Beyond body and mind: psychology and the unity of the human person in Aquinas

Abstract Human persons are at once simple and complex: simple, because they possess a unified and indivisible essence in the form of the soul; and, complex, since this immaterial soul is conjoined to a material body, accounting for the human whole. This paper highlights the nature of this union and explores the psychology of the human person based on Thomistic philosophical tradition. Our thesis is that Aquinas’s hylomorphism, which counters in advance the claims of Descartes on human identity, offers a comprehensive understanding of the human person and provides a robust foundation that understands the human person as transcending the limitations of body and mind, and this has implications for philosophical, psychological and scientific enquiries.