When we speak of human experience, we mean two interrelated processes. On the one hand, we, like all other living beings, adapt to the world, on the other hand, (which is our totally human trait), we change the environment. As a simple example we can use the Earth that has been looking completely different since the human race began its expansion. Naturally, when dealing with our internal world, we’ve the same two options: to change or to adapt. That is, on the one hand, we’ve to choose the best strategy to help the body to function more effectively. On the other hand, there is always a temptation to correct unsatisfactory features. Let’s take the example of the nourishment. Many people in Europe are crazy about diets. It’s a very good example for our discourse. There is much talk about healthy food that is of such diets, which, according to their authors, provide for the effective functioning of the body. There can be three subcategories: (а) a diet to make the body healthier; (b) a recovery diet for those who suffer from a disorder, say, of stomach or kidneys; and finally, (c) if one’s body works under special external conditions (he or she does a sport or works in extremal conditions) he or she is offered a diet to support the effective functioning of the body. However we can speak about a radically different approach to dieting. Assumed I’m a bit fat and I don’t like it, so I rush to search different types of dieting on-line. Two or Three Weeks of Starvation, Eat Just Cabbage Leaves – such advice is plenty. A person, bothered with his or her appearance and trying to take a film star as a model, deliberately destroys his or her homeostasis system to change his or her own image. It’s a social thing anyway, for the impact on internal processes is made for the sake of some clear external aims.

Share this page: