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

This article proposes an integrative theoretical framework that explores the relationship between interoception and personality, linking neuroscientific evidence, psychological models, and phenomenological perspectives derived from Gestalt therapy. Building on contemporary neurobiological models of consciousness and arousal, the study highlights how the perception of internal bodily states—interoception—is a fundamental component in the development and modulation of personality traits. Through an integrative narrative review of recent literature (2000-2024), the theoretical convergences between interoceptive processes and the personality dimensions of introversion, extroversion, and neuroticism are outlined and reinterpreted in a Gestalt perspective as embodied and relational modes of contact with the environment.The article argues that personality should not be conceived as a static set of traits, but as a dynamic model of organismic self-regulation in which body and mind co-construct subjective and social experience. This integrative view has important implications for psychotherapy, education, and organizational contexts, where the cultivation of interoceptive awareness can improve empathy, emotional regulation, and relational well-being. The proposed framework aims to provide an interdisciplinary contribution that transcends the traditional mind-body dualism and offers new directions for empirical research on the embodied foundations of personality and their role in social behavior.