| dc.description.abstract | In this research, I aim to place Virginia Woolf’s literary representation of the
mind-body relation within the context of neuropsychology. To do this, I will draw
a parallel, between her holistic understanding of the human mind and body, and
the holism movement in early-twentieth-century neuroscience. In recent years,
Virginia Woolf’s literary representation of the mind-body relation has been
discussed not only in the field of medical humanities, but also in the
comparative studies of contemporary neuroscience and literature.
Nevertheless, her biographical links and intellectual resonances with
neuropsychology have not yet been widely explored. One might suggest that
Woolf did not consider neuropsychological ideas in her work; she was not a
neuroscientist, but a writer whose exploration of the mind-body relation is
literary and aesthetic. It is possible to argue that Woolf’s writing about the mind
and body should be seen as more psychological than neurological; she was
acquainted with several psychoanalysts and psychologists, and she did read
their works. The current study, however, will explore Woolf’s link to earlytwentieth-
century neuropsychology through her relationship with her doctor, Sir
Henry Head. By extension, it will also explore her link to the neuropsychology
that came after Woolf and Head. Using the historical/cultural framework, and
textual analysis, the current study suggests that Woolf’s understanding of ‘the
whole’ in the mind-body relation, and of perception and experience, can
contribute to our knowledge of the human mind, as well as the material world
in which we live. I argue that Woolf can be seen as a holistic modernist; she
embodied the concept of ‘the whole’ in her texts, which resonated with the
works of the holistic neuropsychologists, including Henry Head, Kurt Goldstein,
Alexander Luria, and Oliver Sacks. | en_GB |
