TL;DR – By believing we are not our bodies, we are encouraged to fight our brains, rather than work with them.

I believe it is quite common for people in American culture (and likely others) to view themselves as an incorporeal “soul” inhabiting a body. I am the soul, the body is just a vehicle to carry it around in. The origin and historical context of this philosophy is quite a separate post.

The version of Christianity I grew up with took this philosophy a step further. Of the “seven deadly sins,” I think that one could make the case that ‘Pride’ might be one of the only ones that isn’t some signal from your body; at the very least Lust, Gluttony, Sloth, and Wrath definitely are. The point being, that we were taught at an early age that your body is a source of sin.

So you, as a Christian ‘soul’ inhabiting a sinful body have a duty to constantly deny your body what it asks, or at the very least, tightly moderate it. The obvious corollary of this belief is that absolutely everything is a choice – you either choose to give in to your body or not. To give into your body shows a lack of sufficient willpower, a fundamental level of weakness as a person. (cf. how we view obesity in society, treating it as a moral failing.)

However, these days, I feel like there’s a lot of therapy out there designed to get people back into the habit of ‘listening’ to their bodies; I’ve been doing such a therapy for a couple of years now. I think we’re starting to understand that this separation, pretending the body is just a fleshy vehicle, and not intimately a part of our “self,” is fundamentally flawed.

As I’ve been pursuing this therapy and understanding more my own neurodivergence, it occurs to me that this worldview may, in particular, set up neurodivergent people for failure. What I’m now learning, after nearly 40 years of living in this mind and body, is finally how to start working with my mind being the way it is, rather than constantly fighting it.

This bodily antagonistic mindset encouraged me to constantly fight my brain. Don’t have the energy to do the thing? Well then I must be a terrible person, undeserving of respect for lacking the willpower to overcome my body’s slothful desires. Dreading social engagements because I don’t have the social ‘battery’ to engage with people at the moment? Well if I can’t ‘will’ myself through the experience, then maybe I don’t deserve friendship or love.

There are other reasons I’ve left Christianity behind, and other ways the specific flavor of Christianity I grew up with hurt me. All good topics for other posts. This post isn’t necessarily intended to be anti-Christian. I believe that this mindset has thoroughly pervaded American culture, including many non-Christian people.

There may not be anything particularly novel or radical here in this post either; the idea that we should listen to our bodies more is becoming more popular, I believe. I just happen to think that maybe there’s an emphasis here missing that links the dualistic antagonism to the difficulties neurodivergent people face in their lives.