
Staying present in yourself, especially when it would be easier to disconnect
It’s not a fixed state. It’s an ongoing relationship with your body and the world around you.
What Is Psychosocial Health?
Psychosocial health includes:
Emotional regulation
Relational honesty and empathy
Integrity, humility, and the ability to reflect
A felt sense of dignity and connection within your community
It’s not just mental health — it’s about how your inner life shows up in your relationships and social behavior.
How Embodiment Supports Psychosocial Health
When we are embodied, we tend to:
Notice our stress signals before acting them out
Stay connected to empathy and discomfort in conversations
Regulate rather than suppress emotion
Take responsibility without collapsing into shame
Remain human, even in roles or systems that try to strip that away
Embodiment keeps our ethics grounded in experience. It reconnects us to the weight of our actions and the humanity of others.
Were the Worst People Disembodied?
I can’t prove it, but I suspect yes.
When you look at leaders who inflicted large-scale harm, you often see a disconnect — from emotion, from feedback, from the impact of their actions. That’s a kind of disembodiment. To commit violence at scale often requires a dissociation from one’s own body — from guilt, grief, and the basic signals that say, this is not okay.
Trauma can lead to disembodiment. So can power. So can ideology. And when those combine, the results can be devastating.
Embodiment Is Not Virtue — But It Helps
Being embodied doesn’t make you a good person. But it does:
Increase your capacity to feel
Slow down harmful impulses
Make you more sensitive to relational rupture
Remind you that you’re accountable to others — not just in theory, but in your nervous system
Expand your ability to stay in difficult conversations without shutting down or lashing out
Strengthen your capacity to engage with complexity without collapsing into black-and-white thinking
It doesn’t guarantee goodness, but it supports the conditions that make ethical, relational, and thoughtful behavior more likely.
Final Thoughts
Embodiment isn’t just a personal healing journey. It’s also a form of social repair. When we stay present to our bodies, we stay present to others. And that presence —especially in hard moments — is one of the most radical things we can offer.
Author
Dr. Mark Olson holds an M.A. in Education and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois, specializing in Cognitive and Behavioral Neuropsychology and Neuroanatomy. His research focused on memory, attention, eye movements, and aesthetic preferences. Dr. Olson is also a NARM® practitioner, aquatic therapist, and published author on chronic pain and trauma-informed care. He offers a variety of courses at Dr-Olson.com that provide neuroscientific insights into the human experience and relational skill training for professionals and curious laypersons.
