Interoception and Personality: A Mind–Body Integrative Framework for Understanding Emotional and Social Functioning

Abstract

This study presents a narrative integrative review examining the relationship between interoception and personality across neuroscientific, psychological, and Gestalt perspectives. Peer-reviewed literature (2000-2024) from PubMed, Google Scholar and Scopus was reviewed using search terms related to interoception, personality traits, embodied cognition, and Gestalt therapy, with inclusion criteria emphasizing empirical studies of psychophysiological correlates of personality (extraversion-introversion, neuroticism-stability) and theoretical work linking neuroscientific evidence to experiential frameworks. By synthesizing theoretical convergences and identifying empirical gaps, the review proposes a testable integrative framework in which personality traits—introversion, extraversion, and neuroticism—are reinterpreted as stable patterns of interoceptive self-regulation and embodied modes of relational contact with the environment.
The framework conceptualizes personality not as a fixed set of traits, but as a dynamic process of organismic self-regulation shaped by the integration of bodily and mental processes in social context. This perspective has implications for psychotherapy, education, and organizational settings, where interoceptive awareness training may enhance emotional regulation, empathy, and relational functioning. The proposed model offers an interdisciplinary contribution that bridges neuroscientific and phenomenological approaches, providing testable hypotheses for future empirical research on the embodied foundations of personality and social behavior.