One way of understanding integrationis in terms of the concept of
wholeness: To integrate is to make something whole by bringing its parts
into proper relation. The Latin adjective integer(from the Indo-European
root √tag, ‘to touch’) means ‘untouched,’ hence, whole, complete, and
perfect.^58 Integeris the basis of the English nouns integer(whole num-
ber), and integrity(moral consistency and soundness). Åyurveda suggests
that integration is fundamental to health by its use of the term rogafor
illness. Rogais derived from the verbal root √ruj, ‘to break,’ while its ne-
gated form, arogya ̄ , means health. Integration, like wholeness, is more
fruitfully considered in dynamic rather than static terms. As a determi-
nant of health, integration pertains to the degree of cooperation within
and among the systems, subsystems, and constituent parts of an entity.
Loss of integration characterizes illness and injury in that the af-
fected part stands out in its dysfunction. Leder refers to this phenomenon
as a thematization: pain brings the body out of its well-working ‘absent’
state to an experience of intense awareness of the affected part. Leder in-
vokes Heidegger’s reference to the “ready-to-hand” tool (Being and
Time, 95–107). The tool remains withdrawn from our attention as long
as it serves the purpose of our work, the “towards-which” the tool is
used. In the same way that a tool stands forth due to a break in its useful-
ness, “it is characteristic of the body itself to presence in times of break-
down or problematic performance.”^59 Leder gives the example of a per-
son who has a heart attack while playing tennis:
Prior to the onset of pain... attention is ecstatically distributed to the
distant points. Parts of the body are backgrounded and forgotten as all
power centers in the swing. A metabolic machinery supplies the player
with energy, without demanding his attention or guidance. The game is
made possible only by this bodily self-concealment. Yet this structure is
lacerated by a single moment of pain. The player is called back from ec-
static engagement to a focus upon the state of his own body. A back-
ground region, the chest, is now thematized.^60Leder uses the terms disappearanceand dys-appearanceto characterize
the body in its states of well-working and dysfunction, respectively. He
capitalizes on the etymological difference between the Latin prefix dis,
meaning ‘away,’ ‘apart,’ or ‘asunder,’ and the Greek prefix dys, meaning
‘bad,’ ‘difficult,’ or ‘ill,’ as in ‘dysentery.’ Disappearance evokes absence,
and refers to the state of ordinary functioning where the lived-body is
‘absent’ from awareness due to its ecstatic involvement in its projects in
the world. In contrast, ‘dys-appearance’ refers to states where “the body
appearsas thematic focus, but precisely in a dysstate.”^61
meanings of health in ̄ayurveda 65