The Concept of Body in Naturology: reflections and possibilities

Abstract

This article will reflect on new possibilities of thinking about the concept of body in the field of naturology, based on “Uma Fenomenologia do Corpo” and “Corporeidades... Inspirações Merleau-Pontianas”, from the author Terezinha Petrucia da Nóbrega, as bibliography. GOAL: Our main goal is to point out and amplify the bodily and sensitive knowing in naturology, in a way where we stop reproducing reductionists or dualists conceptions of body, current in the health field. METHOD: It is a theoretical-reflexive research, developed by systematic and profound reading of the author’s work and other articles and researches regarding notions, techniques and approaches of the concept of body in naturology. DISCUSSION: In naturology publications, we come across body comprehensions that perpetuate its instrumental and biologist aspect, in which the body is seen as a receptacle of therapeutic techniques and tools. The theory proposed by Nóbrega allow us to consider the body’s phenomenology, its experiences, esthesia and relation with the knowledge process. CONCLUSION: Further study on the author’s bibliography and on Merleau-Ponty’s and his interlocutors phenomenology perspectives is suggested in order to deepen on the reflexivity regarding the concept of body, in a way we can avoid the risk of reproducing, in naturology, the instrumentalizing patterns of the body in the health field.