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Transcript: Roger Fernandez

Native belief in what constitutes a person is more complex than the modern western concept of body and mind

[Fernandez:]
The Western mind, the Western culture, has kind of defined humans as a physical presence and a mental—you know, body and mind.
[Lindberg:]
Psyche and soma.
[Fernandez:]
Yeah. And stops there, whereas a Native definition or explanation of a human is a little more complex including emotions and spirits, a spiritual element of who you are. In fact, the medicine wheel of the Plains people is very clear, very explicit in what elements make up a human being, and those things have to always be in balance, and if any of them gets out of balance, the person becomes out of balance and you have to find out where that imbalance is and correct that imbalance. And so with the Western mind saying it’s either or—the body or the mind—and you don’t incorporate another element of the human being, the spirit or their emotional, then sometimes I think we mis-communicate in that, you know, I think “I’m going to get better” versus “I believe I’m going to get better.” So there are different processes in different language, and I think sometimes that’s the bridge we have to cross with each other.