How did Henri Bergson describe the relationship between mind and body?

In his work Matter and Memory, the French philosopher Henri Bergson challenged the prevailing doctrine of psychophysiological parallelism, which argued that every psychological fact is strictly determined by a corresponding physiological fact.1

Bergson analyzed the phenomenon of aphasia to demonstrate that mental life is not merely a product of brain states. He observed that individuals with aphasia may retain the ability to understand language and possess the desire to speak, yet remain unable to physically express themselves. From this, he concluded that it is not memory or the mind itself that is lost, but rather the bodily mechanism required to execute those mental intentions.1

Ultimately, Bergson argued that the mind—or soul—is independent of the body. He viewed the body as a tool that the mind utilizes to carry out its purposes, rather than a structure that creates or determines mental experience.1