You explain, Prof. Parham, that according to Althusser, the body controls the mind when it takes up habits, habits that grow to give meaning to the mind; the mind gets meaning from the body's learned cues.
If I deduced correctly, this de-essentializes the mind-body debate in a previous class that promoted the idea of the body as under the control of the mind, incapable of imposing on the mind anything out of the realm of servicing in order to be serviced (i.e. feed it, clothe it, wash it). This argument that you derive from Althusser posits that the body, however, can discipline or somehow survey/put the mind on guard.
Question: If the body gives meaning to the mind through learned cues, what type of power can we attribute to that from which the body learns its cues? Can we say also that such a particular entity also gives meaning to the mind? What are the implications of arguing any which way?
Response:
To be honest, Maudlyn, I am not sure I have ever asserted what you claim here. Perhaps I began a point that did not get finished--or a line of questioning I put to the class has been taken as a statement on a phenomenon's meaning. Something as reductive as the notion that the body "services" the mind has never quite been where I'm going. The only points I've made that might be relevant to what you are saying here would be ones made regarding how our perceived understandings of how mind and body work together can so easily be subverted, betrayed, etc.
And you are correct that Althusser's argument prevents that kind of reduction-- as does the Lacan, Silverman, and, especially, your various Grosz readings!
To the question of "what type of power can we attribute to that from which the body learns its cues?" I would refer you first, actually, to Foucault (with a side, of course, of Althusser). The power, Foucault would argue, is in each case different. Your body is disciplined at school to one purpose, at home for another. Also, more generally in terms of sexual identity (which was Foucault's primary concern), and I would lump race and class into this as well.
Do you recall when you learned how to sit in a classroom? How to address a teacher? When to speak in a social setting? When to shake hands, or nod? How to dress like a "woman," or to be or not be like x?
Some of these moments, if they were moments of conflict (you did something wrong, or were not in the know) might be memorable to you. Others likely are not. The body's habits can absolutely regulate the mind. Much of American elementary school is dedicated to nothing but this: raising you hand, asking to go to the bathroom, not blurting out, and so on. According to Althusser, the purpose of this regulation is to discipline the mind in relation to production. Knowing how to be a good child, good student, and good worker is vital to the functioning of the nation-state, and, in his essay, it's through the disciplination of the body, which is far more subtle than that of the mind directly.
An elementary school teacher doesn't tell you why it is important to sit quietly in class; she tells you to sit quietly. Over time, in settings you perceive as similar to a classroom, you will always, already, know how to behave. For better or for worse.
Angela has quite a good post that relates to this, here.