Felt embodiment as a motive in flourishing
Frontiers in Psychology November 25, 2025 Lars‐gunnar Lundh, Lo Foster 1 citation
People have a need to feel embodied—to experience having a body as both an object that can be perceived and evaluated and as a subjective, felt body. This felt embodiment is crucial for developing self-identity, interpersonal relations, wellbeing, and flourishing. The paper argues that experiences of feeling embodied serve as important motives: embodiment motivation drives people to feel their body in its vitality, capacities, expressiveness, as part of wholesome environments, and in pleasurable contact with others, while disembodiment motivation drives people to avoid or reduce bodily self-experiences due to pain or discomfort. The paper outlines a new research area on embodiment motivation.