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4.1: The Machine Deception: Why We Must Stop "Repairing" the Body

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4.1: The Machine Deception: Why We Must Stop "Repairing" the Body

In Western thinking lies a philosophy so deeply embedded that we hardly recognize it anymore: the metaphor that the human body is a machine.
This model has undeniably led to enormous progress. By taking the body apart like a machine, we developed a detailed picture of anatomy. Emergency medicine is one of the greatest successes of this perspective — no culture before us could treat injuries as effectively as we can today.

This analytical view, which breaks everything down into its individual parts, is the domain of our left hemisphere.
But what if this model is fundamentally wrong? What if this metaphor prevents us from helping people in a truly holistic way?

The Logical Errors of the Machine Metaphor

The problem begins when we mistake the metaphor for reality. A machine has an on/off switch — you build it, turn it on, turn it off, and eventually restart it. A body doesn’t work that way. Any form of “turning off,” no matter how small, would in most cases mean death.

The most serious logical error, however, lies in our understanding of illness.
With a machine, the logic is simple: if it’s no longer working, there must be a fault somewhere. Find the defect, repair it, and the machine should run again.

We apply exactly this logic to the body — treating illness as a defect.

  • With a bacterial infection, we search for the specific pathogen and eliminate it with antibiotics — find the fault, fix it.
  • In naturopathy, it’s often not turmeric that’s recommended, but the isolated curcumin — the single active ingredient meant to fix the problem.

We’re obsessed with figuring out exactly what broke, and how to target that specific fault.

The Pressure on Us as Practitioners

This mechanistic lens creates enormous pressure in our work as coaches, therapists, and bodyworkers.
We look through the same lens and feel compelled to find and solve the problem. Our clients expect this from us — and we expect it from ourselves: find the fault so the machine works again.

But this perspective is far too narrow. Our unconscious assumption that the body is a repairable machine limits our understanding of health and leads to treatment approaches that don’t do justice to the complexity of life.
What if this entire way of viewing problems and illness is wrong — perhaps not even slightly, but fundamentally?

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