"Clean mind and clean body"

Dune: House Harkonnen, 120; Chapterhouse: Dune, 241 and 280

Context

Dune: House Harkonnen, 120-121

[The Baron Harkonnen, finding no cure to the disease inflicted upon him the Reverend Mother Mohiam, finally seeks the services of a Suk doctor, Yueh. This is their first meeting.]

The Baron distracted himself from the uncomfortable probings and proddings as he considered ways to kill this pompous Suk if he, too, failed to discover the cause of the disease. He drummed his fingertips on the examining table. "None of my physicians could suggest any effective course of treatment. Given the choice of a clean mind or a clean body, I had to take my pick."

Ignoring the basso voice, Yueh donned a pair of goggles with green lenses. "Suggesting that you strive for both is too much to ask?"

Chapterhouse: Dune, 241

[Mother Superior Darwi Odrade is journeying to the south of Chapterhouse by 'thopter along with Tamalane. En route, she muses to herself]

Those first human venturers into space- how little they suspected of where the voyage would extend. How isolated they were in those ancient times! Little capsules of liviable atmosphre linked to cumbersome data sources by primitive transmission systems. Solitude. Loneliness. Limited opportuniy for anything but surviving. Keep the air washed. Be sure of potable water. Stay active. Healthy mind in a healthy body. What was a healthy mind, anyway?

Chapterhouse: Dune, 280

[Mother Superior Darwi Odrade visits Murbella in the no-ship. Murbella has just been sparring with a combat mek.]

"Why did you change the circuitry?" Odrade demanded.

"For the anger."

"Is that what Honored Matres do?"

"As the twig is bent?" Murbella massaged her wounded hand. "But what if the twig knows how it is bent and approves?"

Odrade felt sudden excitement. "Approves? Why?"

"Because there's something... grand about it."

"You follow your adrenaline high?"

"You know it's not that!" Murbella's breathing returned to normal. She stood glaring at Odrade.

"Then what is it?"

"It's... being challenged to do more than you ever thought possible. You never suspected you could be this... this good, this expert and accomplished at anything."

Odrade concealed elation. mens sana in corpore sano. we have her at last!

Background

The phrase "healthy mind in a healthy body," or "sound mind in a sound body" are conventional English translations of a line of Latin poetry, which is quoted in Chapterhouse: Dune: "mens sana in corpore sano." This line comes from a poem written by the Roman satirist Juvenal, who lived from the end of the first to the beginning of the second century CE. Juvenal is known for writing satirical poems that critiqued, poked fun at, and moralized about contemporary Roman society.

In the modern era, the phrase came to be associated with the idea that physical well-being contributes to mental well-being. For these reason, it has often been used as a slogan by athletic clubs and schools (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_sana_in_corpore_sano). However, in its original context, the line probably had a different meaning.

The phrase comes from Juvenal's tenth satire, in line 356, towards the end. The basic theme of this satire is that people pray to the gods for all sorts of things, but often not what they actually need. Towards the end (lns. 356-9), the author gives advice for what people should actually praying for:

orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano;

fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem,

qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat

naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores,

one should pray to have a sound mind in a sound body,

demand a strong spirit, free from the fear of death,

which doesn't desire an unnaturally long life,

and is able to bear up under any sort of hardship*

In its original context, the phrase doesn't really suggest a causal relationship between physical and mental health. Just before the quoted passage, the poet describes the downsides of a long life, for example, the possibility of outliving one's children. So in this passage, the emphasis is on restraint, on being content as long as one has a reasonably sound mind in a reasonably healthy body. For many ancient Roman and Greek writers, the idea of health was tied to the idea of moderation. So for Juvenal, a corpore sano is not the well-toned body of an athlete, as we may think today, but rather a body that was free from ailments and able to perform the necessary functions of day-to-day life.

Comments

It is clear from context, that in the Dune novels, this phrase is used in the sense that physical well-being contributes to mental well-being. The subtext in the encounter between the Baron Harkonnen and Yueh is that the Baron is seriously or ironically using his fixation on his deteriorating physical condition as an excuse to let his mental or moral health languish.

For the Bene Gesserit, the idea that being physically fit leads to being mentally fit is obviously attractive, with their focus on total control of bodily functions.