The study of human action, communication, and knowledge through the perspective of the body is a new horizon of exploration of our embodied existence and our relationships with others. The hyper-rationalism and abstract objectivism of Western cultural tradition, along with most approaches in philosophy, psychology, history, sociology, and education sciences, have largely ignored the fundamental relationships between the body and cognitive, communicative, and cultural processes, operating on the basis of various dualisms: mind-body, cognition-experience, subject-object, substance-phenomenon, organism-environment, nature-culture, society-individual, public-private, language-speech, etc.

The purpose of this interdisciplinary collective book is to present the contemporary problematic (positions, critical disputes, dilemmas, misunderstandings, abuses) and recent research findings regarding: (1) the nature of the body, (2) the social-historical and cultural dimensions of the body, (3) the role that the body plays in cognitive, learning, developmental, communicative, interpersonal, socio-ethical, and psychotherapeutic processes, (4) the bodily foundations of artistic/aesthetic creation and communication, and (5) the role that the body plays in religion and the construction of new forms of subjectivity.

The sections included are:

Part One
Body and social-historical and cultural processes

Chapter 1
Marios A. Purkos, "Beyond modern and postmodern readings of the body: towards an eco-somatic-embodied approach"
Chapter 2
Georgios Alexias, "Cyborgs, Virtual Bodies, Post-Bodies: Scientific imagination or alternative forms of embodiment?"
Chapter 3
Thanasis Alexiou, "The political economy of the body: from the objectified body to the Acentric body"

Part Two
Body, knowledge, ethical orientations, and alternative psychoeducational approaches

Chapter 4
Marios A. Purkos, "Approaches to concepts and categories: towards an eco-somatic-embodied approach and a lived, exploratory, and dialogical/communicative psychoeducational approach"
Chapter 5
Georgios Maragos, "As if present members"
Chapter 6
Marios A. Purkos, "Ethical action and processes of shaping the ethical orientations of the two genders: towards an eco-somatic-embodied approach and a lived, exploratory, and dialogical/communicative psychoeducational approach"

Part Three
Body, child, and education: practices of body control and creative dimensions of bodily action

Chapter 7
Vasiliki Riga, "History of the body: from philosophical approaches to the contemporary 'Body Movement' in education"
Chapter 8
Georgios Tzartzas, "Mutual teaching school: the body in education"
Chapter 9
Meni Tsigra, "Body control in kindergarten"
Chapter 10
Manolis Dafermos, "Physical inadequacy and education: the case of a school for children with simultaneous visual and hearing loss"
Chapter 11
Pelion - Dimitris L.

Stavrou, "Physical Shape and Image of the Body"
Chapter 12
Kalliopi Trouli, "The Importance and Role of Psychomotor Education in Preschool Education"

Part Four
Body and Non-Verbal Communication in the Educational and Learning Process

Chapter 13
Panagiotis I. Stamatis, "Primary Forms of Non-Verbal Communication and Their Significance in the Developmental and Pedagogical/Learning Process"
Chapter 14
Maria Malikiosi-Loizou and Elisavet Sponta, "The Role of Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication in the Learning Process of Kindergarten"

Part Five
Body and Art (Bodily Dimensions of Artistic/Aesthetic Creation and Communication)

Chapter 15
Konstantinos V. Primus, "The Osmosis of the Body and the World in Yves Klein's 'Anthropometries'"
Chapter 16
Andreas Fountoulakis, "Experience, Representation, and Knowledge in Aristophanes' 'Thesmophoriazusae'"
Chapter 17
Nikolaos G. Haralampopoulos, "Person, Body, and Soul in Plato's 'Charmides'"
Chapter 18
Giannis Kiourtsakis, "From the Lower Part of the Body to the Collective Body: The Example of Karagiozis"

Part Six
Body and the Construction of New Forms of Subjectivity

Chapter 19
Eleni Andriakaina, "Body, Self, and Illness: Alternative Holistic Medicine and the Role of Psychotherapy and Counseling in the Construction of New Forms of Subjectivity"
Chapter 20
Eleftheria (Roza) Vasilaki, "Body, Sex, and Sex-Addicts: From the Metaphysics of the Soul to the Metaphysics of the Body"

Part Seven
Body and Psychotherapeutic Processes

Chapter 21
Robert Mellon, "Body and Behavior: A Behavioral Interpretation of the Effectiveness of Psychotherapy through Art"
Chapter 22
Konstantina Zgantzouri, "Image of the Body and Self in Schizophrenia and Possibilities of Reconstruction through Psychotherapeutic Process"
Chapter 23
Ilias E. Kourkoutas, "Image of the Body and Intrapersonal/Interpersonal Dynamics in Psychogenic Anorexia: Philosophy and Techniques of Intervention Approaches"

Part Eight
Body and Religion

Chapter 24
Kyriakos Stavrianos, "The Teaching of John Chrysostom on the Human Body"
Chapter 25
Chrysi Karatsinidou, "Negative Tradition and Body in M. Bakhtin"
Chapter 26
Halina Grzymala-Moszczynska, "Body and Religious Experience"