Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Michael Samsel
To live is like to love-- all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct is for it.
Samuel Butler
To care for people is more important than to care for ideas, which can be good
servants but bad masters.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
Abraham Maslow
Krishnamurti
About the Author-- Michael Samsel
When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.
Anatole France
Love, work and knowledge are the well-springs of our
life. They should also govern it.
Wilhelm Reich
CONTENTS
Introduction
Questions of human misery and happiness are dealt with in all types of philosophy,
psychotherapy, and self-improvement movements, often with brilliance and some
accuracy, but rarely with any real change or benefit. Wilhelm Reich and Alexander
Lowen broke the change barrier by addressing something obvious that had been
overlooked: the visible unhealthy state of the body in which the person and the
misery lives. At the same time, they kept a focus on lifestyle limitations imposed or
encouraged by the larger society or the family in early life, and then later imposed by
the person onto him- or herself. In sum, the limitations in physical capacities and
lifestyle limitations reinforce each other, and together lead to a life with diminished
total feeling, a strong predominance of bad feelings, diminished energy, and little
enjoyment of relationships.
A student of Reich's, Charles Kelley, described the way back from this diminished
state as 'education in feeling and purpose.' Feeling is the present non-voluntary state
of a person made conscious; purpose is the voluntary and conscious state that is
possible to creatively develop from feeling.
To have purpose means living with true conviction and felt principle. In the absence
of feeling, an attempt at purpose produces only goals that are both lifeless, and
distorted by unconscious unmet needs. Purpose is more than the sum total of
feelings, it is true, but no purpose can be formed that works against feeling.
Intentional alienation from emotion, while it may seem to offer a greater freedom of
action, in the end results in purposelessness and despair.
This website is intended to organize the field of ideas and practices which Reich,
Lowen, and others developed to re-introduce the felt and purposeful body into life,
and if psychotherapy is used, back into psychotherapy. I call this the Reich and
Lowen tradition. It includes both health restoring practices and social critiques.
Every tradition of human growth starts with an innovator but thereafter experiences
an inevitable struggle between dogmatism, dilution, distortion, and preservation.
When anyone other than the originator propagates the ideas, changes come in,
intentionally or otherwise. These can of course be improvements, or useful
adaptations to other contexts. But they can also be changes that defeat growth
because they arise without understanding the entirety or the essence of the original
tradition. Dogmatism assumes most students will not really understand for a long
time, and so tries to preserve the original value by forbidding changes. Dogmatism of
course eventually leads to distortion because circumstances change just enough to
make mechanical application of the original ideas harmful. Popularization on the
other hand, accepts the incompleteness of understanding, but denies any risk of
dilution or distortion. Neither takes pains to preserve the original rationale, which is
necessary for any useful further innovation. Above all, in this site, my aim has been
preservation, first and foremost, of rationales, but also, second, actual useful
techniques and practices. Whatever robust trial and error investigation went on into
finding useful practices during the heyday of the Reich and Lowen tradition, the
results seemed to have been committed rather more to the oral than the written
record, and are now rapidly being forgotten.
Over time it has become clearer to me that, in developing this website, three different
perspectives tend to get mixed. The first is to compare and contrast the Reich and
Lowen tradition with the main psychodynamic or Freudian perspective. This is a
distinction that Reich and Lowen themselves strongly made in their teaching and
writing. The second perspective is to contrast the tradition with humanistic
psychology, which has a strong hand in most therapy and self-help movements
today. Together these first two perspectives lead to many references to
psychotherapy. The third perspective is to compare and contrast the Reich and
Lowen tradition with twenty-first century American trends and beliefs about 'the
good life'. This of course leads to many references about 'mainstream' social norms.
As this is a cumulative work, the three perspectives seem occasionally to get
muddled. However, picking one audience over any other does not seem to do justice
to the tradition, which is neither just a philosophy of life or just a technique of
change, it is both.
As a practicing therapist in the 'teens of the twenty-first century, it has also become
clear to me, that, on top of the restrictions of character, as defined by Reich and
Lowen, there has arisen a powerful phenomenology and physiology of speed and
threat. This is characterized on this site as sympathetic shift and the trauma
response. It constitutes a dysregulation of the vegetative systems that Reich and
Lowen certainly mentioned but which has become so extensive, widespread, and
culturally defended that it must be addressed strongly, almost as a 'pre-therapy,'
otherwise traditional vigorous attempts at dissolving character with hard bodywork
and character analysis may backfire.
The good news is that the solution for sympathetic shift and trauma response is also
in working with the body, perhaps more slowly and less intrusively at first. In fact,
there has been, to be sure, a modest resurgence of attention to the body led by
workers in therapy for trauma, and the excellent work of Peter Levine, Robert Scaer,
and Bessell van der Kolk is certainly compatible with Reich and Lowen. It seems that
trauma workers have discovered that 'bottom up' approaches usually contradict the
helplessness, rage and collapse of the trauma response much better than cognitive
reframes and emotional support because these top-down approaches tend to be
captured thematically by the negativity. But while these trauma approaches may see
the body as the seat of the problem, they do not see it as the seat of the person.
Moreover, 'trauma' is usually seen as random, divorced from social and family
structures. The idea is that if the sufferer can shed the 'one-time,' 'accidental,
‘trauma’ response, all will be well. This is made acutely manifest in the American
Psychiatric Association's refusal to include childhood mistreatment in their
definition of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. But the Reich and Lowen tradition has
always taken pains to explain how cultural forces continuously threaten the body
through small and/or relational traumas. To be emotionally healthy in a culture that
is not completely healthy requires an individual to examine the health of popular
values. Wilhelm Reich criticized specific social groups and was ostracized for it.
Alexander Lowen criticized not so much groups, but trends and practices, and he
fared somewhat better, but was still marginalized. Trauma therapists do describe
'early relational trauma' but it is no wonder that generally they dance around the
implications. After all, that is what Freud did!
Further, in the larger body of therapists that incorporate (no pun intended) the
concept of the body in their work there is a considerable proportion that approach
the body as an antenna only (often the term 'somatic' will be employed). Yes the body
can a 'source of information ('wisdom') for the mind, but this is a mind-centric
approach still. The Reich and Lowen tradition stands out by insistence that the body
is the base and fundament of life
There are some concepts in this tradition, like energy and grounding, that draw
skepticism from most of any newly-exposed audience. The tradition may be quickly
dismissed as failing the test of logic and critical thinking. However, logic and critical
thinking are only tools to get from premises to conclusions. The Reich and Lowen
tradition is not about arguing conclusions but broadening experience. New
experiences become new premises which are certainly amenable to logic and critical
thinking. The spread of this tradition is really by attraction, not promotion. Anyone
who see someone with grace, balance, joy, serenity, warmth, purpose, etc, and wants
the same, can experiment with the practices and ideas herein and see for themselves
what they experience. .
This tradition studies 'persons'. A person is not just an chemistry or physics topic to
be studied 'objectively' but also a 'phenomenon' to be studied subjectively. Subjective
knowledge is the only way to understand and experience joy, love, creativity and
connection. This is true today, was true ten centuries ago, and will be true ten
centuries hence. In fact, the subjective point of view is both necessary and superior
for studying persons, and studying the pursuit of feeling and purpose. Most
scientists, when they leave the office, (where they have likely resolutely resisted the
subjective viewpoints of others) and go shopping for groceries, or spend time with
friends and families, or vote in elections, take their own subjective view-point both as
quite adequate, and as quite accurate for important action. This double standard
needs to be confronted!
Real understanding rarely can get ahead of actual practice, but
sometimes it may. And of course superficial understanding often
substitutes for practice. Therefore the following reminder may be in
order from time to time: These ideas can only produce health when they
are implemented through actions. Having accurate directions is not the
same as traveling. First steps are more important than elaborate maps.
I make no claim to being scholarly. Rather, I intend this site be, informative,
interesting, and above all, useful. Statements are intended to be clear, direct, and at
times, provocative. I have resisted, mostly, the temptation to write so carefully that
statements are hard to criticize. This website has a 'systematizing' point of view. This
stems from my own character, and is not meant to be 'best', 'final', or exhaustive,
(that would be madness!) but merely helpful. Also it will be noticed that I have taken
the liberty to create names for many constructs myself if I knew of no existing name
within the tradition. I have tried to avoid jargonish phrases and rather put a specific
meaning on existing English words (which was certainly Alexander Lowen's
practice.)
In writing this site, I have been worried about sounding old-fashioned, as the
writings of Alexander Lowen and Wilhelm Reich may also sound old-fashioned to
twenty-first century ears. I have come to realize that that is because 'modern'
discussions of human functioning have become chemical- and molecule-centric to
the detriment of understanding! A human is not a large collection of molecules but a
functional person. Observing persons and families and societies was just as possible
in previous decades and centuries as today, and so the less atomized terminology of
previous decades is also adequate or perhaps superior for real understanding.
I take responsibility for all statements written here, unless otherwise attributed. I
also take responsibility for all my own ideas that I have knowingly or unknowingly
mixed with the ideas of others. It is not my intention to borrow credibility from
others for my own views, nor to distort or dilute the views of others with my own.
Rather my intention has been to make sense by placing many powerful ideas from
different sources in a common and commonsense context. This may, I admit,
obscure the origin and lineage of many concepts.
Michael Samsel
Growth and Therapy
(How the Reich and Lowen Tradition Differs from Other Schools of Change and
Psychotherapy)
Most therapy traditions take it for granted that if a person's circumstances and
thoughts, are "right," a person will experience pleasure automatically. The emphasis
is on repairing the reality function, so that a client may 'bring about" pleasure
successfully. True, in 'neurosis' a great deal of unrealistic behavior or unrealistic
expectation and thinking may be seen and uncovered. However, Reich and Lowen
saw that unrealistic behavior may be absolutely the best attempt to bring pleasure
when the pleasure function has been impaired by early experience. They believed,
that rather than combat endless variations of indirect behavior by interpretation and
analysis, if the facility to experience pleasure, that is the pleasure function, was
restored, reality took care of itself nicely. However, if the capacity for pleasure is not
restored, maladaptive and ultimately unsatisfying behavior returns, even if the
person "knows better." Overwhelmingly, our belief is: "if we make it, we will feel
good," but actually the formula is: "if we feel good, we will make it."
Sigmund Freud famously wrote "Where Id is, Ego shall be." This is really an
expression of the doctrine of original sin in which it is believed that humans are born
bad and have to be 'civilized' or redeemed by outside intervention. To this end
psycho-analysis and most of its descendents have thought of the role of therapy as
one of adjusting the person to his circumstance, which in the modern era, for a
middle class person, means rarely if ever doing what one really wants to do. Most
humanistic therapy is based on the same premise. There is an assumption that while
the client may be unfortunately "oversocialized," it is still necessary to be socialized a
great deal to be good and happy. At most, it is believed, deliberate social behavior is
only to be informed by natural desires leading to an acceptably 'enlightened' form of
self-control.
But there is also often an individual, if widespread, reason for this: the fear of loss of
control. People often feel that the body and natural forces will betray them. Perhaps
this comes from attitudes of parenting--parents who feel they must control the child
at all costs are particularly antagonistic to instinctual and natural behavior because
they know it follows feeling and life and not the dictates of the parent.
In the Reich and Lowen tradition, on the other hand, leaks of instinctive behavior
such as anger or disgust are seen not as symptoms but as signs of life. The work is not
to eliminate the anger, but to possess it honestly so it may be expressed in an
undistorted and contact-full way. Seen this way, a person can never eliminate the
possibility of being surprised by their feelings and desires, but they and others should
not be damaged by them. This is the principle of self-regulation. True, even in the
Reich and Lowen tradition, examples are easily found of excesses undertaken in the
name of liberation, (even from Reich's close entourage), but these are examples of
secondary drives. This self-regulation premise is more than a philosophical idea--
without some faith in it, full surrender cannot take place.
The Reich and Lowen tradition asserts that some ways of being are healthier than
others, and that work in this tradition means getting oneself and others to these ways
of being. The humanistic tradition (which arose somewhat from a rebellion from the
Freudian tradition of correction) by contrast asserts that no one can say what is good
for another, and a therapist's role is one of companion, not expert. But Reich and
Lowen felt that therapy was often futile just for the reason that a exploratory
approach keeps the client always within the orbit of his or her character.
Emphasis on Re-association:
Whenever we act contrary to our feelings, the ego is dissociating from them, and
from our bodies. This is necessary from time to time in modern life, and the ability to
do this judiciously is a mark of a healthy ego. However, to make a lifestyle or ego
ideal out of this is to produce a more or less permanent state of dissociation. Long
standing dissociation leads to deadness. It also produces an inability to mourn losses.
However, dissociation avoids some pain in the short-run, and can at times permit
enough freedom of action to either permit survival or bring about pleasure
elsewhere, which is healing.
More or less all the traditions of therapy arising from the work of Milton Erickson,
(family therapy, hypnotic therapy, neuro-linguistic programming, other tricky
therapies developed in the 1970's, etc...) are based on dissociation (although hypnotic
trance itself may be re-associating with the body). True, many associations that
develop traumatically in life are limiting and defeating. It makes sense to want to
break bad associations. Dissociation, while it can remove bad feelings, it cannot bring
good feelings
Reich and Lowen sought to have clients associate with their bodies, their sexuality,
and with the basic processes of life. This alone will allow accumulated bad feelings to
be worked through, making room for pleasure. Good feelings bring about balanced
thought much more than the other way around. Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy,
although not consistent with the Reich and Lowen tradition, is also based strongly
around re-association with painful feeling of early origin.
In the drive theory, basic human life force or energy is believed to transit from some
type of inside or center out toward the world and other people. When the drives are
working well, a person can succeed in a social, sexual and work sense. Drives move
the person toward objects, which can be people or things. A competing emphasis,
called object relations, is that those objects that happen to be people have a role in
eliciting and shaping drives in other people, and that the availability of good objects
cannot be taken for granted. Object relations emphasizes the appropriateness of the
engaging other to help a person heal. It is posited that the original failure of a 'good
enough other' was the hampering event in emotional development, and that in
psychotherapy with adults, the therapist must be an exquisitely good enough object
to allow the real self of the client to be freed.
The drive of course has always been a very common intuitive idea about human
functioning. Freud formalized it as an organizing idea for his work, but subsequently
mainstream psychoanalysis has de-emphasized it. The Reich and Lowen tradition of
therapy has found the drive theory a useful organizing idea, and has retained it.
Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen believed it was more important for a therapist
to be a coach to get drives going again, than it was for the therapist to be any
particular object except warm, honest, and straight-forward. In their work, almost
the entire emphasis was on 'repair' of the drive of the individual. It was assumed that
when the drive was ready, appropriate others (objects) would appear.
This is a controversy in ideas that is not possible to settle definitely. It seems that
perhaps there has always been a movement between the two poles of drive and
object. Later followers of Freud (except Wilhelm Reich) tended to reject the drive
emphasis in favor object emphasis, and in reaction Alexander Lowen strongly
renewed the drive emphasis, while his later followers in bio-energetics tended back
toward object emphasis. It is useful to note that 'drive' is more of a biological idea,
and that object relations is more of a psychological idea. The Reich and Lowen
tradition is more tied to ideas of biology (as was Freud, especially the early Freud)
than is modern psychoanalysis. Perhaps the following is a useful synthesis: drive-
oriented work is necessary to 'deconstruct' restraints of character, and at that point
(a very painful point), relational availability and work is helpful for the
'reconstruction.' Another way to state this: object relations tend to revolve within an
orbit prescribed by the basic health of the organism, and working to change object
relations without affecting the basic 'energetic' health of the person is slow or futile.
Once the basic emotional economy is improved, then of course a developmental
process of object relating needs to mature, and perhaps this can be best done in
therapy. These two stages, of course, will be mostly overlapping.
The Reich and Lowen tradition emphasizes overcoming restrictions and says very
little about re-structuring. It as if the belief is that since the job of freeing the self
never gets quite finished, most time and effort should be devoted to it. As for
integration of healthy developments, it is believed that the interplay of healthy drives
and reality in one's life will guide development. Still, this has at times been a concern
of onlookers about the Reich and Lowen tradition. Besides the unjustified fear that
antisocial behavior will arise (which is covered under secondary drives) there are two
main fears: 1) an individual is left in a disorganized state without a 'compass' and
remains lost, and 2) without help restructuring, the individual perhaps 'falls back'
into old patterns.
Each person must make a life for her- or himself. this really cannot and should not be
done under the direction of another. Rather the corrective efforts of this tradition are
about regaining the capacity to make a life. This is consistent with the stated aims of
all humanistic and psychodynamic traditions. Perhaps the actual fact is however, that
most other therapy and healing traditions leave room for the temptation of telling
others how to live to creep in. The final products of work in this tradition are physical
and emotion states, not behaviors.
This is partly related to the emphasis on drive described above. People are rightly
concerned with the problem of love. Though it is not easy to define love, one thing
seems clear: 'solving' the problem of love is a matter of being loving, not of being
lovable.
It must quickly be made clear, that by "loving" is not meant compulsive self-sacrifice,
unnatural patience, submission, blind loyalty, etc These will-based, self-negating
practices are really attempts at being lovable. They are based on the feeling of
scarcity. They derive from an early experience of rejection. If a child feels that they
are even potentially a burden to the parent, the natural act of receiving love and
feeling it back is interrupted. In it's place arises the need to draw the love of the
parent and others by being lovable. The child grows to try to conform to an image.
The image is often one provided by the parent but it may be the opposite.
Loving by contrast is a felt thing. It has a biological aspect--people often remark how
someone in love looks more alive. Love naturally grows between people who share
pleasure together, if the capacity for loving has not been squashed. A person with
loving capacity may genuinely love a stranger because of that stranger's humanity.
Love cannot be forced by ethical precept, however. It arises involuntarily and
effortlessly, if the openness is there.
By contrast, most casual, humanistic psychotherapy is oriented toward three
processes 1) re-assuring the client that he or she already is lovable, or 2) coaching
some type of behavior that will bring a positive response from others, or 3) helping
the client attain his or her life goals. Any of these processes keeps the emphasis on
achieving an image, and does not develop feeling or purpose. Therapy and lifestyle
practices in the Reich and Lowen tradition are directed at restoring and increasing
the capacity for love and the capacity for pleasure (the two of which are closely
related).
Modern people are led to believe that they are their ideas and ideals, and that the
body is an unfortunately necessary conveyance, the condition of which is a random
event unrelated to a person's "true self" . The Reich and Lowen tradition stresses, by
contrast, that not only does the body reflect the self, it is a large part of the self.
Also many believe (conscious) intentions and ideas are more important than results
in the world and in relationships. This is true of the general culture but also the
general therapist culture. However, intentions and ideas miss character, miss the
unconscious,and miss the 'shadow'. Results, on the other hand, over time include the
effects of those parts of a person of which he or she is otherwise unaware. That is not
to say that results are always just or fair, often they are not. However, results, and the
state of the body, are not an aberration. The Reich and Lowen tradition, in general,
strongly affirms folk wisdom, which is a great disappointment to many who feel too
sophisticated for that.
Also this guiding reference to matters outside therapy is a strong protection from
abuse. There have been in the history of therapy cultish pockets, where embracing a
particular ideology or performing a certain way in a therapy session was seen as a
criterion of health. However in the tradition of Alexander Lowen, interpretations and
explanations should be mappable onto and testable in a person's everyday life. That
is, there is an insistence that one does not to take the therapist's word for it, but
rather tries it out for oneself.
At the time of seeking change, a person will conceive of some parts of his or her life
as a problem, and other parts, even if not presently satisfying, as a success. Both
categories contain aspects of character. Most people want to leave alone what seems
to be an asset and build on it. What presents as an unwanted symptom may also be
seen as a sign of life breaking through a character defense.
Alexander Lowen came to believe that resistance to change ultimately resided not
just in the body and not just in the psyche but actually in character itself, intangible
as it may be. That is, body work alone, or psychological work alone, or even perhaps
both done in parallel, could not really unseat the limiting effects of character. Rather
overall global character attitudes had to be confronted. This is called character focus.
Lowen, like Reich before him, believed that only by showing the client how his or her
resistance fit a constellation of character, could the nucleus of resistance be
overcome. An implication of this is that egalitarian and exploratory approaches to
therapy and change, even one's including bodywork, if they fail to 'characterize' the
problem, tended to only produce modest change in quality of life.
If new 'issues' are taken up as they arise, issues may seem to multiply with no real
sense of direction. Dissatisfaction seems to be able to jump from manifestation to
manifestation.
There is also a benefit to character focus in the larger context of change. Most goal-
directed, self-initiated programs of change ('self-help') have some benefit, but the
benefit is limited again by the filter of character. It really can require another person
at times, not necessarily a therapist and not necessarily 'character-saavy', but honest,
to point out 'blind spots'. A focus on character may call into question an entire
lifestyle. It seems, that intangible as it is, character is the ultimate repository of
resistance to happiness. Bodywork alone will stall without attention to character, and
supportive conversational therapy with neither attention to character nor bodywork
will generally really stall.
The Reich and Lowen tradition is interested in restoring the capacity for feeling and
purpose, not the content of feeling and purpose. The good life perhaps includes more
than good feeling, like meaning, spirituality, etc. However, these are best built on top
of health and good feeling. Trying to construct meaning, prematurely, out of despair
and pleasurelessness, is like a weak consolation prize when one believes betterment
is not possible. While past history is worked through, this is done in the service of
harmonizing the sense of self with accumulated feelings, not in order to 'solve' a
narrative
Our theories, as well as those of Freud, Reich and Lowen, can function as a
narcissistic defense against the feelings of shame, humiliation and impotence. To
have our theories challenged or to have them fall on deaf ears may be to open up
the wounds from which these theories sprang.
Robert Hilton
Anonymous
Functionalism
Domains of Effect
The goal of understanding for humans is to know how things come about--the force
behind effects. Effects can conceptualized as being brought about in three
domains: natural, supernatural, and man-made. The naturalincludes all effects
brought about by chemical, physical, and biological laws. The supernatural is a
concept that natural laws can be suspended only occasionally for the will or desire of
sentient entities to be effected by unknown means. The meaning of supernatural
derives from its contrast from the natural.
Man-made is the domain in which humans use some natural laws to interrupt other
natural laws to bring about the effects they prefer. This the realm of technology.
Because of their seeming opposition to natural laws, some man-made effects weaken
belief in the ultimate determination by the natural, and this can boost mysticism as
described below. The supernatural and the man-made share the core element of
being will-driven
Mechanistic Thinking
Mechanistic thinking (or mechanization) is the belief that life is only one
long string of causes and effects based on physical and chemical laws,
and that the purpose of human life is to become the 'prime mover' or
'ultimate cause' of results by managing causes to one's will. A goal is to
optimize existence through the man-made. There is a premise that physical laws
operate everywhere and always, and there are no additional natural laws that apply
to living organisms (there are no unique biological laws)
The unit of interest is the effect, which is seen as the final 'result' of a chain of
causation. In human affairs, only the intended effect is of interest (although
it is understood that mere intention is not effective.) The process itself, and
adventitious results are disregarded or denied. Importantly, the observer is believed
to be uninvolved and to have no effect.
Related to this, all interest is in 'why' and not in 'how,' so for instance,
competition develops to explain the 'real' cause of schizophrenia, but there is no
interest in understanding how that person is functioning. There is a dominant
premise that any given effect has one and only one true cause, and 'subtle' influences,
because they do not 'explain' anything completely (do not 'force' any single result),
are dismissed as irrelevant. This dismissiveness is reinforced because a armored and
deadened body is 'numb' to many subtle sensations and effects.
There is in fact a belief that humans can choose not to be affected by other living
organisms, and in fact this is believed to be an optimal way of being. We have
developed a culture of mechanical explanations that include many minute details but
little understanding of the overall context of life. Mechanization is the inevitable
result of a deadened body, but the deadening of a partly alive body can be completed
under its auspices. From the mechanical point of view, the body is either a tool or a
burden of the mind, but never the seat of the person or the self.
The temptation to describe events in society solely in terms of cause and effect is
understandable, because after all, conscious human will is part of the mix, and very
salient in consciousness. However, the mechanical view tends to explain even events
inside a person (phenomenology) entirely by cause and effect, as though the
conscious will of a human had designed it! Yet we know that a consciously
designed being is a robot! Other traits include:
Overcomplicates
Scientific bias
Fears life
Model of reality and man a machine (no need for mind (but brain is okay))
A slight distinction needs to be made between the mechanistic thinking Reich was
writing about which was based on Marxism, and modern day mechanism which has
replaced the body with the brain. This modern 'neuroscientific' materialism opposes
the instinctual actualities of humans, that is, it tries to make the body below the neck
unnecessary. This may seem to have elements of mysticism, and in fact it can attract
mystically minded followers in the therapeutic community, but it is just an even
more impoverished form of mechanistic thinking.
Mysticism
This is the realm of ghosts and spirits, but also of Jungian ideas of synchronicity and
collective unconscious.
Mysticism does therefore seem to make room for inter-relationship but not in any
consistent way because, again, the wishes of one entity or another predominates.
Mysticism can be a lazy way of thinking, because there is no need to achieve any
consensus with others and no 'reality check' at all. Moreover, many in our culture
(especially 'alternative health') mix mystical and mechanical thinking. That is, they
claim understanding from mystical sources but choose to implement the knowledge
in a routinized or mechanical way.
The following are ideas about how mysticism comes about: 1) Some have had
privilege in their upbringing, and so wish and result seem directly related, or 2) Some
were misled frequently about other people's true role in matters (ie what parents
were actually doing), so that 'how things come about' is never straight-forward but of
course not random either. 3) Alienation from the body make physical sensations
unrecognizable as the self, and mechanical explanations being inadequate, extra-
natural explanations are created. This point was emphasized by Wilhelm Reich in the
third part of Character Analysis. Other traits:
Believes it mind over matter (this is also the psychopathic position, via
different dynamics)
Oversimplifies
Religious bias
Fears subjective reality, the existing, the factual, retreats inward to fantasy
Fears death
Model of reality and man a ghost (no need for physical body)
Functional Thinking
In functionalism the unit of interest is the process. Results are generally viewed as
just 'snapshots' of ongoing processes. In human affairs processes and adventitious
events are termed 'life' and not disregarded. Investigations are not meant to find a
final truth for all people and all time, but a present truth. Things are described not so
much in terms of what they are, but in terms of what they do. The observer is
understood to have some impact but not to determine what happens entirely.
Life includes movement, and the energy that is necessary for that movement
All life tends naturally toward harmony. (This can imply some challenge to the
dominance of entropy.)
Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957)
It is far better for a reader truly interested to go ahead and read his biographies, one
by Myron Sharaf, and one by Ilse Ollendorf, his second legal and third emotional
wife. It seems that while both Sharaf and Ollendorf are attempting to be completely
open and truthful, they both seem to be not describing the entirety of their
experience with Reich. More than Sharaf, Ollendorf describes a personal and
unglamorous side of Reich that is absent from his own autobiographical materials.
What about the role of Reich's work on present day efforts to lessen suffering, such as
this website? Reich spent much of his career trying to prove in a laboratory sense
what he understood intuitively in a clinical psychotherapy sense. Clues are that his
laboratory work was not as convincing (for whatever reason) as his clinical work,
which has clouded the handling of his ideas unnecessarily. Reich tended to open new
ideas brilliantly, but perhaps had less patience for systematically analyzing all the
aspects, at least in print. This lends an 'unfinished' quality to his legacy. He also had
a tendency to devote a large portion of his writing to a polemical rebuttal of his
critics, which is confusing to a reader who hasn't yet had a chance to nail down the
original idea.
From Reich's own autobiographical materials, one point does seem to suggest itself.
Reich's first, main and guiding interest was always sexuality. He did not 'start' with
psychoanalysis, his own studies were well underway at that time. Rather he
sojourned for a while with the psychoanalysts because they were the only ones
talking seriously about sex at that time.
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of
authority.
Thomas H. Huxley
There is no greater importance in all the world like knowing you are right and that
the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.
Norman Mailer
You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind legs. But by standing a
flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men.
Max Beerbohm
Alexander Lowen (1910-2008)
Alexander Lowen's life spanned from the end of the Victorian era into the 21st
century. His life and career spanned several wars, the depression, the coming and
going of the 'sexual revolution', the ascendancy of greed from the 80's on, and the
ascendancy of technology from the 90's on. Like Reich, he addressed not only the
effects of the family and individual situation on development, but also the effects of
social forces.
Unlike Reich, however, he did not come to the conclusion that the first order of
business was to change society. He came rather to the conclusion (the same as
Abraham Maslow) that the task of a healthy individual was to live within a society
without necessarily being formed by the values of that society. The basic elements of
human happiness have not changed for millennia, but the way in which a person
obtains those elements are affected by the culture in which he lives.
Lowen also was a much more systematic thinker and writer than Reich, and so his
work has a feel of completeness or sufficiency about it. It also functions more easily
as source book for actual men or women seeking practical steps in changing a life.
Though Lowen doubtless responded to criticisms by refining and sharpening his
theory, in his writing he avoids distracting polemical digressions and stays on the
topic in a positive way.
Lowen first started working in therapy about 1942. He attended medical school from
1946-1951. As mentioned above, he developed his ideas and practices from Reichian
roots, adding a great deal of common sense, everyday observation, and trial and error
with expressive techniques. In the late 1960's his worked ballooned in popularity, but
the popularity receded in the early 1980s as the culture turned away from freedom
back toward money, fame, and power and control. One of the many things that stand
out in his biography is how little the popularity of a notion alone swayed him.
It's one thing to understand the heart, and another to commit to its rhythms
Paul Dennison
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
There are numerous other bodywork traditions, besides the Reich and Lowen one,
that are also intended to increase feeling and purpose. All these traditions are like the
Zen metaphor of fingers pointing (to the moon). That is, despite some differences,
they all aim at the same way of being. Because actually getting to the moon is
not easy, there is always a temptation to accumulate more fingers
instead. What is beneficial, however, usually, is just to actually, patiently, honestly,
without forcing things, and without prematurely convincing others, follow one
tradition without mistaking the finger for the moon.
Many traditions come to mind that are doubtless pointing to the same arrival as
Reich and Lowen: Qi Gong, Feldenkreis, Alexander method, yoga, Rolfing, Tai Chi,
Trager, Hellerwork, dance therapy, chiropractic, cranio-sacral work, osteopathy, etc
Reich and Lowen bodywork has this unique aspect: personal emotional expression is
considered necessary and central. For instance crying is considered bodywork, the
deeper the better! This is unique as far as I know. (In conversational psychotherapy,
crying is somehow expected but not encouraged, and immediate re-assurance is
almost always given to stop it short.)
There is one tradition of which I am aware that is particularly consistent with the
Reich and Lowen tradition-- Pilates. All bodywork traditions can be roughly divided
into two types: corrective and exploratory. The Reich and Lowen tradition is clearly
corrective, that is, the therapist is supposed to know of a form or way of being that if
not perfect, is very good, and good for everybody. The therapist is trying to get clients
to eventually approximate that form (but not by imitating it). There is room for
individuality, but the basic premise of the therapy is to achieve a satisfying
commonality first, then let 'true' individuality be built on top. This is a fundamental
underlying belief of the Reich and Lowen tradition, and also a fundamental
underlying belief of Pilates.
Nobody explains the need, the role, and the ultimate effect of bodywork better than
Lowen. However, both Reich and Lowen provide a limited amount of physical
practices. These physical practices are varied and it is an oversimplification but
perhaps useful to think of them meant to 'crack' or 'blow the top' off of armoring.
Pilates was aware of the emotional implications of body misalignment and rigidity,
but he did not think of himself as working with psychological forces, but rather as
working with a functional body that has gone 'off track'. From this point of view, the
concepts of disassembly and re-assembly seem fitting. Moreover, it is an active
therapy, in which the client must participate willingly. Also Pilates, which is
presently niched with physical fitness, has had no trouble staying with touch and
physical focus. It is neither afraid of it, nor has to fear condemnation for it.
Psychotherapy, even based on Reich and Lowen, has had a hard time staying with
physical work. This is probably based on the body alienation of most therapists, but
is also reinforced by the present regulatory climate.
Nobody who does Lowenian bodywork will miss the similarity with yoga (yogasana)
and Chi Gung, both in the form and the paradigm of 'moving energy" These asian
traditions are clearly systems of re-balancing and re-harmonizing body and mind.
They work. Done in large groups, the format is much more affordable. Two practical
differences seem to become evident among participants in the United States.
First, yoga and Chi Gung, in the teaching traditions, seem to assume only a modest
alienation from the body. Our truly unfit, depersonalized Western bodies are
addressed at too high a level, and it is almost impossible to do the movements as
intended. Just repetition does not help. Instead, an almost aerobic struggle ensues,
which is a good workout, but the intended experience can be elusive. Yogasana seems
a method of neuro-muscular 'reset' more than a complete re-wiring. Neuro-muscular
redevelopment requires a very remedial approach, at least with adults.
Second, yoga and Chi Gung deal with restoring basic health and developing
spirituality simultaneously. This can tempt many people to try to leap-frog from say
depression to enlightenment, skipping basic emotional repair. This is especially true
when the participant is dabbling and has no teacher.
Yogasanas are final positions. The emphasis can be on arrival not the journey. This
contrasts with Pilates, which prescribes movements not positions (except for some
'starting positions which are not extreme). While both Pilates and Yogasana seem to
aim for the same bodily state, this training difference is very important, especially for
over-achieving Western egos. Endgaining and injury possibly is a greater
possibility with yoga.
Nobody can prove what I am about to say, but I think it is so: every energy in
which we live is a nourishment to us. It is something that is literally contributing
food to the individual. If you are living in a field of light, your eyes probably are
good, as you deprive yourself of light consistently, the eyes starve and eventually
you can't see. If you are living within a field of sound, the same is true of your ears.
Now it would be absolutely ridiculous if we lived in a field of gravity and it had no
effect on us, yet down through the ages, this has been our assumption, that it didn't
make any difference. This assumption is still held among a lot of people. They think
it doesn't make any difference how you carry yourself, because you are a spirit, an
immortal an superior something, which is in charge of the situation. Well, a spirit is
in charge of the situation, but not in the way many think. The spirit is in charge to
tell the individual that he can so organize his body that he is now in line with a
supporting force
Ida Rolf
Principles for Change
The Reich and Lowen tradition makes very different assumptions than the present
mainstream culture about what underlies a life worth living. It is implied in this
tradition, as with many others, that what a person needs to do is get back on track
with human development. However, what is different is the conception of what
components of a human life are true and solid. These we might call principles of the
tradition. Understanding the principles does not bring about any change, but growth
as it does occur may be much better understood and consolidated by these principles.
Functional Models: Drives, Layers, Segments, and Character
Armor
There are several fundamental models in the Reich and Lowen tradition that meld
biology with emotion and interpersonal functioning. These are neither mechanical
and conclusionless like many bio-chemical models popular in science, nor are they
based on magical thinking and wish fulfillment like some mystical healing models
made available to the hopeful. Rather they are functional models. That is, they
do not see human life as determined solely by biology, but they do not see human life
as something that can 'rise above' natural forces merely by wish or sentiment.
The drive theory was an organizing idea started by Freud, although mainstream
psychoanalysis has de-emphasized it.
The Reich and Lowen tradition of therapy has found the drive theory a useful
organizing idea, and has retained it. Basic human life force or energy is believed to
transit from some type of inside or center out toward the world and other people.
When the drives are working well, a person can succeed in a social, sexual and work
sense. Drives move the person toward objects, which can be people or things. A
competing emphasis, called object relations, is that those objects that happen to be
people have a role in eliciting and shaping drives in other people, and that the
availability of good objects cannot be taken for granted. Object relations emphasizes
the appropriateness of the engaging other to help a person heal. It is posited that the
original failure of a 'good enough other' was the hampering event in emotional
development, and that in psychotherapy with adults, the therapist must be an
exquisitely good enough object to allow the real self of the client to be freed.
Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen believed it was more important for a therapist
to be a coach to get drives going again, than it was for the therapist to be any
particular object except warm, honest, and straight-forward. In their work, almost
the entire emphasis was on 'repair' of the drive of the individual. It was assumed that
when the drive was ready, appropriate others would appear.
This is a controversy in ideas that is not possible to settle. It is useful to note that
'drive' is more of a biological idea, and that object relations is more of a psychological
idea. The Reich and Lowen tradition is more tied to ideas of biology (as was Freud)
than is modern psychoanalysis. Perhaps the following is a useful synthesis: drive-
oriented work is necessary to 'deconstruct' restraints of character, and at that point
(a very painful point), relational availability and work is helpful for the
'reconstruction.'
The layer model goes along with the drive theory. In the three layer model, a core
of pure wholesome life force is posited, corresponding to the viscera. This is
surrounded by a muscular second layer. Under less than good emotional
development, the muscular layer develops armor and pure impulses are distorted
into secondary drives. The third or surface layer contains intellect and ego.
Sometimes four layers are described, the additional layer being an affective layer
between the core and muscular layer.
While the surface layer is where pleasure and contact takes place, ironically to
develop feeling and purpose, it is necessary to work with deeper layers. Pleasure
succeeds when impulses from the core come to fruition at the surface.
Many of us think of our deeper part being our private thoughts and fantasies.
However, these are part of mind and belong to the surface layer. The core is
neglected almost universally in our culture. There is sometimes a ideology against
superficiality (really cosmetic efforts) toward 'higher' things, but generally this leads
to intellectualization of life
The layer model may at first be taken as more conceptual and not too biological,
however, it has been compared to the three types of embryonic tissue: endoderm
(viscera) mesoderm (muscle, bone, connective tissue) and ectoderm (skin, brain, and
nerves)
*Here Sheldon's three character types are relevant: endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph. They
are named for the layer in which the 'self' of these types reside. Though less detailed, Sheldon's
typology is basically consistent with Lowen's idea of character. Usually, when Sheldon is mentioned in
science classes, the psychological correlates of the body types are left out or greatly abbreviated--the
cultural mind body split at work.
Segments
Most medical thinking about human functioning is based on will. To that end, the
brain, the voluntary motor system, and especially the nerves carrying the
impulse from the brain to the motor system is seen as paramount. The
distribution of these nerves does not follow segments from top to bottom neatly.
That is how the neck can said to have an 'energy block' when in fact there are many
nerves and blood vessels that provide for and transit through the neck. The
segmental model is so important not because it is a precise map of where to do
bodywork (although Reich partly thought so) but rather it is a way to think of human
functioning and the limits on that functioning not in terms of will but rather in terms
of vegetative functioning. This is the same pattern as for 'hysterical' paralysis or
'hysterical' numbness that is well documented in the psychiatric literature completely
independent of Reich.
'Character' Armor
Although the term armor is meant to refer to a demonstrable situation in the body, it
is slightly more abstract than layers or segments. Armor is a metaphor referring to
the muscular spasms, decreased motility, postural misalignments, and character
attitudes which an individual develops that act as a defense against the breakthrough
of unwanted or intolerable feelings, sensations, emotions, or experience. Muscular
armor functions, mostly, as a defense against anxiety, anger, fear, and sexual
excitation. Interpersonally, this armor leads to emotional rigidity, poor contact with
others, and a feeling of ‘deadness.’ Unlike layers and segments, which are in
between parts of the body, armor is in between the person and certain
experiences. The forces producing armor can be described as three types:
Premature Containment.
Very small children naturally act upon strong feeling without thinking. Civilization
of any type is not possible on that basis. Adults are expected to incorporate thought
and belief into final action. For that to happen, feelings need some temporary
containment. Alexander Lowen referred to this capacity as self-posession. Self-
possession allows feelings to inform and motivate cohesive, humane, creative action
in the world. However, self-posession is not neurologically possible for a
child under six, and only gradually becomes available after
that. Caretakers eager to give children a head-start to success often push children to
'control themselves' so they may 'learn' and behave in a way that pleases others. In
this situation however, the containment can only be produced with massive muscle
tension and breath holding. An example is premature toilet training before the
sphincter is myelinated. It must happen with massive tightening of the gluteal and
hip muscles. This tension will usually become life-long and certainly
undermine the very security that precociousness is supposed to provide!
Traditional cultures make no demands on children under six, but rather control the
environment so that the child can come to no harm and do no real harm. Our
culture's emphasis on attainment first has made it a temptation and eventually a
social norm to hurry children. The ego of the parent may want the child to be special.
Because children develop cognitively rapidly at certain points, a small precociousness
from being pushed can seem like giftedness when compared to others the exact same
age. But as children reach maturity the difference flattens, while the opportunity
for self-knowledge has been lost, and an insecurity has been instilled.
Horror.
Environmental Negation.
The environment here is almost always human caretakers. The aliveness of a child is
not accepted because it reminds the caretaker of his or her own deadness. The child
learns that certain types of movement or expression brings on the wrath of others.
The child learns to avoid some behaviors at all costs. Innocence may be negated with
abuse. The adults may act like the child is in competition, and the child senses he
cannot 'survive' the competition and so must find a way to not compete.
The word armor of course has a connotation of something that resists penetration.
Wilhelm Reich developed the concept because he felt that some psychoanalytic
patients were unaffected by in-session interpretations and out-of-session events that
'should' have affected them strongly. It was as if things 'bounced off' them. The name
armor implies that the phenomenon comes into existence to fulfill this purpose. That
is a teleological explanation, which for biological phenomena, may be misleading. If
the purpose is no longer relevant, then the phenomenon should disappear right? This
is in fact how many therapist approach the problem--trying to convince the client to
'just drop' the defense, it is no longer needed. That is not how biology works. A more
physiologically sound model is allostasis below.
The Amoeba
The amoeba is a one-celled animal, that is, a protozoa. Under a microscope, it can be
seen that an amoeba naturally reaches out into its environment. If poked however,
the amoeba contracts. What is interesting is that having contracted from the first
poke, the amoeba will contract more readily and longer to a second noxious stimulus.
The comparison to humans (metazoa) that have been hurt almost makes itself. What
is clear with the amoeba, is that this is not a cognitive problem, the amoeba has no
brain "to erroneously overgeneralize," or otherwise form a cognitive distortion.
Contraction is a biological reaction, not a mental mistake.
Supporting the Life Process
One approach to treating suffering is to try to block the mechanism of pain or of the
symptom. Mainstream medicine for the most part uses either surgery to remove or
block a process, or medication to block a process. Blocking or removing can be life
saving on occasion, but because it is crude relative to the complexity of human
functioning, in the long-run it leads to greater dysregulation. Over time, more and
more treatment is added to combat the increasing dysregulation. Lesser-skilled
psychotherapy often follows similar lines, using reassurance to block anxiety, or
friendliness to block loneliness. Interpersonal dysregulation may increase.
The Reich and Lowen tradition posits that most suffering (and the psychology that
explains it) is a phenomenon of "frozen and terrorized protoplasm*". Reich and
Lowen therapy seeks to enliven the person. Work is not necessarily
targeted at specific problems in a cause and effect way.
This may seem out of place in our goal-directed society. Often clients may ask, how a
action like the expression of anger toward a very powerful person will help their
'symptom', and often the answer is that it supports the living process. The belief is,
that once a good level of vibrancy is reached, most symptoms either will have
disappeared, become manageable, or become unimportant. Work in the Reich and
Lowen tradition is not so much an attempted cure of specific suffering as it is an
initiation into a new way of life.
*This phrase is adapted from Robert Hilton. I do not know if Reich or Lowen ever said it quite this way
Results the effects overall of one's action on other people and in the world.
Outcome a very specific result that arises from the mixture of one's actions
with the many independent variables operating in the world. A particular
outcome may not reflect results generally.
Many people in our culture believe that the key to 'being good' and having a 'good
life' is to have the right intentions and the right ideas. This is not cause for criticism if
results in relationships and in the world are generally in line with intentions or ideas.
However, in life, and in therapy, it is common to meet people who are able to
complain (accurately) of poor results in relationships despite the best intentions and
abundant well-meant ideas.. However, there is a tendency to attribute this to either
the ideas needing only a bit of a tweak, or to having uncommonly bad luck in never
having found others who respond "as they should" to the intentions.
What is important, is that intentions and conscious ideas leave out many aspects
of character, such as the unconscious, 'the shadow' (disowned traits), and very often,
the body. Results, on the other hand, over time include the effects, on others, of those
parts of a person of which he or she is otherwise unaware. That is not to say that
results are always just or fair, often they are not. However, results, and
the state of the body, are also not an aberration. Overall, results 'say'
something.
The Defense of Splitting
However, most people keep reality testing intact but still employ splitting
by attributing intentions to the actions of ourselves or others. In general,
others are seen as entirely good-intentioned or entirely badly-intentioned. Any action
or result that is not in line with this image is negated in importance by describing the
result as contrary to intention. People that are deemed (split) bad are avoided or
confronted indignantly in a way that stops communication. People that are deemed
(split) good are not confronted.
But intentions are never clear cut, and rarely 'pure', and often not really knowable.
Speculating upon or judging the intentions of others can be a mental device to make
splitting seem rational. The defense of splitting decreases anxiety, but it
decreases contact as well. What paying attention to results does is to bring people
and things into real relationship.
There is the possibility of being too outcome oriented. This arises when
anxiety makes it seem that a particular result must happen, even if other people, or
chance, have a role. Attention to results is not the same as a willingness to pursue
results at all costs and by all means. For an adult, pursuing something usually means
following principles that have been developed from experience--that is from feeling
and past results. Principles are meant to be firm but not rigid. Unlike 'rules',
principles are applied with some feeling for the situation. Principled behavior
provides a feeling of integrity and consistency even when the outcome in a particular
situation is not typical. Principles however must conform to overall results or they
lose their reality. Chasing a particular outcome results in unprincipled behavior. So
result primacy does not mean obtaining a particular outcome at any cost.
Some work in the helping professions does a disservice by re-assuring clients that: 1)
they have indeed been injured by being among others more receptive to results than
intentions, and that 2) the helping professional will respond to the client's intentions,
not the client's whole actuality. The second is in fact an impossibility--the helping
professional will respond to the client's whole, whether he or she is aware of it or not.
The belief that any relationship can be a cocoon--totally protected and different from
the ways of the world-- is an illusion. When self-concepts develop contrary to results,
it results in illusion. Illusions buffer suffering somewhat, but they also prolong and
mystify the suffering.
The Reich and Lowen tradition encourages squarely facing repetitive results. Only
this can dispel illusions and expose unconscious and armored attitudes. Of course, all
good psychotherapy traditions do this. But Reich and Lowen, by bringing the body
into therapy, gave results a concrete and felt anchor. The state of the body tells a
story in which intention has had only a minor role.
The Ego, the Body, and the Self
The term ego is used in many ways in psychology. In the work of Wilhelm Reich
and Alexander Lowen the ego is used roughly to designate
the mind and will together. Another way to say it is that the ego is all the parts of
a person that are not just natural functioning. The body is a term often used to
designate not just the flesh, but all the rest of a person, all that is natural, including a
natural spirituality. The 'self' is personal 'sense' that encompasses both the
ego and the body. This is perhaps a gross simplification but hopefully a useful one.
However, it is the ego that perceives the self, and also perceives for the self through
self-perception.
The ego, the self, and the body must work together for a cohesive sense of self and a
satisfying life. 'Listening' to the body does not weaken the ego, it strengthens it. The
ego may dislike or be unable to stand aspects of the body, which unlike the mind
always tells the truth. When this happens, the ego will weaken or shut off self-
perception, or try to change the body in accordance with an image. When the ego
is at odds with the body, the sense of self suffers, and the ego alone has to
stand in as the self in interpersonal affairs. This brings to life a bias
toward image and away from feeling.
The sense of self never disappears in a person but can lose cohesion, or operate only
in the deep background, or both. The ego may become inflated to fill the void, but
insecurity is constant. Many try intellectual development (insight) or dis-embodied
spiritual development to 'fix' the ego, but this only leads to greater confusion. Even
bodywork can be done in an image-driven ego-pleasing way, and thereby fail. The
self has to emerge, it cannot be made.
In the Freudian tradition, a strong distinction is made between the super-ego and the
non-super-ego parts of the ego, and emphasis is focused on righting the conflict
between them. To Alexander Lowen, the ego is considered 'in one piece' as a
construct that is subject to many influences, self-negating and otherwise. Focus is
on whether the ego can be guided by pleasure and a healthy body, in
which case it becomes 'self-cleansing' of negating aspects.
It may seem at times that when the concepts of the Reich and Lowen tradition are
discussed, the ego is 'bad' and the body is 'good'. That of course is not true. It is an
'artifact of trying to bring balance to a 'disembodied', ego-heavy culture. In lessening
the suffering of the present day, often the ego needs some trimming, and the body
needs some freeing, only because in our culture, the ego has overgrown itself and
done damage to the body which, after all, is its foundation.
For many of us, in developing feeling and purpose, limiting aspects of character must
be made ego-dystonic. That is, these limitations must come to be seen by the
individual not as who he or she is, but rather as something he or she does or has
done. For some of us, in developing joy, suffering must become self-dystonic. That is,
suffering must come to be seen by the individual as not who he or she is, or the price
of admission to life, but rather as something that happens. This latter point is
particularly relevant where negating experience has occurred very early in life.
Where character defenses are alloyed with the ego, there is a lack of flexibility. Where
suffering or deprivation is alloyed with the self, there is a pervasive feeling of
defectiveness.
Though it is tempting to align the concepts of ego and conscious together, and align
the concepts of body and unconscious together, it does not quite work that way. The
ego functions unconsciously also-- that is often the most problematic part. The
unconscious as a concept encompasses two very different types of things, one
physiological functioning, and two, emotion, desire, and memory that a person
'cannot recognize at the moment.'
A major understanding of both Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen is that these
two types of unconscious things affect each other immensely. That is why, in their
perspective, conflict is more often framed along the lines of ego versus body than it is
along the Freudian lines of conscious versus unconscious.
Growth versus Change
People coming to therapy are hoping that their experience of life can be different.
They expect the therapist will tell or show them a way to change their life. That is, a
way to exercise their will on their actions or thoughts that will bring different results.
Sometimes this type of change is possible and helpful.
But the will is a limiter. It cannot bring essentially new qualities into a life. Use of the
will upon oneself results in actual muscular contraction and behavioral constriction.
The starting character is reinforced rather than changed. Transformation is a concept
that a change can be brought about by settling on a design for the self and achieving
it by direct action. It is often discontinuous with the life that has gone before. With
an attempt at transformation, one part of the person becomes at war with another
part. For instance the ego-ideal of being skinny becomes at war with the part of the
person that craves comfort or pleasure in food. This produces a yo yo effect, not a
change that is durable and satisfying. Of course body weight can become better
regulated if that is a problem, but by harmonizing through growth and increased
awareness, not will power.
New abilities come about by a process called growth. A goal of bodywork is to remove
restrictions to growth. Growth cannot be forcefully willed or tightly managed.
Growth can be intended and supported. Information is necessary to understand what
supports and what inhibits growth. However too much emphasis on the idea or
information itself leads away from growth because it sets the framework of the will
deciding to 'act' on information, and act on the person. Attempting to deliberately
change oneself is always a limiter. It leads to some skills but an overall decrease of
liveliness.
A better use for the decisional capacity of a person is to surround her- or himself with
the conditions of growth. For most people, growth requires some surrender. Certain
practices that enhance growth such as bodywork can be undertaken but the results
require an openness of expectation. There is an expression that "life [ or some worthy
pursuit] is a marathon, not a sprint". This touches on the idea of allowing some time
for growth ( although the metaphor is weakened by the very punishing, will-based
way people train for marathons these days).
Paul Dennison
Being versus Doing
All animals except man just exist. Most people are not content just to be, they have to
do something or achieve something. This drive produces much of the material
culture, but it can also be destructive, for instance in producing nuclear weapons.
Using the will against the feelings may be necessary in the face of real danger, in
which case it is healthy. It becomes unhealthy when the maneuver persists apart
from real danger. Many people are always trying to change themselves by using
willpower, but this only serves to deepen the split. The ego works by setting a goal
and controlling the actions to achieve it. If the goal is secondary to the action, the
activity is more being than doing. All productive activities such as a car assembly line
or plowing a field, are aspects of doing. But when pleasure is the dominant
motivation, as in dancing or listening to music, the activity is an aspect of being.
Doing does not involve or lead to feelings. In fact urgent doing usually blocks or
inhibit feelings, and this numbing quite commonly becomes the real motivation
behind much frenetic activity. All movements are dominated by the goal, and feelings
are considered irrelevant. In fact, in the short run, feelings can hamper performance.
For the sake of efficiency, people try to transform themselves into machines until the
goal is achieved. They believe that this will produce the most goods, or the most
merit, and therefore lead to happiness eventually. However, a long period of doing
without any being usually leads to the inability to enjoy the fruits of doing.
However, if we pay at least as much attention to the process as the goal, taking action
becomes creative or self-expressive, and increases the sense of being. In being, what
counts is not what one does, but how one does it. The reverse is true for doing.
Being is equated with feeling. One cannot make or produce a feeling anymore than
than one can make being. Genuine feelings arise spontaneously, otherwise one is
pretending. Further, feelings do not produce or accomplish anything. There is
neither goal nor purpose to feelings. We can give reasons for our feelings, but our
feelings do not arise in response to the dictates of reason. they often occur in
opposition to reason. They are spontaneous bodily responses to the world around us,
and there function is to promote the living process.
Doing can be superimposed on being, but it cannot substitute for being. If one is a
person, one can do and produce as a self-expression. The doing doesn't define the
self, but only enhances it. But if one is not a person, the doing will not fill in the lack.
One cannot become a person by doing.
I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to
enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.
E.B. White
Life happens in the balance point between making it happen and taking it as it
comes.
Paul Dennison
There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pleasure Primacy
Reich and Lowen insisted, however, that such behavior results from a faulty pleasure
function, and that without repair of this, self-defeating and other types of distorted
behavior will nonetheless remain compelling. Cognitive and rational approaches will
only train the client to try to hide his or her inclination for such behavior.
Feelings versus Cognitions
Often in our culture, when a decision is hard to make, we tend to seek even more
factual information. We seek to make the 'right' decision by determining in advance
the results. People believe that they should come to 'want to do' what is 'best to do.'
However, satisfying decisions are only makeable on the basis of feelings. Said
another way, the heart should lead and the brain should follow a half-step behind,
working out the details. Just as in infants, in adults, the reality function (based in the
brain and cognitions) should serve (and serve well) the pleasure function (based in
the heart, gut, and pelvis.)
The phrase 'feeling primacy' describes the concept that even realistic cognitions
should serve the direction set by feelings. The phrase 'somatic primacy' describes the
concept that cognitions tend to be distorted or unrealistic if body processes or
feelings are ignored or overruled.
The Present, Real, and Somatic Basis of Emotional Suffering
Most emotional distress has a present real and somatic basis, that is, it is
not just a mental 'mistake'. For instance, a very shy person may withdraw from
close contact with other adults. Knowing that a history of very early rejection is
likely, it is tempting to conclude that the adult behavior comes from a 'mistaken, and
oddly preserved overgeneralization that others will harm. This can lead to an
enthusiastic attempt to get rapidly closer to the shy person, in an attempt to provide
an experience of non-harm.
Similar examples can be described for all character structures. If a friend, family
member, or therapist merely redoubles conversational efforts to convince the client
that he or she can have type of relationship or experience they have been unable to
form, if only they would choose it, they are frustrating the person who almost surely
has been trying self-help of that sort already.
Even though the present basis of suffering tends to have roots in childhood
experience, even an accurate explanation of those roots does not remove the present
basis. Such an explanation may, however, provide a useful organizing idea for work
on removing the present basis however.
Emotions arise first in the body and are perceived by the mind. The mind's
role is to 'make sense' of emotion and determine a path of conduct that is both
realistic and honors the feeling. True, good thoughts and good feelings usually occur
together, as do bad thoughts and bad feelings. What is cause and what is effect is not
easy to determine. This has lead some to declare that thoughts and feeling influence
each other equally. The thinly veiled implication of this is, since thoughts are subject
to ego control, is that a well-regulated person will use thoughts to bring inconvenient
feelings 'into line.'
Cognitive distortions can be challenged logically and seemingly effectively, but in the
absence of a change in body feeling, they re-emerge persistently with an 'irrational'
compellingness. Lowen attributed some of the effectiveness of early psychoanalysis
to the shocking nature of Freudian ideas. Shock works completely apart from logic
because it is a strong activation of the autonomic nervous system.
The phrase 'body primacy' describes the concept that cognitions tend to be distorted
or unrealistic if body processes or feelings are ignored or overruled. The phrase
'feeling primacy' describes the concept that even realistic cognitions should serve the
direction set by feelings. That is, body primacy asserts that the body will have its say
eventually, and feeling primacy asserts that there is a fitness to this.
Humans have two parts to their nature--they are conscious actors and they are
unconscious responders. Another way to say this is that humans are voluntary actors
and also involuntary responders. A philosophical view that emphasizes only the
involuntary is 'determinism'. An opposite view is 'free will' which dismisses the
involuntary.
What the psychodynamic point of view established by Freud asserted, was that if the
involuntary and voluntary are not in harmony, a distorted involuntary ruled
the person, with ill effect. The basic approach of Freud was to increase the voluntary
and make the involuntary negligible. (As in his dictum " Where the Id was, the Ego
shall be.") Modern cognitive therapy has the same agenda. True, cognitive therapy
does not use the concept of the id or the unconscious, but it has an analogous role of
the 'bad' involuntary in the concepts 'behavioral dysregulation', 'cognitive
distortions', and 'irrational thought'.
The Reich and Lowen tradition, on the other hand seeks, to harmonize the voluntary
with the involuntary. Since the involuntary can be seen most clearly in the body, and
the voluntary is seen most clearly in the ego, this can be restated that the tradition
seeks to harmonize the body and the go. Because in our time, the role of the ego in
one's life has grown enormously, work in the Reich and Lowen tradition emphasizes
the life of the body strongly. This is not in the cause of bringing about an instinctual
anarchy as some fear, but rather in the cause of bringing about balance and harmony.
However, as the body and ego are very split in our culture, so are our values. Ego
values are those motives that bring about action in the world, or self-definition. Body
values are those motives which bring about self-posession and satisfaction. In
general, the ego wants to 'get somewhere' or 'do something', while the
body wants to be somewhere or feel something. Of course it is very possible
to think in terms of 'person' or personal values that combine the propensities of ego
and body--this is a creative response to life..
Thinking Feeling
Individuality Community
Culture Nature
Adult Child
Superiority Excellence
Achievement Pleasure
Power Cooperation
Performance Spontaneity
Production Creation
Efficiency Effortlessness
Security Comfort
Doing Being
Novelty Familiarity
Formation Nurture
Accumulation Enough
Purity Cleanliness
Specialness Belonging
Tool Object
Child Primacy
The opposing belief is that children are born good and with a strong trajectory
toward the good. Children only need to be supported and gently guided. This is the
premise of the Reich and Lowen tradition and fortunately, many parents. One
implication of this, is that society should look to the natural strivings of
children to set social priorities.
There are three modes of action: reaction, performance, and expression. Reaction
includes muscular reflexes, certain instinctual reactions and defensive behaviors.
Those reactions that are not purely physiological tend to be future oriented, that is
they address fears or fantasies of what will happen. Although reactions and reactivity
might make a compelling discussion, for purposes of this topic suffice it say that in
interpersonal behavior, the less mere reaction the better.
When bodywork is done intentionally, the goal is increasing the capacity for
expression. However, the drive to perform is very strong and almost unavoidable at
first. The result is concentrating on the shell of a movement and missing the 'guts'.
Many strains of body work, such as the Alexander Technique, are deliberately vague
in what is wanted in order to avoid this rush to perform. Somewhat differently,
the Pilates Method gives a 'shell' but constantly de-emphasizes or restrains
completion, and instead emphasizes 'guts' or form. This mysterious target is just an
inevitable part of regaining feeling and purpose.
A Buddhist saying captures an element of expressive shift: "Find where you are
and work from there. Do not try to work from where you want to be."
A related experience is discovery. In bodywork, it is a given that participants are
becoming aware of feelings, capacities, and sensations previously unknown. For
people coming back to their bodies, discovery is a two part process: the discovery
itself and (re)learning the process of discovery. Discovery is necessary to change old
patterns.
The expressive shift is increasing the capacity, inclination, and tendency for
expression. Of course there is a paradox here. In a 'corrective' tradition, change is
desired, not expression within the same old limits. However, it is very difficult to
perform a movement in a new way as an adult. This is because the already
strongest muscle and already strongest nerve will 'hijack' the movement
again and again. Imbalance seems to perpetuate imbalance. This is true of
expression alone and performance alone. For neuro-muscular change both
expression and training must interact. That is, a participant can neither be told
exactly what to do, nor left to just "do his or her thing." This reality explains the
ambiguity or seeming vagueness of most skilled bodywork traditions. It can be
frustrating for the participant, but it is necessary.
There are two avenues of progress, and both are necessary. One is skilled help from
someone that can 'block' old patterns and coach and insist on new patterns. This of
course will involve some performance. Generally large classes in gyms cannot really
provide this, because even if the instructor is capable, he or she simply cannot
supervise any one person enough to stop the enactment of old patterns. By the way,
no amount of theoretical knowledge will change the body. Aha! experiences can
provide spurts of insight, but not spurts of real change. Insight can have role in
change, probably as a consolidator of change, or leading one to engage in some
growth stimulating undertaking. Trying to perform an insight is always
hollow.
The second avenue is growth. As nervous systems change and alignment improves
and certain things are attempted, new capacities arise and new actions and
movements are spontaneously expressed. This requires patience because growth is
slower than the speed of thought or the decision of will. That is, it is necessary to be
patient and not to try to force things by trying too hard. Almost surely, at some
point it will seem that almost nothing is happening. That is because
almost nothing is happening. But almost nothing and actually nothing are
completely different! Very small but actual change is cumulative. In fact real change
is usually noticed by other people rather than the participant, because growth is so
very gradual. If one perceives change is happening rapidly, that is probably an
illusion.
Mastery is a hybrid between expression and performance. If there is
difficulty mastering something, it is often a limitation in basic neuro-muscular
development, which of course is improvable with the right body work, or it is
incapacity for expression.
Most physical fitness training these days is based on practices useful for the already
athletically adept or graceful, and therefore 'starts too high' and does not remediate
basic neuromuscular patterns. The usual result is great effort at the beginning, with
some change but quick plateauing. There is no real pleasure, but most people quit
not because of that but because of discouragement.
Mobility Motility
Interest in forms more than sensory Sensory more than an interest in forms
EEG: increased beta waves, decreased alpha and EEG: decreased beta waves, increased alpha and
theta waves theta waves
Past/Future Now
Objectlessness
Because receptivity does not require objectification of the world, objectlessness is the
extreme end of the receptive pole. It is the opposite of objectification. It is perhaps
what Krishnamurti means by 'choiceless awareness.' At this point a quantitative
change may also become a qualitative one. The phrase 'one with the world' is often
employed. Alexander Lowen called this joy. Subjectively the experience is
blissful. There is a certain defenselessness inherent in objectlessness, so it
should not be undertaken in a predatory environment.
A goal and benefit of meditation is a strong receptive shift that can balance the
enormous instrumental bias of our culture. Meditation is a strong measure, that
changes brain waves patterns as well as autonomic balance. It has the potential to
produce strong objectlessness. As suggested above, experience has shown many
instances where communities that emphasize meditation have turned abusive. Also,
suppressed feeling and anxiety can be released precipitously before the development
of bodily self-possession. (The yoga tradition developed yogasana and pranayama to
prepare the body for meditation.) Meditation is not the only practice to provide a
receptive shift but it is the most direct. Because the lack of inherent safeguards in the
practice, a safe 'container' for the practitioner is usually indicated. Traditionally this
container has been a wise knowledgeable teacher. However in this arena, as
mentioned above, commitment to a teacher or a teacher's organization has on
occasion led to exploitation. Yet solo practice may not be without some danger. The
practice of meditation in our modern society seems to call for care and prudence
Perceptual Ceiling
First, this is the inability to perceive chronic holding and misalignment in one's own
body. Perception requires movement, and so holding and decreased motility tends to
fall out of consciousness. Second, it is the tendency for the senses not to directly
perceive in others, what one cannot perceive in oneself.
For instance, if ones back is holding a lot of tension chronically, it will be hard to
notice the tension that others are carrying. Likewise, if one is not vibrating much,
there is an inability to perceive the vibration of others. If one's own voice is
monotone, it will be hard to perceive subtle inflections in someone else's voice.
The combination of decreased body awareness and perceptual ceiling can make
bodywork a bit of an act of faith in the beginning. It can be difficult to
understand what is being asked, and also doubts can arise about whether
anything is actually happening, or whether goals of bodywork are real.
This contrasts to complex volitional behaviors, which are discernable in others even
to those of us who do not act that way. For instance, a shy person sees outgoing
behaviors in others and does not doubt they occur. It is much more graspable to try
to imitate such behaviors. This falls short in the end because the behavior is not
natural.
Discharge versus Release
In the Reich and Lowen tradition, the basic guiding format for a 'session'
is charge then discharge. This is simply a straightforward way to re-establish
the pleasure cycle. Charging can only be commensurate to discharge. While it is
possible in some ways to be stuck in the 'charged' position, in general difficulty
discharging results in an undercharged condition. Charging is generally upward in
the body or in the upper body. Discharge is downward through the body, or in the
lower body. As suggested above, discharge is usually more blocked than charging.
A release that does not lead to a discharge, however, is just a catharsis. A hazard of
emphasizing expressive work too early is setting a pattern of brief charging followed
by emotional release which only provides a brief mental comforting without change
in the body. This type of release work may be an advance where feeling and energy
has been quite low, but it can become a 'racket.' that actually side-steps deeper
feeling. While many people start Reich and Lowen work with both inadequate release
and inadequate discharge, the benefit of release only (which is available also through
conversational traditions) is limited.
Both release and discharge involve emotion since emotion is both a biological and
psychological phenomenon. Durable healing can rarely happen on a psychological
level only, and so discharge is needed for emotional healing, If grounding and neuro-
muscular development is properly attended to (in therapy or in one's own self-
designed program,) discharge becomes possible and usually spontaneous. Discharge
is very hard to force through willed action, rather it is a matter of choosing to develop
the conditions of discharge, including a loose flexible body, visceral awareness, a
ventral shift, and sound opportunities for pleasure in one's life.
Re-Regulation
Restoring the capacity for feeling and purpose in the stressed twenty-first century
requires re-regulation of dysregulated vegetative systems. Re-regulation is a different
undertaking than other types of changes. Alexander Lowen consistently wrote about
the increasing barrier modern social conditions posed to living with
pleasure and feeling. My own opinion is now in the second decade of the 21st
century, re-regulation and decreasing baseline arousal almost always has to be
undertaken as a pre-requisite to the more classic Reich and Lowen 'release work.'
Adaptive Band: Trauma therapists have long-recognized that healing arises in the
middle range of arousal--that too little arousal is avoidance and too much arousal is
re-traumatizing. Judith Bluestone working with the autistic spectrum recognized the
same thing and coined the term 'gentle enhancement' This concept that there is
a middle band of adaptation is applicable to all human growth work. The threshold
is reached much more quickly than most of us realize. Even the 'classic' application of
Reich and Lowen therapy in the 60s and 70s, with its emphasis on 'breakthroughs,
may have erred in the direction of strong stimulus that produces an adaptation that
is subtly defensive and consists of 'performing' openness. Staying with the work
steadily may be more efficacious than 'hitting it hard'
Re-regulation often requires slowing down and simplifying life, not for its own sake
but to regain contact with the body and the self, and to conserve energy for growth.
In re-regulation, gentle and subtotal effects are not only allowable, they are
preferable. Our culture and our healthcare system certainly is uncomfortable with
'mere' enhancement, and with skill based interventions. Far too much we look
for a 'fix' that obliterates symptoms quickly. But 'fixes' are necessarily
dysregulating. 'Holistic' is an under-defined term, but I suggest a treatment is holistic
when moves the organism toward re-regulation.
This requires some faith in folk wisdom (and the wisdom of mothering, and the
wisdom of the body) because the extremely reductionistic process that currently
dominates science will be confused by the concurrent and uncontrolled nature of
this. However all life, and certainly all life worth living is an uncontrolled and
concurrent undertaking. It is important to start approaches one at a time, with the
most promising or 'lowest hanging fruit.' As a practice seems to have some benefit,
others are added. It is important not to dabble but rather to have some fidelity
because every beneficial approach is in its partial way meant to be a complete capture
of the homeostatic issue it addresses and picking and choosing very casually may
negate the possible benefit.
Saturation and Unpacking
Therapists working in the Freudian tradition in the twenties described two trends.
One, psycho-analysis did not seem to be working as well as it should, given the
demonstrated validity of many of its elements. Second, certain patterns of presenting
problems seemed to go together with certain patterns of resisting interpretations,
spurring the development of the concept of character. The question also arose, did
the first trend have something to do with the second?
Wilhelm Reich also noticed that the patterns of character extended to physical
appearance and posture. At a standstill in some cases, Reich resorted to having
clients move seemingly-fixed areas like the jaw, to loosen things up. Often a flow of
feeling and memories arose and progress started again. Reich came to believe that
the question of character was central to psychotherapy. The physical manifestations
he called armor. While Reich emphasized character, he neither created nor
emphasized a thorough typology of character. Reich believed it was important to
'corner' the armor in a client, segment by segment.
Alexander Lowen however, made the concept of character more conspicuous in the
thinking about change. Whereas Reich thought of character more as 'thematic' of
early injury, Lowen thought of it more as a consistent, predictable set of alternative
developmental pathways instigated by negative or inadequate environmental
responses at critical junctures in early life. From extensive natural and clinical
observation, he did create a 'tight' typology of character that included physical,
psychological, familial and social aspects. It is that system that underlies how
character is thought of in this tradition. Lowen defined character this way
... character structure is not a conglomeration of injuries and defenses which can be
analyzed one by one, nor is it a series of scattered muscular tensions-a tense neck, a
rigid jaw, contracted shoulders, etc.-- which block the flow of excitation and feeling
in the body. True, each tense muscle or muscle group is the result of traumatic
experiences which block the expression of feeling. But the character structure is an
organized system of defenses aimed to promote the survival and security of the
individual. And these defenses are integrated and coordinated to promote the
maximum security which the individual feels necessary and yet provide an
opportunity for the individual to try to find some fulfillment in life. It was not built
in a day but over a period of years--six to be exact--during which the child strove to
find some positive meaning in its life. It is a walled city or a fortress depending on
the degree of fear.' It cannot be analyzed away, nor can it be demolished by force. It
is part of the individual's nature, second nature to be exact, and therefore beyond
the will of the individual to change.*
Character is what seems to give life meaning and create an identity. A person tends
not to see it as a handicap but rather an asset. In many ways, separating one's sense
of self from a formed character seems like death. Character then, in this tradition,
refers not only to a set of blocks and limitations, but also, and this is its dynamic
quality, to an adaptive self that seeks love through conforming to an image of
lovability and acceptability. The person does not usually realize they are conforming,
rather he or she believes they are pursuing goodness. Character, however, differs
from a 'false self.' A false self is a compensatory mental product that often is meant to
refute the physical and biographical reality of the person. The prevalence of false
selves is one reason that self-diagnosis of character often fails. It is the actual body,
not the conscious aspirations that defines character.
Lowen named the characters from psychoanalytic roots. The resulting names,
unfortunately, seem pejorative, and, unless the derivation is understood quite well,
confusing. And since bioenergetic therapy usually includes some part of an
educational approach, the names are downright embarrassing to use with clients.
Ronald Robbins came up with much needed alternative names that are evocative and
address strengths as well as limitations. Robbins renamed Lowen's basic five
character types; I have attempted (or rather I am attempting) to rename Keleman's
character. The names 'stack up' this way: Creator (Schizoid), Communicator
(Oral), Includer (Swollen), Inspirer (Psychopathic), Consolidator (Masochist),
and Achiever (Rigid). In the Achiever or Rigid character, genitality is established
and gender differences are strong, based on gender identification. This caused Lowen
to define four subtypes that are essentially four separate characters: Phallic Male,
Passive-Feminine Male, Hysterical Woman, and Masculine-Aggressive Woman. One
could therefore speak in terms of the 'rigid group' of characters. The 'phallic male'
and 'masculine aggressive women' can be renamed the Male Achiever and
the female achiever, but the passive-feminine male and hysterical character
have no easy name substitute that has come to mind. Also, it has been a question in
this tradition where to map the 'old-fashioned compulsive' character onto the
Lowenian typology. Lowen felt this presentation was very rare in the latter half of the
twentieth century, but that the compulsive character could best be understood as
an Achiever.
Characters are believed to arise from deviations from optimal child emotional
development at different times starting from pregnancy until five years of age. Some
characters are 'earlier' and some 'later'. Therefore Lowen's typology can be said to
constitute a 'horizontal model.' Stephen Johnson believed it was useful, especially in
psychotherapy, to map character not only according to the Lowenian horizontal
model of character type, but also according to a simultaneous 'vertical model' of ego
strength, which could be super-imposed on the horizontal model. The horizontal
model, as will be explained later, is not really a continuum, but rather a depiction of
five (or seven) final developmental pathways. However, the horizontal model does
imply a quantitative gradient of 'selfness.'
Within the horizontal model are two 'lines' indicating qualitative changes. The first is
between the schizoid or creator character and the rest. This is sometimes referred
to as the 'schizoid condition' which differs from the 'neurotic condition' of the other
characters. The second 'line' is between the earliest four (or six) characters and
the Achiever or rigid, which is actually a group of characters, differentiating along
sexual and gender lines, all of whom who share the features of 1) lesser only mesh-
like armor, 2) energy flow from head to genitals and back, and 3) good reality testing.
This group is increasingly a rarity in clinical samples, and, Lowen thought,
increasingly a rarity in society.
Gender affects the expression of character greatly. The chromosomal and hormonal
effects are very strong. Generally females are more empathetic and men more
instrumentally oriented or systematizing. This dimensional difference is
present in all characters, causing attenuation of some aspects and accentuation of
others, but not really 'breaking' the character. Of course in the rigid group, the effects
of gender are strong, but that is based on adult genitality, not just the
empathizing/systematizing difference. Because biological gender is not
environmentally-mediated, its effects on character are noted in the Reich and Lowen
traditional only for purposes of recognition, not for purposes of change.
Character description is approached three main ways: 1) How the person looks and
moves-- muscle tensions and restrictions being most definitional, 2) The typical real-
time interactions and attitudes with others, say a therapist or a love interest, and 3)
the typical biography that a character lays down on his or her course through life.
In the descriptions of character, body fat percentages and body fat distribution are
relevant but not central. In our day, body fat has become an issue that draws
judgment, but it is partly a red-herring as far as Lowenian character.
Alexander Lowen came to believe that resistance to change ultimately resided not
just in the body and not just in beliefs, but actually in character itself, intangible as it
may be. That is, body work alone, or psychological work alone, or even perhaps both
done in parallel, could not really unseat the limiting effects of character. Rather
overall global character attitudes had to be confronted. This is called character
focus.
Most therapy has followed Freud's cue in being led by free association. This is true
also for practitioners that eschew or little understand Freud. Free association, of
course, is somewhat of a misnomer in that it leads to material not completely
random. It leads to 'what is really on the mind' of the client, and therefore,
presumably led, eventually, to all that is necessary. However, long experience led to
the conclusion that this was insufficient, especially as clients became more
sophisticated. If resistances are 'analyzed and dissolved as they arise', then it seems
that endless creative new resistances arise. The nucleus of resistance seems to
be able to jump from manifestation to manifestation. This brings to mind
Karen Horney's quip that the patient [client] comes to therapy to "perfect the
neurosis". After enough work with the therapist around resistance, new resistances
may be 'slicker' and even look somewhat like insight.
Lowen, like Wilhelm Reich before him, believed that only by helping the client see
how his or her resistance fit a constellation of character, could the nucleus of
resistance be overcome. An implication of this is that egalitarian and
exploratory approaches to therapy and change, even one's including
bodywork, if they fail to 'characterize' the problem, tended to only
produce modest change in quality of life. From this arises the emphasis on
'tight' definitions of the character such as Lowen's basic five. Looser, 'Mr Potato
Head' approaches in which character is described by an impromptu amalgamation of
traits are prone to self-deception if done by the subject, and projection if done by
another.
To Lowen, character was body and energy. Behavioral traits were seen as
epiphenomena of the body. That is why targeted bodyworkand character analysis
could happen at the same time--to him, character analysis was body analysis, and a
strictly conversational format was rarely necessary.
It can be stipulated at the outset, and a priori, that there are no 'pure characters'.
This is because character types are ideas or concepts, and people are not ideas.
However, a good question is: "as ideas, how real, and how discrete, can these
character types be considered?"
First, 'character' in the Reich and Lowen tradition, refers not to personality per se,
but rather to the body's mature structure (phenotype) and energy characteristics.
Learned behavior can be thought of as a layer ('social layer') existing on top of
character and shaping the final personality. The effect of character is so strong
however that overwhelmingly, the person rejects whatever learning is character-
dystonic, and accepts whatever learning is character-syntonic. That is why, in a
discussion of behavior patterns, character makes an easy stand in for the concept of
personality. It is also why psychotherapy with the learned layer (ideology) usually
has such modest results.
Some very devoted Lowenian therapists state that character was over-emphasized in
past decades. Certainly, using character simply to sort or pigeonhole people, or to
rationalize interpersonal difficulties, is not legitimate. But clearly, an emphasis on
character makes Reich and Lowen therapy a therapy of 'characterlogical
transformation'. Character analysis is a way of 'cornering' resistance once and for all.
But for adults, that transformation will probably never completely overwrite the
'starting character. As the hold of a particular character diminishes, one perhaps
becomes an individual more or less, but never a model.
It is easy for those doing this work personally and professionally for a long time, to
feel like failures if their own 'starting' character is quickly recognizable. But character
is by definition unhidable, so to an experienced and compassionate practitioner,
starting character is always visible. Reich and Lowen therapy is not about achieving
an ideal and concealing final form. It is about acquiring flexibility in feeling and
action.
It is natural to not want to be typecast. Everyone is unique. Lowen stated that there
are many instances of clients being in between or at the "borderline" of
categories. Character analysis is not a function of the purity of character
but of the dominant mode of functioning. However, speaking in terms of
widely mixed--(e.g. 'Heinz 57')-- character seems invalid. To do so requires believing
often, that one can be high energy and low energy, overaggressive and unable to
express aggression. If a balanced character is being thought of, than there is a
character idea for that, the "true genital" character or the rigid character at the
asymptote of armoring. This of course is an idea, not a description of an actual
person that has ever been located.
Another question that arises is whether it is necessary to recapitulate all the 'later'
characters in Lowen's horizontal (developmental) model to arrive at satisfying living.
The nice guy in all of us wants to quickly assert the contrary, because it doesn't seem
fair for the 'earlier' characters. Of course, no client needs to actually become later
characters because after all, they do not represent normal development, but rather
defensive positions. However, it is probably dishonest to pretend that some people
do not have 'longer to go' More postponed developmental struggles have to be lived
out. And this 'longer' lines up with how the person's starting character lines up in
Lowen's horizontal model. It is a developmental model.
Trends are basic ways of getting needs met. Some character structures are named for
their basic trends. The same trend can exist in other characters, in which case it can
be confusing to speak about, because it seems to be mixing characters up. At times, a
trend can be striven toward by effort and decision, perhaps as an effort to deny or
overcome the results of innate character. All energy structures can partially show
these basic trends depending on 1) how well issues were satisfied in development, 2)
family needs as a whole, and 3) social influences. Trends as concepts of their own can
also be used to 'detach' the essence of a character from the energy structure in order
to compare and contrast character goals from functional ideas of health-- for
instance orality can be contrasted to desire for contact, or rigidity contrasted
with aggression. below are four major trends:
Abstraction: This is organizing life around ideas and concepts. The basic
hope is that if life is understood, love and good feelings follow. It is basically,
trying to figure life out. This can lead to intellectualism, but also mysticism. A
partner's upset, for instance, becomes not a felt experience but a problem to
be solved. Solutions are not actions but rather ideas about addressing
problems. Social betterment is sought through understanding. Most benefits
of culture have come through abstraction of course but when an existence is
based on it, love, pleasure, and contact become strangers. Connection is
sought through sharing ideas. Sometimes psychotherapy falls into this trend,
where a client's life becomes a set of 'issues.' Excessive abstraction derives
from a fear of living as a physical individual (existential insecurity)
Orality: This is organizing life around needs. At bottom this is about one's
own need but is usually projected into the needs of others. The basic hope is
that an ideal nourishing and accepting person will answer the call and bring
love and good feeling. A subtrend is austerity in which one tries to reduce
one's needs, which is an attempt to fend off disappointment. The liberal
political point of view stems largely from this focus on needs. Needs exist of
course but so does the opportunity for their reasonable fulfillment as an adult.
Orality is not so much the recognition of needs but rather 1) others are felt to
hold the key to need fulfillment for oneself or needy others, (dependency), 2) a
pervasive climate of unfulfillment (deprivation).
Character Scripts
Narcissism is not associated with any one Lowenian character but rather with a style
of life based on not feeling. Narcissism is not a character (neuro-muscular) defense
but an ego defense. However, it is so deeply structured into most modern people's
functioning, that any character analytic work requires addressing narcissism as a
first layer --that is why Alexander Lowen wrote a book by that name. Narcissism has
a particularly potent interaction with the inspirer character, which is why that
character is sometimes called the 'narcissistic character', but in my opinion there is
not a narcissistic character but rather a narcissistic condition.
At some point, the person has to choose image over his or her self. Since
the self is known by feelings, in the operation of narcissism, feelings which in any
way seem inconsistent with the image, are denied, suppressed, deadened or
compensated. Narcissists are more concerned with how they look than with how they
feel. Narcissism brings people into war with feelings, their own feelings and the
feelings of other people that challenge the denial. And it can happen the other way
round, absence of feeling for any reason will tend toward narcissism. Narcissism
leads to an interest in power and control, over people and situations,
both to avoid unwanted feelings, and to provide motivation in the
absence of strong feelings. Along with this comes seduction and manipulation
which well may be unconscious.
Low feeling is not the same as low affect. Where suppression of feeling is severe,
such as the creator character, affect and expression does tend to be low and flat.
Denial is an ego function in which what one refuses to deal with will be blocked from
consciousness but still present in the body. Denial of feelings in narcissism can allow
for a more lively appearance overall than with suppression or deadening of feelings
but any actions or responses lack feeling. Still there is a background affect and
vitality that can verge on charming. Denial of feeling can be somewhat selective. For
instance in narcissism, feelings of fear or longing are usually strongly denied, while
feelings of triumph are not.
However, in any undertaking, a definite lack of conviction, passion, or true desire is
evident. Principles may be espoused to fit an occasion, and violated casually or
actually reversed shortly thereafter. The image is considered the ultimate
truth. There is a hollowness and superficiality to the feeling. Denial is less
impervious than suppression, there will always be 'sore-spots' which, when touched
on, elicit 'narcissistic rage.' As a result of that, there is usually considerable
behavioral adaptation in the service of bypassing sore-spots and manipulating others
to do the same. Group and family 'norms' often arise to protect narcissists within
them.
In narcissism, recognition is a key problem. Recognition not just in the weak sense of
being able to name something, but recognition in the diplomatic language sense--
taking a person to be a fully legitimate, separate, and recognized member of the
community and family. A narcissistic injury is a failure to fully recognize
the 'otherness' and the legitimacy of a child at a critical time in emotional
development. Such injuries initiate what can be a life-long problem with
recognition. It is known that lack of unconditional acceptance is damaging to a
child, but the conditional acceptance (really disapproval) that fills the void at least is
a type of recognition. Conditional recognition is even more damaging. Even
disapproval will be withheld, it is as if the target did not exist. Narcissistic injuries
lead to narcissistic functioning as described below, including in turn, only
recognizing others conditionally upon their providing the desired type of mirroring.
Attention is a related concept but not the same as recognition. Attention may or may
not be craved and may or may not be monopolized, but recognition is always either
craved or rarely, phobically avoided. Conversely, attention gained by 'putting on as
show' will never feel like satisfying recognition. The affected person desires
recognition but also fears it, because the true self believes itself to be in danger if
recognized. Hence the over-involvement in images described in the paragraph above
that goes along with an obsession of the recognition of the image by others.
Evidence inevitably emerges that the person is not this chosen image. This is usually
so anxiety provoking that unconscious or or even conscious efforts are made to
destroy or ignore the evidence. In that way, narcissism brings people into war also
with the facts and with the positions of others. Ironically, the fragility of narcissistic
functioning make for a tendency to constantly experience a secondary-type of
narcissistic injury when the image is invalidated by people or events.
With narcissism, there may be recognition seeking, which in present day culture is
accepted or even considered virtuous, or there may be recognition demanding, which
is somewhat abrasive (for the time being), but the engine driving either is the same.
In past eras, there have been hero stories. In the present era, there are success
stories. A hero embodies an attribute, which is demonstrated by an adventure. The
hero doesn't seek recognition, but rather just to address, with integrity, obstacles that
arise. In a success story, the protagonist wants to excel and get results superior to
others in order to be recognized. There are 'status symbols' and conspicuous
consumption. Success is not succeeding in an achievement only, but being
recognized for it. Most recently success has been streamlined to celebrity. With
celebrity, the achievement is dropped in many cases leaving pure recognition. We no
longer have heroes, we have celebrities, and this is an aspect of social narcissism
which dovetails with personal narcissism.
As for clients, the more pathological narcissists will rarely undergo therapy, but when
they do they view it merely as an opportunity to pick up a few tricks to control the
responses of others. Where narcissism is milder, the seemingly adaptive stance of
offering oneself up to be tweaked or perfected is still the problem and not the
solution. The task is not to become perfect but to become real, and allow
others to see oneself as such.
Where the developmental conditions of narcissism are present but ego strength and
aggression is less, an incomplete condition, referred to and described by Stephen
Johnson as the symbiotic character, and by Lowen (and many psychoanalytic
writers) as the 'borderline personality' seems to arise. More factors are involved in
the formation of the symbiotic character than just a narcissistic injury and
compensatory striving. However, due to an insufficient felt sense of self the symbiotic
gets a sense of identity only by merging with others. This leads to confusion about
boundaries and confusion about who is responsible for what. There is a danger or
tendency to take on the affects, thoughts and beliefs of others, but this is never a
stable situation. The blurring in the boundaries between self and others tends to lead
to two solutions: 1) externalizing all responsibility onto others. This solution
may have to do with 'less ego strength'. It leads to frequent conflict and perhaps the
label 'lower functioning' symbiotic (or borderline in the public mental health sense).
2) internalizing all responsibility onto the self. This may have to do with
relatively more ego strength. As ego strength varies from situation to situation, the
two solutions may alternate, providing an erratic presentation. While the 'successful'
narcissist shifts the basis of identity from self to image, the symbiotic disavows the
self but seeks others to project and instill images in them. It is common for a
narcissist and and a symbiotic to form an enmeshed relationship--this is the apex
challenge of couples' therapy.
Alexander Lowen made the point that in Victorian times, behavior was strictly
controlled while strong feeling was idealized. This led to hysteria in the Freudian
sense in which feeling forced toward a different outlet than direct action. But in
modern times, Lowen asserted, behavior is much freer but feeling is often removed
from it. This leads to narcissism. In the present day, hysterical disorders are rare, but
narcissistic disorders are commonplace. Perhaps civilization has a hard time
permitting high feeling and free behavior at the same time. This is perhaps
sometimes a draw toward those fundamentalist communities that exist today--
behavior is restricted but feeling, including sexual feeling, can be quite high.
From the foregoing we can discuss five patterns of narcissism, which I term narrow
narcissism, 'adhesive' narcissism, broad narcissism, powerlessness, and victim-role.
Broad (or closet) narcissism is the disorder of our age. This affects most modern
people and is now not only not outside social norms but is actually encouraged by
social norms. Grandiosity is always detectable if one is not confused by the
low self-esteemIn this setting feeling is limited but not completely blocked. It leads
often to a vague feeling of not being enough. Everything is about performance,
and in fact everything is about the last performance. Except, unlike narrow
narcissism, the person doesn't really believe he or she has yet become the image they
strive for. Also unlike the narrow narcissist, others are not coerced or seduced, rather
the broad narcissist works desperately to achieve the image 'honestly' but of course
this is unrealistic. Some manipulation and considerable pleasing of others will
happen. Life is organized around finding sets of expectations to live up to.
These expectations may be railed against as if they were foisted upon the broad
narcissist--the insight is often missing that these expectations are self imposed. The
broad narcissist is willing to work, which can lead to real accomplishment. Even with
external success, he or she often feels like an imposter. They can name but they
cannot feel the accomplishment. There is usually a conflict around receiving
recognition: recognition is sought out persistently but feels uncomfortable when
received. This obviously complicates relationships and puts others off. Broad
narcissists are very susceptible to suggestions of what they ought to do because they
seek acceptance. Considerable activity and actual good works are spurred by this, but
all to the naught as far as satisfaction goes. Broad narcissists often end up in
relationships with narrow narcissists because the narrow narcissist seems to have
exactly what the closet narcissist wants.
In our time, a hardbody is an aesthetic ideal. In earlier times, a softer body was the
aesthetic ideal. Though this is thought to be a random change, it is not. It is due to
the rise of 'power' as an ideal. To use power successfully, it is often necessary to act
with disregard for feeling.
The connection between the ideal of the hardbody with narcissism is intuitive but it
can also be explained in functional terms. Narcissism, like the use of power, depends
on the suppression of emotion. Real emotion produces an impulse which is
translated to the muscles to prepare for movement. The person may or may not carry
out the movement but the readiness is there, in the supple but ready muscles. To
suppress emotion, the muscles are contracted against the feeling. Eventually this
becomes automatic.
Chronically tight muscles become hard. A person may have a large amount of body
fat but the muscles underneath may still be hard. In narcissism, however, a lean
appearance is usually part of the image because it represents control and self-control.
Muscles can be increased in size but still hard and contracted. The purpose of
exercise changes from feeling good to looking good (The endorphin high
during exercise is misleading in this regard--the belief arises that looking good in a
hardbody sense and feeling good are the same. Endorphins in the brain mask pain in
the body, that is their purpose.).
A lean hardbody is seen as someone that is powerful because they can act towards a
goal without interference from feeling. Women in general, have softer bodies, and in
general, are closer to feelings. However, since hardbodies are now associated with
success, both socially and in career, women understandably have become desirous of
hardbodies. It certainly is possible to be lean and healthy without being 'hard.' Both
yoga and pilates produce supple, ready muscles. This contrasts with aerobics and
weightlifting that produce hard muscles.
Characteristic Attitudes of the Creator (Schizoid)
The Creator is characterized by the dissociation of the ego from feeling and from the
body. Feelings may be expressed according to what one “should feel” in a given
situation, but there is no real spontaneity. What the person thinks seems to have
little connection to how the person feels or behaves. When feelings are asked about,
cognitions, general philosophical positions, and assessments of future prospects are
usually given as answers. For this reason it is often said of this character that there is
a dissociation between thought and feeling, and that is so. Almost more
importantly, there is a dissociation between perception and feeling. It is the
feeling that makes 'what happens' into an experience. The creator character can
describe what happened but not describe his or her experience. As a result, this
character often feels more like an observer of his or her own life rather than a
participant.
The link between desire and impulse is weak. This leaves the creator both short on
impulses, but also at a loss to understand his or her own desires. The will is used to
motivate action, which gives the behavior an "as if" quality. The will can be strong,
but it is used predominantly to withdraw from external reality and to freeze feelings
internally, so outward, assertive expressions have no energy and are weak and
scattered. Self-expression is mechanical and controlled. Aggression is expressed
through passive withdrawal, though explosions are a rare potential.
For a creator, existence seems tied to being separate or different from others. This
existence always seems tenuous, so involvement with others more than superficially
threatens existence. This can be called 'fear of engulfment.' Engulfment fears can
lead to the development of a 'secret self' which is not to disclosed to others and which
the Creator may consider her or his 'real' self.
Creators know the difference between idea and actuality, but seem to prefer idea to
actuality. Ideas are often not tested or implemented, almost as though ideas "are as
good as" actualities. The fear of engulfment makes actual accomplishment risky for
entanglement, and so accomplishment is often put off for a 'safe' future time that
never arrives. This is not a bluff covering an inability to accomplish so much as an
actual permanent postponement.
The creator is almost always “in their mind.” Mental faculties are usually highly
developed, frequently with a brilliant but abstract intellect. The mind is valued above
all else, and deduction, reasoning, calculating, and “figuring things out” logically are
the only modes of operating that are trusted. Gut feelings are usually unavailable and
not trusted when they are. Speech and writing can be very precise, partly because this
character does not trust the intention of others to understand. To this end language
can be highly developed but in the service of conveying ideas--not through the innate
love of words as in the Communicator character.
Creators often prize efficiency, utility, and frugality, which are cognitive or ego
values. Creators usually eschew comfort, taste, beauty which are sensual or body
goals. . Strategies of living oriented toward survival, such as rationing or saving are
particularly prized and provide both a purpose to living (because existence is never
taken for granted) and a mental pleasure. In fact, this style of life may be pursued
when material existence is actually quite secure, through self-deprivation and self-
denial. Often a philosophy develops that attempts to 'normalize' or glorify austerity
and pleasurelessness
Self-interest holds no interest for the creator. Others' pursuit of their self-
interest may be disparaged where it is recognized, but there is often a naivete or
blindspot about the role of self-interest in the actions of others.
If they have an objective, creators are able to work long stretches without boredom
or without a break. They may actually work to the point of collapse without
recognizing tiredness. Creators work well without supervision, accomplish a lot,
and are often valued employees. They strongly avoid positions supervising others
however. Creators often do well dealing with things, technology, or information.
They may struggle dealing with people and social dilemmas. If involved in a team,
they usually like to have their part defined clearly.
Creator characters are often deemed to be passive. This relates to a need to look to
the outside for initiative in the absence of feeling. Creators are not passive in the
sense of being suggestible or often 'drug along" with a fad. In fact it is a strength of
the creator to see through or past mere enthusiasm. Creators are often the first to
that 'the emperor has no clothes.' However creators can be vulnerable to cults or
cultish undertakings. This is because having a purpose, style of life, structured
relationships, and plentiful tasks conveniently placed into one 'basket' can seem like
a dream come true. Moreover, most cults take a view of existence that is outside
place and time, which is familiar and understandable to most creators.
Creators avoid and control any feelings due to the subconscious presence of deep-
seated terror and intense rage, which leads to intense subconscious fears
of annihilation if feelings are expressed. This 'life and death' quality may later
become attached to any experiences of perceived rejection or failure. Crippling
anxiety, panic attacks and phobias often arise when feelings threaten to emerge into
consciousness.
Creators usually have a weak sense of self because of a lack of identification with
the body. Creators usually demonstrate hypersensitivity and hyperawareness to
threat or challenge because of weak ego boundaries. This correlates to the lack of
peripheral charge in the body, and is sometimes known as thin skin.
Because creators tend both not to be aware of their discomfort and not to
communicate discomfort straightforwardly, however, they may appear insensitive.
They may pride themselves on "not being easily upset." This hypersensitivity may
only be evident either through frequent withdrawal (ostensibly for logical,
impersonal, and external reasons) or through a pattern of under-achievement and
avoidance of challenges that involve other people.
Both as readers and writers, Creators favor science fiction, or horror. Science
fiction is about ideas being purposefully implemented into the world. Horror is about
an omnipresent threat of annihilation that the protagonist senses but the other
characters do not.
Suspiciousness and distrust is usually present, but may be deep, and so it cannot be
felt or expressed, but is lived out over time, or shows up in a strong reluctance to get
involved more than superficially. There may also be projected rage, which is
experienced as living in a dangerous world. At times this may reach the level of
paranoia. Moreover, creators are very sensitive to the hostility in others, and less
sensitive to those things in others, such as good will, that make acting on the hostility
very unlikely. This can increase isolation.
Creators may have trouble both understanding and using social cues, and
recognizing faces, facial expressions, signs of mild distress in others, or non-verbal
subtleties. This arises from the estrangement from the body and from body feeling.
The social awkwardness that results has in recent years been popularly melded into
the increasingly popular construct of Asperger's Syndrome, which merits a
discussion of its own: Page on Asperger's Syndrome
Creators often live alone for long periods. For this reason, others might conclude that
they do not want intimate relationships. However this is rarely true. Creators simply
have little idea how to initiate relationships. Moreover, desire and impulse are split.
Creators usually require the initiative to come from the other person to enter into a
relationship. This limits opportunities, more for males than females. For this reason,
even a poor relationship that does get started somehow is highly valued. Creators are
usually unable to end a relationship without a strong compelling logical external
reason--suffering from the relationship is not enough. Within a primary
relationship, creators create a void into which the partner usually becomes
dominant whether that is the partner's main tendency or not.
However, creators mitigate submissiveness with withdrawal and detachment.
Once in a relationship, creators will try to bond through the exchange of ideas and
'parallel play' (for instance two people reading different books but in the same room).
A deep fear in relationship for creators is being engulfed by the other. In a
sense, creators tend to make others into ideas and relate to these ideas rather than
the people. Overall there is a tendency to substitute non-human objects for human
objects.
Overall, creators tend to relate by 'being of use' to others or to abstract causes. That
is, with diminished impulses, there is a tendency to fulfill the expectations of others,
which become a purpose for living. Even though there may be considerable judgment
and selection about what or whose expectations to fulfill, in the long run, sheer lack
of 'selfishness' can lead to being exploited, even in good organizations and with good
people. This may appear similar to the 'social masochism' of
the consolidator character, but it is not done to gain the love of the other, but to
have a reason to live and function.
Sexuality
Because of deadened feeling in the body, creators may engage in sex to feel alive.
This may lead to promiscuousness or a large volume of sexual activity, and partners
may be chosen mechanically, as in a club, or chosen more on availability than
attraction. Alternately, creators may not have any sexual relationships, because the
impulse (not the same as desire) is weak, or the way of initiating relationships is
mysterious to them. In a monogamous relationship, sex may be frequent, but will
represent a weak release and may seem mechanical.
Physical Characteristics
The head often does not seem at ease with the body, often it is held at an angle. The
face is masklike. Sometimes there is myopia, as with the communicator character,
and the eyes appear pale and weak. Sometimes there is 'vision-sparing', but where
this occurs, the eyes are especially vacant and unalive, and do not make contact. This
'expressionlessness' is exactly that, nothing is coming out of the eyes, though the eyes
are taking in. Commonly also the eyelids are tense and retracted in a permanent look
of horror. The scalp tends to be tight. The skin is pale and there is usually little body
hair.
Usually, the body is narrowed side to side, and contracted. The arms
hang like appendages rather than extensions of the body. The arm movements may
look like a windmill because the scapulae (shoulder blades) stay fixed. The feet are
contracted and cold. The hips are very tight, and as a result, the feet are set wide
apart, 'splayed' into a 'v' stance,. The ankles are very tight and the metatarsal arch is
very weak Often the feet are inverted (collapsed arch) or everted (a compensation for
a collapsed arch.)
The main tension areas are the base of the skull, the shoulder joints, the leg joints,
the pelvic joints, and the diaphragm. The diaphragm tightness can be so severe in
this character that it splits the body in two. It can also result in a depressed sternum.
and flared out lower ribs. The diaphragm is dome shaped with the edges attached to
the lower ribs. Ideally when the diaphragm contracts, the lower ribs expand out but
also stay within their segment. This allows for the center of the diaphragm to pull
itself down and create a vacuum in the chest. If the diaphragm is tight however, the
center will not move, and the edges will instead be pulled up. Eventually these ribs
stay fixed in an up and flared out position and the diaphragm cannot move itself.
Also the flared ribs act like a lever prying the sternum back into a depressed position.
Respiration becomes paradoxical; that is, the abdomen is sucked up on inhalation,
and subsides down on exhalation. This requires most of the breathing to occur high
in the chest, using accessory mechanisms that are inefficient and that leave the
feeling of fear.
Muscular spasticity is mainly in the small muscles that surround the
joints ('intrinsics'), therefore there may be either a hyperflexibility or an inflexibility.
'Tone-deafness' is common with hearing. The voice is usually soft and unenergized,
but on occasion it may be "larger-than-life" and seem almost not to come from within
the person.
The sensory apparatus has an uneasy relationship with the environment. In general
senses are adequate to determine the bare facts of a situation, especially survival
aspects, but fine detail or sensual qualities are not taken in. There may be a
hypersensitivity, especially with touch. Eye contact is difficult, not only with the eyes
of others, but with any intense visual stimulus. Sometimes an intense perceptual
stimulus is sought out to penetrate deadness of feeling, but the stimulus is not
relaxing or pleasureable, and the person seems to 'fling' him- or herself toward
it. Creators may be found living and working in sensory impoverished
environments. Creative projects tend to organized around a ideational theme rather
than the effect the work may have on the senses of others.
The two pictures on the left are of the late chess champion Bobby Fischer. The upper
picture is unusual in that it shows movement, which is perhaps the most
'characteristic' aspect of the creator body. Note the narrow body, the unbending
knee of the right leg, and the windmilling of the arms. In the more characteristic
picture below it, notice the head cocked to the side, and the faraway look in the eyes.
Energy Characteristics
Perinatal medical complications, or serious illness in the first year of life may have a
strong contribution to this character. Possibly, there is an early, even
prenatal, unconscious rejection by the mother which the infant experienced as a
threat to his or her existence. This rejection may only be evident to very discerning
observers because on a mechanical level the mothering is adequate. But at times the
rejection is accompanied by covert or even overt hostility. The rejection and hostility
creates a fear that reaching out, demanding, or self-assertion will result in
annihilation. The child will usually develop a habit of withdrawal and learn to avoid
notice. Often an intense fantasy life develops. There usually are not close
relationships with other children. Play is usually solitary and the social aspects of
play may not be understood. The child may develop a precocious interest in and
mastery of adult matters from an informational or factual standpoint. Childhood
history may include: frequent nightmares or sleep disturbances, withdrawn behavior
with occasional outbursts of rage, autism, pervasive fears, preference for fantasy over
reality, psychosomatic illnesses, head-banging or self-mutilation, or school phobia.
Because of the dissociation between ideas and feeling. the 'talking cure' which
involves affecting a person via the 'verbal intimacy' of personal topics is the least
likely to be effective for this character. More beneficial is a bodywork approach, and
coaching to increase sensory experience.
Deep exhaustion
The concept of Asperger's Syndrome has recently become very popular, because it
helps organize the experience of many people who are trying to understand a pattern
of interactional difficulty. In a sense, Asperger's Syndrome is a popular attempt at
defining a character. Remember that syndrome, as a medical term, is reserved for
groups of signs, the real relationship to each other is not understood.
However, in the counseling and layperson arena, a slight loosening of the criteria has
allowed the concept of Asperger's Syndrome to really taken hold, and this should not
be ignored. There is no question that this construct, even as popularly rendered,
represents a very real, fairly discrete syndrome of interpersonal difficulty that is
readily confirmed by everyday observation. Here is a link to a longer article on the
mind-body approach to the concept of Asperger's (pdf).
In the Reich and Lowen tradition, the mechanism (some would say origin) of the
decreased feeling is muscle tension, especially in the smaller muscles around the
joints. That is, the basis is neuromuscular. That also explains the two non-
interactional characteristics found in Asperger's Syndrome: clumsiness, and
hypersensitivity to a sensory stimulus. Males have greater muscle mass, and this is
one more possible reason they are more subject to this phenomenon. Also a brain
developing in the presence of testosterone is also likely a factor. It has been said that
Asperger's reflects the extreme male brain (systematizing valued over empathy) but I
think it represents the systemitizing male brain with both low aggression and low
feeling.
I believe there are two main reasons that Asperger's has been accepted by the public
in a way that other formulations of character have not. First, it concentrates
on surface life. Now by that I do not mean it is superficial, but rather it occurs in the
arena of contact between people. In Alexander's Lowen's typology, the emphasis is on
the core or deep phenomena. Second, Asperger's Syndrome as a construct is
organized around the point of view of the non-Asperger's person. In
saying this I in no way imply bias or inaccuracy-- the construct can be a valuable
mirror. Asperger's seems a very much more manageable idea or 'problem'
It will be no surprise to the reader of this website that I believe the solution
is bodywork and character analysis to increase drive and aggression. This of course
is a long and arduous journey with no certainty of result. The mainstream suggestion
is teaching 'social rules' cognitively. This makes great sense for children who suffer
greatly in school and can use any partial help to avoid humiliation. But for an adult
this is essentially useless, because he (or perhaps she) has been trying to formulate
rules his whole life!. The truth is that while social interactions have some
generalities, there are no real rules. Each situation is slightly different, with
small discriminative cues that must be felt. Some people are really good at this, and
others passable, but below a certain level there is unfortunately real trouble. Some of
the biggest faux pas in this Syndrome get committed because some one is applying a
rule. An emphasis on rules just takes one away from nascent feelings, it is
dissociative-- a compensatory maneuver that helps perpetuate the very state it is
meant to address.
Characteristic Attitudes of the Communicator (Oral)
In 1959 Lowen stated that the communicator or oral character was not the most
common character. However 50 years later in the United States it seems that the oral
structure is the most common, and that the culture is largely 'comunicator-
syntonic.' Possibly this is due to at least two reasons. One, despite some resurgence
of breast feeding initially, the trend is to stop after a few months. While this briefer
window may benefit the baby nutritionally, it is possibly almost as devastating
emotionally to be weaned early. Second, in our complex achievement oriented
culture, there is great interest in children being precocious and 'enriched.' This hurry
may produce an informational sophistication in the children, but it limits emotional
and physical security.
Environments that are unfavorable are not really accepted. The complaints of
the communicator tend to be about the environment (the way the world is). What
is unwanted is deemed wrong, inappropropriate, and illegitimate, or differently (even
without evidence to this effect) it is deemed about to change or improve. As a result,
the communicator does not realistically participate in many arenas of life (ie sex,
business, sports, public safety, higher level public administration.) In the personal
narrative, there is often the theme of an early 'lost paradise' with an unstated goal to
re-attain it.
Communicators are deeply concerned with justice and fairness. He or she deeply
resents the inequity of the social system. Communicatorsoften enter the helping
professions-- teaching, social work, psychology, and nursing. This allows the the
desire for nurture to be acted out and at the same time denied. Anti-establishment
views often stem from subconscious anger directed at parental figures that are
deemed unfair and ungenerous. Large abstract global causes may be championed,
with no real demands on the ego, but smaller specific injustices to specific known
people closer to home may be unopposed because the ego strength is not present for
an actual fight. They often champion the cause of under-dogs and minorities,
idealizing those with little power. This comes from the feeling of having been
deprived and cheated, which is repressed and projected onto others. It is sometimes
said that Communicators dislike the people they know, and like the people they
don't know
Communicators are usually spiritual in the partial sense that intentions, images,
goals and sentiments are considered 'better' than results, physical sensation,
pleasure, and actions. Like Plato, the communicator considers the immaterial
superior to the material. This stems from a lack of feeling for and security in the
body. Art, especially literature or poetry, are often pursued. This can be out of
feeling, but also out of a sense of superiority. Also the arts, being entirely subjective,
avoids comparison with the results of others.
The inclination of the communicator is to find out 'the right thing to do' and do it.
Therefore the communicator is capable of greatly moral or pro-social acts. But
implementing good ideas may be difficult. There is a tendency
for communicators to focus intensely on their intentions and plans, past and
present, and treat results as fairly inconsequential or the responsibility of others.
Ideas are untested in the world, and while that idealism may sometimes bear fruit,
often naive and unrealistic positions remain. The 'way things should be' is much
more important than 'the way things almost always are.' This can lead
the communicator to be at odds with instinctual tendencies in others and society
that prevent 'things from being the way they should be'.
He or she may be deeply hurt if someone insists on talking about what actually
happened or what is actually happening, if it does not fit the communicator's self-
image. It is as though the communicator, having been made prematurely responsible
for results, retains a strain of magical thinking about results. To have intended is
believed to be the same as to have done, or even better. Because of this, there may be
a great difference between how communicators see themselves and how others see
them.
Aggressiveness is low. Fantasies of aggression don't count. Negativity and a critical
attitude don't count. Aggression is movement toward a constructive goal in the face
of some resistance. Mentally, there are strong intuitive and intellectual capacities,
but creative ideas are not charged or put into action. A difficulty reaching, literally
and figuratively, is seen. Since a spiritual attitude and aggression are antithetical to
some extent, the low aggression may provide the opportunity for greater spirituality.
Low aggression also seems related to low satisfaction. There is a reluctance to
accept the necessity of struggle in life, and so present struggles are experienced as
victimization.
Communicators usually eschew physical activity and sports, especially ones that
require explosive or graceful movement. They may take up endurance sports such as
marathoning, triathlons, or bicycling in which the the will drives the body and co-
ordination is not essential. Likewise communicators often try to use will and
intellect to 'overcome the body'. Self-depriving behaviors, like poverty or self-
starvation, may be acted out, in part to punish the body, or prove its unimportance.
Communicators are often intellectuals, and they love words and talking. He or she
generally reads a lot and can state their case well. Words are often loved for
themselves apart from the function of expressing ideas. Talking is the way
communicators try to connect to others, and 'long talks' with others are highly
prized. Communicators often are bad listeners, however, because their 'ear' is tuned
to hear how other people's statements fit into their point of view, or fit into 'the way
things should be'.
Attention seeking behaviors are usually present. Often this is through voluble talking,
, music making, helplessness, clowning or humor. Sometimes the attention seeking is
partly disguised as social activism or helping others. The interest in the cause or task
can be quickly lost if the attention wanes. Communicators do not want to be
forgotten or overlooked.
For this character, getting his or her point of view across can take on survival
significance and also become a substitute for action, perhaps because the
communicator unknowingly expects other people (ie parental figures, more powerful
people, etc) to take the action for them. Communicators often speak in terms of
right and wrong, should's and shouldn't's. Rules are seen as very important. This is
because this character doesn't believe that direct requests or expressing wants on
their own behalf will be effective or well-received.
Work may pose a stressful situation. Communicators are very sensitive to any
unfair treatment, and may feel misused in any authority structure. Also at work the
coping mechanism of complaining may not be available or may lead to further
trouble. The suppressed inner feeling of deprivation engenders an unconscious belief
that the world owes them a living. This doesn't lead to laziness, since this character is
never lazy, but over time it will evince a hard-to-pinpoint air of entitlement that
others may come to resent. Communicators are often happier in non-profits,
government, academia, and education where competition is not a factor, and where
employee rights are well established.
In the communicator, emotional needs are frequently denied mentally but still
strongly felt, creating an inner emotional climate of grief, despair and bitterness,
which colors their interactions. Lowen employed the metaphor of the apple that is
picked too early and cannot ripen. Communicators frequently single out the
frustrating actions of others while overlooking or holding inconsequential the
gratifying actions of the same people.
Healing from injuries or illness is usually slow. Often chronic illnesses accumulate.
The sick role may become an acceptable way to act out dependency and hostility, and
the lifestyle may become structured around medical care.
Predominant Negative Core Beliefs: “I must not need.” “If I need, I will be
abandoned.” “I am alone.” “No one will ever be there for me.” “If I connect with
another, I will lose myself.” “If I am independent, I must be alone.” “I cannot stand
on my own two feet.” “I must give to others in order to get.” “The needs of others will
devour or suffocate me.” “There is not enough.” “The world is a depriving place.”
Trying to get love and support is the predominant motivation in relationships. The
intense fear of abandonment and loss of love, combined with an equal fear of losing
oneself in love, creates an ambivalent attitude towards surrendering to feelings.
Separation anxiety can be very strong, and communicators can hold on strongly to
unsatisfying situations, albeit with a great deal of complaining.
There is a genuine capacity to express love, but relationships often very romanticized
by the mind to an unattainable height, or easily given up. Relationships will go back
and forth between intense, totally “lost-in-love” involvement to sudden and absolute
endings as the symbiotic struggle is acted out (wanting to merge with the all-
powerful, giving parent versus wanting to separate from her and individuate).
Relationships are frequently sought out with people who are extremely needy (“I’ll
take care of you as the needy me that I’m not.”)
Sexuality
Sexual interactions may be used to avoid abandonment and loneliness and for some
sense of belongingness. Slow tender movements are preferred to more strong
passionate ones. Sexual activities may be used for oral gratification (downward
displacement) Orgasms may be frequent and easy but not particularly charged or
strong in women, and men may not have full erections or they may ejaculate easily
and prematurely without much charge. Being held or cuddled (oral need) is often
more desired than actual sex (genital need). There often is a desire to extend sexual
activities because oral gratification is fulfilled linearly over time, unlike more genital
activities in which a more explosive charge-discharge pattern is relevant.
Structural Characteristics
The body is generally child-like or 'young' in appearance. There may be very little
body hair. Often, linear growth is accentuated, resulting in a long lean body.
Sometimes, however, especially with women, there may be a very small body. A lack
of energy and strength is noticeable throughout the body but especially in the legs.
Posture is often one of tiredness and collapse. The neck is often long and reaching
forward (looking for nourishment and nurture). Overall movement appears
awkward.
Lips are often thin (holding against reaching out), jaw is clenched (against rage) and
there are frequent dental problems or other physical problems around the mouth and
throat. The chin may be pulled in (against swallowing) or jutting out (determined not
to need). Eyes are often myopic and/or have a longing, pleading look. Hair on the
head is usually very fine. There is often little body hair. Women will tend to cut hair
short, especially once in an established relationship. Occasionally it may be grown to
the waist. Men may grow hair long.
The chest is collapsed, the sternum is depressed and the diaphragm is tight, all of
which contributes to shallow breathing. Breasts in women tend to be either very large
(pillowy) or very small (collapsed). The shoulders are rolled forward, with tension
between the shoulder blades. Holding arms out does not happen spontaneously and
when cued, cannot be sustained. The lumbar lordosis is exaggerated and chronic
lower back problems are common
Hands, feet and pelvis (points of contact with the world) are immature-looking,
undercharged and often very small. The bottom of the pelvis is cocked backwards,
which exaggerates the lordosis in the lumbar spine. The arches in feet may be fallen.
The knees usually are locked (hyperextended) predisposing them to injury. The feet
and legs are not experienced as offering good support.
Body overall is often in pain, with frequent injuries or illnesses (lower back, knees,
respiratory) that take a long time to heal
Energy Characteristics
The communicator may appear energetic because he or she is driven by the belief
that they must do something to be acceptable or lovable. This can lead to starting
many things, but it will be difficult to sustain effort, or sustain effort against
resistance. Communicators have many ideas and a lot to communicate verbally,
and this too may give the appearance of energy. However, energy is more a matter of
readiness and ease than of frenetic activity. The communicator's lower energy is
often seen when a substantial physical task is undertaken-- a communicator will
often stop fairly quickly for some ostensible reason, or characterize the task as
unreasonable. It is not that the communicator could not physically complete it, but
rather he or she perceives the task as too much. This contrasts with
the creator character who is also a low energy character, but one in which
sensitivity to the body is so blocked that he or she may persist mechanically a in a
task until exhaustion sets in.
Development procedes in an infant from the head to the feet. Developing strongly
into the feet requires a feeling of security. The communicator character arises
when the parents are unable to provide the child with that feeling of security. It is
sometimes said that a communicator was not supported enough, but that statement
alone may unfairly color the parenting as neglectful. With this character, it is the case
that the child received some warmth and acceptance. A child that is really unwanted,
either consciously or unconsciously, is likelier to develop as a creator.
Also, a very subtle unconscious desire to be done with the burdens of children can
manifest itself in a parents interest in the child's precocity and premature
independence (walking or talking early, or knowing where things are, etc). Ostensibly
this is for the child's benefit, but subconsciously it is due to the parents' resentment
at giving up their own chance at fulfilling oral needs. The parent may also project her
or his oral needs onto the child and give what the parent wants rather than what the
child wants.
Pushing children to be precocious can also come from a parent attempting to fulfill
her or his own narcissistic needs through the child. Precocity almost never leads to
ultimate giftedness, but it is one thing that a parent believes they can do to bring love
and attention to themselves and the child.
The term swollen, and much of the concept comes from Stanley Keleman. Lowen
does not formally separate a swollen character from other oral characters. Ellsworth
Baker, however, distinguishes an 'oral-unsatisfied' character from an 'oral-repressed'
character. It is possibly useful to think of this as an 'in between character. That is, the
experience is still basically one of deprivation like the communicator, but there is
starting to be an ability to take in and hold. However, this is taking in leads not to
density as in the consolidator, but rather to an less stable inflated condition.
Overall, this character is not as well defined as the others
Energy Characteristics Basically the same energy structure as the oral character,
with somewhat more warmth. May at times verge on hypomania.
This is the most controversial character. Both the concept, and the embodiment
attracts strong interest from people with all the other character types. Many students
of character analysis want to claim a pinch of psychopathy, just like a tasty dish
benefits from a pinch of tabasco, but no one wants to be a 'pure psychopath.' In fact,
in the midst of learning character analysis, there can be a tendency to label someone
a psychopath when they oppose us, or do something we don't like, or gain more
influence than us, but this is surely a misuse of the concept.
The psychopathic character is the only concept of character that has had much of a
life outside of Lowenian character analysis. (The DSM-IV has a few categories of
personality disorders that are faintly similar to the Lowen scheme, but they are based
not on any consistent concept of character, but rather on types of problem
transactions with health care providers. None of the DSM categories are can be
profitably mapped onto character analysis. This 'mainstreaming' of the idea of
psychopathic character comes from a compelling desire to understand, the type of
person that leaves such confusion, division, and havoc behind.
The first modern treatment of the psychopathic character was done by Clecky
in Mask of Sanity. Later Robert Hare developed a diagnostic check-list (which is
extremely consistent with Cleckly' description). Clecky organized his ideas around
the idea that the psychopathic character is self-sabotaging, while Hare leaned more
toward the idea of short-sighted. Both men where trying to explain the contradiction
of considerable talent, energy, and focus on the one-hand, and, on the other hand,
near inevitable impulsive actions that throw the fruits away. If in fact they had
examined the body and energy structure, as did Lowen, the contradiction would have
been more explainable.
In life, the Inspirer seeks power more than pleasure. The will is powerfully exerted
to control others and to control feelings. Feelings are alive in the body, however, but
denied recognition by the mind. Feelings, the body, and external senses are not
trusted, Therefore only what’s in one’s head, only one’s own ideas in the moment, are
treated as valid and real. One story is as good as another, or actually a story that
elicits the desired response from others is superior--its relationship to what actually
happened in the world is secondary at best. This accounts for the often-given
impression that the inspirer believes his or her own lies.
The mind is the servant of the will in this structure, so reasoning can be dramatically
inconsistent, though capable of brilliance. Arguing both sides of a situation or mixing
lies with truth is common if it suits a manipulative purpose to gain power or be
“right”.
In the inspirer pain is numbed, and genuine strong feelings are denied, but dramatic
emotionality and false feelings can be acted out to achieve some purpose, like
intimidation or seduction. Fear of being wrong or of submitting to the will of others
is extreme and is powerfully denied. The fear of being controlled or humiliated
underlies an extreme need to be in control of feelings, in control of others, and in
control of situations. Maintaining control whether it is real or illusory, fends off fears
of losing power, being defeated or helpless, and collapsing into desperate neediness.
There is seemingly no middle ground, either the inspirer is in control or he or she
believes others are in control.
The intuitive capacities of the Inspirer are formidable, with very strong abilities to
read what is going on inside of other people, although the understanding of the
meaning of what is going on is often very distorted. The inspirer is not hampered by
the self-doubt and self-absorption of most other pre-oedipal characters, and
therefore is able to better pay attention to others in real time. The basis of charm is
the ability to make someone feel they are the only one in the world at that moment.
Insincerity is saying something because the other person wants to hear it. The
insincerity of the inspirer increases the charm because they listen very intently (for
clues of what the other person wants to hear) rather than think distractedly about
what they want to say. This all contributes to the 'magnetic personality' that is often
noted.
Inspirers are very adept at the workings of power. They are often openly admired
for this, and bestowed a certain credibility and even immunity for it. That is, in parts
of society in which power is admired (entertainment, politics, corporate business,
academia, etc), they can disturb many things, but are often not held to the same
account as someone else might be, because they are seen as special, or as above
routine consequences.
This character is named for his or her ability to inspire groups, either as leader, or
simply as inspirational speaker. This arises mainly from the manner and energy of
delivery, rather than any intrinsic message. Inspirers tend not to have any
durable, coherent body of belief, but rather use an accumulation of
truisms and good, but unrelated insights to impress and lead
others. Clarifying or challenging questions about this inspirational content tend to
be answered with more interesting anecdotes or insights, not with actual
examination of the material questioned. This is why it is not possible for others to
master these 'systems', they are being made up 'on the go.' In this way, inspirers are
always needed and always special. Organizations led therefore, can drift toward
cultishness easily. The effect on others of bringing a feeling of readiness to act is
undeniable, however.
Commonly noted with the inspirer over time is a lack of empathy or compassion and
a lack of conscious feelings of remorse or guilt. Others that are hurt are seen to be
'casualties of war' that is in the wrong place at the right time. Also commonly noted is
a craving for intensity and excessive stimulation to counteract numbness. Often there
is poor impulse control and an intolerance of boundaries and structure. One
mnemonic to remember the most disruptive traits of this character is the Five I's:
irritable, indifferent, insincere, impulsive, and irresponsible. The five i's of
course refer to traits that produce conflict with others, and ignore the inspirational
and path-finding abilities of this character.
It would not be legitimate to discuss the inspirer character in this context without
discussing some personal traits of Wilhelm Reich. Reich did not describe a
'psychopathic' character in his writings. However, a review of his biographies, letters,
and journals, suggests that Reich's character is best described as an Inspirer. Many
write unhesitatingly about his magnetic personality, strength to push forward and
ability to inspire. His ex-wife also writes, hesitatingly, about a 'shadow' side of
jealousy and controllingness. As the name inspirer suggests, this character affects
other people the most strongly. This along with the tendency to challenge limits
provides at time a springboard to 'jump the rails' of the beaten path. Reich clearly did
this, and he seems to have had a self-reflective process that kept him from exploiting
people for the most part.
Characteristic Illusion: "I'll get love if I have power over you and control my
needs"
The need to have “followers” is felt as an essential reason to engage with others. It is
through the “needing to be needed” that the person with this character structure
maintains his or her feeling of power, while denying dependency at the same time.
Creators always have at least one follower, which will usually be a relationship
partner. Inspirers will often engage in side relationships, to prove potency and to
'prove' he or she is not controlled by their partner.
A “divide and conquer” approach is often taken to gain control of others, individually
and in groups, pitting people against each other, then sometimes taking the role of
mediator or peacemaker. Eccentric, radical, dramatic, unpredictable or extreme
behavior and appearance are often used to gain attention and/or to keep others off
balance
Sexual Functioning
Sex is seen as a means to an end, or a contest, often used to gain power, not pleasure,
or to express revenge feelings; sex is related to as a conquest of the other person and
as further proof of one’s prowess
The "V"-shape of classic bodybuilders (before anabolic steroids) depicts well one
common psychopathic structure. Armoring is particularly marked in the chest,
diaphragm, legs and shoulders. Eyes are highly charged, often large, and frequently
gleaming or sparkling. In the dominating type, the eyes are penetrating and
compelling. In the seductive type, they are soft and intriguing, cunning, dreamy or
sleepy looking. Often, there is a pronounced split between the head and the body
(mature body, with a small child-like face and head, or visa versa); this split is
facilitated by severe tension at the base of the skull and in the shoulder girdle, which
holds the head tightly in place. Arms tend to be immobilized and away from the body
(due to the inflated chest and severe shoulder girdle tensions).
This character often manages anxiety by movement, and confinement is usually very
distressing. Inspirers do very well in sports requiring episodic, spontaneous,
unique, explosive or wily movement of individuals, like basketball or
football. Inspirers often have less interest in sports where a limited range of
movement is practiced over and over, such as tennis or golf.
Feet tend to be “pulled off the ground” and may be small; calves and thighs may be
short and thin, even when the torso is heavy. Physical illnesses are often not felt or
manifested until late in life due to extreme willfulness and numbness (later life
problems may be in the hips, prostate, pelvis in general, or the heart). Spine may be
twisted or fused and immobile. Chronic areas of tension: base of the skull, shoulder
girdle, chest and rib cage, including the diaphragm, waist and abdominal muscles
(which are often hard and clenched to pull sexual energy away from genitals), pelvic
area in general, genitals specifically.
Energy Characteristics
The structure is highly charged, with energy displaced and pulled upwards into the
top half of the body and away from the pelvis. The eyes are often strongly charged,
used to penetrate, intimidate and/or seduce. Energy is directed outwardly to
influence, lead, and control others, and directed inwardly to deny feelings in the self
by contracting all feeling centers. Energy is not allowed to flow downwards, cut off by
severe tensions in the pelvis, waist, diaphragm, shoulders and base of skull.
While the validity of the adult inspirer or psychopathic character seems well
established by everyday observation and plentiful sources outside the Reich and
Lowen tradition, the childhood origins of the character have not been
explained as well as other pre-oedipal characters. One possibility could be
that this character in part represents biological resilience. That is, the same
detrimental experiences that produces an oral character in one person, if they
happen to a child that has a strong genotype toward upper body strength, may result
in the same weak grounding, but spare or even exaggerate upper body development
and lead to more of an inspirer character. That could also explain why there seems
to be a disproportionate number of male to females in this character. In any case, the
following situations have also been posited to play a role in the development of the
inspirer character.
The parents used the child as a buffer or weapon against each other. The child
was overly involved in the marital relationship or parent of the same sex was
significantly absent from child’s early life (due to work, illness, death or
divorce, etc.).
There was a role reversal in which the child was maneuvered, often with
sexual overtones and promises of love that were never delivered, into being
the pseudo-spouse or pseudo-parent to a parent (frequently of the opposite
sex); the child was expected to be more than he or she was to that parent
(“Mommy’s little man”; “Daddy’s little princess”). One or both parents
invested child with feelings of specialness and importance and then rejected
or ignored child, or otherwise became unavailable (frequently the parent of
the opposite sex). One or both parents competed with the child, feeling
threatened by the child’s real or imagined accomplishments, and sadistically
exploited the child’s weaknesses to humiliate, control and diminish the child’s
self-confidence
Possibly, the child experienced horror from witnessing events that could not
be understood or integrated, such as verbal or physical abuse (either of a
violent or sexual nature); a major trauma occurred in the child’s life, usually
after the second year, that could not be understood intellectually by the child
and was experienced as a betrayal; (i.e. – hospitalization and surgery,
exposure to sex acts by adults, witnessing extreme violence, etc., while being
told that all was well by the adults, or blaming the child for the trauma)
The incidence of addiction and substance abuse is higher, due in part to thrill-
and sensation-seeking and a craving for feelings of power and invincibility.
However, with this character, loss of control is very ego-dystonic, so that
durable will-based remissions are not uncommon
Despite the usual calm or cheerful outside presentation, negative feelings are felt
intensely. However the direct or open expression of negative feelings is severely ego-
dystonic. Any self-assertion produces powerful feelings of guilt, shame and
humiliation. There can be a fear of exploding violently. Negative feelings are
expressed mainly through passive-aggressive behavior or indirect provocations,
although sometimes a strong 'victim-role' is taken on, which is sometimes described
as 'whining.'
For consolidators, anxiety is present most of the time. Anxiety is already present
before something is undertaken, or in anticipation of an undertaking. This often
leads to rumination and anxiety about events that probably will not happen. The
anticipatory anxiety often leads the consolidator to avoid things, but the avoidance
does not dispense with the anxiety. This produces for the consolidator the experience
of constantly being under great pressure.
The mind can be very orderly, but usually obsessively so, with much ruminating on
details, serving as a distraction from feelings.Consolidators may have valuable
knowledge but they hesitate to take leadership, sometimes being a loyal 'second-in-
command' but often continuing to work below their abilities.
Childhood and adult history may include: clumsiness and many minor accidents.,
overeating (to stuff down feelings), chronic sore throats, acne, digestive problems, a
sensitive gag reflex and anxiety about vomiting, constipation, and excessive neatness
or sloppiness.
The will is weakened by the constant holding pattern, but it is strong enough to
express its resistance (to the parents’ crushing will) through stubbornness, defiance
and passive refusal (to move, to be successful or happy, etc.); the will is also often
directed to make the individual appear stupid or eccentric, or to dissimulate, so there
is much inner doubting about one’s own intelligence or wisdom.
Assets: Great capacities for pleasure, humor, optimism, playfulness and joy.
Genuine supportiveness, strength and desire to be of service to others. An expansive,
open heart with deep compassion, true kindness and understanding. When released
by a strong enough stimulus, there is positive assertiveness and healthy aggression
with substantial amounts of energy; - Ability to be spontaneously creative in the
moment, surrender ego control and trust the natural order in all things.
In relationships, consolidators are able to feel close and give and receive some
warmth, but the relationships still contains a feeling of tension and pressure.
Consciously or unconsciously trying to get appreciation and approval, permission to
feel, and relief from guilt are predominant motivations in relationships. This is
attempted either through exaggerated pleasing, servile and submissive behavior (that
may be experienced by the recipient as hostile, controlling and contemptuous),
through self-deprecating attitudes and self-damaging behavior, constant whining
and complaining, or through directly provocative behavior. Alternately
a consolidator may couple with a more verbally critical character structure (for
instance a communicator), so that the complaining can be "contracted out" to the
partner. If this is the case, the consolidator often can 'go along' with most things
and deny distress, even when it is obvious that they are being treated quite
disrespectfully or controllingly by his or her partner.
Sexuality
The Consolidator has a strong sexual drive. Intense preoccupation with sex and
frequent masturbation are common as this person continually seeks pleasure and
release, both of which are intensely desired and also inhibited. Commonly there is a
fascination with pornography. Sadomasochistic fantasy is common (seeking to turn
pain, submission and humiliation into a release or way to earn “pleasure”). Orgasms
are controlled by pushing and squeezing actions (of the buttocks, thighs and pelvis).
Surrendering to love is related to as both potentially liberating and potentially
crushing, with pain as a necessary ingredient and good feelings in love and sex as
“too much.”
Social masochism as expressed in this character has much less of an overlap with
traditionally defined sexual masochism than is commonly supposed. However, this is
the likeliest spot to address how the topic fits into the Reich and Lowen view of
sexual functioning. As pointed out elsewhere, pain, humiliation, and submission is
not pleasureable to anyone, but rather in certain settings, modest pain, dominance,
or humiliation can allow a release that is otherwise impeded. The intentional seeking
and employment of practices that provide this type of release has become known as
Bondage, Discipline, Dominance, Submission, Sadism, Masochism, telescoped into
the acronym BDSM.
Like the Reich and Lowen tradition, BDSM consists of 1) experiential activities, 2)
organized around increasing pleasure, 3) deliberately employing sensation and
autonomic stimuli, 4) sex-positive, and at times, 5) meant to be healing.
Unlike the Reich and Lowen tradition, however, 1) the emphasis is on the erotic and
not the satisfying, 2) emphasis is on performance, 3) natural attraction is neglected,
4) fantasy is encouraged, and 5) 'servicing' is considered a sound interpersonal
stance.
Energy Characteristics
The consolidator character is fully charged energetically, but energy is tightly held
in check (though not frozen), so this person is “boiling” inside. Energy moving
upward and downward is choked off at the neck and waist (causing compression)
and outlets for energy discharge are blocked (throat, anus, genitals) The highly
charged energy is stagnant in the skin
Parents offered conditional love to the child based on compliance with their will (that
the child “be a good boy or girl” and control impulses). Attempts by child to assert its
own will or say “No” were overpowered by parents and greeted with threats of
abandonment or withdrawal of love. The child's strong pleasure and excitement may
have caused anxiety in the parents. Possibly parents were excessively involved in
child’s eating and excretory functions (child may have been pushed to eat more than
it wanted, toilet training may have been severe, enemas given, etc.), and in general,
there was a strong focus on eating and defecating in the family.
Father may have been passive, submissive or absent while mother was dominating,
smothering, or harsh (often with a self-sacrificing, martyr-type mask), or father may
have been harsh, controlling or sadistic while mother was permissive and indulgent;
- Parents may have been excessively concerned about “messing up” (around personal
hygiene, household cleanliness, finances, order in general, etc.); - A sudden
interruption in the parent-child relationships may have occurred in the child’s
second year of life (birth of a sibling, divorce, absent parent due to work, illness,
death, etc., or a physical illness of child).
Feeling trapped
Because the rigid character achieves genitality, adult sexual feeling and biology
comes into play very strongly in character formation, and functioning differs strongly
along gender lines. This is consistent with folk wisdom and everyday observation of
rigid characters (as opposed to other 'pre-genital' characters). The men appear
manly and the women appear feminine. This view, that human sexual
dimorphism, where it exists, is natural, good, and a characteristic of maturation, is,
of course, inconsistent with the political correctness of the present day. The
male achiever or rigid character, is named the 'phallic' character, because he is
thought to exhibit 'male' aggression, perhaps a substitute for full sexual release and
satisfaction. The female rigid character is known as a 'hysteric', because strong
sexual feeling builds but can only find expression in outbursts or conversion
symptoms. Below is a description of the male character.
The male achiever copes effectively with the world. This character organizes his life
around accomplishing goals. In business this means increasing margins where
possible. Without being deceptive, the achiever tries to put as little into a situation or
association as possible while getting out as much as possible. This is not about
domination, however, the achiever assumes others can push back in their own self-
interest. He is not resentful when they do, and can relent at times, although the
achiever can also push back even more strongly and become very competitive and
aggressive. Pre-oedipal characters may consider achievers bullies.
The mind is developed, with an efficient, but unyielding intellect that is trusted much
more than feelings or impulses. Thinking tends to be very linear, with good
concentration, but little capacity for or interest in abstraction. Creativity is controlled
in favor of soundness. In large organizations, achievers often team
with creators or communicators. The achiever, as boss, provides the aggression
and reality contact to implement the creativity and abstraction of the latter
characters.
The ability to make decisions and take action is valued by others, and achievers often
assume leadership positions. Traditionally,achievers have been the heads of
industry, government and law enforcement. (Although, with trends in society moving
toward narcissism, these roles increasingly go to inspirer or psychopathic
characters).
Pride is the driving force in this structure and great efforts of the will are directed
towards performance and outer appearances (always being attractive and never
appearing vulnerable or foolish). There is stubbornness that is not in the service of
spiting others but rather in the service of avoiding looking foolish.
Achievers are often athletic due to graceful movements and intense competitiveness.
They often favor sports that combine face to face competition with controlled
movements, such as handball, tennis, or golf.
Characteristic Illusions: "If I hold back my heart, It will never be broken again"
"If I don't give you my heart, I can be sexual."
Achievers tend to be very attractive to women, partly because of external features but
mostly because of the 'energy' they give off. Relationships are often treated the same
as a business, in that it is deemed rational to try to get the most out of it while putting
only the necessary minimum in. Having a relationship with an unmitigated
male achiever can be like constant re-negotiation with a hard-driving boss. This
means that in personal affairs, achievers often become dominant de facto. Love and
erotic feelings are strong, but are controlled by the mind and will. Achievers have
intense fears of having their “heart broken” in love Surrendering to another is
deemed unacceptable and collapse is unthinkable. Dificulty surrending of course may
support the work function but interferes with the love function. Achievers may have
a less than complete sense of self caused by the separation of love feelings from
sexual feelings. Male Achievers may become 'womanizers' to reinforce a sense of
virility without the need to commit to love. Achievers may marry several times, as
the intent is there to commit to one woman, but once in a committed relationship
there is holding back, and then a search for love elsewhere. Alternately, achievers
may be actually quite 'moral' about sex, because there is enough feeling to experience
modesty.
Sexual Functioning
The achiever is usually erectively potent. Premature ejaculation is often a problem.
Outlet of sexual discharge through the genital may be limited. This can lead to
several acts of sex in a single day, because a large amount of sexual excitement
remains in the pelvis after each act of sex. The achiever may identify with this as
being superior as a man, and develop 'Don Juan' behavior around
it. Inspirer characters often also develop Don Juan behavior due to incomplete
discharge, but in the case of that character, the pelvis as well as the genitals is
restricted. In any case, achievers often receive only ego and not body satisfaction
from sex. This lack of satisfaction is of translated into a dissatisfaction with the
feminine partner. The juxtaposition of high sexual drive and limited discharge may
be responsible for the drivenness of this character.
Structure
The overall energy level is good. In movement, there is grace but also a certain bias in
maintaining a very vertical posture. There is a fairly strong charge at the surface,
which supports good reality testing. The holding back is at the surface (rather than at
the core or muscular layers as with other characters.) This allows energy to flow
within the body, but limits its expression in the world.
The rigidity of the body may cause the torso to function as a tube, forcing energy to
bounce from the head to the pelvis. In this instance the head and the pelvis may act
as reservoirs, holding expression back at the 'final step.' The charge in the pelvis plus
the tendency to hold the pelvis back sometimes leads to a 'charged bladder' and an
urethra that used at times to discharge energy and aggression (after sex, after
meetings, etc) This is possibly the origin of the term 'pissing contests' to describe
struggles to establish dominance.
This character is believed to have had 'good enough' nurture up to 4 years of age or
the start of the oedipal period. At that point, love feelings for the mother were
rejected, and or the father interfered with this relationships. This 'heart-break'
resulted in a stiffening against disappointment.
Because the rigid character achieves genitality, adult sexual feeling and biology
comes into play very strongly in character formation, and functioning differs strongly
along gender lines. This is consistent with folk wisdom and everyday observation of
rigid characters (as opposed to other 'pre-genital' characters). The men appear
manly and the women appear feminine. This view, that human sexual
dimorphism, where it exists, is natural, good, and a characteristic of maturation, is,
of course, inconsistent with the political correctness of the present day. The
male achiever or rigid character, is named the 'phallic' character, because he is
thought to exhibit 'male' aggression, perhaps a substitute for full sexual release and
satisfaction. The female rigid character is known as a 'hysteric', because strong
sexual feeling builds but can only find expression in outbursts or conversion
symptoms. Below is a description of the female character.
The hysteric character has a very impressionistic cognitive style, in which detail is
less important than mood and emotional nuance. There is strong attention
to surface and appearance, and clothing and furnishings will tend to be fashionable
and well kept. This may be seen by some as superficial, but if as Alexander Lowen
posits, pleasure, contact, and consciousness all happen on the surface, then this
can be seen as healthy, if limited. There is a mild suggestibility, because there is a
tendency to agree with what looks or sounds good. Reality testing is basically good,
though, and this character is rarely taken advantage of severely.
Characteristic Illusions: "If I hold back my heart, It will never be broken again"
"If I don't give you my heart, I can be sexual."
Relationships
For the hysteric, relationships often exhibit a push-pull quality, especially around
sexual contact, with a constant seeking out of sexual situations and simultaneous
flight from them Often one person is chosen as a sexual partner, while another is
chosen as a love partner. Relationships are often sought out with people who are seen
as having status in socially acceptable ways (the "checklist"); others are often related
to as either competitors (to be defeated) or suitors (to be seduced). There tends to be
a superficial or formal quality to interactions, though often with undertones of
intrigue (gossiping or a soap opera kind of drama as the style of communicating),
argumentativeness, or there may be an hysterical quality to self-expression.
Something is always held back in relationships to maintain interest and mystery and
an “edge” Sex is primarily sought after for validation of one’s attractiveness and
prowess and secondarily for pleasure. Sexual desires are often experienced as
incestuous. Sexual pleasure and full orgasm are possible, but often avoided out of the
fear of surrendering and appearing vulnerable. Orgasms, when allowed, may take a
long time and a lot of effort.
Structure
Energy
Lowen believed that energy flowed well in this character, but not quite making it to
the very ends of the 'pendulum'. That is, if development is complete in the adult,
energy normally pulsates back and forth between the genitals and the cerebral
cortex. Lowen posited that in female achiever, that the energy made it into the pelvis
but not the genitals, and into the midbrain or limbic system but not the cerebral
cortex. With this energy model, he explained an impressionistic thinking style (not
deficient, but not cortically dominated) and orgasm difficulties despite great sexual
energy.
Another outlet for sexual feeling is in subtle movements, which in this character
often have a definite sexual nuance.
Like the male counterpart, this character is believed to have had 'good enough'
nurture up to 4 years of age or the start of the oedipal period. At that point, love
feelings for the father were rejected, and or the mother interfered with this
relationships. This 'heart-break' resulted in a stiffening against disappointment.
Relationships in which the hysteric invests much more than the partner, being
taken for granted.
Physical Characteristics of the Passive-Feminine Male
This character has reached the genital stage physically, but interpersonally a great
deal of masochistic function is lived out. The passive-aggressive male will have a
warmth and poised manner that is attractive to and attracted to strong females but
will have a strong castration anxiety that can only partially be alloyed by submissive
behavior. This makes relationships unstable despite great reasonableness and ability
to cooperate.
The name of this character from a slight physical aspect of femininity that exists
within a very mature physical development. This is very different from an immature
appearing male that looks in a general way like an immature female. The secondary
sexual characteristics only fully develop when a person has reached genitality.
Therefore ironically, a male that has reached the genital stage, such as the passive
feminine male, is more capable of a certain feminine qualities, such as sinuous
movement, than a pre-oedipal character, male or female. This is very different from a
pre-genital male imitating a women's movements. In this latter case the movements,
even if unconscious and certainly if conscious, will be exaggerated, hard, and a
caricature of femininity.
Like all rigid subtypes, this character is believed to have had 'good enough' nurture
up to 4 years of age or the start of the oedipal period. At that point, it is possible that
the father was rejecting, and the mother was accepting of the child generally, and
accepting of most male characteristics but not of aggression or sexual initiative.
Masculine Aggressive Female
Clearly this character structure cannot be discussed, even in the body aspects,
without first addressing the idea of gender and sexism. Our modern culture
encourages women to be successful in 'traditionally male' pursuits. However, the
basics of character are formed by five years of age, and so social learning may re-
inforce but does not really explain this character.
This character encompasses the idea that a female rigid character may subconciously
identify with the father (seemingly a phallic rigid father) and develop not only the
behavioral competitiveness, but also some male secondary sexual characteristis such
as a lot of body hair. As a rigid subtype, she is attractive as a woman, but will tend to
use her looks in a power way. Mannerisms may be slightly mannish. Psychological
functioning is along the lines of the phallic male.
Likeall rigid subtypes, this character is believed to have had 'good enough' nurture up
to 4 years of age or the start of the oedipal period. At that point, the mother was
rejecting and the father was accepting of the child generally, but was dismissive of
feminine traits.
Energy and Movement
There is a difference between the way a physicist uses the term 'energy', and how a
lay person uses the term. To a physicist, energy is the capacity to do work. To a
physicist, energy doesn't move. Matter moves however, and energy is responsible for
that movement.
To a lay person, energy is the desire to do things, or the feeling that one could do
things with ease. It is also the sensation of something moving in the body. The Reich
and Lowen tradition uses the lay definitions when it speaks of energy. Alexander
Lowen writes:
Life may be viewed as an excitatory phenomenon. We are not ordinary pieces of clay but a
substance that has been infused with spirit or charged with energy. When we become more
excited, our energy level rises. When we become depressed it falls. If we become highly
excited, we light up or luminate and glow. These excitatory phenomena like sexual
excitement are energetic processes. And the lumination or glow that they produce can be
seen. (Depression and the Body Chapter 10, Paragraph 32)
Whenever something desireable is also invisible, there will be many charlatans, both
witting and unwitting. Any reference to energy has to be suspect, because many
charlatans do claim to be able to perceive and manipulate unseen energy. In this
tradition, however, no one is manipulating energy. Rather, individuals are shown
how to free restrictions in their bodies that are likely to result in pleasureable
sensations and ease of action. It is the perceiving individual who must judge for
themselves if what they are experiencing is 'real' and helpful.
Pleasure and Sensation
Often in casual conversation, the terms pleasure and enjoyment are used
interchangeably. However, there is great value in making some distinction. Pleasure
is a biological phenomenon. Enjoyment is a psychological phenomenon. Usually
pleasure is accompanied by enjoyment but not always. Other things besides pleasure
can be enjoyed. What is of interest in this article is pleasure and its role in human
functioning, which I call the pleasure economy.
The form of the discharge may be temporally but not logically linked to the
excitement. For instance, play at recess has been long understood to make the
tension of sitting still and paying attention in class not only possible but profitable.
The link between class and recess is a temporal one with tension preceding release in
time, but the tension causing activity is not logically related to the discharging
activity. This is why non-specific 'relaxation' at routine intervals is so valuable--
everyone accumulates tension, and if the tension is held indefinitely the tension
become un--dischargeable, even with participation in normally quite pleasureable
activities.
A great mistake in pleasure is often waiting too long between the tension and
discharge. The connection between the two may be very logical but if too far apart in
time, the discharge may not be possible. Delaying gratification may lead to more
pleasure of course, by increasing the magnitude of the eventual discharge, but there
are limits to this process. That is why great achievements may not provide great or
even modest pleasure.
At this point a distinction needs to be made between the prospect of pleasure (which
may or may by itself involve some positive feeling) and actual pleasure (which is
'cleansing' and satisfying) The prospect of pleasure is of two
types: anticipation and promise. Anticipation is a whole-body phenomenon, it is
excitement with awareness. Anticipating a good meal when one is hungry is itself
pleasureable, but if the meal never comes, frustration may arise. How anticipation
gets misused when there are blocks to pleasure is described in the section
on sensualism below.
Promise (or relatedly, opportunity) is a cognitive recognition that one has obtained
the means for pleasure. The human ego is always concerned about the future. This
has some value in ensuring future conditions conducive to pleasure. This gratifies the
ego and is accompanied by a modest positive feeling that has no real discharge and
which I think is better described as reward or elation. Still, there is a profound
confusion in our culture between actual good feeling and the prospect of good
feelings. If one asks person how they are doing, almost always the reply is some
evaluation of prospects. The difference is lost between the real time recognition of an
activity as pleasureable, and the evaluation of an instrumental activity as gainful in
the future. The two are not intrinsically incompatible, but where the incapacity for
pleasure is present, prospects are illusory. A common example is a driven careerist
who works constantly, fueling the ego with short-lived bursts of reward, in the
process crippling the body's capacity for love or pleasure.
It is said that there are three types of pleasure: sensory, aesthetic, and mastery.
Sensory pleasures are described later on the page. Aesthetic pleasure is present in the
arts. Visual arts and drama can provide real pleasure by ideationally producing
excitement then provoking its discharge. Managing the progression of tension and
then discharge is openly acknowledged to be the skill in these arts. Symphonic music
is in the same category, although it may blend with the sensory. Popular music is
more clearly sensory, It is common for people to feel like dancing when music is
playing. Music provides the excitement and dancing is the discharge that completes
the pleasure. In art, what brings pleasure is known as beautiful. Much modern art
gets away from the beautiful, and while it may then still have a salutary function, it is
not a source of pleasure. Mental pleasure is a term that may refer to the 'prospect of
pleasure' and reward as discussed above, or may refer to aesthetic pleasures. After an
aesthetic excitement, pleasure may need to be completed with another step, such as
in self-directed movement, self-expression, or sex.
Pain While people vary widely in the capacity and search for pleasure, the tendency
to avoid physical pain is almost never disrupted. Pain is associated with contraction
of the body and with the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.
Pleasure is associated with the parasympathetic branch. One function of pleasure
perhaps is to restore the balance in the autonomic nervous system after inevitable
experiences of pain.
The qualitative difference between pain and pleasure also underlies the difference
between medication and psychotherapy. Medication can take away bad feelings
(provide relief) but (disregarding the deceptive short euphoria of drugs used
recreationally) drugs cannot provide good feeling. Psychotherapy, especially body
psychotherapy can both decrease bad feelings and produce good feelings.
Admittedly, therapy is considerably trickier to 'get right' than medication.
Medication may increase the quality of life considerably, and medication (except
perhaps for chronic opiates and benzodiazepines) is compatible with body
psychotherapy.
Sensory Enjoyment: The senses are involved not just in acquiring information but
in the tension/charge phase of pleasure. All sensory intake that is likely to lead to
pleasure is therefore called pleasant. Pleasant sensations vary in intensity, which is
related to the tension produced. The intensity of a pleasant sensation depends on the
objective qualities of the stimulus but also on the sensory traits of the person--
sensitivity, appetite, taste, etc.. Whether the tension of a sensation is welcomed is
rightly related to the possibility of discharge. For instance, a person starting to get
hungry welcomes the smell of good food cooking because he or she looks forward to
discharging the tension in the eating. Someone who is full may find the smell of the
same good food cooking slightly irritating. Any pleasant sensation in judicious
quantities may be considered a good in itself, however, because the reasonable
anticipation of pleasure produces some good feeling by itself. Pleasant sensations are
necessary if not sufficient for pleasure, and so healthy functioning includes the
seeking out and acceptance of such sensations, including novel sensations.
Food is a very basic source of pleasure. Food intake is regulated by the body both in
terms of metabolic properties (calories etc) and in terms of pleasure. In a fine
restaurant, portions are small, because it is understood that a smaller amount of
really good food provides enough satisfaction. This is explainable only in terms of
pleasure. The epidemic of obesity seems related to the consumption of large amounts
of unsatisfying, sweet but mostly bland food. The body will easily overeat in
terms of calories and grams in order to achieve or attempt satiation in
pleasure In the pleasure arena though, quantity cannot make up for quality. Factory
methods of farming bring food prices down but may delete subtle taste factors that
previously provided pleasure. Another condition of pleasure in eating may be just
being truly hungry so that the food really produces excitement, but not being so
ravenous that it is not in the mouth long enough to be tasted. With cheap food and
snacks always available, many people never really get hungry. Salt and sugar may
drive intake but not provide real pleasure (rather just comfort, as described below).
'Insulin toxicity' creates a craving for carbohydrates but this is not a pleasure related
appetite.
Sensualism results in a need for ever more intense excitement to maintain the partial
good feeling of excitement, and mask the pain of undischarged excitement, which
must ebb away. Completed pleasure provides a feeling of peace and a feeling of
enough, but with sensualism, there is never enough. The inordinate pursuit of
excitement indicates that 'real' pleasure is not being achieved. Sensualism gives
pleasure a bad name, because observers may associate the role of pleasure with a
moral decay or addiction, or erratic behavior, but the opposite is the case. When the
worry is expressed that a person can become 'too attached' to pleasure, it is probably
sensualism that is being referenced.
However, it is an error to infer from this that tastes (what is found pleasant) is
arbitrary or random or solely the province of conscious human choice. Tastes
change partly because of exposure to sensations, and also partly due to
associations, but largely because the capacity to hold tension or
discharge tension increases or decreases. The set of sensory experiences that
have the potential for pleasure do not really change, although individuals may always
be discovering a new part of it for themselves. There is always a certain subset of
sensory experiences that are 'edgy' that have a potential for high excitement but are
actually painful for those not ready. Very spicy foods and the music of Bartok are
examples. On the other hand, something truly not enjoyable may become a social
fad, but then the term 'taste' becomes a misuse.
Conditioning: Pleasure and pain naturally influence behavior and learning. This
has become, strangely, the foundation of a theory of human functioning called,
broadly, behaviorism, and specifically, 'learning theory.' To reduce the role of
pleasure to merely decisional information misses entirely the role of pleasure in
regulating the body, let alone missing its role in love. Also, in learning theory, no
distinction is made (or makeable) between pleasure and decrease in pain as an
incentive. This can be very misleading, in that, a life in which a person is limiting
pain is seen as progress, when in fact, maneuvers that limit pain often limit pleasure
as well. In fact suppression, by limiting both pleasure and pain, defeats conditioning
which is a healthy process. Human motivation is a compelling subject, in which
pleasure will always be intertwined. The study of motivation is always hampered,
however, if the pleasure function is taken for granted, or if the prospect of pleasure is
used as a proxy.
Comfort is a state of relaxation, freedom from pain, ease, and agreeableness of the
physical state. Comfort is a 'sensible' pursuit for it's own sake and for the sake of
reducing and avoiding sympathetic shift. Comfort is a more limited phenomenon
than pleasure however. Comfort is less dynamic and does not support the life
process as much. Comfort is also biased toward sameness rather than newness so it
does not promote growth and learning as much as pleasure. Also, unlike pleasure,
comfort does not have a clear point of 'enoughness' and an over-indulgence in
comfort can work against the life process.
Comforting is a process that at times strays even farther from pleasure and from the
state of the body. Comforting is reducing a discomfort, pain, or anxiety, using some
of the same 'pathways' as pleasure. An example of comforting is eating a particular,
easily digested food when lonely or worried. Another example is talking to a friend
about a worry. A capacity to seek comforting deliberately is part of self-
nourishment.
However, comforting, if overused, can be a way to partly numb oneself and become
estranged from the nature of one's problems. Comforting can be an avoidance of
deeper feeling. Oral comforts--smoking, alcohol, drugs, snacking, rapid talking--are
especially prone to this use. One tricky source of comfort can be spending time
generating comforting thoughts--these may just be reassurances to the ego. It is
common for adults to confuse various comforts and the act of comforting with
pleasure, and therefore overlook the gradual loss of pleasure in their lives.
Discharge versus Release
In the Reich and Lowen tradition, the basic guiding format for a 'session'
is charge then discharge. This is simply a straightforward way to re-establish
the pleasure cycle. Charging is generally upward in the body or in the upper body.
Discharge is downward through the body, or in the lower body. Discharge is usually
more blocked than charge. That is why hang-ups are so common. If discharging has
been blocked for a long time, charging may be low, this is an advanced difficulty.
First, some semantics are in order. All feelings are a perceptions by the mind
of a change in the body.* A change in the body may be a response to what is
happening outside the body (with or without physical contact), or reflect the motility
and internal functioning of the body. The environment is only known by its effect on
the body. A body that is not affected much by the environment has little feeling.
Chronic muscle tension hinders changes in the body and reduces feeling. Self-
awareness arises from feeling. It is the totality of all body feelings at any given
time.
Feelings are either sensations or emotions, although in the latter case, the feeling is
only part of the emotion..
A sensation is a feeling that has no emotional aspect. Sensations of course can be and
frequently are judged desirable or undesirable, but judgment is not emotion. Pain is
a sensation that usually indicates damage. Pain is a sensation not an emotion but it
often provokes emotion. Sensation varies in intensity and many people find strong or
even medium levels of sensation hard to endure. The mind tends to 'tune out' to all
feeling that it deems unimportant or about which it intends to do nothing. This is the
basis of suppression and denial.Sensation is a reliable union of the body
and the mind since, without a body to experience a change, the mind cannot have a
sensation, and without a mind to sense it, a change in the body produces no
sensation † Perhaps this underlies the Buddhist saying "You are sensation."
Emotions affect actions both through the felt and the unconscious aspects, but this is
quite variable from person to person. Muscle tension and emotional armoring
decrease both sensation and emotion, but there may be relative sparing of sensation
since this is neutral and less threatening or conflictual. Chemical intoxicants
(including endorphins) blunt feeling including sensation, but may release some
emotion because emotion is more than feeling. This intoxicated release does no
durable good for the emotional health of a person, because, besides being distorted,
it is not felt.
In English the word feeling is often used as a synonym for emotion. In everyday use
this is probably not confusing, but as will become clearer in the discussion below,
there is a need to distinguish the two to understand the 'emotional economy' of
humans. Also the word feeling is used to mean 'opinion,' 'tentative conclusion' , or
'ideological position.' These extended meanings derive from the definition above
because folk wisdom has always understood that decisions and principles of living
are based on bodily integrity and pleasure. In the modern culture, though, where
unfeeling cognition is promoted, the term feeling can be misused to describe 'fuzzy'
cognition.
Anxiety, though often a feeling, is not an emotion, but rather a holding against
emotion. Anxiety usually provokes the emotion fear because its origin is not
understood and the mind tends to look for threats when anxiety is present. Shame is
a distressing feeling that probably is best not understood as an emotion either.
Anxiety and shame both drive behavior strongly, but the behavior tends to deny,
obscure, and avoid the stimulus unlike the emotions that tend to involve the person
and the stimulus together.
* This is the definition of Antonio Damasio as well as Alexander Lowen † The change in the body may still have effects
elsewhere in the body, but this is reflexive or physiological and not a response to sensation
Emotion
In humans at least, memory, explicit and implicit, is able to change the bodily state
enough to evoke emotion, and therefore emotion may not reflect the present state of
affairs outside the person. This makes human attachment and bonding possible, and
deep loving relationships would be impossible otherwise. This is the positive side of
internalized object relations. But the imposition of memory into the experience-
body response-emotion loop also makes the trauma response possible.
Stated another way, the emotional (that is body-response) history of the person
greatly affects his or her present response. That is why, at a reunion with a loved and
trusted one, the body is able to experience great joy. Unfortunately, this effect of the
past is greatest where there has been suffering or trauma. Perhaps this is because
contraction is more self-perpetuating than expansion. I call this misfortunate
tendency disappointment.
Emotions are often lumped together and confused with conditioned reactions. Like
all conditioning, reactions are based on past experience and meant to be
anticipatory. The conditioned reactions most often confused with emotion are
defensive ones that increase arousal and initiate fight or flight mechanisms. Early
relational difficulties instill a set of conditioned reactions that tend to make later
social interactions contentious and so the conditioning tends to be self-renewing and
even progressive. While reactions usually have some trigger, they speak far, far more
to a person's history than to the present situation. Because of the irradiating aspect of
conditioning, conditioned reactions tend to be increasingly frequent. 'knee-jerk' and
invariable over time. By contrast, emotion becomes more fine-tuned with maturity
and experience.
Conditioned reactions often produce behavioral displays that are jarring to others.
Strong emotion may elicit displays as well but they will be less jarring to others if
those others are in sync with what is happening. Conditioned reactions do usually
evolve out of difficult to tolerate emotional states such as shame, disgust, fear, guilt,
hopelessness, and helplessness. The reaction is meant to avoid feeling these
emotional states again. There is an inverse relationship between reactivity
and emotion, If the two are lumped together, there will be great confusion about
what is healthy and desirable, and that confusion is evident in most psychotherapy
approaches outside the Reich and Lowen tradition.
The very strongest reactions have been called 'vehement emotion' by Pierre Janet.
These episodes usually present as rage, terror, or panic. Vehement emotions, are not
so much emotion as they are the behavioral manifestations of very high states of
arousal. These reactions are dissociative, and have the following elements: 1) loss of a
sense of self, 2) loss of observing ego, 3) loss of attachment and bonding, and 4) loss
of contact with the body. This is almost the opposite of functional
emotion. Usually the person later repudiates the actions and statements and cannot
or does not integrate the affective tone, even in a more moderate form. These are
actually minor dissociative episodes, from approach-avoidance conflicts or past
trauma.
Emotions are irreplaceable aids to navigating a life, but not just that. The direct
physiological effects of emotions appear central to regulating the health of the human
organism. Facial expressions are associated consistently with the same emotions
from culture to culture, indicating the common biological basis (but of course in
interpreting, the voluntary control of the ego over part of the face is a complication).
Importantly, a great deal of any emotional state is reflected in the body below the
neck.
Emotion ideally is ahistorical, that is reflecting the present situation only. This avoids
the unnecessary contamination of memory, although it also forgoes the balancing of
'taking into account' the entire positive history of a relationship. While emotions are
ahistorical, a mature person need not be. Emotions are the motor of response not the
steering wheel.
While this will be a controversial generalization, women are more 'in touch' with
emotion than men, on average, and this will affect inclinations on how relationships
and courses of action are pursued. Women have always been depended upon to do
'more than their share' of emotional work for families and groups, and this continues
today even though it cannot be acknowledged as easily. It is considered 'dis-
empowering' to describe anyone, woman or otherwise, as 'more
emotional' since there is an antithesis between emotion (actually all
feeling) and power.
At times, hostility is mistakenly lumped with emotion, which of course gives emotion
a bad name. Hostility is universally recognized as a uncompleted defensive process
that involves fear, perception of threat, and inability to be direct or express one's own
interests directly. Besides the fear, however, hostility is not an emotion but a pattern
of ego response, and the unpleasantness it creates is not due to emotion.
It is not possible to choose emotions, but it is possible to choose activities that are
likely to elicit emotion. This is why people may go to a happy, sad, or horror
movie. There is no recipe of emotions for well-being, rather it is the
capacity to respond emotionally to what is happening that matters. As
stated above, emotions tend to be prompted by changes in the environment, and
emotions decay in sameness. Some people become very rigid in routines over time.
In avoiding changes they are avoiding emotions. People more comfortable with
emotion may travel a lot or try new things. They are seeking emotion (as well
as pleasure.) Of course, real emotional response is based on really being involved.
Watching a movie affects the body as long as the experience is not to frequent and
taken seriously because the body is 'fooled' into feeling it is real. With a deluge of
entertainment, the body is no longer fooled, only the mind, and so the mind is
affected and the body is detached.
Muscles can be held rigidly in check and this has the effect
of suppressing emotion, selectively at first but globally as muscle tension
forms into rigid patterns--muscular armor. The same mechanism that stops
emotion, muscle tension, also stops pleasure. A tense person may be irritable but this
is a problem with arousal, not true emotion. Emotions like grief or sadness are
associated with the subjective experience of suffering but the greatest suffering of our
time comes from emotionlessness and the accompanying pleasurelessness.
Relationships (those that are not purely practical exchanges) develop through the
sharing of pleasure and exchange of emotion. 'Small talk' has the function of
exchanging emotion without exchanging any significant information. Too much
information crowds out emotion. People low in emotion always have trouble with
small talk because they can only think of communication as the exchange of
information.
Appraisal
To the extent that the ego has a definite idea of the way things should be, there is
often a perturbation of the mind when things aren't this way. Again, this is a
cognitive product, an appraisal, not an emotion, although there may be underlying
fear. Interestingly enough, TV sitcoms are almost always based on this perturbation
rather than feeling.
Related also is adult frustration. Frustration is a state of tension in mind and body
that arises when a drive is blocked. In early life, drives are instinctual and seek basic
human needs and wants. Frustration in this arena, if excessive, is unfortunate, and
Reich and Lowen wrote extensively about the sequelae. If early frustration is modest,
the experience is part of development. However, in either case, frustration is not
chosen. However, emerging from childhood, drives may become misdirected, or
focused on what is seen a means to an end. When there is a rigidity and inability to
turn to other objectives, the tension is related to an appraisal of 'what must be' This
is adult frustration, which is voluntary, unlike emotion which is involuntary. See the
section on desire.
Cognitive therapy attempts to make life better by managing cortical appraisal, but in
so doing, reduces life to just voluntary instrumental behavior. To be fair, inaccurate
appraisal clearly has a role in suffering, but the solution to re-regulating appraisal is
more spontaneous emotion, not less.
Symbols are useful if the people using them have regular contact with the actual
thing. A potential problem with language and intellect is that symbols can take on a
life of their own and continue to be used where the experience symbolized has faded
or never been experienced. Words naming emotions can become meaningless or start
to be used to merely denote elements of justice or morality. A foundational
undertaking in the Reich and Lowen tradition is bringing actual emotion into a
session and into a life. The composure which is a by-product of the symbolization of
emotion is not itself bad, but it has nothing to do with self-possession, which is
based on 'holding' (as in possessing, different from holding back) emotion, not
distancing from it. At times, it is necessary to block devitalized and hollow verbal
expression to allow attention to fall on a bodily state and an experience. Importantly,
the bodily effects of emotion cannot be replaced by symbols.
I have come across a Finnish study that used subject reports to map where feeling
was increased and decreased during particular emotions. As far as I know, these
researchers had no Reich and Lowen affiliation, but their model is in surprising
agreement. Here is the graphic they produced. Notice that these researchers have
included the powerful feeling states of anxiety and shame as emotion.
People drew maps of body locations where they feel basic emotions (top row) and more complex ones
(bottom row). Hot colors show regions that people say are stimulated during the emotion. Cool colors
indicate deactivated areas. // Image courtesy of Lauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari, and
Jari Hietanen. From: Bodily maps of emotions Lauri Nummenmaa, Enrico Glerean, Riitta Hari and
Jari K. Hietanen Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America
(PNAS) Retrievable as http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/12/26/1321664111.full.pdf
Moods are states of the body that are different from emotions in that they are more
durable and less changeable. Moods shape thought rather than action. Moods
seem a product ( but not just a cognitive product) of the difference between perceived
challenges and perceived capacities and resources to meet these challenges. If there
is perceived to be a surplus, the mood is good; if a deficit, the mood is bad. That is
why folk wisdom knows that people tend to be generous when the mood is good and
stingy when the mood is bad. A common exclamation when the mood is bad is "now
what?" because an obstacle is perceived to tip the 'balance sheet' further into deficit.
Moods are forward looking. Because they reflect feeling about prospects they can,
unlike emotion, be said to be positive or negative along a spectrum. Moods act to bias
thought. Unlike emotions, moods can be quite distorted, both about capacities and
challenges. Resulting cognitions may at times be unrealistic.
Perhaps that is why undertaking deliberately to change moods, for ourselves and
others, is so common. Think of the phrase "cheering someone up." Moods are
human, but unlike emotions are not really necessary. The more one lives in the
present with good contact, the less role moods play. Emotions influence mood, and
of course moods influence emotion, but mostly in the aspect of intensity. A pleasant
mood is not a mood that directly brings pleasure but one in which enough openness
is present to allow one to experience pleasure.
Examples of mood (from most positive toward negative) are mania, elation,
encouraged, hopeful, neutral, dour, discouraged, desperate. Addiction is a dedication
to directly manipulating mood. Addiction over time decreases emotion and increases
the extremity and variability of mood--this is moodiness.
Anger the Valid and Healing Emotion
__________________________________________________________
Rage
In human affairs, rage causes problems because it can be activated not just in rare
life-or-death situations, but much more frequently in situations of social threat. The
repeated physiological and neurological cascade of rage over-develops these
pathways and disconnections with each episode. Eventually every self-protective
impulse is pulled into a rage response. Secondarily, but no less important to
'recovery,' the interpersonal havoc that ensues unfortunately in many ways increases
the tendency to rage through the psychology of shame and resentment, and
sometimes through the acquisition of power.
Rage is not just really intense anger Based on the biological mechanisms
mentioned above, rage or rage episodes have five universal, qualitative, and defining
characteristics:
Suddenness In a fight or flight reaction, the adrenal glands pour potent
chemicals into the blood that highjack the body and mind immediately. This is
unlike true anger, which works through the parasympathetic system and takes
minutes or even hours to develop. That is why people sometimes say “I'm
getting angry” but never say, “I'm getting enraged”
Irretrievability It is the nature of the fight or flight system that once the
chemicals are released the biological state will persist for an hour or more,
even if soothing maneuvers are begun immediately, and much longer if
antagonizing activity is pursued (which is usually the case) Once rage 'blows'
no words or thoughts or consequences will change it. True if the consequences
are severe (like arrest) sometimes actions can be crudely controlled, but the
internal state remains unchanged. Even if the 'cause' of the upset goes away,
the rage will persist. If an unrelated activity has to be done (like going to work)
the rage will carry over to the new situation.
Loss of Self With rage, all prior history in a relationship is lost. All principles
and beliefs the rager has developed in life are inaccessible. Any previous
agreements, sincerely made or not, are repudiated.. Human bonding,
attachment, histories of good-will or shared pleasure are denied. The rager is
temporarily without personality, a defensive entity at war with the world.
Rage's most common role these days is as an adjunct to denial. Denial is not
accepting that something that has happened has actually happened, or
not accepting that a situation is actually occurring. Denial is natural with
large losses. Sometimes it takes time to take something in. But if a reality threatens
an illusion, time alone may not overcome denial. It is common to accept something
conversationally but not accept it emotionally or not accept the implications. If this
goes on too long, the person is living unrealistically. Ongoing denial is never
stable, the actions and statements of other people will threaten it, and
when this happens, fight-or-flight dynamics and rage usually erupt. After
the rage subsides, denial reforms, perhaps even strengthened by shame
about the outburst. Other people affected by the rage learn not to challenge the
denial. This is a self-perpetuating process.
Non-acceptance can also lead to attempts to 'undo' Undoing can only be symbolic of
course, even if actual actions with actual effects occur. Revenge (mostly fantasized
but sometimes carried out) is one form of undoing. The results never satisfy because
the original offense still must be accepted. (Retaliation is a punishing action that may
be driven by the psychology of revenge or driven by pragmatics.)
Resentment and revenge are psychological defenses in that they are ways
to hide an unmet need or desire that is painful to acknowledge. To get past
resentment, it is necessary to discover and admit what one really wants or wanted.
Some true anger may emerge, but likely great sadness and shame. This is self-focus
as opposed to the other-focus of resentment. While the energy behind resentment is
the distorted self-protective impulse that would otherwise emerge as anger, the
content of resentment can sometimes be logically rather distant from the unmet
need--this is the way with psychological defenses. However, exploring resentments
honestly with a self-focus will reliably lead to the root.
Resentment, denial, addiction, and rage all contribute to each other. Resentment is
so closely related to both addiction and rage, that one wonders whether resentment
ia physiological as well as a psychological state. In any case, resentments ensure that
self-protection is shunted to rage, because true anger requires acceptance that what
has happened has happened.
Survival In a literal sense, lethal threats are rare in our society, and even
then, rage may be less effective then a 'cool' escape plan. However, where early
experience has included abuse or insecurity, any social problem can take on
survival characteristics. Even something very ambiguous, like a 'weird look'
from someone, can seem threatening.
Power and Control Rage usually develops strongly as a pattern from the
reasons above, but since rage intimidates others, a secondary re-enforcement
can come about. This is most evident in domestic abuse. Rage is self-induced
by mulling over resentments, or erupts when the feeling of losing control
arises.
The destructive consequences of rage are well-known. If rage happens more than
once or twice a year, it will dominate the dynamics of any relationship.
Given the characteristics of rage described above, the following basic implications
seem to apply to efforts to address rage. (Finer, more far-reaching suggestions are
listed after that)
Once rage has erupted, absolutely nothing except soothing and decreasing
stimuli is of any use. This is the basis of the timeout procedure taught in
'anger management' classes. Any discussion of issues is counter-productive,
including discussing the effects of rage on others. Breaking off contact is
almost always best. Slight increments of better composure do not indicate the
rage is ending.
Rages are not willed and so will-power cannot conquer rage. However, self-
determination can lead to choices that restore balance and harmony in he
self-protection system and 'short-circuit' rage. This is the idea underpinning
the 'ultimate solutions section below.
Rage may explain actions, but never justifies them. To learn, we all must be
responsible for the products of our actions, even when there are involuntary
aspects.
Certain conditions, like brain injury, may mean rage is not changeable, but
secondary patterns and effects can be prevented by understanding.
Rage hurts others, but it is not a moral issue like cruelty. To confront it from
the moral high ground is just to increase the shame dynamic.
Rage dynamics trample context. No 'making sense' of the rage, or things said
in a rage, should be attempted because it is just crazy-making.
Ultimate Solutions
Increase True Anger as described in the sections below this box on rage. Of
course, where rage has been a tendency this will be doubly tricky
Decrease Shame. This is a topic in itself but some ideas are listed in these
sections under self-nourishment and respect. Shame is the engine of
denial.
______________________________________________
Beyond the distinction with rage, anger has a tricky role in social norms and
interpersonal relations, as the paragraphs below discuss. Unlike rage, anger is
grounded in acceptance. Not 'accepting' in the sense of permitting mistreatment,
that is submission not acceptance. But anger is not about undoing what has
happened and what is, although anger is sometimes about re-doing it.
Similarly, anger is confused with blame. Blame is placing the responsibility for
one's actions and feelings on another person. Anger does not transfer responsibility
to the target. Blame also functions as an attempt to punish.
Loss of control, punishing actions, and blame all have to do with the
intense other-focus of rage. Anger, on the other hand, brings a self-focus. Self-
focus means an awareness of our feelings, our desires, our needs, and our
foundation. Others do not get the worst of it when we are able to self-focus. On the
contrary, the other- focus of rage dehumanizes others into perceived monsters. Anger
humanizes others.
Anger is not shouting or screaming. Rather these effects on the voice are from
rage and fear, which tighten the throat.. True anger deepens the voice slightly, and
adds a resonance which draws attention to itself and leads others to take the
communication seriously.
Anger also is not hostility. Anger is warm (sometimes hot), has a specific
concern, and impels one toward the provocation. Hostility is cold, consists of a global
attitude against a person, and generally includes withdrawal. Hostility arises when
there has been betrayal or betrayal is feared. Hostility is often driven underneath by
past attraction or subconscious attraction
In the therapy community, there has arisen a slogan that anger is a 'secondary
emotion that covers fear" Anger is not secondary to fear, it is secondary to
threat, as is fear. Fear is often preferred by other people because it is less socially
disruptive and less likely to be destructively distorted as described above and below.
Still, in the therapeutic context it has be admitted that the threat that provokes
the self-protective impulse is often self-imposed. The anger cannot be
productive because the person is at war with themselves. In these instances, the
threats need examining and not confronting, and this perhaps can be 'more coolly'
done from 'the fear side.' But fear is not in any way morally superior to
anger, and should not be seen as a preferable state apart from the
context.
Anger occurs in a relationship. If some friction has occurred with a stranger, the
anger that arises puts the two people into some type of relationship, if they are
capable of it. If they are not, then often there is rage instead. It is relationship which
will put a cap on destructiveness. Anger is not rejection, it is the opposite of rejection
(not the only opposite of rejection, but one indispensable opposite of rejection.) An
angry confrontation almost always strengthens a relationship if the two parties can
avoid drama and rage. Anger can bring honesty and realness where there has been
acting and superficiality. 'Make-up' sex has long been known to usually great because
the preceding anger has cleared away much of the falseness and distance in the
relationship.
Anger is often displaced. That is, it is vented on someone else with flimsy
justification. It is possible to make a complete circle of displacement. For instance
a man may vent his anger at his co-worker on his wife, and his anger at his wife on
his co-worker. While this seems to cover all the bases, it avoids really feeling and
identifying with the emotion, and avoids getting closer.
An inability to express anger to the appropriate person contributes to an
inability to express love. Anger is the trickiest interpersonal tool available, no
doubt about it. Every child quickly learns that some people cannot accept their anger.
Perhaps it will beall the people in their lives. Since anger is involuntary, the child
comes to see him- or herself as unacceptable. One seeming way out of this dilemma
is to become ‘nice.’
Niceness is no substitute for love, and in fact, it usually gets in the way of
love. Niceness is based on withholding true feeling, and while that makes sense with
strangers, and in casual or business relationships, it is disastrous if used extensively
in close relationships. Niceness covers up anger a lot more poorly than people think.
The anger comes out in distorted form, such as withholding, negativity, passive
aggression, resentment, righteousness, and playing a victim role. An additional
reason that anger is denied is that admitting anger means having to do something
constructive about it.
There is a saying about detoxifying the effects of unprocessed anger: "Claim it, tame
it, aim it."
Aiming means channeling the energy of anger through the social engagement
system to address the cause for the anger. It is movement toward a
constructive goal. 'Stewing' with anger is not aiming! Perhaps aiming will
include protest, but complaining in a way that makes it clear that the
complainer is not prepared to participate in a solution is called whining, and
this also is not aiming.
Fear
A distinction needs to made between a threat and fear. A threat is any force, entity or
process that can impair the integrity of an organism or end its existence. Fear is
an autonomic and bodily contraction that can be one response of higher animals to
a threat. Fear has an affective component (like most bodily changes) and can
properly be called an emotion. Anger is also an affective response to a threat
characterized by a bodily expansion, and it too is an emotion. Any actual response to
a threat will be driven by anger, fear, or instinct. In humans, love is also a possible
basis for a response, but it is naive to believe that this is suitable for all threats or
even a large fraction of threats.
In humans, with attachment and emotional needs as well as survival needs, threats
can be infinitely complex. So complex, that it is understood that what seems at one
moment to be a threat may in another moment is seen clearly not to be a threat. This
cannot be overgeneralized though, there are some threats, even social ones, that are
basic and cannot be reappraised away. Examples are abuse, bullying, humiliation,
and betrayal. Still the point has to be taken that sometimes, the bodily response of
either fear or anger is not needed.
Fear is realistic if the threat is strong. Fear has four stages in order of severity: alert,
shrinking, freezing, and dissociating Fear might or might not engage the fight or
flight system. Fear needs also to distinguished from defense, although in the animal
world freezing is known as a defense. As stated above, most modern threats are social
ones The best approach to such threats may be the ventral-vagal social
engagement system which is compatible with both anger or fear (if neither is
severe.)
If one endures fearful threats past a point, the contraction becomes fixed. Young
children are very vulnerable, and may be subject to threats that adults do not
appreciate. The contracted state of muscles is stickier than the expanded state. Once
contraction takes hold, in the absence of bodywork, it may be more or less
permanent. However, the feeling of fear leaves the mind, but an interpersonal style
develops that is vigilant and suspicious. The threats are being anticipated
unnecessarily to 'make sense' of the body's condition.
For this reason, it is sometimes said that fear is living in the future (and therefore,
again, a mental mistake). But the fear has a present basis in the state of the
body. As long the body is contracted this way, cognitive work to debunk
the sufferer's conception of what is the threat will have meager results
and widen the split between the mind and the body. We naturally have an
interest in combating fear through safety, either by a protected environment or by
knowing what will happen. But safety cannot be achieved completely, especially for
social threats.
A useful analogy is the comparison of a house cat and a sheep. The cat stays relaxed
in the midst of activities and other creatures. Only when another creature comes very
close and acts threatening does the cat react, usually by showing claws or taking a
'fighting stance'. The cat can run but it is not its first move. The cat immediately
relaxes when the threat is far enough away. A sheep on the other hand, cannot
defend itself except by fleeing or going unnoticed. Therefore sheep are always restless
and on guard always for threats. Potential threats are fled before they are close
enough to really evaluate. The point is that it is not anticipation, but the ability to
fight that provides a sense of safety.
Now of course for humans' fighting may be unwise where there is the possibility of
real bodily harm. But in the social arena, everyone can learn to fight manipulation,
disrespect, shaming, humiliation, betrayal, being cheated etc. If one is prepared to
fight these, it is not necessary to be constantly on the lookout for them. Chronic fear
is closely related to suppression of feeling.
Holding Back, Suppression, and Repression
Perhaps the most important concept in the entire Reich and Lowen tradition is
suppression of feeling and impulse. This is not just a matter of hiding information
or sentiments, it is an actual impedance of the flow of charge in the body. An impulse
is an incipient action that arises in the muscles as a state of preparation for action,
and in the mind as an urge to do something. Impulses are a manifestation
of emotion. A very young child probably carries out all impulses to the extent he or
she is actually physically able to. As a person matures, they are expected not to carry
out every impulse, this is self-possession.
Holding back is using conscious choice judiciously to not fulfill an impulse. The mind
is still aware of the impulse, the urge is still there. If this is not too frequent, the
musculature that was primed subsides into relaxation and the impulse also leaves the
mind. It is known that if an impulse is strong or persistent, doing something else
physical will displace it, in the musculature and therefore also the mind. In fact,
some people are known as 'impulsive' because of sudden 'thoughtless' actions, but
these impulsive acts in an adult are usually undertaken to 'get away' from the real
impulse. A continuous environment that steadily provokes natural impulses but
punishes their expression is stressful. Many families meet this criteria, as do many
modern jobs. But holding back is usually a transient state because the person can
take other actions to handle whatever was provoking the impulse. These other
actions are driven by a modified impulse. Maturation is a process where the impulses
that are provoked by common stimuli change over time to be more responsible and
social. Holding back is not required, the mature impulse can be followed most of the
time.
Where impulses are at an early age a cause of fear, suppression occurs. Suppression
is a strong contraction in the musculature against an impulse. Not only is the action
not carried out, but the muscle cannot prime for the action due to continuous
contraction. Suppression can be transient, but usually it is frequent and so becomes
continuous and global. The contracted muscles can be used for instrumental action,
but this is a matter of will not impulse. The look and feel of spontaneity is lost. This
is muscular armor. The natural urge to do things is lost in the mind also, and
becomes replaced with other motives. Desire is more than impulses but when
impulses are lost, desire fades. The contraction in the muscles also decreases
sensation, especially proprioception. The strongest evidence for this is the
observation that when muscular spasticities are loosed, impulses and sensory
vividness increases. Also, it can be observed that true spontaneity (not erratic
unpredictability) coexists only with graceful easy movement.
Concentration is also a means of gating that has an origin more in the mind than
brainstem. Deep concentration means the exclusive of all other awareness.
Gating is involved in backward masking. It has been shown certain stimuli of the
right quality suppress at least the memory and possibly the effect of an earlier
stimulus. Think of the act of gasping and holding the breath after something
frightening. It seems likely that muscular stimuli are able to backward suppress
autonomic system or gut feelings, possibly more so because of greater myelination in
the voluntary nervous system.
Meditation, besides its relaxation and other effects, seems to 'open gates' and work
against suppression. That is responsible for much of its benefit but also that is why
some individuals are overwhelmed and have 'psychotic-like' reactions to meditation.
It may be advisable for people to build up the energetic capacity of the organism
before attempting meditation as a means of ungating
Muscular armor certainly works together with gating and perhaps it somehow works
through gating. Gating may lead to a back-up of nervous 'pressure' that can
overwhelm or leak, which produces anxiety. An interesting theory is that for some,
epileptic seizures discharge this backlog all at once and 'reset the gates'. Electroshock
therapy, interestingly, is an induced epileptic seizure. Slow or incomplete nerve
myelination in development or demyelinating diseases may have some role in
suppression.
Leaking is a slang term for the negative behavioral and interpersonal effects that are
wrought by suppressed feelings and impulses making their way to the surface in
distorted form. Leaking through projection is very common. Suppression is not
elimination. Jungian shadow is a concept devised to explain characterological
suppression and leaking through reactivity.
With suppression, real maturation never occurs. Ego defenses remain primitive
because the full spectrum of adult feelings never reach the ego. People learn pro-
social behavior but it has to be intellectually driven because impulses have dropped
out of the picture and are not developing. Mentally driven behavior often has
resentment lurking behind it. No action gets the intended result all the time. When
actions have been driven by natural impulses, there is still peace of mind because the
person knows he did what he wanted to do. When actions are driven by intellect or
precepts, what the person does is indeed what the person chose to do but it cannot be
what they wanted to do. Any imperfect result leads to blame and other-focus. It
might be objected that impulses are dangerous, after all do we all not have impulses
to kill somebody? This is frequently just hyperbole, but lets stipulate that this
sometimes happens. This is a problem only because the arrested impulse of an infant
exists in an adult. Remember, no impulse has to be carried out. The role of impulses
is not to guide self-determination but to bring realness to action.
Vibration exists in all living things. If there is no vibration, the organism is dead.
Vibration varies of course in amplitude, rate and traveling characteristics. There is an
inverse relationship between character armor and vibration. Vibration varies with
changes in the organism, including emotional. In general, the greater the vibration,
the greater the vitality. For humans this is captured in the phrase "giving off a vibe."
Generally, the more a person vibrates, the happier others are to have him or her
around. Being in proximity with someone who is more vibratory is pleasant, but it
can give rise to anxiety if it stimulates more vibration in the nearby person than that
person is used to handling--this is a form of pleasure anxiety.
Vibration ceases at death. In a very real way, the less a person vibrates, the closer
they are to death. The more a person vibrates, the more liveliness. Domesticated
animals are very aware of this and are attracted to vibrating people. Dogs tend to
bark when with very sick or dead animals because the lack of vibration is disturbing
to them. However, in humans, both abstract intellectual activity and ability to
accumulate power and wealth proceed largely independently to vibration. Even sheer
life longevity is not strictly proportional to vibration. Therefore, mainstream culture
is uninterested.
Individual oscillations cannot be seen by others, but the overall effect is discernable
by people with good sensitivity. This is reflected in the expressions "looking vibrant"
and "vibrancy." A great deal of social friction is dependent on low vibratory states. At
greater vibratory levels, people generally feel better and deal with social conflicts
more productively, independently of any psychology involved.
Tics and fidgeting are not vibratory phenomenon but rather volitionally-tinged
attempts to relieve muscle tension in a the absence of much vibration. Neither tense
shortened muscles or flaccid over-lengthened muscles are conducive to vibration.
Hallucinogens are known for increasing the perception of vibration, but this effects
decays with habituation and also is accompanied by an emotional dissociation that
blunts the impact. This unfortunately, has lessened the credibility of vibrations
slightly, because someone talking about vibrations is often thought to be on drugs or
hallucinating. Aldous Huxley is famous for associating hallucinogens with
increased perception. This is possibly because, as discussed below, vibration and
perception are related. Of course a much preferable and durable way of increasing
vibration and therefore perception is bodywork!
Attunement
Pulsation
Functionally vibration and pulsation are similar. Generally the word vibration
suggests movement back and forth around a fixed point, while pulsation suggests
a wave movement outward from a point. In part this is an artifact of the observer
because many waves, such as the pulse of blood generated by the heart, return to the
source. Propagation is how a wave moves through a medium, (in this sense, the
body). When people doing bodywork say they feel 'energy moving' possibly they are
sensing the propagation of waves in the body. Breathing is the start of a pulsation
that 'plays out differently' according to the capacities and situation of the body.
Wilhelm Reich's much misunderstood, much maligned 'orgasm reflex' is simply a
rhythmic wave initiated by the breath, that occurs when the person is relaxed from
even chronic tension and therefore emotionally open.
Motility Contrasted to Mobility
Humans are the only animals that have a fully upright posture. This is a very social
and vulnerable position. It also presents unique requirements for the pelvis. The
pelvis is critical for balance, alignment, and dynamic movement. Posture is the idea
that there is a preferable 'form' in which to stand. Posture is a static concept that
does not easily translate to movement.
When there is not good alignment and flexibility in the feet ankles legs and pelvis,
(and this tends to be the rule not the exception) there is always present a fear of
falling. Fear of falling has far reaching emotional effects of course, but these stem
from the physical effects. With fear of falling, all movement is distorted to avoid
leveraging gravity. Gravity is fought all the time, which is exhausting.
The type of dancing that is prevalent in the second half of the twentieth century and
now is more akin to shaking or rocking. This may have a neuro-muscular impetus
and benefit, but it also perhaps disguises an increasingly distorted verticality and fear
of falling. There is no leading and following and so the pleasure is not shared
although there may be pleasure simultaneously with others.
Ida Rolf believed that humans would actually take energy from gravity if the body
was oriented to gravity in a correct way. She believed that beliefs about a 'subtle
energy body' arose from the experience of effortless and plentiful energy that
occurred for some people when excellent-enough alignment happened. Like all
phenomena of excellence, this is rare, and scientifically unprovable
Energy Level
Two separate points are to be made about the energy level of a person and the energy
level of an activity. A personal high energy level is very different from a
high activity level. In fact, frenetic activity almost always speaks to a low energy
level and exhaustion. Frenetic activity is high mobility with low motility. It is
as if the mobility is being forced to try to fix the low motility. Pleasureable activity
always has high motility, but the mobility may vary from laying down to dancing.
A high energy level in a human allows muscles to be relaxed and therefore ready to
apply exactly the right amount of force at the right time. There is a feeling of
readiness. As for the energy characteristic of an activity, as Fritz Perls has pointed
out, all thought (even brilliant thought) and language is low-energy activity, and all
physical action is high energy activity. That is why 'thinking ahead' about a big
physical or practical activity conserves energy by moving the trial and error phase to
mental activity.
However biology, including emotion, seems to flourish when there is sufficient high
energy activity in a life. It is beneficial to understand the distinction between high
social value, urgency, and high energy in activity, because depression is a disorder of
energy, unrelated to the merit of what the person has been doing.
Depression
In a good state of energetic functioning, energy from the core of the person travels to
the surface, and this constitutes an impulse. The impulse gives rise to desires,
feelings, thoughts, and potentially actions. With low energy, actions tend to be
executed with the will, and desire, feeling, and even thoughts are impoverished. In
this will-driven state activity may be frenetic, but lacks satisfaction and
gracefulness. What is universally recognized as depression occurs when the the will
collapses and the underlying lack of energy becomes manifest. The affected person
moves less, moves slowly, cannot feel much, and cannot get interested in anything,
either on a body or ego basis. There is a belief that nothing matters perhaps
amounting to despair.
Depression is not 'a very sad state' although inability to grieve a loss can lead to
depression. Depression is the end point to living by will alone, which depletes energy
without renewing it.
Low level depression is a way of life for very many people. Psychology has a word for
it, dysthymia. At this level, life may have some satisfactions, and sufferers are able to
meet their economic and role responsibilities as they understand them. Still, the
machinery and fundamentals of depression are just underneath the surface. Deeper
depressions do break through from time to time, and at best life seems a chase of
contentment that is always out of reach. One can think of major depression as being
decompensated and dysthymia as being compensated.
Although depression in some sense can be thought of as 'bad luck', it is not random.
It is the consequence of joyless living, and often precipitated by a disillusionment.
The illusion that shatters is frequently that one can earn love by achievement or self-
sacrifice. The capacity for joyful living will naturally develop in a child, unless social
and familial pressures and injuries prevent it.
After great physical activity, say an all day mountain hike, the body may be
exhausted, but also very satisfied because energy and excitement was there in the
beginning of the hike and was discharged. This provides the satisfied feeling and sets
the stage for rapid reaccumulation of energy. Depression however, is exhaustion
without satisfaction. Energy cannot be easily accumulated because it is difficult to
discharge it. The energy level of an organism will be determined by the demand, but
the demand is not set by will power, but by breathing and body motility.
Elation can lift a depression, but as disillusionment comes depression returns. The
path to feeling better actually consists of overcoming a reliance on the false lift of
elation, building a solid base of energy and satisfaction, and possessing well-
grounded healing anger.
Anxiety
Anxiety is best addressed by honoring the triggering impulse. This often involves
bringing it to consciousness but not always. It also involves constructive actions,
preferably directed at the person or obstacle that triggered the impulse. However,
any truly constructive life-affirming action can suffice. Now in any case, anxiety
tends to produce the sense that something needs to be done (which further
distinguishes it from fear which tends toward paralysis and inhibition) Four types of
actions tend to be undertaken to satisfy this sense:
Constructive Actions These are in themselves novel actions but in line with
actual conflicts, or at least in line with true pleasure and growth. Examples
are leaving a bad relationship (and not jumping into another relationship) or
talking frankly to one's boss about duties, promotions etc...
While all actions reduce anxiety in the moment, only constructive actions prevent its
recurrence. Anxiety leads to anxious, ruminating thoughts, but the content of these
thoughts tend toward more superficial conflicts and the are usually not the root cause
of the anxiety.Unlike action, thought does not resolve anxiety to any degree
and may increase it. In the body anxiety is most strongly felt in the chest, followed
by the rest of the torso and the temples. Anxiety may not be obvious at lower
intensities. There are three ways in which anxiety makes itself known:
Anxiety Trail This is where living is filled with multiple actions and
transactions that are meant to quell or distract from anxiety. Examples are
restlessness, novelty-seeking, workaholism, zealotry, addiction or compulsive
behavior, rage, judging, moralizing, blaming, codependency, control,
relationship drama, etc.. At this level the anxiety is often not appreciated by
the holder. It may be appreciated by astute others. Generally, though, the
behavior is attributed to moral failing or moral virtue.
In the Reich and Lowen tradition, anxiety is seen as a sign of life, albeit a painful one.
The generally advised approach to anxiety is then increasing the body's (and ego's)
tolerance for energy, life and feeling. Where baseline anxiety is high, lifestyle tends to
be busy or frenetic but without any pleasure or satisfaction.. At that point, trying
just to be uncovers considerable anxiety. That is why 'doing nothing' when
disquieted can be so beneficial, it allows conflicts and motives to become clear, but
the price is tolerating some distress. For most people, strong anxiety is uncovered
when character defenses start to fail, either because the external stress or shock is
great enough, or the character has been softened with bodywork and character
analysis. Strong character-dystonic impulses emerge which cause panic and
disorientation. A goal of therapy is to avoid large jumps in anxiety, but no progress
can be made without some anxiety. So bodywork in the Reich and Lowen tradition
can both cause and release anxiety at times, but it leads eventually to authentic living
in which anxiety plays only a minor role. Drug therapy, in contrast to bodywork, is
dysregulating and up-regulating. and inevitably leads to greater anxiety. Stimulants
reduce anxiety in the short-run perhaps by spurring activity, but of course stimulants
increase anxiety in the medium and short run. Sedating drugs and opiates including
endorphins quell anxiety briefly but again in the medium and long run increase it
through up-regulation.
Aggression
Aggression is not the egotistical intent to get more than others, get ahead of others,
or get some ill-gotten gain. The word for that is greed. Aggression is the
biological and interpersonal process by which impulses and desire are
transformed into action.
Aggression is not just persistence. Mere repetition may succeed in attaining a goal,
but aggression seeks to understand and really engage with the resistance. Likewise,
sheer frenetic, vigilant activity may succeed in achieving a goal, but it usually consists
in providing or offering what is already accepted or wanted, and so also not quite a
use of aggression. Neither is aggression use of the will. Will power is used to act
contrary to feeling, aggression always follows feeling.
For this discussion, it is assumed that impulses are good and natural, and aggression
is the energetic process that brings this goodness and naturalness into the world.
Now, mature persons do not act immediately on all their impulses, but this is not
because they feel their impulses are alien or bad. This is the result of self-
possession. The basic impulse is held for a better time or circumstance, according
to the reality principle. Aggression implies the capacity to hold feeling in awareness
long enough to shape it into a creative response.
Many people feel stuck, because they believe one way, and act another. In this
situation, beliefs are untested. Aggression presses to align beliefs and actions,
which is harmonizing to the person, certainly, and almost always, to relationships
as well. Of course beliefs may change in the process, but also actions will happen
where before there was passivity.
Part of aggression can be taking a position in a conflict. This is different from taking
a side in a conflict. A position is a belief in what should happen that one is able to
back up with actions. It makes both unilateral actions and collaboration possible. (Of
course, people really skilled in conflict resolution think of interests more than
concrete positions, but in the sense meant here, interests are ranges of positions).
Part of aggression is also telling people, when appropriate, what to do (and of course
people told still have the right not to do it if it seems wrong to them) Many "captains
of industry' and entrepreneurs have no real skills other than sufficient aggression to
tell people what to do. For this they are usually well rewarded. Many people know
what to do but cannot tell others to do it, and some people know what to do
themselves but still need to be told to do it. Occasionally someone doesn't know what
to do, and they may only need to be told what to do but they may also need to be told
to do it. Parents are often reluctant to tell children what to do, and often confuse
them with extensive moralizing about what is right in an effort to manipulate the
children into doing what they want. There is a way to tell someone what to do
without dis-respecting or dehumanizing them but this requires
To the extent a person is less able to really 'possess' an impulse, there is a tendency to
handle it in three ways: 1) enact counter-impulses, that is to say a reaction
formation, 2) be generally inhibited and over-controlled, or 3) act out substitute
impulses either in a repetitive fashion (compulsive behavior) or in a chaotic fashion
(impulsive behavior). The more the underlying impulses are distorted in these ways
of course, the more they leak out someway into interpersonal affairs, and the more
justified it seems to stifle them. This is a 'vicious circle.'
What matters is not the strength of the idea to get something, but rather
the energy level and energy structure to support movement toward the
goal, and the ego skills to negotiate interpersonal complications along
the way. Just as there are driving skills that never get developed if one never takes
the car onto the highway, ego development is limited if aggression is limited.
Also where aggression is low, the person is at risk for bitterness. This is because
those who are aggressive and thriving are perceived as cheating or acting as bullies
by pushing others aside. A world view of unfairness develops
The rigid or achiever character is best able to apply aggression but tends to
organize all activity around aggression, including personal relationships. In
general, women tend to be more aggressive (try to bring about desirable conditions)
in the family or close relationships, men tend to be aggressive (try to make
something happen) in the world.
To better understand the role of aggression, it may be helpful to contrast two other
human traits: receptivity and passivity. Receptivity is the complement to aggression.
To receive is to participate in another's impulse. If the impulse is directed at oneself
then receptivity is taking it in. If the aggression is directed elsewhere, than
receptivity is following actively and with conviction. Passivity on the other hand is
not participating. Passivity results in neither aggression nor receptivity. Passivity
may result in following but without conviction.
The path of least resistance describes a trend that can develop where aggression is
low. Excessive doing of unopposed things can be a compensation for difficulty doing
what one really wants, that is busy-ness or frenetic activity can be a sign of low
aggression. Driftingis moving from endeavor to endeavor based on interest and
agreeableness, but moving away after reaching the point where some aggression is
necessary (which it always will be in anything worth doing). Drifting looks like
exploration for a while, but after a time the avoidance is more clearly seen. Drifting
avoids developing the assurance, strength, and functional roots that working through
provides. Some situations are toxic, in that aggression has no chance of helping and
is in fact punished. Toxic situations are rare though, and have to be distinguished
from situations that are merely difficult, competitive, impersonal, slightly biased, or
that require new abilities.
Grieving
Grieving is an active process that frees a person up for living again after a loss. A loss
in this sense is not just any reversal of fortune but loss of an attachment object--
meaning relationships or people, sometimes animals, and possibly places. Grieving is
experiencing both sadness and anger, and discharging both with strong expression
including sobbing and wailing, and striking ones chest. Mourning is a synonym of
grieving that conveys more the expressive aspect.
As a practical matter, when anyone that has been shut down starts to increase his or
her vitality, a great many ungrieved losses rise to the surface. In fact, since the past
cannot be changed, all the problematic elements in ones past can thought of as
losses, and grieving is the core of dealing with present effects of one's past. While this
may involve adjustments in belief, this is not an intellectual process but an energetic
one.
A person's experience of the world is actual, whether or not it seems valid to others.
This subjective experience is sometimes called aphenomenology. It is mostly
determined by the body's reaction to the environment, with some influence from
conscious knowledge and cognition. The body's reaction is sometimes strongly
affected, sometimes dominated, by its history. A history of trauma, abuse, or
insecurity is especially lingering in the body (I call this disappointment) , and can
cause bias in experience that defeats healing. I believe there are three stages to
experiencing harm and I describe them below.
Phenomenology of Threat If past threats were not adequately resolved, the threat
detection system (amygdala, locus cereleus) will remain on high alert. Structurally
the body is in a state of contraction. the autonomic nervous system is in a state of
alarm and 'fight or flight' Perception is geared to pick up evidence of threat. All
actions then have characteristic defensiveness. However, it may be ascertained that it
is normal social friction that is causing the experience of threat. The real threat has
been in the past. It is sometimes said that this is locking the barn door after the horse
has been stolen. Past and present is not adequately separated emotionally. Others are
provoked sooner or later to respond harshly and this seems to confirm the ongoing
dangerousness of the world. Grieving cannot take place because there is no safety.
Phenomenology of Resentment The next stage is the ability to place injuries 'in
the past' but not really accepted as having happened in a final sense. This is a type of
denial. Considerable energy is spent in denying the realness or legitimacy of what has
happens, so that reminders of what happened, are experienced as the injury
happening again (that is where the term resentment comes from, “to feel again”)
There is tremendous bitterness and behavioral volatility. Grieving cannot happen
because it requires acceptance.
Erogenous is not the same as erotic. The universal erogenous zones are: the tongue,
the lips, earlobes, palms, nipples, anal mucosa, vaginal mucosa, and penis. Many
would classify the eyes as erogenous but they are not testable for galvanic skin
response. In some the forehead is erogenous. Potentially, a woman's 'throat' (upper-
middle anterior of torso with front of neck) is erogenous--that is why even with very
conservative dress, a woman's throat is often exposed by the neckline, and necklaces
are worn. This aspect of galvanic variability is very different from sensitivity in the
usual sense, although there can be overlap as with the lips.
In traditional Chinese thought, field based thinking has been the norm. Qi (chi) is a
universal energy that figures in many fields. Two fundamental understandings about
qi and certain conceived fields are that 1) they interact with living things differently
than non-living things, and 2) they interact differently with different people
according to the person's state of body functioning or preparation. How else can
many differentials in health and disease be explained? But these two understandings
have been anathema to mainstream western science, which is based on belief that
human functioning and natural laws do not cross paths.
To be fair, the possibility that action and effect can be had at a distance by unseen
fields allows immense room for fraud. Some of this is witting, but magical thinking is
rarely totally extinguished in any adult, and what is magic if not action at a distance?
Discernment between the real and false is possible of course, and in Chinese
medicine is not considered a major issue. The usual giveaway to falsity is the
assertion of casual or ad hoc manipulation of fields to accord with human will of the
moment. Natural phenomena may interact with human bodies but they do
not interact with human will--that is mysticism. But in the west, because this
discernment requires subjectivity, the entire area is made taboo.
So in the West, only a few great thinkers have persisted with fields, however:
Paraclesus, Mesmer, Jung, Reich. Alexander Lowen endorsed certain field
phenomena but did not make them central to his work, because his work, like this
website, was organized around practical means to decrease human suffering.
One common field concept is the human aura. Walter Kilmer demonstrated that
anyone could train themselves to see auras by using purple goggles. This practice was
revived by John Pierrakos, an associate of Alexander Lowen. From this it seems that
auras are essentially in between visible and UV light. Distinguishing different colors
within an aura has often been done diagnostically and may have validity but color in
this context is interesting because it is not explained how UV frequencies have
'doubled' the color spectrum of visible light. In any case, the 'healthiest' colors are
white or gold, which is the color of halos depicted around heads in early Christian
art. In this early art, it was clear that the halo emanated from the head and there was
no gap. In modern, graphic-design depictions of 'angels', halo are mere rings that
hover above the head, like a sign of goodness that has been 'put there' rather than a
biological function.
Turgor and Colloid
Turgor refers to the state of liquid and colloid just under the skin. Colloid is a liquid
thickened with proteins. The role of colloid in the appearance of skin has been well
known. Many expensive cosmetics promise to restore the colloid in the skin by
external application--but if this happens at all it happens very minutely. Skin that is
naturally supported by colloid from within looks healthy. The appearance stems not
just from the skin, but from the substrate the skin sits upon. The skin will look full,
and while it will not look moist it will not look dry. Skin that is not underlain with
with colloid will look less supported and dry. It is from this that the folk-term 'dried
out' gets applied to someone in whom life force is low.
The most important point of Reich is that skin with better turgor is more
sensitive, more responsive, and more capable of pleasure.
There is a condition called edema, which results from poor circulation or local injury.
In edema, a watery substrate accumulates under the skin at higher pressure, usually
causing swelling and hardening. This is different from colloidal turgor at more
normal and supple pressures. When someone is said to look radiant, good turgor
seems to be a factor.
Boundaries
On the one hand, the surface can refer to an opportunity to conceal the
core. This can happen by placing a 'mask' or a false covering on the real surface.
'Masks' can fool others at times but they cannot interact with others sincerely. An
observer who is more alive can discern the true state of things. A common reason for
a deceptive mask is feeling shame about the real surface, but a surface that is fully
connected to the core does not engender shame.
The task in regaining feeling and purpose is often one of first dispensing
with masks, then secondly bringing life and emotion to the surface. It is
not enough for the core to be strong or noble, the surface must reflect the core. But to
'make use' of the surface, it is necessary to have boundaries.
Interacting with the boundaries of others involves feeling. Wherever feeling is low
or denied, there is a potential problem with boundary transgression. the Creator
character and Communicator character have low feeling but also
low aggression, so that boundaries are crossed inadvertently, while pursuing a goal
or while upset. The Inspirer character has ample aggression so more direct and
frequent transgression are expected. A Consolidator character has ample feeling
but very conflicted aggression and so may take others boundaries too rigidly and so
not achieve intimacy. The rigid group of characters, (except for the passive-
feminine who functions more like the consolidator in this respect) have both feeling
and aggression, and so push but not cross boundaries. A boundary transgression may
not elicit discomfort in a 'target person,' and conversely, mere discomfort at an
advance may not represent a boundary transgression.
Rhythm adds the ideas of change over time, patterns, and cycles to the concepts of
pulsation and vibration. Some cycles are very short, and some very long in human
terms. Humans have many rhythms, and the natural world humans live in has many
rhythms, not the least of which is night and day, the lunar cycle, and the seasons. The
modern sensibility is very inpatient and disdainful of rhythmic activity,
preferring the instant. Honoring rhythms introduces the concepts of waiting and
readiness. Mere delay is not waiting but rather avoidance unless one is prepared to
sense readiness.
Folk wisdom talks about a 'seven-year itch' cycle in romantic and sexual behavior.
This cycle is very under-appreciated.
Human will of course is influenced by rhythms but not compelled. Human ingenuity
has profitably limited the impact of natural cycles--think of artificial lighting and
central heating. Another example is importing fruit and vegetables from the other
hemisphere in winter! The result however, seems to have been the forgetting of
rhythms altogether. To the ego and will, one hour is as good as another. Many
businesses run 24 hours a day, as does television. Then there is the subject of a
general cultural speedup, in which the body is driven to work faster than inherent
rhythms. Of course this is exhausting and stressful, but what is now greatly lacking,
is the general pleasure of activities that are performed well and at a natural rhythm.
Relaxation
One area of agreement between the Reich and Lowen tradition and mainstream
healthcare is the role of relaxation to reduce suffering. Relaxation, though, seems to
have several common meanings:
Chronic prescribed or unprescribed opiate use can have a similar effect. Alcohol and
nicotine are also used in this way of course.
Wilhelm Reich used the example (not just a metaphor) of the amoeba. An amoeba
in solution will send out pseudopodia. If poked however it will contract suddenly.
After this, it will send out pseudopodia but at less distance, it seems almost cautious.
Amoebas are one-celled with no brain or nervous system, so this reaction must
be cellular.
Muscle Function and Release
This view of relaxation is of course at odds with the mainstream cultural belief that
holds that relaxation will be the result of either accomplishing enough
(attainment), or holding the right thoughts ('figuring it out'). If one starts working
with the body, however, personal experience is usually convincing about what really
provides relaxation.
Muscles that are weak and chronically lengthened must be allowed to shorten and
gently exercised in a way that does not keep over lengthening them. This is truly
tricky. A traditional physical therapy way is to apply a brace that limits the range of
motion for that muscle, but bracing is overseen by the medical field and truly out of
fashion there. What may in fact be best for overstretched muscles is alignment as
discussed below.
Hatha yoga is a process obviously geared with tuning muscles to optimal length,
strength and tension. However, the practice is geared to a body that is not too far
from the optimal already. The overwhelming number of modern American bodies,
even aerobically fit ones, are not prepared for it and struggle, receiving an endorphin
response but not re-alignment. An investment in true Pilates studio work is well
worth it, because this is a truly remedial focus. .
Release: Muscles that are chronically short must lengthen again to relax and be
ready for satisfying movement. In bodywork this is sometimes called 'release', and
there seems to be ten general strategies for releasing shortened muscles:
3. employing vibration
6. warming
7. direct massage
8. improving alignment
10. visualization
Direct Stretch This has the advantage of being intuitive to our culture of doers—
that is, it seems like doing something. In stretching, will power can be applied to the
body, but then this also undermines the basic goal, since will power tends to contract
muscles overall. Also some muscles require very complex maneuvers to be stretched
at all, like the psoas. Other muscles, like those supporting the spine, are difficult to
stretch against gravity without the assistance of another person, such as a
chiropractor. Gravity can be employed to stretch what it usually compresses,
however, with the use of an inversion table. An inversion table has the advantage of
being somewhat immune to the over-use of the will, because one just 'hangs around,'
and there is no way to try to perfect the maneuver. The diaphragm is a muscle that is
almost impossible to stretch directly. Direct stretching also runs up against the
stretch reflex, which causes muscles that are stretched to want to shorten. Stretch is
not synonymous with lengthening. Stretch implies creating a tension in the muscle
fibers that does not necessarily arise in all lengthening methods. The stretch reflex
can be partially overcome by stretching slowly, and holding the stretch. If connective
tissue is shortened, some direct stretching will probably be necessary since all the
other methods target muscle fibers.
Exercise Moderate exercise will discharge tension from a muscle, and the muscle, in
restoring itself, will replenish itself with energy and lengthen. If there was a modest
contraction from stress in the first place, the end result will usually be less
contraction than when the exercise was started. That is why office workers usually
feel more relaxed after working out or taking a walk. The first stages of 'Progressive
relaxation' , in which muscles are isometrically contracted and then 'let go', is based
on this.
Heavy exercise may be a different matter. When the body is stressed cardio-
vascularly, muscles that do not need to tighten usually do anyway. Joseph
Pilates felt strongly that strong exertion was bad for body conditioning. Many
amateur joggers develop a great deal of muscle shortening, and often some postural
distortion, as everyday observation will show. Heavy “cardio” will produce
exhilaration, but this is from endorphins. Endorphins act like opiates, that is,
they dissociate the mind from how the body feels. The endorphin response seems
safe enough as opiate responses go—it is self-limiting. Still opiates seem to increase
contraction in the long run. Of course, vigorous exercise can have positive effects on
heart health and weight etc..., and can be paired with appropriate measures to keep
muscles lengthened.
Vibration A tense muscle will start to vibrate coarsely as it lets go. There is some
belief that vibrating the body coarsely with voluntary movements or externally
applied vibration can induce muscle lengthening and relaxation. In the Reich and
Lowen tradition, vibration is also an end in itself, a basic life process. The basic
Lowenian bioenergetic positions are stress positions that stretch large muscles and
allow for vibration to occur. Therapists that work with trauma, such as Peter Levine,
have recognized “shaking” as a basic recovery mechanism in all 'higher' animals. The
Trauma Release Exercises ® of David Bercelli is a sequence of seven exercises
intended to induce vibration in the psoas.
Reciprocal Inhibition This refers to the fact that in some muscle group pairings,
contracting one muscle causes the opposing muscle to relax somewhat. The
relaxation can be enhanced if the contracting muscle is contracted isometrically, so
that the relaxing muscle is not stretched at first. This general approach is known as
reverse isometrics. Some yoga sequences may also make use of this.
Warming Applying low heat directly to muscles will relax them. This method has
the advantage that it does not require skill, with common sense it cannot be done
wrong. It is possible to affect core muscles also, although the body will resist much
change in core temperature. Hot-tubs, saunas, and sunbathing are all tradition
methods of relaxation with heat. 'Hot” or Bikram yoga seeks a synergy with heat and
stretch.
Massage Tight contracted muscle relax with massage. It is unclear whether this
effect can be cumulative, or whether it wears off, even with frequent application. (The
same concern is relevant for all methods listed here except perhaps, awareness and
emotional expression) Reich and Lowen frequently massaged key holding muscles to
release tension, and give them a taste of partial relaxation. Massage is particularly
useful for the muscles of the mid- and upper-face, which cannot be
stretched. Trigger point massage can be very effective, since chronic muscle
tension is not homogenous, but bunches close to the motor endplate.
Alignment Undue contraction in one muscle or group throws the body out of
balance and other muscles must become contracted just to provide a semblance of
balance. If a person can be 'put' into a good enough alignment, a multi-location
release might be possible. This seems to be a premise of Rolfing, Hatha yoga, and
Feldenkreis.
Emotional Expression Both Reich and Lowen sought true emotional expression
as a goal of therapy. Lowen however, developed the principle that emotional
expression was also a way to release muscle tension, and in fact is a necessary
adjunct to sustain gains. However, a distinction must be made between catharsis and
true integrated expression. A cathartic outburst is seen by the ego as an aberration
and not really true for the person. Only when the expression both involves the body
(eyes, face, hands, voice, etc) and is seen by the ego as true for the person, can self-
expression provide a release psychologically and muscularly.
The vegetative systems are those body systems that support the living process, that
neither require nor greatly benefit from conscious attention. Though this could be
considered a gift, our culture has deep distrust for any function not under immediate
willful control of the ego. Also, changes take place in the vegetative systems,
especially with the parasympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system, over
several minutes or even hours, and certainly not instantly For these two reasons our
culture at large ignores the vegetative systems, preferring the so called voluntary
nervous system to achieve all ends as quickly as possible.
The term vegetative system was formerly used to designate solely the autonomic
nervous system. In this discussion, it can be useful to think of other vegetative
systems, the neuro-endocrine system, the vestibular system, involuntary
functions of the skeletal muscle system, and the the immune system.
It is sometimes said, too simplistically, that the vegetative systems exert involuntary
control only. Actually, they can be deliberately influenced, by breathing, imagery,
feeling, letting go, certain types of movements or positions, the presence of other
people, sex, warming and cooling, massage, meditation, shocking news, what is done
with the mouth, stimulating reflexes (including gag reflex), etc ...
All the above practices, strangely, are considered 'alternative' in our culture. Aerobic
exercise, along with general health benefits, does have some vegetative effects, and it
is endorsed by our culture, perhaps because it is associated with power, endurance,
and superiority, which are ego, not body qualities. The pleasureable endorphin effect,
though probably not harmful, is actually a dissociative effect, where the mind is in
less touch with what is happening in the body. All movement therapies discussed in
this website avoid aerobic or cardiovascular stress because 1) it generally works to
increase contraction and muscle shortening, and 2) for traumatized people at least, it
decreases ventral shift and increases sympathetic shift, and 3) using up oxygen
rapidly creates a minor survival stress in the body-one is simply trying to finish--
which makes it hard to change old muscular habits
Vegetative functions can be influenced by drugs of course, but not to their long term
betterment, so that will not be discussed here.
Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) both regulates and monitors the body, mostly
outside consciousness. As Antonio Damasio describes extensively in his books,
these two functions form the substrate of emotional functioning. Eighty percent of
autonomic nervous fibers are afferent, that is they bring information to
the brain. The 'headquarters' of the ANS is the hypothalamus, which communicates
extensively with the limbic or emotional areas of the brain. Unlike the voluntary
motor system, the autonomic nervous system has synapses outside the brain and
spinal cord. This ensures that a broader range of inputs is influential in its
functioning.
The autonomic nervous system traditionally has been described with a "bipolar
model'. In this model, which matches the table below, the parasympathetic part
'controls' rest and restoration, and the sympathetic part controls action. Ideally they
oppose and balance each other for health. Neither is good or bad. This model may
explain the maintenance of vital functions for daily functioning and survival, but it
does not explain the emotional or motivational aspects of the ANS.
A much more nuanced model, at least for human affairs, is the polyvagal model,
developed by Stephen Porges, which describes threelayers of autonomic
functioning, arranged hierarchically rather than in opposition.
The top layer is the ventrovagal, which can also be described as the Social
Engagement System. It is constituted from fast myelinated vagal fibers that
interconnect the ear, the eye muscles, the mouth, the throat and voicebox and the
heart. This is the most 'social' and most adaptive system for dealing with the
presence of another person or a novel situation. The vagal fibers that go to the facial
muscles are called, the special efferent system, and are often overlooked in thinking
about the autonomic system. The facial muscles then constitute an interesting system
that overall has both voluntary and involuntary control. Some parts of the face such
as the cheeks and lips are useable freely by voluntary control, while the orbicularis
oculi around the eyes is essentially vagally run. That is why it has been noted that a
smile around the mouth may be faked, but a smile around the eyes is inevitably true.
The Social Engagement System both requires a felt sensation of safety to be active,
and helps provide such a sensation of safety. Poor eye contact and a flat facial
expression are common signs that the Social Engagement System is not active.
The baseline sympathetic tone for instance is what insures that blood pressure will be
adequate. If the demands for energy output increase, it is possible for the ventral-
vagal system to lessen, and the baseline sympathetic tone has more effect, but
without involving the adrenals. This means that the effect can be reversed instantly,
which is very important in social situations. This use of the interplay of vento-
vagal tone and baseline sympathetic tone has been termed 'the vagal
brake'.
The most known aspect of the sympathetic system is the ability to provide a sudden
massive burst of stimulation, both directly and with the aid of the adrenal system.
This provides not only the ability to 'do something' but psychologically, provides a
strong sense of urgency to do something. This has been termed 'fight or flight'
Though this is 'meant' to be a rare, emergency system, in many people it is chronic.
When functioning in this state, a person perceives neutral faces and neutral voices as
hostile, and responds defensively very quickly. In a shark attack or fire etc.., this state
is very useful. In a social situation it is maladaptive, and makes social relations
chaotic and unrewarding.
When a person is trapped, or cannot act effectively, the third or 'bottom' layer of the
autonomic system is activated, the dorsal vagal, which is constituted from slower
unmyelinated fibers to the heart, bronchi, and visceral organs below the diaphragm.
The dorsal vagal is like a sudden emergency brake. The person freezes, or 'plays'
dead. Speech is limited, eye-contact impossible, motion absent. When
thephysiology is in freeze, the psychology is mostly in dissociation.
Orienting Response
When there is a change in the environment, human and higher animals have a very
basic response, the orienting reflex. The individual stops what it is doing and“turns
its head (with eyes ears and nose to the source of stimulation. There is also pupillary
dilation, a drop in skin resistance and a momentary drop in heart rate. What is very
important, is that this is a take off point for further autonomic response, which can
be dorsal vagal, sympathetic, or ventral vagal. That is it can be freeze, flight, fight, or
making friends. In complex social environments, what constitutes 'sufficient' novelty
to benefit from orienting reflex is not a fixed issue. Concentration inhibits the
orienting reflex severely. In ADHD, the reflex seems insufficiently inhibited. We live
in a society where novelty is deliberately manipulated constantly. Disordered or
excessive orienting seems to be another aspect of autonomic dysfunction.
Defense Ladders
Other Implications
Functioning takes on its flavor from which of the three autonomic states is
predominant at the time. However there are two 'states' that seem to be
characterized by an increase in both ventral vagal and sympathetic level. These states
are play and sexual activity.
There is also a two-layered neuroplexus in the intestinal wall. It has as many neurons
as the spinal cord and produces the same neurotransmitters and hormones as the
brain. Clearly, this, along with the solar plexus, seems to be the 'belly-brain' that
many healing and wellness traditions have intuitively described. This is the source of
'gut feeling.'
The table below reflects the cruder, faster-slower, two part oppositional model still in
use for most medical explanations. As described above, it is not that useful for
explaining emotions or relationships, but is included for it's memory value.
Oppositional Model of Sympathetic and Parasympathetic
Peripheral Blood Vessels Constriction, Pallor, Cool Skin Dilation, Flushed Warm Skin
The endocrine system is the collection of glands that secrete hormones into the
blood. The endocrine system works closely with the autonomic system, and when it
does, these are termed neuro-endocrine events.
Once secreted a hormone is active for a time even if the situation changes. Hormones
are almost always part of a cascade of physiological regulators. Therefore endocrine
dysregulation tends to result in 'roller coasters' or positive feedback loops.
In our culture endocrine disorders are epidemic. The disorders for each gland tend to
come in pairs: the overstimulated state and the exhausted state. It has been noted
that endocrine gland locations tend to correspond both to Reich's segments (and to
Hindu Chakras)
Endocrine Gland Segment Chakra
Crown
Pineal Ocular
(Sahasrara)
Throat
Thyroid This is a general regulator of metabolism Cervical
(Vishuddha)
Though it is litle understood how exactly it occurs, the immune system seem to
communicates with the brain via the afferent fibers of the vagus in the viscera.
What is relevant in the Reich and Lowen tradition about the immune system is not
how it acts toward foreign bodies and micro-organisms, but how it acts towards one's
own body. Stress plays havoc with the 'economy' of cortisol, which is an important
regulator of immune response. In interpersonal matters, immune responses,
including allergies and auto-immune disorders might be thought of as last-ditch
efforts to address a problem (threat to integrity) that the voluntary and autonomic
systems have failed to solve. No one really seems to understand the immune system
or the mechanism of autoimmune disorders. Allopathic medicine treats auto-
immune disorders with more cortisol-like drugs, or increasingly with potent
immunal suppressants, which may provide symptomatic relief, but are not re-
regulating, but further dysregulating.
Taking in the Environment
Perhaps the largest function that is not under conscious control is that which
constitutes the taking in of the environment. To the extent that this does not happen,
the person and the existence is said to be 'autistic'. As far as the experience of the
individual goes, taking in has three spheres:
Being Affected By: This is any change in the body that is caused by the
environment. People who are said to be 'sensitive' are probably affected by a lower
threshold of environmental input. Think of a cat that acts strangely before an
earthquake. At this level, awareness or understanding may or may not result.
Spirituality seems to have some root in a low threshold of being
affected. Armor seems to possibly distort 'being affected by" but not really block it.
Conscious Perception: This is the awareness by the ego of a bodily change caused
by the environment. It is the realm of sensation, emotion, and affect.-- see the work
of Antonio Damasio. Conscious perception may include most of 'being affected by"
or only a small part. Armor seems to function mainly by reducing conscious
perception.
Reality Testing: Conscious perception may or may not permit harmony with the
environment. This is because the ego and the adaptive self are at liberty to distort
conscious perception. Reality testing is not so much discerning a static set of facts as
it is the ego flexibility and openness to accept the the effects of nature and the
actually occurring human nature of others.
Denial
The opposite of taking in is denial. Taking in is the default biological mode; denial is
an active defense against that.
Shutdown: This is an effort to not 'be affected by' the environment. Of course this is
technically a response to stimuli, but it does work partially. That is because, in being
an invariant and non-interactive response, it denies the uniqueness or particular
qualities of the stimulus. Shutdown is mostly mediated by the dorsal vagal
system, but some people learn to purposefully 'zone out' when they feel
overwhelmed.
Not Knowing: There are two distinct 'prongs' to not
knowing. Repression: Emotions normally arise from inside the body into
consciousness. Simultaneously they rise to the surface for others to see. Not
uncommonly, however, the conscious perception is blocked by character armor.
Armor may also dampen the appearance on the surface of a person, but not as totally.
This is how the body usually 'tells the truth' about a person. Refusal: Sometimes,
external events that are related to the person in clear informational form may not be
taken into consciousness. This is the 'classic' psychological defense. Something that
mentally should be easily understood and retained simply isn't. Conscious perception
is blocked so unnaturally that it is clear that 'being affected by' has happened, and
that the effect is overwhelming. It usually happens about unwelcome news. "Never
knowing' is rare; more common is forgetting quickly, or a mixture of not knowing
and not accepting, as described below.
Not Owning: This is when the personal implications of an event are denied, usually
because the called upon response is contrary to the person's self-image. Instead,
others are blamed for not taking care of the situation.
The Vestibular System
In the most narrow sense, the vestibular system is a part of the middle ear that
contains the uticle, the saccule, semicircular canals and the vestibular nuclei. It is
commonly known and undisputed that this system is involved in balance. What has
been demonstrated, but is less well known, is that the vestibular system is intimately
invoved with learning, change, and human relations. It also cannot escape notice,
that the vestibule is located together with hearing, in the ear, which is a sound and
vibrational energy collection system. There is a strong functional interrelationship
between hearing, balance, learning, movement, and social openness. The solar plexus
and proprioception receptors throughout the body are also related to vestibular
function.
The Reich and Lowen tradition speaks often of falling anxiety. Falling anxiety is
not a mental mistake but rather the experience of of a hampered
vestibular system, perhaps together with insecure footing. Vestibular
mediated signals cause the motor system to increase or decrease its signal to specific
muscles, especially in the core and neck. Chronically contracted and shortened core
and neck muscles are endemic in our society and a major part of armoring. This
chronic signal to contract is what might happen to brace oneself for the impact of a
fall. People with this type of contraction perhaps always feel they are actually falling
or about to fall. Needless to say the sensation is one of insecurity. This is hard to
address with 'gung-ho' style physical 'fitness' training because forced movement
stimulates more bracing which makes movement even less balanced, which causes
more input to brace, etc... Often a person with poor balance gives up exercise in
frustration.
At the outset, I wish to make a distinction between distress and stress. Distress is a
conclusion by the ego that something has gone wrong and that prospects are not
good. Stress is the 'wear and tear' and chronic changes in the body that
result from efforts of the body to maintain some type of homeostasis in
the face of a constant imbalancing force.
Even if initially distress has been quelled, ongoing stress will at times make its way
back into distress. If the body is suffering enough, the ego will become
alarmed. However, we live in a culture that encourages the ego to
disregard internal signals if they conflict with the goals of the ego. Stress
does show up in cognitive and emotional functioning, but fundamentally it is a
biological state of the body. Of course distress usually adds to stress, because distress
usually triggers more sympathetic tone. Mainstream culture, as well as mainstream
psychology, endorses the mental maneuver of a reappraisal of stress as 'good.' While
this may work partially as described later, if over-relied upon this furthers the
dissociation between mind and body.
Hans Seyle famously demonstrated three stages of stress. The first stage is 'fight of
flight', this produces strong sympathetic nervous system activation and puts
adrenaline and nor-adrenaline into the blood. This produces the readiness to act
strongly (if not gracefully) and it renders, at least for a time, what the person had
wanted to do irrelevant and forgotten. It also renders irrelevant for a time those
building blocks of satisfaction and health—rest, eating, relaxation, affection, play and
wonder, etc... If the source is not removable, stress develops into the second or
chronic phase which is dominated by the secretion of cortisol. Cortisol is necessary
for life but has many harmful effects when present constantly in large
amounts. Cortisol is among other things, a numbing agent.
The third stage is depletion or exhaustion (especially of endocrine glands like the
adrenals and the thyroid). Seyle seemed to have conceptualized in terms of complete
exhaustion, but this seems to be less common than relative exhaustion (or 'fatigue')
in which adrenal response is possible but requires more stimulus. This results in a
'roller-coaster-y' experience, as the individual learns how to 'jump' his or her
adrenals in ways that make functioning possible but maintain the overall depleted
state. It is unclear if most chronic disease appears during the chronic or exhaustion
stage, but it is clear that almost all chronic disease involves inflammation.
In fact, stress is a biological state of alarm. Alarm is what a person must undergo to
be prepared to meet a threat (or challenge) when they are not otherwise ready. This
could be because the external situation is a very strong danger, or unwanted, but
even chosen challenges activate stress. The common element in all stress
seems to be struggle. A struggle could be chosen, or it could be imposed, and
while the difference is important in whether the experience is perceived as 'dis-
stressful', the long-term effects on the body and the body's capacity to relax are
similar.
Struggle is a situation of the body. However in our modern day, the body is placed
into most of its struggles by the attaining mind. One could struggle with an actual
assailant or calamity, but what most people struggle with is the way things
are. Whenever a person decides things should not be the way they are, but cannot
easily change it, a struggle ensues, at least internally. A feeling of helplessness or
being trapped, does not decrease stress, it increases it. It does not matter how
accurately one perceives reality, stress is a struggle with what one perceives is the
case.
While all physical activity increases sympathetic tone, ideally the adrenal system is
not activated often, and when it is, the body and autonomic nervous system
rebalances when the exertion ends. This is one role of work breaks. However,
increasingly in our culture we do not allow that to happen. As a result, the very set
point for rebalancing shifts toward the sympathetic and vigilant. This is known as
allostasis. Allostasis is like running the engine of a car continuously so that one can
take off slightly quicker. It leads to greater wear and tear, and an actual decrease in
performance.
Though Wilhelm Reich considered the challenges a society poses to its members,
the major factor in illness, he did not work with a concept quite like the modern
concept of stress. Alexander Lowen only came to describe stress in the 80's, in his
book Love, Sex and the Heart, and in other writings. It could be that he was just
adopting then current terminology. However, it could be, and this is also my opinion,
that he was responding to the emergence of stress as a much greater contributor to
illness and emotional dis-ease because of changes in society.
While some stress is unavoidable, much stress is due to the character attitude. I do
not say mental attitude. A body that is in a more or less fixed state of
readiness for struggle will struggle more or less constantly. Character
attitudes include both cognitions and states of the body.
How does one achieve mastery when one is a 'long way' away? It is possible but
usually only by addressing fundamental capacities in a measured way that avoids
triggering much struggle. Pilates, Feldenkreis, and the Alexander method are along
this line. True remedial work is not too popular in our fast-paced culture.
It is also true that some situations are very stressful for some but not for others. This
is because of differences in goals. For instance, one person goes to a party to be in
proximity with other people. Since that is a given, he or she is not stressed. Another
goes to a party to impress others. Since that is never certain and constantly 'wearing
off' it is very stressful, even if successful. Constantly trying to 'exceed' is a guarantee
of stress. Actually changing goals, and not just pretending to, requires more than
sleight-of-mind, it requires a change of heart, and possibly some surrender. Even if
circumstances can not be changed, an attitude of surrender can maintain integrity
without impossible stress. Surrender is an acceptance of the limits of the
will--will only intensifies stress. Moreover, this change in character attitude often
leads a person to choose circumstances differently. A person may leave the 'rat race,'
or may define success less competitively.
In addition, the chance to recover vegetatively is important after any challenge. The
amount of time that is needed is often underestimated in our culture. In past eras,
rest cures of several months were prescribed in a low stimulatory environment in
those cases where 'nervous exhaustion' was recognized. The terminology seems old
fashioned but the biology we have in the present day is the same. Another useful
concept under the heading of recovery is reset. An extended challenge or struggle, as
described above often leads to allostasis. The set point will not be reset without a
good rest and the undertaking of some parasympathetically-aligned practices. Rest in
this context does not imply complete idleness but does require a situation in which
one 'doesn't have to do anything.' Allowing recovery time seems to be waste except
that effectiveness is so enhanced that the results are qualitatively better for sure and
commonly even quantitatively better.
While care must be taken not to mistake a decrease in distress for a decrease in
stress, there are some modulators that decrease both actual bodily stress and
distress, and there is value in examining them, not so an individual can engage in
more stressful situations unnecessarily, but so that the societal aspect of stress can be
made clearer: Modulators, which are not complete antidotes, include:
Predictability: This one is tricky, because its preventive effect is based either
on having some control, as described above, or on there being a 'just-prior'
warning. Waiting helplessly for something bad but certain to happen, made
possible by predictability, increases stress.
Sociality: Asking for help, getting affection, touch, and simply being able to
'talk about it', decrease stress. Also, if the stressor is 'group-dystonic' one may
be able to feel they are not struggling alone.
It is true that in some endeavors, not accepting something leads to positive action to
change the situation. For instance not accepting that a river is uncrossable can lead
to building a bridge. However, in other areas, non-acceptance leads to futility, such
as for instance not accepting certain traits in a spouse or not accepting human
imperfection.
The basic external struggle is to outdo each other. This puts in place a permanent
competition, in which internally one part of the person struggles against another part
to conform to some image of special or lovable. Fighting for a principle need not be a
struggle, it can be a creative act, in which the actions are harmonized with the
feelings of the body.
A person capable of experiencing pleasure is not likely to be at war with the way
things are. They will act, out of creative feeling, and in fact often end up changing
things, but it won't be a desperate act. On the other hand, when it is difficult to
experience pleasure, the world will always seem wrong. One may then try to change it
but this leads to no real pleasure and so perhaps, if any thing does gets done, it seems
there are many more things to get done before one get rest. Constant struggle results,
and this struggle, because of the physiology of stress, blocks pleasure more, and a
vicious cycle results.
Hans Seyle, and stress researchers after him, have been troubled by the implication
of these findings. If stress is bad, then civilization, which is largely built of struggle,
might be considered some ill-gotten gain, that is, it comes with an unacknowledged
price, and an individual doesn't have a full choice whether he or she pays that price.
Seyle developed the idea of good stress. Good stress is stress undertaken in a good
cause.
A great deal of struggle, (and therefore) stress is produced by trying to defend a self-
image. Threats to a self-image are inevitable but they can feel integrity- or even life
threatening if the ego is dependent on the image. These days people speak of stress
(that is, they complain of distress) mostly only when they believe they are not
'succeeding' in life. If they are 'succeeding', they do not complain, because the cost to
the body is outside awareness. That is, stress is present, but distress, at least
subjectively and for the time being, is not present. Lowen writes:*
What Seyle and others lacked as an alternative, but what Wilhelm Reich and
Alexander Lowen (and others) introduced, is the idea of effortlessness
and contact with others. Both reduce the internal struggle, while increasing social
effectiveness.
There are other cultures, for example, indigenous and 'latin' cultures which are
deemed lazy, however these cultures are probably just more in tune with the
desirability of avoiding chronic stress if one wants to live a life worth living. In these
cultures, people tend to act and cooperate not according to a rigid schedule but
rather when everyone involved 'feels ready' The feeling of readiness is the
opposite of stress. Readiness implies an acceptance of the present reality if not the
permanence of a situation.
Creative and productive activity does not require stress. Also, strictly repetitive
activity in a predictable situation, does not require stress (although it may have other
costs) Stress is not just being busy, although the emptiness of chronic stress often
leads us to over-fill our lives.
Our economy, though, depends on stress. That is, the majority of 'high-value-
added' jobs involve humans being vigilant, conscientious caretakers of complex
systems. Workers must always push and compete to keep 'margins' higher. The risk
of failure is ever-present. Even once one is quite knowledgeable in a job, it is still
necessary to on guard for small or novel threats to a plan or profitability. Education
has many of the same characteristics. It used to be the case that all schooling and
most business took the summer off. Now our culture considers that 'wasteful.' There
is no opportunity to recharge. Again, in the words of Lowen:*
We all know that the lifestyle of modern society creates enormous stress for its
members. The demands upon them are great, and often excessive .These demands
are, broadly speaking, to produce, to achieve, and to accomplish. The goals are
success power and fame. The attainment of these goals requires that the person
devote almost all his energy to this task. This is especially true since the culture is
very competitive. People who are committed to the goals of this culture have no place
in their lives for feelings. The drive for success requires the development of a rigid
personality structure based on the suppression of all feeling including sexuality. The
person becomes a doer, an achiever, a performer. In most families the training for
this lifestyle starts early in the life of the child.
So the concept 'good stress' makes little sense. Strong challenges that have a
reasonable expectation of reward can be handled by using only briefly and then
stopping using the adrenal system. A stronger sense of self-results. Chronic
treadmills of stress, however, even if they provide status or the means of comfort, will
'burn-out' the adrenals, even if someone believes they are 'getting somewhere in life'.
Mainstream healthcare providers act under stress all the time. It is in fact part of
their self-image that they struggle against 'what is' in order to change it. Also, they
loyally give to others despite how they are feeling, and postpone for very long periods
doing what they want to do. Therefore the suggestion that stress affects
health draws strong opposition, despite scientific evidence, because it is
counter-cultural, not only to the larger culture, but also and especially to
the helping profession culture.
Chronic stress also blunts the perception of acute threat, that is, the strong 'heart-
based' signals of acute danger are lost because chronic stress has both weakened the
acute system, and desensitized the person to this type of signal. This can explain why
smart people with traumatic histories, though they are suspicious and cautious
overall, often fail to feel the risk in a specific person or situation.
*Stress and Illness: A Bioenergetic View (1980)
Shift Toward the Social Engagement System
The ventral vagal system is involved with most aspects of social contact
and pleasure. It guides eye contact, hearing, eating, speech, singing, nursing,
kissing, smiling, and some would say, direct heart to heart contact. Because of its role
in making contact between different people favorable, the ventral-vagal system is a
way of achieving personal safety, but it requires a moderate amount of actual safety
to develop or stay employed. That is why prolonged danger or stress, or
stress or danger early in life, tends to atrophy or impair the development
of, the ventral vagal system.
The social engagement system is a two way interaction system (receptive and
expressive) based mainly in the eyes, ears, larynx, and mouth, but incorporating the
entire face and the torso above the diaphragm. All twelve cranial nerves participate
in the social and expressive functions. However, only four of these nerves have both
motor (efferent) and sensory (afferent) functions. They are the trigeminal, facial,
glossopharyngeal, and the vagus. Interestingly enough, it is also these four, along
with the oculomotor nerve, that carry most of the parasympathetic fibers involved in
the cranial nerve system! Cranial nerves are not merely divided by territory, but
actually overlap with complementary functions. Here is the system supporting
eating, smiling, suckling, kissing, baring the teeth, voice, breathing, and the heart!
The subtlety, interplay, and delicate overlap of the cranial nerve system not only is
wondrous to contemplate, but also very little understood. I am not saying it is
misunderstood, but rather that it has not been studied in proportion to other
structures of the body, despite being known about for more than a hundred years.
Eye contact, smiling, and tone of voice have always been understood to be pivotal in
good relationships. Without these sensory and motor connections, it seems that both
implicit and explicit understanding of what is happening socially will always remain
crude, even with very intelligent people. Without a functioning social engagement
situation, any modicum of hostility in a situation will seem exaggerated, and
ambiguous or neutral aspects will be perceived as negative--this is a sympathetic
shift at work. True empathy surely depends on the social engagement system.
Some of the motor components of the face and throat are under voluntary control
and some are not. That is why some behaviors, like a smile, can be only partly
simulated. The absence of the involuntary movement (for instance in a 'forced' smile)
has always been detectable by discerning people.
The social skills of men and women were tested both before entering medical school
and then again after residency training. Almost uniformly, subjects 'lost' social skills.
That is they were not only less inclined to be social, but that in an interpersonal
situation demanding skill they performed less sociably and effectively. The
investigators deplored the results but had no real explanation of why. A simple
answer suggests itself, informed by polyvagal theory. Because medical training is an
extremely 'doing' oriented undertaking 8-16 hours a day over years, it likely shifts
even rather ventral vagally oriented people into a sympathetic shift, which is
innately less sociable.
It is said that fashion models are picked for bone structure in the face, because unlike
other aspects of attractiveness, they cannot be faked with cosmetics or camera tricks.
Facial bones develop guided by the state of the social engagement system, with
prominent or forward cheeks seen as most attractive, friendly or approachable.
Autonomic Flexibility
The self-regulation goal for the autonomic system is not any specific point of arousal
along the parasympathetic-sympathetic continuum. Rather the goal is flexibility,
range, and versatility. Some situations require high parasympathetic tone
(digesting), some high sympathetic tone (chopping wood), and some both
simultaneously (play, sex). At best, the autonomic system interacts with the
environment for best adaptation to present circumstances. Perhaps the hallmark
of our culture is that autonomic states of a person tend not to reflect the
present situation but reflect, rather invariably, the persistent autonomic
set-point of that person. The autonomic state is not adjusted dynamically but
rather is durable like a personality trait. Subjectively then, all situations becomes the
same except superficially.
The ventral vagal nervous system can act like a very precise intensity controller for
arousal and doing. In this function, it affects more than the heart but its effect on the
heart is very illustrative. The ventral vagal keeps the heart rate well below its intrinsic
rate of the pacemaker. This means that a decrease in the ventral vagal slowing frees
up energy for activity in a prompt and precise way. This 'brake' once lifted can be
reapplied just as promptly and precisely. This makes for fluid shifting and balance
between goal related activity and social activity.
If it was not for the vagal brake, then an increase in activity or goal related behavior
would require an increase in the firing of the sympathetic-adrenal system. The
downside of this is that the sympathetic system, partly because it uses the release of
'adrenaline' tends to be an all or none system rather than a finely tuned system.
Adrenaline cannot be retrieved promptly once it is released. This makes it hard to
shift gears. There are many people who have a hard time shifting gears once they
have become alarmed, even if shortly afterwards, information comes that indicates it
was a false alarm. This is because chemicals have 'flooded' the body. This state has
long been intuitively referred to in psychology as flooded for that reason and it is
understood it is impossible to shift quickly.
Bedroom Eyes
The eyelids give an important clue as to autonomic balance. The eyelids are raised by
two muscles: the levator palpebrae superioris, and the superior tarsal muscle. The
levator is innervated by the third cranial nerve (parasympathetic) and has the main
job of keeping the eyes open. The superior tarsal muscle is innervated by the
sympathetic system and has the role of scrunching the eyelid up further, as in alarm
or surprise. This wide eyed look is rather the norm these days. Where there is good
autonomic balance, in a state of relaxation, the eyelid is lower but not closed. After
satisfying sex, in the relaxation that ensues, the eyelids are sometimes noted to be
lower, hence the term 'bedroom eyes.' Such eyes, whether sex has been recent or not
indicate the capacity for pleasure.
'Vagal Reactors'
Play
Play physiologically is only possible when both the ventral-vagal (social engagement)
system and the sympathetic (doing) system are simultaneously activated. This allows
play to be both adventurous and active, and also very social. If someone is say
accidentally hit with an elbow during play, they will not get (very) upset if the ventral
vagal tone is strong, but they will get very upset, involuntarily, if the ventral vagal
tone is weak, even if intellectually, they 'know better.'
Contributor Mechanism
Eye Contact* The 'truth' of a person's emotional and energy state is conveyed in the eyes.
Touch* Touch releases oxytocin, and perhaps transfers something person to person.
Human The voice of another will be comforting for many, but for others may be experienced as
Voice* a threat.
Crying is an outpouring through all ventral vagal outlets--eyes, lips, jaw, voicebox,
Crying
lungs, and belly.
The Sun Sunbathing has been practiced for centuries. All energy on earth comes from the sun.
Moderate
Can discharge tension without inducing a state of struggle.
Exercise
Functional
This is basically slow, easy abdominal breathing
Breathing
Most threats are perceived by vision. A person that is always vigilant for threats has
Closing Eyes trouble closing the eyes. Also if vestibular function is diminished, the eyes are
employed in compensating for poor balance.
Lengthening tense muscles are both a cause and a result of sympathetic activation. Lengthening
Muscles muscles seems to be a major method of Hatha yoga
This stimulates the vagus directly. This is part of the inducement of bulimia, throwing
Vomiting or
up produces relaxation, especially if there is no sickness or nausea causing it. This has
Gagging
been a traditional bioenergetic exercise.
Screaming produces vibrations which help relieve the tension. Screaming is a sign of
distress to others, but it prevents the distress from becoming locked in the body. It is
Screaming or
important not to 'growl' in low tones. Low tones come from tensing the vocal cords.
Wailing
Low tones are a sign of aggression to others and lead to hoarseness. Rather it is
preferable to scream in high tones--"like a fire engine" as Alexander Lowen would say.
Moving
Unknown. One unsubstantiated theory is that moving water reduces ions.
Water
Falling asleep is a letting go of goals, of doing, and of control. Taking naps at midday is
more than a way to get extra hours of sleep--it is a way to double one's opportunities to
Falling
fall asleep. Sometimes one is too exhausted to fall asleep. That is the muscles are
Asleep
depleted of energy and unable to lengthen and relax. Falling asleep is promoted when
the muscles have been used that day but have recovered enough to be relaxed.
Anger send energy and blood to the face. Anger (not rage) probably involves
Honest
simultaneous increase in both ventral vagal and sympathetic tone (which is true also of
Anger
play, and sexual arousal)
There is a reason that almost all trance induction has in common suggestions about
Hypnotic
warmth, sleepiness, and heaviness. These are the main feelings of parasympathetic
Trance
dominance
Rhythmic
Dance is the most common example.
Movement
Schedules and deadlines are a man made threat that make doing something into a
Avoiding
survival behavior. Doing things out of direct desire or a sense of readiness allows the
Deadlines
body to work at its own pace and rhythm.
This is classical conditioning. If the familiar place or activity has been associated with
Familiar
good feelings, deliberately doing the activity or going to that place brings good
Rituals
(relaxed) feelings by association.
*The starred items in this table can be tricky in that they depend on a certain capacity
for social engagement already, in order to have the effect of enhancing that capacity.
Where ventral vagal 'tone' is very low, these items tend to promote either sympathetic
or dorsal shift.
Sympathetic Shift
The sympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system, together with the
neuro-endocrine system (mostly thyroid and adrenals), are the 'doing system' The
body shifts toward the sympathetic, the more doing that has to be done. More
prominently, the sympathetic is also the 'fight or flight system' for emergencies.
Partly because it has an emergency function, and partly because of its chemical
aspect (catecholamine release) it is an all-or-none, global system. This is in
distinction to the parasympathetic system, which can be active on a local basis,
presumably because rest and relaxation is never an emergency.
Of course plainly traumatic situations are wide-spread and almost universal. But as
stated above, in modern life, many frequent, everyday 'binds' 'trap' a
person in a struggle with no way to conclude the situation promptly or
definitely. This is especially the situation for children, lower status people in social
situations, and many work situations. Moreover, constantly trying to achieve
or perform can and often is an endless source of struggle.
Sympathetic shift comes to involve mostly the physical effects that have dropped out
of awareness. A person with sympathetic shift looks 'over-controlled' and may or may
not act "hyper". The more mental conscious state of being engaged in fight or flight is
known as 'high- (or hyper-) arousal', and may or may not accompany
sympathetic shift. In our culture sympathetic shift is almost universal. Some aspects
are listed below.
Lacrimal glands are parasympathetic. this will interfere with vision, and of
Dry Eyes
course, crying.
the exact mechanism is uncertain, but possibly when young wide pupils make
Myopia vision blurry and then great effort to see leads to eyes growing too long front to
back.
Large Pupils Direct sympathetic stimulation. Poorer visual acuity but wider field of detection
Poor
Peripheral This is otherwise known as 'tunnel-vision'.
Vision
Breathing occurs high in the chest, with small tidal volume. Chronic
Rapid Shallow
hyperventilation leads to chronic hypoxic feeling at tissue level due to Bohr
Breathing
effect.
Calcium Ion
Chronic hyperventilation raises blood pH but the body must
Dysregulation
Tone Deafness The inner ear has two small but important muscles that 'tune' hearing
Poor balance comes from tight muscles and malalignment, and dysfunction of
Poor Balance
the vestibular system
Fear of Falling From tight feet and hips and weakened vestibular system
Fear of Closing Perhaps from 1) poor vestibular function that forces the eyes to take over the
Eyes function of balance, 2) vigilance for threats in the immediate environment
High Blood
Direct sympathetic effect on the vascular system
Pressure
Cardiovascular
Oxidative stress damages blood vessel walls (endothelium) Sympathetic shift
and
increases clotting tendency. Clots form readily on the damaged endothelium.
Cerebrovascula
High insulin levels are also a factor.
r Disease
Muscle The sympathetic system stimulates gamma motor units in the muscle spindles
Tightness that regulate muscle tension.
Joint stiffness From chronic muscle shortening which can also cause osteoarthritis
Poor Sleep Muscle tension produces racing thoughts and inability to 'let go'
Low Body
The stronger the muscle contraction, the less the sensory information
Awareness
Erectile
Tumescence is a parasympathetic function
Dysfunction
Cold Hands
Blood circulation does not reach the surface
and Feet
Auto-Immune This is an area that is little understood. One possibility is that adrenal depletion
Disease (below) results in decreased modulation of the immune system.
Thyroid The thyroid regulates the basic 'speed' of metabolism. Because of the complexity
Depletion of the system, standard measures of thyroid adequacy may be misleading.
Living by the will firsts exhausts the adrenal, which then makes the will
Adrenal paramount because only by the will can one 'get going.' This is also known as
Depletion 'adrenal fatigue' which for some reason is a very controversial idea to
mainstream healthcare, perhaps because it is so widespread it appears normative
Diabetes Overuse of cortisol and insulin in stressful and will-based living leads to burnout
Mellitus in the pancreas and up-regulation of insulin receptors.
Fidgeting has long been associated with being 'up-tight.' Possibly simply a result
Fidgeting
of muscle tension.
Picking and The picking function of the brain seems stimulated. This is greatly exaggerated
Scratching when people use chemical stimulants like methamphetamine or cocaine.
Psychological Signs of Sympathetic Shift
Manifestation Mechanism
Heightened sense The capacity of others to harm becomes relevant, rather than their desire to
of threat harm.
Inability to relax Relaxation requires the capacity to shift into parasympathetic tone.
Continuous urge
This is similar to a sense of urgency
to do
Seeks to avoid Continuous analysis of what might or could go wrong takes the fun and the
surprises present out of everything.
Endgaining When it feels like survival is at stake, 'how' something is done is unimportant
Loss of the 'whole' The loss of the sense of the whole, or 'gestalt'
This is the tendency to become upset quickly and from seemingly small
Irritability provocations. Perhaps it derives from a constant physiological state of upset
that is masked by a veneer of calm.
'Kindling' occurs where limbic centers especially the amygdala becomes hair
trigger. Self protective impulses are distorted, and connection becomes
Rage impossible. Rage is usually accompanied by tunnel vision, tight,spastic,
clumsy muscles, and dissociation from the body. Physical violence is possible
and may be an attempt to overcome the physical symptoms.
Humorlessness Perhaps because laughing involves the face (ventral vagal) and belly.
Difficulty
accepting
Others are seen as a threat to one's integrity, not an aid to it.
influence from
others
Things that Contribute to Sympathetic Shift
Contributor Mechanism
Even without conscious distress, or even when one believes they are succeeding,
Chronic Doing
doing stimulates the sympathetic.
This is an entire topic in itself, but to put it briefly, 'high in the shoulder'
Dysfunctional breathing, rapid breathing, shallow breathing, gaspy breathing, cutting off
Breathing exhalations, and holding the breath after inhalation all contribute to sympathetic
shift.
Stimulant
Caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamines, etc
Drugs
Blood is shunted away from skin to preserve heat, and muscles may contract in
Cold shivers. It is not an accident that 'cold' is also an adjective used to describe
people with little friendliness.
Chronic Opiate The sympathetic system up-regulates to deal with the sedating effects (This is by
Use no means the only dysregulating effect of chronic opiate use)
Chronic The sympathetic system up-regulates to deal with the sedating effects (This is by
Alcohol Use no means the only dysregulating effect of chronic alcohol use)
Habit of Judging is focused on the concepts of good or bad, and so keeps life in an
Judging adversarial framework.
The Dorsal Vagal Shift, or the Frozen Response
The dorsal brake is in contrast to the (ventral) vagal brake. In very different
species, such as reptiles, the dorsal vagal system is responsible for the 'dive reflex'
and immobilization as a defense (playing dead). In humans, such defenses are less
useful, but they exist still. When sympathetic tone drives the body in an
unsustainable way, physiology demands some respite and it often comes
in the form of shut-down. An example is sudden death in athletes, described
below.
Strenuous exercise will both increase the sympathetic tone and minimize the fine
tuned ventral vagal brake. However it will also produce endorphins which will
disguise the nature of autonomic situation. Sudden death while exercising seems to
be related to 1) exercise is taken over a fairly long period maximizing sympathetic
tone and decreasing vagal brake, 2) the exerciser ignores sensations of distress
either with the aid of endorphins or will based goals or pressure from a coach or from
competition 2) the dorsal emergency brake slams on causing cardiac arrest.
Manifestation Mechanism
This term is used when someone doesn't move. But the term implies also a drop
in temperature. This is probably more than the peripheral vasoconstriction of
Freezing
sympathetic shift, it possibly represents a decrease in the production of body
heat
The organs of speech, run by the ventral vagal system seem unable to co-ordinate
Speechlessness
when the dorsal vagal system is strongly dominant.
This is possibly just the psychological correlate of freezing. With no movement
Dissociation
thought and perception loses its anchor in the body and the here and now.
Involuntary
This is in extreme distress.
Defecation
Involuntary
This is in extreme distress.
Urination
High arousal is a mental trait, but it strongly drives the body. High arousal always
exists with sympathetic shift but sympathetic shift does not always exist with high
arousal. High arousal is different than 'flight or fight' in that it is a
conscious readiness for a threat, as opposed to an acute or chronic response to a
threat. High arousal probably has to do with a 'hot' amygdala in the limbic system.
The amygdala influences the thinking cortex much more than the other way around,
so it is not effective to try to lower arousal by cognitive means. Rather, the amygdala
is best cooled from 'below' by autonomic re-regulation.
A person with high arousal is experienced by others as intense. Often the high
arousal is ego dystonic, and is part of an ideology of life that emphasizes danger,
threat, and betrayal. High arousal seems to derive from prolonged exposure to active
danger--abuse, chaotic upbringing, sexual abuse, extensive medical interventions,
etc... People with high arousal have not been traditional psychotherapy clients
because high arousal usually defeats consistent routines, especially in the context of a
relationship. Moreover, serious talk almost always leads to flooding if high arousal
is present. Think of the metaphor of a radio. If different emotions are the different
types of music played on different stations, and arousal is the volume dial, then high
arousal is like turning the sound on a radio way up--any emotion will be distorted
and painful. Work on better reception and new stations is pointless until the volume
gets turned down.
That is why bodywork is excellent for high arousal. Because it works from the
'bottom up,' from the body to the brainstem then the limbic system, it can be
soothing in a way that attempts at soothing talk cannot be. However, at least four
obstacles present themselves. First, It is hard to do much body work with a
distrustful person. They may initially agree, but small instructions to do something
differently can be received defensively since it may seem someone else is trying to
control. Second, a method that does not provide quick results runs up against the
sense of urgency that high arousal imposes. Third, high arousal produces an intense
other focus and external focus. People with high arousal want to focus on the people
and situations that seem to be the difficulty. The self-focus that most bodywork is
organized around is resisted. Fourth, being told what to do with the body is
experienced as especially intrusive, even more so if the format is less permissive and
includes a lot of correction.
Modern civilized life places a lot of pressures and demands on people young and old.
Adapting to long periods of conformity and alertness as required in work and school
causes everyone to tighten up in some respect. Crowded cities and competitive
aspects of social relations also contribute. The 'set point' of the autonomic system is
moved toward the sympathetic (or fight and flight) and away from the
parasympathetic (pleasure and rest). Vacations are needed to both recover and reset.
The amount of time that is needed to recover is often underestimated. The set point
will not be reset without a good rest and the undertaking of some
parasympathetically-aligned practices. Rest in this context does not imply complete
idleness but does require a situation in which one 'doesn't have to do anything.'
During the rise of cities and industry in the last few centuries, this was recognized,
and vacations became a deliberate undertaking. Vacations have traditionally been
many weeks long. That is because people have known that it takes that long before
they have felt their bodies ''reset.' A nights sleep, even if judged good, simply does
not reset the body in the same way. An old fashioned Sunday or Sabbath, where
nothing much competitive could or should be done, did function as a 'mini' vacation.
However researchers have described a 'three-day effect'--it takes three days off for
the body to start to reset. Most people notice that after a three day weekend it seem
much harder to 'get back into routine.'
As people lost touch with their bodies, the purpose of vacations was lost. Vacations
started to become consumption of interesting experience. They became short,
hurried, expensive, and competitive--in other words, useless for their original
purpose. With cell phones, email, satellite television, etc.. it is less possible to 'get
away' from sympathetic and ego stimulation.
Money may not buy happiness but it can buy recovery time (if one is wise enough to
purchase it.) Economic disadvantage may be self-perpetuating in that social
gracefulness can't take hold if one is struggling 'to get ahead.'
Flooding
It is a dissociative state, and memories of this time will never be clear. The subjective
and behavioral manifestation of flooding are sometimes termed 'upset'. Flooding is a
threshhold phenomenon. Once the threshold is reached the state cannot be quickly
reversed.
Paradoxically, during flooding there is often an intense desire to fix problems but
simultaneously, a catastrophic impairment of problem solving abilities. Logic is
impaired. All agreement or understandings previously in place will not be
operable. When flooding is recognized, all discussion, negotiation,
analysis, etc... should cease because it just prolongs the state. Instead,
soothing activity should begin at once. Rage is a flooded state. People, when not
flooded tend not to recognize or own their actions performed a flooded state, and
arguing about this tends to become a secondary red-herring that obscures basic
conflicts that lead to the upset in the first place
Conditioning
The popular 'trope' of conditioning involves salivation and food. For instance food in
the mouth produces salivation and the flow of gastric juices. This is not conditioning
but a hardwired physiological reflex. Because it is not conditioned, the food is
considered an unconditioned stimulus and the flow of secretions is considered
the unconditioned reflex. If a sensory stimulus like a 'bell sound' is presented
consistently before the food is given, salivation and gastric secretion starts to initiate
at the sound. Thus the sound becomes the conditioned stimulus. The salivation and
secretion is the same reflex but because it has become linked to a special condition, it
is now termed the conditioned reflex.
The head start provided for the vegetative systems by conditioning is valuable
because these systems are not instant. Where the association is to pleasure,
expansion begins, where the association is to pain, contraction starts. Motor activity
can be conditioned, but only movements that reach out to receive pleasure or brace
for pain.
Wise people have always used conditioning to enhance pleasure and ease.
Conditioning can be used to set a mood or emotional tone. Conditioning is a major
element in ritual.
Operant Conditioning
There is no question that the three elements above affect motivation, in humans and
other animals. There is a natural reach toward pleasure and withdrawal from pain,
However, the above three elements do not synergistically or even in an additive way
work with other motivators like pride, creativity, love, etc ...Reward and punishment
are not the same as pleasure and pain because humans one may be sated, or two, will
accept pain or reject pleasure to maintain a sense of integrity. Although there is an
idea of natural consequences acting as 're-inforcers' there is no clear distinction
between these and contrived elements. The Reich and Lowen tradition makes
operant conditioning irrelevant.
Approach-Avoidance Conflict
This is more than a mixture of likeable and unlikeable which can be averaged into a
medium or lukewarm attraction for the stimulus. It is the coexistence of two strong
drives that actually increases the strength of each. Decision making is very
problematical and choices take on survival importance. Partial steps, compromise,
and the option of later changing one's mind seem unavailable. A common example is
an adult child returning to his or her childhood home for a holiday dinner, where
there has been a history of humiliation at dinner but of course pleasure has
transpired at past diners as well. Such an adult child is often driven crazy at such an
occaision even when nothing unexpected happens.
The parent child relationship often has approach-avoidance elements. The family
therapy concepts of enmeshment and cutoff are examples of attempts to manage it.
Most intimate partner violence is driven by an approach avoidance conflict in
the primary aggressor that is highly sexualized.
Trauma Response
Trauma is a concept that encompasses at least four elements: 1) external events that
threaten the life or integrity of a person in the setting of relative helplessness, 2) the
body's response to those events both acute and chronic, 3) the effect on mind and
spirit of these bodily effects, and 4) self-perpetuating (positive feedback) effects of
trauma within the regulatory systems that has been likened to a 'foreign body" or
contaminant.
'Mental Efficiency': This is a concept adapted from Pierre Janet and his work with
the trauma response. Despite how the name sounds in English translation, it is not
really a cognitive concept but rather an energetic one, and not merely an attribute
but a process. A basic part of human functioning and adaptation is the
capacity first to turn needs, desires, thoughts, demands, feelings,
instinct, and reflexes first into a conceived adaptive next step, and
second to take that step. Without this capacity, which Janet termed mental
efficiency, the aforementioned elements lose or fail to gain 'realness'. As mental
efficiency decreases, reality weakens as an experience, which further impairs mental
efficiency. Mental efficiency requires energy, but the energy available becomes
likelier to be insufficient if the process of determining an action is too chaotic and
indirect. This is an area where the 'rich get richer and the poor get poorer.' A late sign
of trauma is 'poor' mental efficiency which often gets labeled laziness, passive
aggression, or even attention-deficit disorder. What is necessary for improvement is
increasing energy, (as in all change in the Reich and Lowen tradition) but it useful or
necessary also to find some structure or practices externally that provide some steps
to decrease chaos. This is the idea and history in part behind 'milieu therapy.'
The Reich and Lowen tradition has always included the trauma response in its
concept of body armor and organismic response to negating forces. However the
distinct trauma pattern as seen in fibromyalgia and other 'baffling' disorders has not
been central to its teaching. It is possible that the overstimulated and overly
competitive trends of the last several decades have increased the trauma response
prevalence markedly. Approximately two-thirds of bearers of the trauma response
are women. This could be because less muscle mass on average lessens the ability of
character armor to absorb the trauma, and the autonomic and limbic regulation is
more affected.
Of course, trauma is where Freud started (hysteria) but he eviscerated the theory in
the face of its social implications. But the study of the trauma response is the one
area of psychology that has been able to both assert mind/body unity and become
semi-mainstream. That is because its adherents have, unlike Reich and Lowen,
avoided social criticism and any theory of human relations. It is assumed that if the
trauma response is overcome, the person will be fine. Still, trauma theorists have
explained with great benefit to a wide audience the futility of intellectual approaches
toward emotional suffering. Also, they have elucidated the mechanisms by which
'biopathies' are manifested in the detailed manner that is demanded by the present
day sensibility.
Syndrome of Disrupted Homeostasis
Allopathy accepts this late organ damage in its disease model, but strangely rejects
the previous pendulating period, even though it is becoming the main mode of
sufferring in our age. Severe intense interventions aimed at symptoms may actually
increase dysregulation. Chronic opiate use only masks the process and contributes to
increased myofascial pain in the long-run. Women experience SODH about 2:1 over
men. This could because lesser muscle mass on average decreases the capacity for
muscular armor to absorb trauma, and therefore increases the liklihood of
autonomic dysregulation.
Reperfusion Cycle
Manifestation Mechanism
This is where acid flows back from the stomach into the esophagus which
unlike the stomach, is not lined in a way that resists acid, so damage and
Gastroesphageal pain results. It may be thought that the sphincter has become incapitated.
Reflux But the spincter is supposed to open when food goes from esophagus to
stomach and close when the stomach contracts. The problem is one of mis-
coordination, an autonomic problem.
Kindling is the tendency for cells or groups of cells in the nervous system to 'fire'
either at a much lower stimulus threshold than is 'healthy', or even to fire
spontaneously. It is an attempt at adaptation and represents allostasis. Kindling may
or may play a role in primary seizures. A seizure is an event where the neurons in a
large part of the brain especially the cortex fire all at once because the firing of
several reaches a contagious level. Seizures can act as a 'reset' on kindling. Electro-
shock therapy (and hypoglycemic 'insulin shock' before that) was used to artificially
induce seizures and create a down-regulating 'reset' of sorts on neurons that was
manifested as docility and 'feeling safer.' Of course brain damage also accompanied
this. More recently anti-epileptic drugs are used to 'stabilize' the neurons and defeat
at least for a time the effects of kindling (including the interpersonal). Like most
allopathic strategies, this probably increases dysregulation over time.
With kindling it is possible for some processes to become self perpetuating, either on
a purely neural level, or on a mixed behavioral-neural level. An example of the latter
is for instance, having a limbic system over-vigilant for possible threat, then over-
reacting to the requests of others as if harm was meant, and inducing a hostile
response which increases the baseline of the threat system. Self-perpetuating
processes like this of course create an unstable positive feedback loop that leads to
progressive dysfunction on a biological level. This dysfunction may be partly
compensated crudely by other behavioral strategies but this is never satisfying, and
behavioral dysfunction may occur as well.
Kindling is mostly an issue with the limbic system, which is the middle part of the
'triune' brain. Our modern tendency is to try to 'cool' the limbic system from above,
with the cortex or thinking brain. This is largely unsuccessful because 1) the
connection between the cortex and limbic system is weakened by the kindling, and 2)
(unless there is a very strong dissociation, which is itself a problem) the emotional
tone of thoughts is driven by the state of the limbic system, and so attempts to soothe
by thoughts just start a positive feedback loop. This is rumination. The strategy that
works, is cooling from below, from the brainstem, with breathing, pleasure, and
kinesiological activities.
Goals and Abilities
Neither Reich or Lowen defined a permanent desireable state of existence, that is,
they did not define "happiness." Rather, they both conceived of psychotherapy as
restoring the basic conditions of obtaining good-feelings.
Much is made about he importance Reich gave to the orgasm reflex. The orgasm
reflex is a respiratory phenomenon, not a sexual one, and perhaps it would have been
better to name it differently. Still, some take this to mean that the orgasm reflex is
the goal of therapy. It seems rather, that Reich used the orgasm reflex as an objective
sign of de-armoring and a good point to stop therapy. The client then was free to go
on and build a desireable life. Two goals that Reich did define are contact and self-
regulation.
Lowen came to believe that building a good life required more capabilities than this
respiratory wave. He developed several concepts, such
as satisfaction, grounding, surrender, joy, and his important 'trio', self-
awareness, self-expression, and self-posession.
Finally, I have defined two goals that may seem to arise more generally from the
humanist tradition in therapy: flexibility and vulnerability. These are strongly
implied in this tradition, but sometimes, because of the robust way of living
encouraged by Reich and Lowen, they are mistaken to be at odds with it.
The reader may well ask, "What about love." The search for love is what underpins
the search for emotional healing. Love, however, is a bigger subject than emotional
healing. The Reich and Lowen tradition cannot subsume love. Love is notoriously
difficult to define, probably no single or perhaps no ten definitions can quite 'get it
all.' Lowen did, however attempt one definition: "Love in the strictest sense can
be described as the deepest feeling of tenderness expressed with the
strongest aggression.*" From that it may be seen that the goals of this tradition
are really the underlying capacities necessary to love. From there it is still a matter of
finding a way to love.
The capacity to give and receive love implies good contact, and an open heart,
literally and biologically. Whatever else love is, it is a biological phenomenon that can
be felt.
* Language of the Body, Chapter 17, Paragraph 30.
Human Contact
Wilhelm Reich was perhaps the first western therapist to name contact as a
problem in living, but the concept has had long been present by implication in many
philosophical traditions. Reich noticed that many people were able to interact very
elaborately, but something very human was missing in the interaction. Contact is
frequently mentioned, but not very clearly defined in his writing (or that
of Alexander Lowen)-- it seems to be something that one "knows it when they feel
it." In the Reich and Lowen tradition contact is biological, not just
phenomenological-it is something that is felt. The slang expression "you feel me?"
comes from this idea. Contact is a sensory and perceptual event--goodwill
does not enter into it.
Contact implies that one is not playing a role. Perhaps it could be said that contact is
the simultaneous perception of each other's substance by two or more people. Love
requires contact. Contact happens on the surface, but it requires relatively
unimpeded flow of feelings from the core to that surface. Though strong contact is
rare in our society, it probably is the natural biological response to proximity. That is,
it is an active process to stay 'out of contact.' Where contact is poor, the presence of
other people tends to be irritating and to elicits defenses. It seems perhaps that there
are two general ways of staying out of contact: abstraction and objectification.
Boundaries
Self regulation is the idea that the body knows what is good and life-
promoting, and that honoring the body's feelings and inclinations will
lead to a life that is good, satisfying and just. It includes the belief that desire,
and the pursuit of real pleasure do not lead to mayhem, and are compatible with a
civil society. Passions only seem to be dangerous because, when they emerge in the
presence of repression, they are greatly distorted. These distorted secondary
drives then act as a secondary justification for the repression. Efforts that the ego
makes to keep secondary drives in check constitute another layer of self-negation.
Self-regulation has its roots in biology, but the ego can participate in self-
regulation through principles.Principles are different from rules. Based on an
intellectual analysis of past experience, rules are behavioral dictates that are applied
compulsively, that is, without feelings. Principles are behavioral guides based on an
understanding of past experience, including past feelings. Principles are applied
judiciously and somewhat flexibly, in accord with present feeling. Rules are useful for
large organizations or impersonal brief transactions. Close relationships (personal or
therapeutic), benefit from principles.
You see, man is energy, and if man does not seek truth, this energy becomes
destructive; therefore society controls and shapes the individual, which smothers
this energy... And perhaps you have noticed another interesting and very simple
fact: that the moment you really want to do something, you have the energy to do
it. ...That very energy becomes the means of controlling itself, so you don't need
outside discipline. In the search for reality, energy creates its own discipline. The
man who is seeking reality spontaneously becomes the right kind of citizen, which is
not according to the pattern of any particular society or government.
Krishnamurti
Satisfaction
Perhaps that is because the experience of achievement has been hi-jacked in our
culture. Achievement originally meant the accomplishment of any constructive goal.
Tending a garden, discharging the duties of an honest job, raising children, fixing a
roof--all were achievements. These were available to everyone, and communities
were organized around providing 'achievable' roles for everyone. When pleasure is
taken in the activity itself, which is possible without undue pressure or haste, then
the activity is creative and possibly even joyful.
In our competitive culture, attainment took over as the main mode of constructive
activity. Being constructive meant becoming special or superior. Quantity is one way
to be superior, so haste and greediness entered the picture. Quality is another way to
be superior so people struggle not to have, say, an excellent garden but the 'best'
garden. Celebrity or fame came, strangely, to be considered an achievement and a
goal.
Satisfaction is the closest one can probably come to the concept of happiness without
leaving a pragmatic point of view and entering into philosophy or spirituality.
'Happiness' implies a durable quality that is hard to fit onto the changing emotions of
an actual life. In social psychology, happiness is known as subjective well-
being.Subjective well being has two parts: 1) the sufficient presence of good feelings
and perhaps feelings of security and 2) the subjective recognition and conscious
enjoyment of this sufficiency. The Reich and Lowen tradition clearly addresses the
first part. But the second part is bound up in questions of prospects, good or bad
fortune, expectations, rate of change, hope, etc...
Grounding
Grounding is a practice and concept that precedes Reich and Lowen. The concept
was already present in other bodywork traditions such as Chi Gung, and of course it
was present in folk wisdom.
An alignment and dynamic equilibrium of the lower body (pelvis, legs, ankles,
and feet) that permits vibration, creates balance, provides a sense of security,
and allows agile movement. 'Fear of falling' is the opposite of this.
A actual strength of the connection between feet and ground. One is then not
easily 'knocked off one's feet.' Chi Gung and Tai Chi speak about this in a very
literal sense. Alexander Lowen speaks of this at times literally but mostly
speaks about it in an interpersonal or social conflict sense.
An actual transfer of something between the lower body and the earth, in
either direction. This, if it happens, is certainly not electricity,but it tends to
call forth the image of electricity.
An emotional poise that prevents undue illusion or being carried away with
ideas or feelings.
An acceptance of the natural order. This includes an adeptness and calm when
working with actual substances affected by natural laws (practical arts). It
contrasts with a tendency to be comfortable with abstract concepts, products
of imagination, and man-made systems, but be awkward with and shun work
with actual substances and forces of nature.
The best way to accomplish realization (combat derealization) is to reclaim the life of
the body, this was a very strong point Alexander Lowen made in Betrayal of the
Body.
Paul Schilder
Surrender
The very best experiences in life cannot be willed but rather 'happen' to a person. The
will-centric ideology of our culture makes most people incapable of allowing things to
happen. The goal of therapy then, becomes regaining the state of susceptibility; to
love, to orgasmic convulsions, to unchangeable reality, and cosmic feeling. Because
our culture always points people toward control, a goal of Reich and Lowen therapy
is to develop the capacity and agreement to let go of control when appropriate, that
is, surrender. Surrender is not something one can do with the will since it requires
giving up the will.
Alexander Lowen developed many key ways of working that 'forced' a temporary
surrender on the ego so that a client could experience non-control for once. They
would also experience that their worst unconscious fears about surrender would not
come true. Lowen writes:
Letting go of ego control means giving in to the body in its involuntary aspect. It
means letting the body take over. But this is what patients cannot do. They feel the
body will betray them. They do not trust it and have no faith in it. They are afraid
that if the body takes over, it will expose their weakness, demolish their
pretentiousness, reveal their sadness and vent their fury. Yes it will do that. it will
destroy the facades that people erect to hide their true selves from themselves and
from the world. But it will also open a new depth of being and add a richness to life
compared to which the wealth of the world is a mere trifle. (Depression and the
Body, Chapter 10, Paragraph 53)
Surrender is the basic underlying 'ability' for the capacity for sexual satisfaction and
capacity to love. In this tradition, love and sex fall under surrender.
Reich believed that few people had full orgasms, whether they knew it not. He used
the orgasm reflex, a wave seen in the body with breathing,as a sign of the ability to
have a sufficient orgasm when the occasion was appropriate. He felt therapy had
been successful when the orgasm reflex was seen, because it was evidence of the
capacity for surrender. It is a mistaken belief that he held an actual sexual orgasm as
the goal of therapy.
The capacity to give and receive love implies an open heart, literally and biologically.
Whatever else love is, it is a biological phenomenon that can be felt. But it is also
unwilled and usually unexpected. Many people are unable to truly love because they
do not have sufficient aggression and contact. But some, especially achievers,
have the aggression and contact, but have a primary resistance to surrendering to
love.
Willingness
A quality that can arise out of surrender is willingness, which is the capacity and
tendency to give oneself wholly to the actions (not goals) that the times and
circumstances require, without recourse to self-image. Willingness implies openness
to external guidance but it is not submission. Willingness includes the willingness to
say 'no' Willingness is the active form of humility. Because of the hurts and betrayals
most of us are subject to in development, willingness is often replaced by willfulness,
but no real change can be willed.
Healing is not an intellectual function. No clever mind can order healing in injured
tissues. The cortical monkey decorates doubt and embellishes fear. Clever thinking
is of little value in coaxing rebellious muscles to abstain from excessive contraction.
Individuals with pain syndromes know that the pain of muscle spasm in the back or
neck cannot be relieved by mere talking. Nor does the deep anguish of depression
abate with so-called positive thinking. What is needed is true spiritual surrender.
Majid Ali
Harmony
Bodywork is intended to improve the unity first of the body and as a consequence,
unity of the person. Alignment speaks to harmony, but harmony is really a dynamic
quality. Grace describes an harmonious quality in the person.
Joy
Alexander Lowen titled his final self-initiated book Joy. He seemed to be trying to
find a single unifying goal of living and of therapy. Harmony is necessary but
probably not sufficient for joy. Joy is not a frequent experience even in health. Joy is
the basis for spirituality, because it connects a person to the larger fabric of life. Joy
cannot be forced. rather one is in 'harm's way' of joy by being fully alive and fully
human.
Self Awareness
Self-awareness arises from feeling. It is the totality of all of one's body feelings at
any given time. Stated another way, self-awareness is simply knowing what
one feels, what one is actually doing. Where feeling is low due to muscle
tension and suppression, there often arises a substitute to self-awareness, self-
consciousness.
Self-consciousness can lead to some social deftness in structured situations, but still
not intrinsically lead to strong human contact. As a product of the mind and ego,
self-consciousness is at great risk of distortion by ego images and goals, and it
wanders quickly from the present reality to future fantasy and past memories. The
tendency to hold back is also mistaken for self-possession. Holding back is
considered a great virtue in our culture, almost regardless of context. While some
self-consciousness is inevitable in a complicated culture, high self-consciousness and
low self-esteem go hand in hand.
There is an extreme state beyond self-consciousness when feeling is so low that the
mind no longer recognizes the body when looking from the outside. This
is depersonalization.
It is natural for thinking creatures to develop ideas about themselves. If these ideas
are grounded in self-awareness and the truth of the body, then they will have a
trueness to them and further life. If they are based on ego ideals, they will alienate
one from his life and body.
Self Expression
Emotions and meanings are not fully experienced unless they are expressed.
Sensation and contact occurs at the surface. Expression is not complete unless it
comes to the surface. The eyes, the face, the mouth (including the jaw), the throat,
and the arms are the main conduits of self-expression.
Speech, at its best, is a union of ego and body. Words and word choice (voluntary)
represents the ego, and voice quality (involuntary) represents the body. Most modern
democracies pride themselves on free speech, but increasingly, what is meant is free
word choice. A loud or emotional voice is considered inappropriate in many forums.
Untrue statements are fairly easily detectable by a discrepancy between the words
and the voice, but few people are able to do this because we have been conditioned to
ignore the voice quality. A great deal of deception happens over the internet because
it is much easier to lie when a keyboard and not the voice is used. Of course word
choice can be at the service of feelings but mostly word choice is aimed at affecting
the reader or listener.
Self-expression is not just blurting everything out that comes to mind. In any
situation, especially when several people are involved, there may be several things to
express. For instance annoyance for a person's actions and respect for a person may
be both expressed in a measured but sincere expression. This is what tact is:
truth and empathy together. Putting the truth off to later just sets a mold in
which there never seems room for one's own truth. Taking other peoples likely
reaction into account can figure in final expression, as long as the self is not
essentially negated.
Self-expression is more a matter of quality than of quantity. It does not seem possible
to achieve the same effect of full-blown self-expression with any quantity of partial
'leaking' type expression. That is because the value of self-expression is in the
unifying of the person. 'Leaking out' what one really means, or hinting, may
pass along the 'idea' but it is fragmenting for the person. Some people leak
hostility on an almost continual basis. The expression never seems to resolve. This
type of choked or incompleted expression is just one type of 'mis'-expression that
gives self-expression a bad name. Below are some others.
Mis-Expression
Acting out: This is behavior that is driven by repressed feeling that occurs without
'unrepressing' the feeling. It discharges tension and allows the repression to be
maintained. The term comes from psycho-analysis, where it was applied to an
increase in self-destructive behavior in the life of a client when things 'heated up' in
analysis. From this, it tended to be applied to things like promiscuity and drug use.
However, when someone is doing something 'seemingly uncharacteristic,' but does
not know why he or she is doing it, it is often acting out. If, in addition, they do not
seem to know they are doing it, it is even more likely acting-out. So too with 'stress
behavior.'
Dispersal: This is the use of speech to 'touch' on a subject, but diminish feeling or
avoid contact with real feeling. A common example is a statement beginning with "I
should.." It is often meant to ward off how one actually regards what "one should"
do. Another is "I have to.." (Fritz Perls combated dispersal by making clients say "I
want.. or I choose..") Another dispersal is saying the opposite of what one is likelier
to really mean. Or another example is repeating a truism like "such is life" or "people
is people" or "it's probably for the best" when a difficult subject comes up. Yet
another example is an excessive recitation of detail.
In Reich and Lowen therapy, there are exercises such as hitting a mattress that can
reasonably be called 'expressive' exercises. Especially in a group or workshop setting
with others watching, it can seem that the reason for these exercises is
to represent or show how one feels, and in so doing, an endpoint is reached.
Actually the purpose of exercises is to get freedom of movement, energy
and feeling into the parts of the body that are involved in self-expression.
The endpoint of this work is the actual, real time expression of the self to the actual
people in one's life. This certainly involves hitting them almost never. But if the arms
are freed in therapy, the expression, usually just involving voice and gesture, is
satisfying, convincing, and in line with the ego.
Self possession is the capacity to possess strong feeling long enough to shape it into
a contactful response. It is self-possession that prevents desire and passion from
harming others. This is a very different quality than 'observing ego' in that it does not
expect the ego to be at war with impulses. About self-possession Alexander Lowen
writes:
What is wanted is an integration of the conscious and the involuntary and this can
only happen when every conscious act is infused with feeling and every involuntary
response is consciously perceived and understood (Pleasure, Chapter 11)
Self-control is a more common term, but inadequate for the purpose of this concept.
First, self-control is often used in a puritanical sense to define a person stopping his-
or herself from doing what they want to do. This is better described as self-
negation. Control really only means reasonable guidance of a force or
movement toward its fit or intended goal. Blocking is not controlling. Anyone
who disables the engine of a car cannot rightfully be said to be controlling anything
even if they are sitting behind the steering wheel. However, even this rehabilitated
definition of self-control does not convey the sensitivity and feeling of 'self-
possession.'
Adults are expected to respond out of thought as well as out of feeling. Young
children sometimes act thoughtlessly out of feeling such as grabbing a toy from
another child or biting a baby that is getting more attention. Because children at this
level cannot hold back actions in the face of feeling, to avoid being shamed or
punished, they must find a way of holding back feeling! But this is done by massive
muscle tension and shallow breathing which becomes permanent and unconscious.
As adults they are certainly able to hold back action, but they suffer from
pleasurelessness and inability to act creatively.
Traditional wise child-rearing did not expect a child to internalize control until six
years of age. Before this, supervision and 'environmental control' was used to keep
things safe. It was understood that yelling, shaming, and punishment only harmed
the child's spirit. That is why traditionally, formal education didn't start until six or
seven. This coincides, in the work of Piaget, with leaving the 'pre-operational stage'
and entering the 'stage of concrete operations'.
But in our complex culture which organizes potentially great rewards for adolescents
that have certain specialized achievement, parents feel pressure to give the child 'an
early start.' It is rationalized that the child needs to 'learn to control themselves
eventually' anyway. But if this self-management is only expected later, when the
timimg is right, then it can come about, very quickly, by much less harmful
mechanisms.
Flexibility
Flexibility has a double but related meaning. Flexibility is the freedom to move the
body in any direction. It is also the freedom to respond in many different ways to
situations. Personal flexibility is founded on bothautonomic flexibility, and
musclo-skeletal condition, which underpin ego flexibility. There is a functional
identity between the flexibility of the body and flexibility of the person. That is, in
loosening the body, by and large, one loosens the character.
There is concern even in the larger bodywork tradition, that, if exercises are
pursued mechanically without insight into character, it is possible to become flexible
physically but not emotionally or interpersonally. But bodily flexibility, while
valuable for athletics, is not mere athleticism. Bodily health and emotional health are
never too far apart. It is possible without flexibility, by heavy practice, to learn to
execute physical maneuvers in dance or sports that are legitimately called
skilled. But these movements are not spontaneous and are not in the
service of pleasure (though they may gratify the ego). It is unconscious,
unmanaged movement that is the key.
"..and I told her [a client] that it was a misuse of the intellect to try to avoid
surprises."
It is a testament to our culture's alienation from the body, that any work towards
feeling better which incorporates the body at all has to be described as bodywork as
if to warn people that the body will be involved. Our present culture may seem to
'worship' the body as far as magazines and movies go. However, this is not
appreciation for the living surprises and felt joys of a body, but is rather the ego using
the body as 'clay' to form an image.
Within the modern Reich and Lowen tradition, the term bodywork is used to
separate active physical techniques from analysis. The ultimate goals are to
improve vibration, grounding, and breathing. Thus bodywork can lead to new
experience, but not all experiential work is bodywork. Bodywork is not just an
avenue of further knowledge or insight, but is actual neuro-muscular
and biological development.
Even within the sincere tradition of a feeling-based body orientation, there are
perhaps two large missteps possible. The first is the idea of 'laying on of hands.' A
clue to this is often that passivity of the transaction. In bodywork, the person may
sometimes be still (except for breath and vibration) but is never passive but rather
is actively receiving. That is why in the practices section of this website I use the
term participant. There is a group of passively experienced 'alternative' treatments
that are, I think, too hastily and casually lumped with bodywork traditions. Examples
are Thought Field Therapy, Reikki, or Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch. These
passive modalities may use 'somatic' language, but do not use bodywork as it will be
defined below. Being a healer, or laying on of hands, whether or not it is a
verifiable phenomenon, has never been an element of the Reich and
Lowen Tradition. This is certainly an angle ripe for charlatanism, witting and
unwitting. Pseudo-scientific gadgets have been developed that fill the same niche.
Body work is 'energy work, yes, but anything that is labeled 'energy work' but is
passively applied is suspect. It is the participants own bodily feeling that is the
authority on whether anything is happening.
The second misstep is depending two much on awareness alone. At any given level
of awareness, the subjective impression in all of our minds is that our awareness is
now maximum. New feelings increase awareness but awareness doesn't
increase feeling. There is often a border area of feeling that is present but
disregarded by the mind. Paying attention to and respecting such neglected feeling is
a necessarily first step in Reich and Lowen work. The habit or ideology of ignoring
feelings has to be set aside. But there are some therapy approaches that do not go
beyond this. These might be called 'focusing' therapies. They do avoid issues of a
trainer causing discomfort or issues of a trainer dominating someone. Practices that
increase conscious awareness of body importance, or body feeling, are no doubt very
useful for people that are reluctant to try bodywork or very vulnerable. Eventually
this will become circular. In the absence of bodywork as defined below, there is a
very real tendency to 'mentalize' the body and make it into just another
metaphor or idea, rather than an actual source of energy and good
feeling. The real work is increasing feeling, perhaps not always globally, but at a
minimum in suppressed areas. When strong feelings do arise, awareness
largely takes care of itself!(Grounding may be timely at this point)
On the other side of the split, there are many physical training traditions of course
that move the body but without paying attention. Some attention may be paid to the
'shell' of a movement (end-gaining) but not the 'guts' of a movement. Attention is
paid to to final results, but attention is not paid to the movement details. No new
experience results.
The work of Reich and Lowen implies a more or less universally desirable body
condition that is roughly 'un-armored enough.' That is the therapist seeks to provide
'correction', not just exploration. There are about five operational goals of bodywork
in this tradition:
Bodywork Perspectives
For an adult, with a mixture muscular tensions and muscular incapacities, any new
movement or expression will both stimulate new learning but also fight existing
rigidities. However, most traditions of bodywork emphasize one approach or
another. Awareness-based approaches like Feldenkreis, Alexander Technique are
permissive but developmentally focused. Pilates is not permissive, but very
developmentally focused, avoiding stress. Lowenian approaches to bodywork have
some elements of developmental focus, such as grounding exercises, but as suggested
above, are very much about release and to this end use some stress.
The practices listed here in the second, purple, horizontal menu are listed mainly so
that rationales and derivations could be listed. This is so that they do not have to be
practiced superstitiously ("I don't know why this works but I once saw Dr X do
this...") If someone finds a new exercise and tries it and finds it felicitous, so much
the better. I have tried to list (and of course this effort goes on is far from complete)
1) all solo practices whether some skill is part of it or not, because I assume any
sincere person can learn the skill, and 2) all practices where the participant may need
a helper, but the helper does not need skill but just instructions from the participant.
I have not listed specific exercises where the participant needs help from a skilled
person, for the self-evident reason that the essence may misconveyed. I am also not
listing exercises where there is a coherent, widely available, intact teaching tradition,
such as yogasana, deep tissue massage, Pilates, and many others. The teaching
tradition of Lowenian bioenergetics, at least in North America, seems, alas, not very
viable.
Expressive Shift and Discovery
There are three modes of action: reaction, performance, and expression. Reaction
includes muscular reflexes, certain instinctual reactions and defensive behaviors.
Those reactions that are not purely physiological tend to be future oriented, that is
they address fears or fantasies of what will happen. Although reactions and reactivity
might make a compelling discussion, for purposes of this topic suffice it say that in
interpersonal behavior, the less mere reaction the better.
When bodywork is done intentionally, the goal is increasing the capacity for
expression. However, the drive to perform is very strong and almost unavoidable at
first. The result is concentrating on the shell of a movement and missing the 'guts'.
Many strains of body work, such as the Alexander Technique, are deliberately
vague in what is wanted in order to avoid this rush to perform. Somewhat differently,
the Pilates Method gives a 'shell' but constantly de-emphasizes or restrains
completion, and instead emphasizes 'guts' or form. This mysterious target is just an
inevitable part of regaining feeling and purpose.
A Buddhist saying captures an element of expressive shift: "Find where you are
and work from there. Do not try to work from where you want to be."
The expressive shift is increasing the capacity, inclination, and tendency for
expression. Of course there is a paradox here. In a 'corrective' tradition, change is
desired, not expression within the same old limits. However, it is very difficult to
perform a movement in a new way as an adult. This is because the already
strongest muscle and already strongest nerve will 'hijack' the movement
again and again. Imbalance seems to perpetuate imbalance. This is true of
expression alone and performance alone. For neuro-muscular change both
expression and training must interact. That is, a participant can neither be told
exactly what to do, nor left to just "do his or her thing." This reality explains the
ambiguity or seeming vagueness of most skilled bodywork traditions. It can be
frustrating for the participant, but it is necessary.
There are two avenues of progress, and both are necessary. One is skilled help from
someone that can 'block' old patterns and coach and insist on new patterns. This of
course will involve some performance. Generally large classes in gyms cannot really
provide this, because even if the instructor is capable, he or she simply cannot
supervise any one person enough to stop the enactment of old patterns. By the way,
no amount of theoretical knowledge will change the body. Aha! experiences can
provide spurts of insight, but not spurts of real change. Insight can have role in
change, probably as a consolidator of change, or leading one to engage in some
growth stimulating undertaking. Trying to perform an insight is always
hollow.
The second avenue is growth. As nervous systems change and alignment improves
and certain things are attempted, new capacities arise and new actions and
movements are spontaneously expressed. This requires patience because growth is
slower than the speed of thought or the decision of will. That is, it is necessary to be
patient and not to try to force things by trying too hard. Almost surely, at some
point it will seem that almost nothing is happening. That is because
almost nothing is happening. But almost nothing and actually nothing are
completely different! Very small but actual change is cumulative. In fact real change
is usually noticed by other people rather than the participant, because growth is so
very gradual. If one perceives change is happening rapidly, that is probably an
illusion.
Most physical fitness training these days is based on practices useful for the already
athletically adept or graceful, and therefore 'starts too high' and does not remediate
basic neuromuscular patterns. The usual result is great effort at the beginning, with
some change but quick plateauing. There is no real pleasure, but most people quit
not because of that but because of discouragement.
The quality of the breathing determines the quality of the life. Breathing is
unique among body functions in that it can be entirely involuntary and unconscious,
or it can be almost entirely voluntary, or a mix. Voluntary control can be automatic,
forgotten and unrecognized, and it is this automatic but voluntary over-control that
is the culprit in most dysfunctional breathing.
For the most part, it is generally thought that improving breathing means increasing
breathing in every way, but this may be too simple an idea. The mere admonition to
breath deep, or breath "more" often leads to a willy nilly increase in both rate and
volume of breaths, and a large increase in minute volume (the number of liters of air
exchanged between lungs and atmosphere in a minute.) What is most important,
is the smooth flow of the breath wave through the chest, abdomen and
pelvis.
Breathing has four general functions: 1) Taking oxygen into the body 2) Regulating
the level of carbon dioxide in the body, 3) Starting and maintaining pulsation in the
body, and 4) Balancing the autonomic nervous system between sympathetic and
parasympathetic. Mainstream healthcare concerns itself largely with the first and
marginally with the second (at least in the context of 'disease') but ignores the latter
two. For bodywork, however, these functions are equally important.
Breathing also regulates the metabolism. One way it does it may do this
through the thyroid that is placed around the trachea (windpipe). The
mechanism by which it does this not known, but the placement of the thyroid cannot
be random. The amount of air intake seems possibly to be a candidate for driving the
thyroid but velocity or some other factor may be operative. Having a relatively tight
or narrow throat is a common condition in our age. Reichian vegetotherapy put a
strong emphasis on opening the throat. A common pattern for the thyroid (as with
the adrenal) is to become fatigued at midlife, and perhaps less dynamically
responsive to breathing.
Some also believe that breathing acts to take in energy (in addition to oxygen) from
outside the body. This is perhaps the most controversial way to look at the function
of breathing. With Wilhelm Reich, this idea was subsumed into the larger idea of
life energy, or orgone. Alexander Lowen did not emphasize this concept, and this
article will not pursue it.
Autonomic Effects
Breathing high in the chest with shoulder and accessory muscles leads
to sympathetic dominance. Using the diaphragm to push (or 'let') down into the
abdomen and pelvis balances autonomic tone back toward the parasympathetic.
Pausing after the inhale (also known as holding the breath) leads to sympathetic
dominance and also reduced feeling. Pausing after the exhale (rather than gasping or
quickly 'sucking in' a breath) allows the involuntary inspiratory reflex to initiate the
breath which has a parasympathetic effect. The relationship between breathing and
autonomic tone is truly bidirectional, as will become clearer as this discussion
continues.
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) is the reflex in which heart rate speeds during
inhalation and slows during exhalation. This is prominent in children but almost
disappears in most adults. Since RSA seems to represent autonomic flexibility, this
disappearance is not healthy. It is perhaps through this reflex that breathing
regulates autonomic state. Stephen Porges has based his research techniques on
poly-vagal theory around this measurement.
The most common misunderstandings about breathing deal with gas exchange, and
so this page discusses it at length, but gas exchange is just part of healthy breathing.
The energetic, nervous, and emotional regulation of the body provided by the 'wave'
of deep smooth natural breathing, from head to pelvic floor and back, (what Reich
called the orgastic reflex) is basic to health.
One main goal of improved breathing is in fact making oxygen available to the body.
Good feelings in the body rely on plentiful oxygen in the tissues. However getting
more oxygen to the tissues is not as simple as a naive understanding might make it.
Of course, the start of oxygenation is the exchange of gases between the lungs and the
bloodstream. Because the concentration (known as partial pressure) of oxygen
is approximately the same in the atmosphere as it is in plasma leaving the lungs (of
any reasonably healthy person), it is often stated by skeptics that it is not possible to
take in more oxygen by improving breathing or changing breathing patterns in
anyway. This is partly true in that mere increase of air exchange in the lungs will not
increase plasma oxygen levels much unless the increase in ventilation is in response
to an oxygen deficit in the blood. But Alexander Lowen felt that if ventilation
increased consistently, metabolism increased and oxygen consumption
increased, so that while the average content of oxygen in blood did not
change much, the turnover of oxygen was greater and the body had more
energy. But oxygen is only a back up regulator of breathing, and carbon dioxide
exchange is the fine tuned primary regulator of breathing.
The real site of oxygen deprivation is the tissues, not the lungs. This
deprivation has three mechanisms, a weakened 'Bohr' effect, anemia, and
constriction of the blood flow to the tissues. The first two have something to do with
hemoglobin in red blood cells. Hemoglobin is an immense storage buffer for oxygen
within the blood, otherwise the oxygen merely dissolved in the plasma would be used
up quickly at the tissue level. However hemoglobin, to load and unload in the right
places, needs a switch to control the binding of oxygen. This switch is carbon dioxide.
Where carbon dioxide is low (at the capillaries in the lungs, because of rapid
diffusion out of the plasma into the alveoli), oxygen is bound to hemoglobin, and
where carbon dioxide is high (the capillaries in the tissues, due to metabolism)
oxygen is unbound. This is known as the Bohr effect. Nitric oxide is also involved in
tissue respiration but this is poorly understood at present.
Anemia (low red blood cells and hemoglobin) greatly reduces the amount of oxygen
available at the tissues. The oxygen detectors in the large blood vessels do not
stimulate attempts at better breathing in any way with anemia because they respond
to the partial pressure of oxygen and not the total content of oxygen in the blood, but
it is the latter that determines the amount of oxygen at the tissue level. Chronic
anemia, chronic illness, and chronic poor breathing are all correlated, but the cause
and effects relationships are undelineated. Could chronic anemia sometimes be an
adaptation to poor breathing? A way to protect a constricted body from the pain of
more life force? Almost all folk traditions associate life force both to blood and to
breathing.
Constriction of blood flow is caused by sympathetic shift and low carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is a vasodilator. Also chronically tight muscles restrict blood flow.
Much of the pain experienced in connective tissue and muscle may in fact be from
low blood flow, especially low back pain. Also capillaries, the tiny blood vessels that
deliver blood to the actual tissue, may be more or less plentiful depending on the
oxygen dynamics in the body. Oxygen availability to the tissue decreases sharply as
the distance to the nearest capillary increases.
The diffusion of oxygen from the lung to the blood benefits from a pressure gradient
as well as a concentration gradient. That is why most blood oxygenation
occurs during exhalation, when there is positive pressure in the
lungs. This alone is good reason for longer slower exhalations. Carbon dioxide,
however, diffuses easily from blood to lung, and of course inspired air has almost no
carbon dioxide, so the concentration gradient is very steep as well. As a result, short
breaths favor the loss of carbon dioxide in the process of oxygenation. Short breaths
probably guarantee rapid breathing because the body suffers at least tissue hypoxia,
but rapid breathing makes the imbalance worse
But carbon dioxide depletion is very easy, as described in the sections below on
hyperventilation.
Aerobic Exercise
During sustained vigorous exercise, the muscles use up much more oxygen and
produces much more carbon dioxide. This is the one situation in which rapid
breathing and increasing the amount of air exchange per minute in the lungs is
warranted. Still it is possible to breath dysfunctionally while exercising. Rather than
pushing the effort to the extreme and gasping willy-nilly, it is beneficial to keep the
pace to the point where one can still breath through the nose, as discussed in the
section above.
Aerobic exercise has from the 1970s to the present day become very popular as a path
to health. One thing to keep in mind, is that aerobic exercise induces hypoxia at the
tissue level, which is dysphoric. However in response to this hypoxia and pain there
is a strong release of endorphins, which provide a much stronger euphoria. This is
'runner's high' which is not from oxygen! During aerobic exercise, blood is shunted to
the muscles away from the surface, which is also what happens in 'fight-or-flight.
Heavy aerobic exercise regimens produce a sympathetic-shift and hard shortened
muscles. Of course, some of the training effects of aerobic exercise, such as increased
hemoglobin and decreased heart rate, benefit resting oxygenation somewhat.
Acute Hyperventilation
Reichian and neo-Reichian therapy is 'famous' for instructing clients to lie down and
hyperventilate greatly. It is often thought that this is about increasing oxygen, but as
the above discussion shows, this is not the case. Many writers in the Reichian
tradition, have attributed the effects brought by acute hyperventilation to
an increase in body oxygen, but I can only conclude this is an error in
understanding. Not only does this not increase oxygen, but is probably the effect
of brain tissue hypoxia and blood alkalosis from hyperventilation as described above.
Alkalosis causes vasoconstriction, so that while the autonomic system usually
responds very promptly to correct brain hypoxia, in the case of hyperventilation it
cannot. An important consideration, is the possibility that over
many reasonable sessions of increased breathing, metabolism may be
stimulated, and oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production
increases. Alexander Lowen suggested this based on his experience that over time
his symptoms of alkalosis like tingling and cramping stopped. As described under the
section below on chronic hyperventilation below, this adaptation doesn't seem to
happen if there is not attention on the quality and shape of the breath
Third, because of hypoxia, the baseline muscle control that the brain constantly
conducts, slips away. This makes the person much less able to deliberately use
muscles, but makes the muscles response to involuntary discharge much more
intense. Brain imaging has shown that in low oxygen states the cerebral cortex
activity (thinking) dims considerably more than the limbic system activity (feeling).
This cortical dimming, along with muscle disinhibition can produce euphoria and a
sense of freedom.
Acute hyperventilation has been used traditionally in religious and other movements
to create an 'oceanic' less earth-bound feeling. While this may have some utility in
freeing work, the insights from these moments certainly are not a reliable guide to
growth or living! In this day and age where chronic hyperventilation is becoming the
norm, one wonders whether this acute hyperventilation is still as effective in
providing a 'different' experience.
Many variations of 'rebirthing' movements developed in the 60s and 70s entirely
around the subjective effects of severe acute hyperventilation, which was
pursued almost in a competitive fashion. This seems to be the misguided confusion
of an intensely altered state with a profoundly meaningful state. The naive idea also
arose that carbon dioxide was a toxin, and that ridding the body of it was all good.
In recent years, a medical technology pulse oximetry has become more widely
available.. Oximetry measures, using infrared light shone through a nail bed, the
percent saturation of hemoglobin, since hemoglobin turns a brighter red when bound
to oxygen. In medical settings this is used as a screening test to non-specifically catch
catastrophic issues of gas exchange. It has been used at times by breathing hobbyists
to try to validate their undertakings. What must be made clear is that oximetry
indicates nothing about carbon dioxide and nothing about oxygen availability at the
tissues. It is completely uninformative about non-immediately life threatening
aspects of breathing.
Chronic Hyperventilation
Chronic hyperventilation, on the other hand, is increasingly common in our fast-
paced culture. The sympathetic system when activated tends to increase air exchange
in the lungs in anticipation of greatly increased carbon dioxide production through
physical activity. If this does not happen, hyperventilation ensues. In our keyed up
lifestyle the hyperventilation becomes chronic. The blood maintains its necessarily
narrow pH range by kidney excretion of bicarbonate. This makes the buffer system
more shallow however, so that a chronic hyperventilator, if he or she should have an
acute episode of overbreathing, will experience more severe symptoms, like panic
attacks. Seemingly the carbon dioxide set point in the brainstem is reset, and
changing back to better breathing may feel wrong at first. This resetting of the 'carbo-
dioxide-stat' may be a contributor to sleep apnea, which is becoming epidemic.
Ironically, the capacity for physical exertion is reduced. For one this is because there
has developed a maladaptive intolerance of 'higher' levels carbon dioxide as are
caused by physical work, and so breathing becomes very uncoordinated and gasping
with even semi-strenuous activity because the body feels it is asphyxiating. For
another, the stymied Bohr effect as described above is unable to 'turn on the spigot'
at the tissue level. It is unclear what the relationship is between chronic
hyperventilation and thyroid function.
The brain has the time to compensate through some unique mechanisms, so brain
hypoxia is less than in acute hyperventilation, and there is no cortical (mental)
dimming, but tissue hypoxia is chronic and affects feeling and function negatively.
Mouth breathing greatly accelerates hyperventilation. Talking forces mouth
breathing. It is interesting that chronic hyperventilation is a taboo-ish subject in
allopathic medical circles. Opposition to moderating ventilation rates and volume
seems to have a moral fervor to it. Perhaps in our culture the over-riding worry about
'getting enough air', a fear-driven sensation, is very prevalent subconsciously. Here is
a link to a .pdf on the chronic hyperventilation by Patrick McKeown with
medical references.
An interesting tweak is the Frolov device that re-acclimates one's modern 'capnostat'
to a higher more healthy carbon dioxide level, at the same time slowing breath rate,
strengthening the diaphragm and deepening respirations (by mildly decreasing the
concentration of oxygen). The genius of the device is that it uses blood chemistry and
not deliberate control, and so overcomes the obstacle of conscious 'voluntary'
breathing habits not transferring over to unconscious. 'involuntary' breathing habits.
This is holistic in that it seeks to re-regulate a dysregulated system, but will seem too
mechanical and unemotional to many. Other methods of improving breathing are
described later in this page.
What is always problematic for therapeutic traditions that work with breath, is how
to employ a 'student's' conscious use of voluntary mechanisms to 'loosen' the
inhibitory effect of 'forgotten' voluntary mechanisms. It is not possible to even pay
attention to one's breath without changing it.
Alexander Lowen (like the earlier Elsa Gindler led tradition that has descended
through Carola Spreads and Charlotte Selver) also made good breathing primary
in his method, but somewhat paradoxically did not think deliberate breathe exercises
were of real benefit. I believe that that was because he was thinking of the 'last step'
of improvement from fairly balanced but 'held back' breathing to fully free natural
breathing. No manipulation of breathing can lead to fully free breathing. Lowen's
emphasis, besides stretching the torso, was on freeing emotional expression, which
would bring about strong natural breathing indirectly. This is one of the many
bootstrapping paradoxes in bodywork, since restricted breathing restricts emotional
expression, and restricted emotional expression restricts breathing!
However, what I see around me in the present era is such universally rapid, shallow,
and high-in-the-chest breathing that I am convinced tremendous betterment can be
had reliably and fairly easily by some non-elusive deliberate practices. While I do not
believe that breathing exercises alone are sufficient for permanent change, it does
seem to me that the need for better breathing is so great, and the effect of even
partial improvements are so large, that this area represents the 'low hanging fruit' of
bodywork. Below are some general principles of improving breathing. The reader is
strongly encouraged to find in this website and other sources specific exercises that
he or she finds practical and do them!
Many breathers are in the habit of cutting the exhalation short (as if afraid of losing
too much air) by initiating voluntarily a shoulder- and accessory- led inbreath, and
then pausing before exhalation.. This is in fact the startle response made
chronic. The shortened exhale, the will-based inhalation, and the holding of the
breath all contribute to rapid shallow sympathetic-increasing breathing.
Also, there is a tendency, when breathing deliberately, to tighten the throat a bit, as if
the throat made inhalation and exhalation happen (not true). This seems to be a
manifestation of 'trying.' It is greatly lessened with nose-breathing, possibly
because sensory input from the nose is enough to quell the urge control the breath.
The tight back and rib muscles that are endemic in our culture prevent the ribs from
moving in their articulations with the spine. Some people have a ribcage stuck in
expansion and others have a ribcage stuck in collapse. While this has
some characterological implications, in the mechanics of breath they pose a
similar issue. All stretching techniques that increase spinal flexibility especially
twists and side bends will be helpful to free these joints
While perhaps only 30 percent of a good breath is from chest excursion, this portion
is important for co-ordination and unity. A rigid thorax may 'lose' more than the 30
percent of potential breath by undermining the functioning of the diaphragm--the
extreme form of this situation is paradoxical breathing described at the end of this
page. If the ribs form a rigid tube, then even if increased inhalation causes the belly
to expand, the shoulders will rise anyway by pressure. The rigid tube will cause air to
blow out both ends ('mushroom form'). If the ribs expand like a cone, widest at the
diaphragm, they have a role in holding the shoulders down. The best and most direct
way to loosen rib movement is a thorough program of regular stretching of the
torso.
Pranayama
Pranayama is the practice of breathing exercises within the larger yoga tradition. As
such, in its practices, it deals both with the goal of restoring basic health and the goal
of spiritual development, without any clear dividing line. They are not intended to
be stand-alone practices apart from the other elements of yoga. Still these are time-
tested techniques that are probably safe with a qualified teacher. Pranayama has
both energizing (arousing or sympathetic increasing) and quieting (parasympathetic)
techniques. The goal seems to be increasing autonomic range and flexibility. When
taught in the West as something exotic it seems very possible that the
hyperventilating maneuvers of pranayama have been over-emphasized due to the
seductiveness of the altered states.
The diaphragm is rigid in many people. A tight diaphragm reduces feeling and
emotion immensely, and that is usually why it develops. A tight diaphragm is also
usually very weak, and needs strengthening. The diaphragm is the dividing line
between the ventral vagal system above and the dorsal vagal system below. For
the diaphragm to be able to move down into the abdomen, two things are important.
First, the abdominal wall and flanks--the entire lower torso on all sides, must be
supple and able to expand. Otherwise, effort to breath more deeply will likely just
affect the upper chest. Second the pelvis must be loose and flexible so that abdominal
contents can move down into the pelvis. The pelvic floor should actually drop and the
angle of the pelvic bowl widen. Attempts to get breath into the belly when the pelvis
is narrow and tipped forward may help partially, but will cause a ballooning that
probably never feels natural enough to become permanent. A 'packed' abdomen from
sluggish swollen intestines and bowel, or from abdominal fat will also limit the
capacity of the diaphragm to sink
If the diaphragm has come to have a high starting position above the
floating ribs, it will limit the expansion of the ribs, even with a good
downward excursion of the diaphragm during inhalation. It can be valuable during
the pause before inhalation, to try pushing the diaphragm downward without taking
breath in yet, then proceed with a normal deep slow inhalation. Brief
experimentation will show if this makes the ribcage feel freer. .
Paradoxical Breathing
This is the situation in which the diaphragm actually rises during inhalation. This
occurs when there a very weak or frozen diaphragm. The breather will attempt to
inhale by raising the shoulders and elevating the ribs. At the same time the
diaphragm is 'sucked' upwards canceling most of the potential space and resulting in
a shallow breath despite the effort. Paradoxical breathing at rest may not be obvious
but it results in a higher rate per minute of shallow breathing. During exertion, the
sucking in of the abdomen will be more visible, and a lack of respiratory reserve is
made evident.
Crying
Crying is an act of release, usually of sadness, but sometimes also of joy. The most
superficial type of crying involves tearing of the eyes. Few adults these days are able
to cry anymore deeply than this. The next level is with tremor in the jaw and cheeks,
and involuntary . The deepest level involves the entire torso shaking and convulsing
including the diaphragm. This is sometimes expressed "wracked with sobs."
The deeper the crying the greater the release. It is known that shaking and
quivering behavior limits the effects of trauma. Everyone feels better after a "good
cry." Watching sad movies or plays has always been used by wise people as an
opportunity to catch up on crying. This crying is not false or spurious, it comes from
inner sadness that is evoked by what is being portrayed.
Muscular tension inhibits crying just as it inhibits all emotional expression. Young
children are the most able to cry because they have less muscular development.
Women in general cry more easily than men, just as they are closer to other
emotional expression, because of less muscle mass. However, in our culture there is a
message that everyone should cry as little as possible. This is an unfortunate
message. In Shakespeare, heroes cry frequently and deeply. Now that is not a
'scientific' source of actual 16th century behavior, but it does indicate the social norm
of the time.
Babies cry frequently, because they are frequently helpless. The crying usually gets
help and that is erroneously believed to be its only function. Children are encouraged
not to cry in part because it is feared that they will manipulate others that way. This
groundless fear arises because of today's obsession with power. Fake crying is
possible, but this is easily discerned.
Other people are moved to help when they see or hear someone crying. But crying is
primarily about releasing sadness, or coping with a bad circumstance in which
nothing can be done. People that resist crying are always made
uncomfortable by the presence of someone crying, and that is perhaps
the greater part of our cultural disdain for crying. One person crying can
start capable others crying, and there is no harm to this, just the opposite. Difficulty
crying is difficulty grieving. An accumulation of ungrieved losses leads to deadness.
Besides facial stiffness, crying is impeded by a reflex closing of of the throat (choking
in the narrows). Alexander Lowen's bioenergetic stool is a tool that in bodywork
is used to help open the trachea and lungs and support deep crying.
Laughing: Physically, laughing is completely the same below the chin as crying. The
difference is in the face: with laughing the corners of the mouth are upturned, the
same as smiling. With crying, the corners of the mouth are downturned. Someone
crying can be stopped by asking them to smile (although there is never any real
justification for doing so). Likewise, some one laughing heartily at adversity can
convert to crying by the turning the mouth corners down (and this may well be
justified). Laughing can be a lesser surrender than crying but still a release.
Therapeutic Muscle Stretching
Stretching has two operational goals, increasing the dynamic range of the overlap of
contractile fibers, and lengthening the 'resting' muscle length. This latter goal has
two parts itself, one lengthening the elastic elements, and two reducing the 'resting'
overlap of the contractile fibers. Briefly, all muscles have a baseline tone, or slow
continuous contraction, managed by the sympathetic nervous system through
the muscle spindles, which are sensory elements that monitor tension and length in
muscle fibers. Muscle spindles also initiate the stretch reflex, which is a strong
contraction if the muscles are stretched more than a little.
Not only is muscle tone generally too much due to sympathetic shift, but high tone
slowly induces shortening, which retriggers the tone mechanism and a vicious circle
ensues. The shuffling gait associated with the elderly is the result of a very small
range of motion at the joints caused by progressive muscle shortening which is the
result of chronic high muscle tension. Muscle shortening is also ruinous to balance.
Reversing the shortening process requires retraining the nervous system. Passive
stretching, if done diligently has some durable effect, but does not seem to provide
this retraining, and so the cumulative results are often disappointing. However, it has
been found that when isometric contraction is sequenced in with stretching, much
greater and much more durable lengthening occurs. This was first developed in
physical therapy under the name of proprioceptive neuromuscular
facilitation (PNF). In physical fitness training, it is usually just called contraction
release (CR) stretching. CR stretching seems to 'reset' the muscle length/muscle
tension set points and allow the nervous system to tolerate longer muscles.
Crease in forehead
Calves tight
Slowness in movement
Tight jaw
Teeth grinding
Shoulders raised
Ironically, a large amount of chronic muscle contraction may lead to frenetic, un-
graceful, constant activity as the will power and mind try to overcome the depletion.
Chronic muscle contraction also leads to difficulty falling asleep, and rumination.
This view of relaxation is of course at odds with the mainstream cultural belief that
holds that relaxation will be the result of either accomplishing enough
(attainment), or holding the right thoughts ('figuring it out'). If one starts working
with the body, however, personal experience is usually convincing about what really
provides relaxation.
Muscles that are weak and chronically lengthened must be allowed to shorten and
gently exercised in a way that does not keep over lengthening them. This is truly
tricky. A traditional physical therapy way is to apply a brace that limits the range of
motion for that muscle, but bracing is overseen by the medical field and truly out of
fashion there. What may in fact be best for overstretched muscles is alignment as
discussed below.
Yogasana is a process obviously aimed toward tuning muscles to optimal length,
strength and tension. However, the instructional tradition s geared to a body that is
not too far from the optimal already. The overwhelming number of modern
American bodies, even aerobically fit ones, are not prepared for it and struggle in
yoga class, receiving an endorphin response but not re-alignment. An investment in
true Pilates studio work is well worth it, because this is a truly remedial focus. .
Release: Muscles that are chronically short must lengthen again to relax and be
ready for satisfying movement. In bodywork this is sometimes called 'release', and I'd
like to group it into nine general strategies for releasing shortened muscles:
1. stretching
3. employing vibration
5. warming
6. direct massage
7. improving alignment
9. visualization
Exercise Moderate exercise will discharge tension from a muscle, and the muscle, in
restoring itself, will replenish itself with energy and lengthen. If there was a modest
contraction from stress in the first place, the end result will usually be less
contraction than when the exercise was started. That is why office workers usually
feel more relaxed after working out or taking a walk. The first stages of 'Progressive
relaxation' , in which muscles are isometrically contracted and then 'let go', is based
on this.
Heavy exercise may be a different matter. When the body is stressed cardio-
vascularly, muscles that do not need to tighten usually do anyway. Joseph
Pilates felt strongly that strong exertion was bad for body conditioning. Many
amateur joggers develop a great deal of muscle shortening, and often some postural
distortion, as everyday observation will show. Heavy “cardio” will produce
exhilaration, but this is from endorphins. Endorphins act like opiates, that is,
they dissociate the mind from how the body feels. The endorphin response seems
safe enough as opiate responses go—it is self-limiting. Still opiates seem to increase
contraction in the long run. Of course, vigorous exercise can have positive effects on
heart health and weight etc..., and can be paired with appropriate measures to keep
muscles lengthened.
Vibration A tense muscle will start to vibrate coarsely as it lets go. There is some
belief that vibrating the body coarsely with voluntary movements or externally
applied vibration can induce muscle lengthening and relaxation. In the Reich and
Lowen tradition, vibration is also an end in itself, a basic life process. The basic
Lowenian bioenergetic positions are stress positions that stretch large muscles and
allow for vibration to occur. Therapists that work with trauma, such as Peter Levine,
have recognized “shaking” as a basic recovery mechanism in all 'higher' animals. The
Trauma Release Exercises ® of David Bercelli is a sequence of seven exercises
intended to induce vibration in the psoas.
Warming Applying low heat directly to muscles will relax them. This method has
the advantage that it does not require skill, with common sense it cannot be done
wrong. It is possible to affect core muscles also, although the body will resist much
change in core temperature. Hot-tubs, saunas, and sunbathing are all tradition
methods of relaxation with heat. 'Hot” or Bikram yoga seeks a synergy with heat and
stretch.
Massage Tight contracted muscle relax with massage. There are three aspects of
this. One, pleasureable massage releases oxytocin, which is a general relaxant. Two,
skilled massage can produce considerable local warmth in a muscle, which relaxes it.
Third, applying pressure perpendicular to contracted muscle fibers 'forces' them to
relax. This third type of massage is painful, at least until the muscle relaxes. Reich
and Lowen themselves were both known for this painful maneuver, which can
backfire if the participant does not really understand the reason for it. On the other
hand, it may be the only thing that works for some recalcitrant muscles. Massage is
particularly useful for the muscles of the mid- and upper-face, which cannot be
stretched. Trigger point massage can be very effective, since chronic muscle
tension is not homogenous, but bunches close to the motor endplate.
Alignment Undue contraction in one muscle or group throws the body out of
balance and other muscles must become contracted just to provide a semblance of
balance. If a person can be 'put' into a good enough alignment, a multi-location
release might be possible. This seems to be a premise of Rolfing, Hatha yoga, and
Feldenkreis.
Emotional Expression Both Reich and Lowen sought true emotional expression
as a goal of therapy. Lowen however, developed the principle that emotional
expression was also a way to release muscle tension, and in fact is a necessary
adjunct to sustain gains. However, a distinction must be made between catharsis and
true integrated expression. A cathartic outburst is seen by the ego as an aberration
and not really true for the person. Only when the expression both involves the body
(eyes, face, hands, voice, etc) and is seen by the ego as true for the person, can self-
expression provide a release psychologically and muscularly.
Visualization Visualizing seems to be able to 'get to' underlying mental beliefs that
are holding muscles tight, not by directly opposing them but by substituting a
different subconscious guidance.
Differentiation of Response
Differentiation of response is the ability to activate and move only those parts of the
body that one wants to, or only those parts necessary to perform the action intended,
or only those parts that are satisfying to move. Differentiation includes avoiding
static (isometric) contraction if it is not necessary. It is comprised of only using those
muscles necessary and only when necessary, and also includes using only the force
necessary for the action (accomplished by differentiation of motor units within a
muscle). Differentiation has both conscious and unconscious aspects. It implies an
integration of primitive and conditioned reflexes as well as an integration of reflexes
with volitional movement. Differentiation is inter-related with sensory
discrimination. Differentiation is what Joseph Pilates called 'control' and it is not a
mistake that he called his method 'Contrology.' Pilates believed differentiation was
the key to health and satisfaction.
Fine motor control is a less exact term that covers the concept of differentiation
partly. "fine motor control' means being able to control movements well enough to
perform activities of daily living, with an emphasis on the use of the hands.
Babies are born with little motor control and little differentiation. Sufficient
differentiation is related to the ability to start and stop something. Impulsiveness is
related to poor motor differentiation. Clumsiness arises from among other things,
using full contraction of muscles--some fully contracted muscles initiate movement,
and other fully contracted muscles are used as opposing brakes to stop the motion
This understandably is wasteful of energy. Movements are jerky and without a sense
of ease. As Moishe Feldenkreis pointed out, full contraction blocks sensitivity and
therefore learning (learning that involves motor tasks of course, but by extension,
emotional learning) Thus the developmental arrest becomes self-perpetuating.
To understand this further, think first of a friendly game of 'catch' with two children
throwing a baseball back and forth. An early defensive reflex to the sight of the ball
coming towards one is to curl into as small of a space as one can so as to avoid
getting hit. A somewhat more discriminative reflex is to block or bat the ball away.
An even more discriminative reflex is to desire the ball and instinctively reach for it.
None of this has to do with conscious choosing. The defensive child will conscious
choose to take action to catch the ball and consciously inhibit the reflex to duck or
swat it away. This will result is less coordination, less success, and and absence of
real pleasure. There will be a mental pleasure of sorts when the defensive child does
overcome the difficulty and does catch the ball, but this is less secure, and it doesn't
set further discrimination in motion.
High sensory defensiveness impedes sensory integration, which is the ability to work
in two sensory channels at the same time in a coordinated way. For instance if I am a
building crane operator, I am expected to hear radioed instructions in my ear at the
same time that I am feathering the control levers using proprioception. If my sensory
integration is low, I must stop all movement, 'get what was said' restart the arm
movement, stop the arm movement when I hear something else (even if the
instruction was not to stop) ask the speaker to repeat what was said, 'get' what was
said, start the arm again, etc.. Also because of muscle tightening caused by some level
of bodily alarm, my fine motor control will be impaired.
High arousal or an increase in sympathetic tone will push all people back
toward sensory defensiveness (byJackson-ian dissolution)
The sheer volitional element in the function of the muscular system is governed by
the alpha neuron system. The flow and grace of muscular action is governed by the
gamma neuron system
The alpha system comprises what is generally thought of as the voluntary motor
system. It carries out the conscious instrumental intent of the person, and for that
reason monopolizes the intention of mainstream physiology. Alpha neurons are
responsible for the force of contraction, but movement controlled by the alpha
system alone is jerky.
The gamma motor system is associated with muscle spindles and golgi complexes
which are the tension control system of the muscle, and the proprioceptive and
kinesthetic systems for the body. The gamma system both sets resting muscle tone
and importantly adjusts dynamically muscle tension during instrumental contraction
by interacting with the alpha system. This both smooths out and 'corrects'
movement, allowing for 'fine motor control.'
It is the gamma system that is connected to the limbic and autonomic systems.
That is, the gamma system provides the emotional aspect of movement. For
instance, fright or embarrassment will make movements choppy or
awkward. Sympathetic shift also causes poor motor control and clumsiness. Most
clumsiness is caused by a lack of harmony between alpha and gamma systems due
to suppression and neuro-muscular development being limited by early
environmental negation
Where the feeling state of the body is both open and salutary, movements are
graceful, and this is the contribution of the gamma system. Grace is not just an
observational phenomenon, but a biological act. That is, gamma qualities of
movement not only convey feeling but actually discharge the tension of emotion.
Dance is an activity that, while it employs (like all movement) the alpha system, its
whole purpose in working the gamma system. There is no instrumental objective of
the movement, it is for pleasure. Ballet is a well-known example, but in the arts,
Duncan dance is perhaps the epitome of this. In popular dance, Latin dances such as
the samba are an example.
Psycho-motor learning relies on the sensory feedback through the muscle spindles
and gamma system. Alpha dominated movement is also usually performed at full
contraction which defeats sensitivity. That is why clumsiness does not yield to mere
practice. In fact, sheer repetition of alpha dominated movements reinforces
clumsiness. This is because overly willed and desperate 'flung' movements
undermine the gamma system more. Our culture is increasingly relying
on pushbutton technology which depends on instrumental intent and the quality of
execution is almost irrelevant. This is possibly both a response to, and an accelerant
toward, gamma impoverishment.
Jack Willis was a body psychotherapist whom I never met or communicated with. I
have come across a book of his which is an immense resource for bodywork practices.
This book is available as a free downloadable file with a very liberal copyright thanks
to the generosity of the late author. The first half seems to be the closest exposition of
Reich's 'original' technique that I have found available in print, and it is a very clear
and sensitive discussion of how bodywork fits into a responsible process of change.
The second half of the book is a very strong critique of the theoretical positions of
Reich and Lowen, which is all the more valuable coming from someone sympathetic
to their aims and basic approach. The current website is reichiantherapy.info and
includes both the text file and some audio files.
Imposition and Correction
In self-directed work, the act of imposition does not arise, but in any deliberate
relationship--therapist-client, guru- disciple, trainer-trainee, it may. Imposition is
the 'expert' introducing any technique or topic that doesn't come naturally from the
participant. Strong bodywork is by definition of this category. In times and in small
communities where bodywork is fashionable, it may be requested by the participant.
But most commonly, participants will be directed to sensory and kinesiological
activities because the 'expert' wants to change their experience. The Reich and Lowen
tradition started with a great deal of probing and poking in the setting of minimal
clothing. This is the format of most medical exams, but given the sensitivity of the
subjects and the duration of the treatment, this can be invasive.
And then there is the practice of correction. This sets the therapist up as an expert.
Attempting a correction of the participant's ideas is usually socially acceptable but
therapeutically ineffective. Correcting the body makes a nice end-run around the ego,
although the ego can hit back indirectly if the participants feels shame and avoids
bodywork. Generally the more benefit to be had by bodywork, the more the person'e
ego hates its body. Bodywork literally and physically can seem to be "hitting below
the belt."
Most active bodywork boils down to doing a movement a new way. But for
an adult, the old way is well established neuro-muscularly. Thus, unlike a child
learning to walk at the appropriate jucncture, an adult has a much greater difficulty
learning something new. It is not just a question of willingness to move a new way,
but the capacity. In body work the strongest nerves and muscles will highjack the
movement. . If there is a coach or guide, then he or she must constantly block the
movement to keep it from being done in the old way.
On a matter-of-fact basis, imposition and correction are the very reasons why
someone pays or employs a therapist or trainer. Realistically though, most people
only want to be told to do what they already believe they should do.
However, if the change to be effected includes a harmonizing of the person, then
imposition is a sort of paradox. It is famously Carl Rogers and other humanists'
position that all imposition and correction was to be avoided. Reich and Lowen work
is notably non-Rogerian! It is 'corrective. Body psychotherapy has been attempted on
a permissive basis and the results fall short. Even if one is taking on the practices in
this section on one's own initiative, it is a self-imposed attempt at correction. This
dilemma can never be settled in a philosophically pure way. Imposition needs to kept
in mind but not feared.
Morton's Foot
Human stability in the standing position has many elements, one of which is a
triangle in the foot formed by the heel bone and the metatarsal heads of the first (big)
and fifth (little) toe. In the optimal condition, the middle metatarsal heads of the feet
do not contact the ground before the first and fifth, and so when planting the foot,
the ankle is stable.
However, quite commonly, the second metatarsal head does contact the ground
before the first, forming a de facto smaller triangular base with the heel and fifth
metatarsal head. This is Morton's Foot (or Morton's toe, after the fact that the second
toe usually extends farther than the first toe). The result is disastrous for balance.
This is because in proper standing alignment, a great deal of force is exerted along
the the vertical plane formed between the heel and the first toe. The result is, that
instead of standing on platforms, the person is standing on something akin to ice
skates. Wobbliness is a constant feature. The condition is even more conspicuous
when barefoot, since shoes partly compensate. Over-pronation, and distortions in the
ankle and knee, ensue in an attempt to compensate. This has profound
repercussions in feelings of security, love, and aggression. The passive
back-on-the-heels stance may in fact be in part compensatory for Morton's foot.
The root cause is generally felt to be a second metatarsal bone which is too long and
therefore unavoidably contacts the ground before the first. Whether this inauspicious
length is due to genetic or developmental factors is not proven. My guess is that early
development (which proceeds in humans from head first to feet last) has something
to do with it. It seems that work to develop a higher more natural arch can ameliorate
the instability and effect on balance which have such far-reaching consequences.
Immobility or Stillness
As Peter Levine points out, freeze and immobility are not the
same. Freezing is an involuntary state of the musculature enforced by the dorsal
vagal system during a time of great distress. During freezing, mental and emotional
clarity is impaired and biochemically the body is undergoing oxidative and
adrenergic stress. Immobility on the other hand, is a voluntarily entered state
associated with clarity and serenity. Immobility plays a role in hypnotic trance,
meditation, the moment of falling asleep, surrender, and part of sex, at least in the
receptive role of sex.
An altered state refers to an altered psychological state, not an altered bodily state.
An alteration of bodily functioning may underlie the altered psychological state, but
this temporary bodily functioning is not balanced, as in growth into a new
homeostatic point, but rather imbalanced, as in a physical derangement that is not
sustainable, although it may be safe for short periods.
Altered states are termed such because they are discontinuous with the
habitual psychological functioning of the participant. As such they provide a
different experience. A different experience of course can be helpful to growth by
loosening or destructuring limiting aspects in the character. Altered states are less
helpful in restructuring satisfying adult functioning. The very discontinuity
makes it difficult to integrate
The Reich and Lowen tradition is based on enlarging experience, and in the sixties
and seventies, it was brought into a group format, and the kinesiological techniques
were combined with experiential techniques that are the mainstay of large group
workshops. Deliberate strong manipulated experiences however, are not
the core of the tradition. Rather new experiences are meant to be incremental
ones of increased feeling that could be integrated into daily life as they arose.
Altered states can give the illusion of breakthrough without undertaking the working
through that real change requires. Insights may be exciting but not actually
implementable in real life. Altered states can help 'shake loose' a rigid stance but the
window of benefit is fairly short before re-rigidification and habituation take place.
Frequent experience of altered states can weaken grounding.
Athleticism
A distinction is to be made between a truly healthy state of the body, and a distortion
that can be called athleticism. Athleticism aims towards the outer look of a body,
especially a controlled, hard-bodied look, strength, and a low fat percentage. The
feel of the body is lost. This is essentially a ego-driven state. Often injuries result
because joints are compressed, and the body is driven too hard to accomplished
extreme maneuvers.
If one watches video of Olympic gymnasts from the 1960's and compares it to
gymnasts from this century, the difference is stark. In the past, gymnastics has been
modeled on gracefulness of movement. Now it is is based on strength and
extremeness of the movement. It is no longer enjoyable to watch apart from the
competition
Body-mind unity is a foundational principle of the Reich and Lowen tradition, and so
there is no way that kinesiology and the psychology becomes very decoupled. A truly
athletic body will be healthier emotionally than most bodies. However there is
another degree of distortion, the hard-body which is modeled after the athletic body
but which may not be very athletic in terms of agility, balance, responsiveness or
gracefulness. Cardio and resistance training can harden muscles and decrease fat-
percentage without addressing movement, poise, footing, breathing, or body unity.
Humility
Humility involves the understanding that one exists and lives in a natural order that
is greater than the human will and ego. While humility involves this understanding,
it is not just the understanding but the practice of living in accord with this natural
order. This is to be distinguished from self-deprecation, which is the comparing
oneself (often disingenuously) to perfection (an unnatural concept), always with the
implication that a failure of will is to blame.
Many people come to believe in a supernatural order. This belief promotes humility
if one accepts that one is still part of a natural order, subject to nature and then also
perhaps the supernatural. Too often however, the human ego and will deems itself
part of the supernatural order, and above the natural.
Loss of humility is loss of the body. To succeed in bodywork, one must be genuinely
curious as to how the body actually works. All the practices in this section can only
work if enough humility is present so that the will can bow out at some point and let
nature work.
Hormesis
Hormesis describes a process where the effect of a chemical, substance, force, or field
is beneficial to an organism through one range of doses, and harmful through
another range. Usually lower doses are increasingly beneficial to a threshold where
they become harmful. An example is the sun, where lower doses are beneficial, and
very high doses harmful. Salt is another example.
Hormesis is an interactive process, and so the optimal level is always going to vary
according to the person. Because of this, determing the safe dose objectively for all
people with certainty is difficult. Now, people should be able to regulate themselves
and their intakes by how they feel. Our culture however, insists that people should
look outside themselves for knowledge of what is good for them. This results in a
finding of 'no safe dose' and the demonization of such traditional adjuncts to health
as sun, salt, sauna, etc..
Play versus Diversion
Play in this sense is more than just something enjoyable, although enjoyment is
necessary. Play is a way to get out of the past and future and into the
present. Play overcomes the physical and psychological feeling of 'having no
options.' Play is an end to itself. However in this discussion of living with purpose
and feeling, play is being recommended as a means to an end also. It will be
necessary to just hold that paradox, it cannot be resolved. Play has the following
elements:
Play exists as an island, that is, it is unrelated to what came before, and is
unrelated to what will come after. In this way, it frees the person.
Play is spontaneous. A time to begin play may be planned, but planning play
takes all the 'play' out of it.
Play may involve pretending but not fantasy. That is, play is associative not
dissociative. In pretending a person tries to feel a different
circumstance and can interact with others on that basis. A person
having a fantasy has little real feeling, and does not interact. If others are
involved at all in a fantasy, it is as props.
Time stops. That is, one is not conscious of 'time pressure' and there is no
feeling of waiting.
Play has no desired outcome. No one keeps score, or at least no one retains the
score outside the 'island' of the play
Play may be a game but not all games are play. Even an enjoyable game is not
play if it is pursued 'seriously' or as a consistent hobby or practice.
When the subject of play comes up, a word has to be said about
competition. Competition can be play if the elements of play listed above are
present, especially the idea of play or competition existing as an island. What gives
competition a bad name is 'permanent' competition', such as in a career or business.
Constant striving to be the 'best' is an attempt to be lovable by being special. Day and
night 'competition' like this is really more like vigilance, and it causes a contraction,
unlike the opening up that happens with the 'playing one's heart out' in the moment
that competition is meant to be. On a basketball court say, to be competitive is to be
very aware of the present environment, but in a career spanning years, to be
competitive is to focus on a few things and miss many other things.
Also, those of us who have trouble with healthy aggression have trouble with
competition. If there is not a strong sense of self, and if self-nourishment is
restricted, competitive situation will lead to withdraw and freezing up. Secondarily to
this, there is an ideology against competition which asserts play should be
cooperative but not competitive. This comes from a confusion of aggression with
violence, and a confusion of playful competition with permanent competition
Consistency
What is effective is to incorporate one practice at a time and just let it become "what
one does." It is important to stop frequent 'self-measurement', because the
tension that brings to the practice usually undermines the practice. As
changes do occur, others will inform the participant. Self assessments tend to be
distorted.
Hydration
The idea that drinking lots of water (hydration) is important is not controversial.
Why then include hydration as an exercise? Well, most people remain dehydrated.
The function of the body that keeps physical systems balanced (homeostasis) is
capable, under chronic stress, of slipping the 'targets' to less balanced levels
(allostasis). Under chronic dehydration, the 'balance point' is set 'drier'. This means
that if someone chronically de-hydrated drinks water, as he or she should, more
urine and light urine will start to be produced before optimal hydration. In this case,
if urine output is used for a guide, drinking water will stop before optimal hydration.
Also in chronic de-hydration, thirst tends to drop off or become less of a message to
the person.
Use of the will, and stress lead to dehydration because they 'override' the natural self-
nourishing impulses of the body. After a time of not honoring thirst, thirst is no
longer felt.
Salt intake may be unnecessarily curbed, making it hard for stressed adrenals to
maintain good water balance. See works on the (controversial) concept of adrenal
fatigue.
There is a common comfort practice that perhaps gives hydration a mild stigma in
the general culture. That is the practice of bringing a water bottle with a nipple
around with one everywhere, keeping it on one's person at all times, and taking an
occasional a small sip, especially before deciding to do something, or complying with
a request. In hydration, there is no reason not to drink a glass or more at a time. The
sipping behavior may not amount to much total intake, and the interpersonal timing
suggests it is substitute oral gratification. Sipping may help with a dry mouth (from
fear and sympathetic shift), and of course comforting is a necessary part of life,
but in the popular imagination, hydration is wrongly associated with regression.
Penmanship
This can be as simple as writing in cursive for pleasure or for the experience. Writing
what is important, meaningful, and truly felt is important. A certain minimum
quality of movement is part of the experience, but perfection is not required. By
contrast, printing does not allow for 'flow', and typing of course is resorting
to pushbutton control.
Rationale: The use of 'fine motor control' simultaneously with language has some
role in harmonizing heart, body and mind. Penmanship was traditionally understood
as primarily a way to aid neuro-muscular development and only secondarily as a tool
of communication. A stressed child cannot write very legibly, and since most children
now are stressed, penmanship is abandoned as unfeasible and punitive. This
eliminates a chance for people to have in their daily lives both a visual monitor of
emotional state and a means of expressing that emotional state. Mere word choice is
only a partial release of emotional tensuion. The 'old-fashioned' practice of thank-
you letters made sense only if they were handwritten, in that way, they consolidated
the relationship.
Natural Awakening
Rationale The natural sleep wake rhythms of the body varies according to the
season and latitude. Awakening according to an alarm clock independent of human
rhythms may seem 'efficient' but it stresses the sympathetico-adrenal system. Of
course many people stay up late at night because they are unnaturally stimulating the
body with alcohol, bright lights, television, etc.. Natural awakening will influence
natural going to sleep also.
Brain Button
Sit or stand in a non-slouched posture. Place one hand over the navel. With
fingertips of the other hand, rub the space between the first and second ribs (just
under the collarbones) on either side of the sternum.
Rationale: This perhaps works by the lower hand stimulating the vestibular system
(via the solar plexus) and the upper hand stimulating the carotid baroreceptors
(causing a mild parasympathetic shift)
Stand in a non-slouched posture. Slowly start walking in place, lifting the knees and
swinging the arms. Try touching the left knee with the right elbow, then the right
knee with the left elbow (most adults will not be able to do this, but wrist or forearm
may be able to touch.
Rationale: Cross body movement of all kinds strengthens the corpus callosum
between the sides of the brain. The challenge to balance stimulates the vestibular
system, and the slow movement requires the involvement of the fine motor system.
Hook-Ups
Starting in a standing position, cross one ankle over the other. Keep kness slightly
bent. Then hold both arms out straight from the body, with palms facing the sides of
the body. Then cross the wrists so that the palms are touching. Then rotate the
clapsed hands into the body so that they end up on the chest with the elbows
pointing down. While in this position, rest the tongue on the roof of the mouth
behind the teeth.This can be done sitting or lying down as well but if done standing,
it will challenge balance more. For greater challenge, do it with eyes closed.
Rationale: Cross body movement of all kinds strengthens the corpus callosum
between the sides of the brain. The challenge to balance stimulates the vestibular
system. The tongue movemnent interrupts a reflex tongue thrust that the challenge
to the balance stimulates, and also perhaps helps to integrate the brain stem with the
limbic system. Those with poor balance tend to over-use the vision system to keep
balance, so closing the eyes lets the vestibular system engage more. The vestibular
system should be supporting eye movement, not the other way around.
The Elephant
Standing, with knees slightly bent, first hold the left ear against the left shoulder.
Then extend the left arm straight out. Have the eyes follow the line of the arm,
looking out past the finger tips. Trace an omega sign ( figure eight ) with eyes
following the movement. Move slowly. Repeat on other side.
Rationale: Cross body movement of all kinds strengthens the corpus callosum
between the sides of the brain. The challenge to balance stimulates the vestibular
system, and the slow movement requires the involvement of the fine motor system.
This exercise also helps eye tracking.
Hitting
This exercise is meant to originate from the shoulder blades or lower on the back. It
is a great complement to towel twisting exercises that use the grip and arm
muscles more. In folk practice, chopping wood has fulfilled this purpose, but sharp
instruments and emotions should not mix.
Laying supine on a mat or mattress, the participant raises the arm and legs and slams
them back on the mat rapidly, allowing the head to swing and vocalizing. If nothing
comes immediately to mind, "no" is a good start. The goal is free and unfettered
expression so guidance isn't called for. The participant should continue until
exhausted. Then the participant should lay still on her or his back until recovered,
several minutes usually. This is a powerful exercise that brings up a lot of archaic
feeling and generally leads to some regression. It generally should not be done alone.
Alexander Lowen used this exercise diagnostically as well but that is not the concern
of the participant.
Kicking (Forward)
The participant from a standing position kicks forward into a foam cube or a
mattress up-ended against a wall. Just as in hitting the movement should originate in
the back, in kicking, the movement should originate in the hips and pelvis.
Punching
The participant simply makes two fists and punches an upended mattress, punching
bag, or other cushion. As a variation, punches can be aimed a catcher's mitt on the
hand of an assistant, who may also role-play a provocative or demeaning person.
Gloves may be wise, to protect the hands.
Rationale: Loosens up the back muscles, similar to hitting. The unambiguously
aggressive nature of this exercise makes it offensive to some.
Source: The tradition of boxing of course has made using a punching bag famous.
Collapse
First a folded blanket or mat is placed in front of the participant. Then the
participant lifts one leg up and behind. It's fine to lightly grip something for balance
since this is not a balance exercise. The participant then stands one leg as long as
possible, finally buckling and collapsing involuntarily. The trick is to avoid
voluntarily dropping at the end (to maintain control) but rather to allow the process
to complete with an involuntary fall. Pain arises toward the end--this is unavoidable
but not the objective. The exercise can be enhanced by the participant saying "I won't
fall, I won't ..."
Wall Sitting
Here the participant stands with feet hip width apart near a wall. He or she places his
or her back on the wall and slides down until the thighs are parallel to the floor and
the feet are directly under the knees or slightly farther out from the wall. Some
combination of non-skid footwear and floor surface is necessary. The participant
maintains the posture either until trembling is induced, or involuntary collapse
(which tends to be a slide to the floor because the back still provides some braking).
Informally this is also known as the 'block buster.'
Rationale: This exercise has a dual purpose. Because it exhausts the adductor and
iliopsoas muscles, it can be an excellent preparation for working further with the
pelvis, or relieving tension there. Also because it can be held until involuntary
collapse, it can be an 'ego-shrinker.'
Source: Alexander Lowen
Profanity
This is simply using the words "fuck" and "shit" in one's first language, not
gratuitously but when the impulse arises. At first it may be necessary to allow the
suppressed impulse to arise. Other words may suggest themselves, what is profane
varies slightly from community to community. For instance, "ass" may or may not be
considered profane. In sex, referring to what is happening with the simple words that
suggest themselves is known as 'talking dirty' and usually enhances arousal for the
reasons mentioned in the rationale.
Profanity gets intangled with two other issues, misogyny and swearing. Misogyny is
using the sexual aspects of a woman to demean or dehumanize her. This is a matter
of attitude not word choice. Swearing is using the name of a diety or of the sacred "in
vain" or characterized by 'wordly' motives. Neither misogyny or swearing is necessary
in the use of profanity. To call sexual matters 'sacred' just to mandate euphemism
and indirectness is a misuse of the term sacred.
Although the biological benefits of profanity are easy to demonstrate with self-
experiment, social mores are strongly against it, and punishment may ensue. Social
context is relevant. However, the compellingness of profanity gives rise to a split in
practice. For instance, children hear swearing frequently 'accidentally' but should a
speaker seem to do it deliberately, it is a case for censure. To insist children wait until
18 to use profanity makes no biological sense.
Rationale: Basic profanity connects the limbic areas of the brain with cortical areas.
This connection is often tenuous. Where profanity is non-stop and compulsive, the
connection is weak and the limbic area tends to intrude in behavior 'ungoverned'
Where profanity is absent or strongly inhibited, the connection is weak and behavior
is emotionless. What is desireable is a balance. Trying to avoid profanity or the most
basic words for anatomy in sexual activity is an act of inhibition that inhibits arousal
overall. There is a link between the suppression of profanity and the supression of
sex. Profanity can constitute a discharge that helps incrementally to limit kindling.
There will not doubt be many who find this practice unpalatable or wrong
nonetheless. It is of course inessential. The intended benefit, as with all these
practices, is to increase harmony within the person and if this practice does not seem
natural fairly quickly, then that goal is not achieved.
Source: Folkwisdom although this has been studied for instance see: Stephens, R. &
Umland, C. (2011). Swearing as a response to pain – effect of daily swearing
frequency. Journal of Pain, 12, 1274-1281. doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2011.09.004
Relaxation
Trance Induction
Conscious Intention
Source: Many
Autogenic Training
Biofeedback
Biofeedback as an 'exercise' comes from a world view very different from the Reich
and Lowen tradition. Biofeedback has two somewhat mechanistic elements: 1) The
will or conscious decisional capacity is employed directly to make the desired
changes in the vegetative system happen, and 2) A non-human instrument is
inserted in the loop of self regulation.
The real role of the instrument seems to be to make the process more
controllable to the ego. This has the advantage of making it more acceptable to
people not ready to let go, but it has the disadvantage of avoiding perhaps, the
experience of letting go.
Grounding
The arch of most people is too flat and not 'moveable' enough. This contributes to 1)
a cascade of misalignments throughout the rest of the body, 2) poor balance 3)
painful feet, and 4) feeling insecure. A 'collapsed' arch can lead to foot 'pronation'
(as the bottoms of the feet are turned away towards each other) or less commonly
foot 'supination' (the bottoms of the feet are turned toward each other) but the basic
arch problem is the same.
The exercise is simply placing a golf ball on the ground or floor, and stepping on it
lightly with the arch of one foot and increasing weight while rolling the ball slightly.
After a time the golf ball is used with the other foot. It helps to try to 'shorten' the
foot front to back (without curling toes) and also to try to get both the heel and the
ball of the foot to touch the floor. A dowel has often been used for the same purpose
but a golf ball allows for more natural shaping
Rationale: The function of the foot to provide grounding and security relies of a
good flexible arch which suspends a fascial sheet like a bow. When this sheet is not
under proper tension, all walking is painful and barefoot walking in particular. In
this exercise a rather direct course is taken to reshape the bony arch.
Walking Barefoot
Simply walk barefoot outdoors. Start with lush grass and sandy beaches. Venture out
into other textures. As the feet loosen up, even gravel, concrete and asphalt can be
comfortable.
Rationale there is an erroneous belief that indigenous people that did not wear
shoes were able to do so because of thick callous. This is not true. It is possible to
walk on rough surfaces comfortably when the fascial sling at the bottom of the foot is
flexible and can conform to the shape of rocks and other rough surfaces below.
Barefoot walking makes the feet more sensitive (as in awareness not pain) and the
walker more aware of surroundings.
Calf Standing
Stand about one foot from a sturdy piece of furniture, with bare feet about shoulder
width apart and parallel. Bend knees several inches. Then, lightly touching the
furniture with one or two hands only for balance, lift up onto the toes. If possible be
only on the toes and the far end of the balls of the feet with the heels as hard as
possible. Keep weight on the legs, the arms are only for balance. Try to maintain the
position until the legs are shaking and perhaps a light burn is felt in the calf. Then
stand up and sense, from the inside, how the feet feel against the ground.
Rationale: The tendon guarding reflex (TGR) affects most of the large extensor
muscles in the body. It is a protective reflex stimulated by the sense of danger. If
chronically activated from an early age it tends to shorten the calf muscles among
others. This can keep the heels off the ground when walking, although in adults two
postural distortions tend to develop which allow the heels to approximately touch the
ground 1) walking with 'splayed, everted feet, and 2) hyperextended locked knees
that allow the lower legs to angle back.
This exercise, like many Lowenian ones, works by over-powering, in this case, the
calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus). Standing on the toes exaggerates the TGR,
and the bent knees also works the calf muscles. When the position is ended, the calf
muscles reflexively relax and the heels sink more deeply into the ground. This
exercise works well together with gentle calf stretching. It also helps loosen tight feet.
Squatting Position
The squatting position is a resting position and therefore is an end in itself. Most
indigenous people have squatted and the few remaining indigenous cultures still do,
as do some people in Asia. 'Western' people do not squat and are believed by some to
be incapable of squatting. The benefit of squatting in childbirth and defecation is well
understood and documented, but will not be described here.
Children when very young squat. We are all born with 'squatting facets' on our tibia
and femur, but most Westerners lose these facets very early through disuse. The
value of regaining the ability to squat lies in it role as a complete mark of flexibility
and alignment. If a person is not flexible, not lengthened, and not aligned 'enough'
they will not feel balanced. The innate desire to feel balanced is a call to all the body
parts to 'fall in line'.
In casual use, the word squatting is sometimes used to describe a position in which a
person has the knees bent but the heels are well up off the ground and the knees are
spread far apart. This is position perhaps better termed a crouch. While a crouch
may represent and intermediate point in regaining flexibility, it should not be a
stopping point. A real squat is illustrated in the drawing above: feet are flat and
together, knees are together, the lower back is long.
It is not really necessary to give instructions on how to squat--the illustration is
sufficient. However, it may be take quite sometime with other exercises before it is
practical to attempt a squat at all. If attempted too early, squatting can hurt knees--
pain should be a guide. The greatest single impediment may be an ankle that cannot
dorsiflex enough. A useful exercise is the Half Squat, described below.
Balance Buttons
This may be done while standing, sitting or lying down. Place one hand over the
navel and with the fingers of the other hand press and/or massage the 'balance
buttons' which are located just above the indentation where the skull rests over the
neck, about one and one-half to two inches to each side of the back midline, and just
behind the mastoid area. Usually a person changes hands to more easily reach each
side. Keep the chin tucked in and keep the head level. Once comfortable with the
basic movement, try pressing the head back against the fingers.
Rationale: Stimulates the vestibular system and the oculomotor system. Also
stimulates reticular activating system. Lessens neck and jaw tension.
Stand with bare (or at least stocking) feet about 10 inches apart or slightly less than
shoulder width. Have the outside edge of the feet going straight ahead which will
make the inner edge of the feet appear to be angling in slightly toward each other.
Keep knees bent slightly. Bend over forward until fingertips lightly brush floor. Bend
the knees as much as needed to get hands to the floor. Use hands only for contact--do
not put any weight on them. Let the head drop as much as possible, that is, let the
head hang. Try to keep weight over the balls of the feet. If the heels are slightly off the
ground try pushing them down and simultaneously pushing the hips up by
straigtening the knees. Do not straighten knees all the way or lock them. Remember
to breath. Making sounds enhances the exercise. See if it is possible to curve the
upper torso. If the torso is too straight, balance will force the butt back behind the
feet, but as much as possible the hips should be over the feet. Allow any vibrations to
occur in the legs
Variation: Have a helper push down on the hips as you push hips up toward the
ceiling.
Letting the head go is very difficult for some people. It represents loss of control and
vulnerability. During the exercise, it is not possible to scan the surroundings for
possible threats.
Also gravity and stress tend to compress the body from top to bottom, and combined
with exercises that bend the other way, this exercise helps lengthen the body.
Increase in length helps with flexibility because it is partly the bunched up state of
the average body that is responsible for widespread inflexibility.
The Bow
Instructions: Stand with feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart, perhaps 18
inches. Keep the outside edges of the feet going straight forward (which will point the
toes inward somewhat). Make a loose fist with both hands and reach arms around to
push into the small of the back. Bend both knees deeply but keep heels on the floor.
Arch backward so that shoulders go back and pelvis goes forward. The shoulders
should end up directly above the heels Keep weight on the balls of the feet. Try to pull
the shoulders and elbow back to open up the chest.
The idea and ideal behind this exercise is to assume a smooth curve or 'bow' The goal
however, is not to 'perform' a shape. The goal is to induce tremors or vibration, which
may not happen for a considerable time. The position is never really comfortable for
anyone. Remember to breathe into the belly. Try to hold the position for at least a
minute. It is necessary to endure some discomfort because the difficulty of the
position is what is tiring the muscles and leading to loosening. Much discomfort
should be avoided because pain will just tighten muscles. Follow up with
the forward bend.
Rationale: This is a 'stress' position. Part of the way it works is 1) it will not be
comfortable at all until the muscles tighten and 2) as some of the unnecessarily
engaged muscles fatigue, it is possible that a person will sink into the position better.
The exercise also increases breathing, opens the chest. And it obviously challenges a
tight pelvis, especially one which is 'cocked back' (Lowen's term, referencing the
bottom of the pelvis) or said differently, tipped anteriorly (mainstream physical
therapy, referencing the top of the pelvis)
Just Standing
Make time without distractions to stand for twenty minutes. Standing with bare feet
and nothing to lean on. Scan the body and sense if the body feels aligned and
comfortable, or bent in places, pained and unstable. Experiment with allowing the
body to adjust. Do not over-try to be straight; instead, seek balance, real comfort and
ease.
It is clear that as modern people, we breath too rapidly. Rapid breathing is associated
with sympathetic shift, and shallow breathing is associated with dorsal shift.
Many people have breathing that is both rapid and shallow.
It is common for modern people to take 14-18 breaths per minute. An optimal breath
rate for vegetative balance is 6 breaths per minute or less. An important point to
make, is that 'holding' the breath is never advantageous. Instead each breath should
be longer, hence the concept of slowing breathing can be referred to as lengthening
the duration of the breath. This provides for the best oxygenation and the
most ventral shift.
1. Stand with knees slightly bent is preferable with tail bone tilted gently
forward. Or, supported by a small round pillow sit near the front edge of a
fairly hard surfaced chair, stool or arm of a couch, with your feet flat on the
floor. Both of these positions need an erect but not stiff posture.
2. Stand or sit "tallest" with your chin even with (or above) the horizon and
gently tucked in. If you stand, bend your knees slightly… to unlock them.
3. Lightly touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth and let your jaw relax.
4. Relax your belly. Let it hang down. Let go of any thought of having a "pot
belly" or not having “wash- board abs".
5. Place your thumbs over your kidneys (below your back ribs and above your
pelvis Wrap your fingers around your sides towards your belly button (as if
you are getting a front-to-back firm grip on “love handles” - or that general
area). Get a good grip by squeezing your fingers and thumbs together firmly
6. Then breathe through your nose (a long, slow, deep 3-count in-breath). Force
your squeezed fingers apart with your in-breath, against the tension in your
squeezed fingers. (Use the force of breathing-in to make your fingers and
thumbs expand.)
7. Then relax your grip and slow down the exhale so it lasts for a count of seven
(7). Never tighten the belly to extend the exhale. Simply slow the speed of the
out-breath. Always keep the belly relaxed.
Rationale: The lungs are smaller at the top. This means it’sless effective to only
breathe into the high chest because there’s very little lung volume there. The mid
chest and lower rear lung area are where the major breathing volume is located (the
back of the trunk from mid back to waist). This area allows the most expansion.
Tension in the low back tends to restrict expansion, so this activity will help access
that space.
Breath Counting
1) One breaths in a slow and relaxed manner, perhaps usually some other breathing
exercise which is compatible, 2) awareness is paid to the breath; if thoughts arise
they are gently set aside, 3) one counts up to five and then starts at one again. If one
has lost track, one simply starts at one again.
Rationale: The idea is to 'just breathe'. This tends to quiet and deepen and slow the
breathing, and brings awareness of tension and holding. Counting is often prescribed
for this purpose. Counting only to five and then returning to one provides an
attentional reset soon enough to help busy Western minds from drifting.
Source: ??
Feather Breathing
In this exercise, attention is paid only to the exhalation, not the inhalation. The
entirety of the exercise is to breath out through the nose imaging that there is a
feather just outside the nose. The intention is to disturb the fine hairs of the feather
as little as possible, without becoming uncomfortable.
Rationale Like many breathing exercises, the idea here is to lengthen exhalation
without being too mechanical about it. Leaving the inhalation alone is part of
interfering with natural breathing as litle as possible. Using the nose increases
awareness of breathing
Sit with reasonably good posture. Breathe normally through the nose and spend
some time becoming aware of your breathing without trying to change it or achieve
anything. Have an ordinary drinking straw ready in the hand. After the start of an
average exhalation put the straw to the lips and allow the air to pass through the
straw instead of the nose. Take the straw out just before the end and allow the last bit
of air to pass out the nose. Do not do this for every breath. After each 'pass' with the
straw, allow the breath to adjust in whatever way it will.
Rationale: This is a way to naturally prolong exhalation, which will also naturally
decrease the breaths per minute. The resistance posed by the straw also increase the
'back-pressure' which helps to keep the airways open and increase oxygen exchange.
Placing the straw after the start helps with avoiding gulping air in in anticipation of
having to 'blow it out. Removing it before the end helps avoid forcing the last bit of
air out unnaturally. There is a technique known as pursed lip breathing which has
some of the same goals, but when the lips are pursed it tightens many muscles
reflexively that are freer when the straw is used. Not using the straw each time avoids
over-adapting to an artificial situation. The benefit comes from triggering reflexes
and a possible 're-synching' of body rhythms.
Breathing must pause for swallowing to happen. Try a simple experiment, pause and
swallow first after exhalation, then pause and swallow after inhalation. Determine
which of the two you do habitually, it will feel the more natural.
Rationale: Swallowing after exhalation is easier, the thorax is relaxed and there is
less pressure in the mediastinum where the esophagus is. Taking a large breath and
holding it (to swallow) increases the pressure against swallowing. If the breath is
usually taken high in the chest, this is even more the case. Perhaps the tendency to
swallow after an in breath represents a fear of drowning or very poor attunement
during early feeding experiences.
Breathing.com
www.breathing.com
Anger
Twisting a Towel
Take a small turkish towel or hand towel. Twist it in the hands while expressing
anger with the voice and eyes also.
Rationale: Use of the arms and hands makes angry verbal expression more real.
Helps release tension in the back, shoulders, and especially wrists which tend to be
common blocking point
This exercise works well after the arms and shoulders are loosed up by other
exercises. Stand loosely, with feet about shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent,
and weight forward on the balls of the feet. Bend elbows, then raise out to the sides
until they are about shoulder height. Push elbows backwards as if warding off
someone, giving strong vocal expression to the phrase "Get off my back" or
something similar. Try to use the shoulder blades and upper back and not just the
arms.
Rationale: Anger is held in the upper back, and this exercise aims to free those
areas. Unlike forward movement of the arms, it is not possible to move the arms
behnd the body without using the upper corners of the torso, which are after all, the
beginning of the arms.
Nuzzling
This is just pushing and rubbing the face against the body of another living being.
Infants do this once they start crawling (unless prevented, which is upsetting to
contemplate) Adults can benefit from this as well, it is not just for other animals!
Rationale: Rubbing the face stimulates the ventral vagal system, (also known as
the social engagement system). One can do this to oneself, but contact and feeling is
increased if done with another 'energy system' (person).
The Lips
1) Lower Lip. Place the fingers of one hand on the chin. With move the lower lip back
and forth without moving the lower jaw (mandible) This will be harder than
predicted but the hand holding the chin will give feedback about how much the jaw is
moving. Try moving in all six directions (forward, backwards, up, down, right, and
left.) Upper Lip. Repeat the movements as for the lower lip, this time holding the
upper teeth to give feedback about the movement of the upper jaw. Then try holding
teeth closed and moving both lips as much as possible. Using a mirror can enhance
this.
2) With teeth open comfortably, open lips into a large "O" but not as wide as possible.
Try shrinking and enlarging the diameter of the "O" until a point is found where the
cheeks and lips tremble involuntarily. Let this happen a minute or two.
Rationale. The lips are not just padding for the opening of the jaw! They are
separate organs of contact in themselves. Most of us, when asked to move our lips
actually move our jaw instead, but that is missing quite a bit. Remember that lips
reach and embrace, and jaws bite! Don't make the lips a softer version of the teeth.
This is where kissing goes wrong for many. The lips of course are erogenous zones,
with tremendous potential sensitivity. The lips are understood to be an indication of
sexual feeling. Think of the famous scene in the movie Capablanca in which Lauren
Bacall teases Humphrey Bogart about his inability to whistle. Woof whistles speak to
this connection also. Whistling music has to be an excellent exercise for the lips, but
the attempt will be frustrating until much agility and control is gained. The jaws of
course do benefit from freeing also, but that is a separate freeing.
Source. Multiple
Eyes
Eye Tracking
Lazy 8's Stand or sit with good alignment. Take right hand and stick thumb out
while curling other four fingers Start with this thumb held about elbow's length from
and straight ahead of the bridge of the nose. Very slowly start tracing a sideways
eight or infinity sign moving from the right to left side of the body and above and
below eye level. Holding head still track with eyes only. Reverse direction and then
change hands.
Blue Light. This requires a helper. Sitting or standing or lying down in a dim room,
have the assistant move a penlight about two feet from your face. Follow the light
with the eyes only, not the head. The assistant should cross the the body midline and
move up and down, but can also move somewhat closer and farther. In this variation
there is no pattern, and changing speed and direction randomly is also part of the
exercise. The goal is to not take the eyes off the light, and to really see it all times. If
the assistant is a professional or observant, they might give prompts when attention
wanders.
Rationale: Eye tracking exercises help 'eye block' by getting eyes moving and
breaking up a stare. Eye tracking also gives constant feed back about 'losing track' of
an object, and dissociation tendencies, especially the phenomenon of pointing he
eyes forward but not really looking. Working with an assistant who moves randomly
requires greater attention. Working with one's own thumb provides an opportunity
to integrate proprioception and perhaps confront estrangement from one's own
body. The figure eight pattern cause the eyes to cross the midline strengthening the
corpus collosum and brain integration. It also stretches the extra-ocular muscles.
This is simply taking the time to close the eyes when safe to do so for any activity,
such as sitting quietly, exercising in place, listening, etc..
Rationale: Most threats are perceived by the eyes. In modern life the eyes are used
to scan the environment vigilantly. Using the eyes tend to shift to the sympathetic in
these conditions. Also, when the vestibular system is weak, the eyes are misused
to maintain balance as a primary system. It is true that ultimately, eye contact is the
pinnicle of contact, but most people today have very tight eyes that need a shift.
Without overdoing it, keep eye gaze down and out to the sides. This is relative to the
sockets--do not point the face down.
There are many obvious major challenges to growth: pain, lack of energy,
discouragement, trauma, addiction, limited present circumstances, etc.. However,
many commonly accepted ways of coping, if over-relied upon, become limits to
growth, and it is these common practices that this section is about. The task is not to
become 'pure' and avoid all instances of these challenges, but rather to understand
how they work, and weigh that with practices that provide true satisfaction.
Some of these coping strategies are reinforced by the culture at large, the intellectual
culture, and even the mainstream psycho-therapeutic culture. For instance most self-
help and self-improvement books focus on
the will, trying, reward, compensation, planning, and attainment. Most
mainstream therapies focus on elation, words and images, and also the will.
Popular culture focuses on pornography and the interesting. Spiritual traditions
may encourage, endgaining, quietism, purity, and a war on the senses. The
information economy emphasizes
the instant, fantasy, concentration, and dabbling. Political debate ping-pong's
between abstraction and objectification.
Vigilance versus Responsibility
Vigilance is really an attempt to avoid or bypass surprises large and small, and so
eliminate responsibility. Vigilance is realistic in a dangerous environment, but as a
lifestyle it leads to survivalism, sympathetic shift, controlling tendencies, high
arousal and pleasurelessness
It is clear that risk cannot be evaluated without understanding benefit. Our culture
seems to have some understanding about benefit in regards to 1) increase in material
goods, 2) increase in power, and 3) increase in survival. It has a very poor
understanding of benefits of health, because of no consensus or conception of a
healthy society or a healthy individual. There is a trend toward elaborate
expenditures in money time and attention to reduce known risks, without
considering the opportunity costs of diverting resources away from enriching
activities
Trying
Alexander Lowen referred to "the neurotic attitude of trying." Trying is more than
intending; it is engaging the voluntary and will system to try to force a result. Trying
makes sense if there are steps toward a result that have not yet been put into use, and
trying means taking effective steps that have not been taken up to that point.
But when all straight-forward steps have been taken, trying harder usually just
results in contraction of the body and of the mind. The result in the body
is disco-ordination, tense muscles, and sympathetic over-arousal, and
eventually depletion of the adrenal system. Lowen writes:*
The suppression of feeling is done by muscular contraction which places the body in
a state of tension. While the tension creates the drive, it also reduces the body's
energy through its restriction of respiration. The result is that persons who drive
themselves are headed for a breakdown. This analysis suggests only one way to
avoid illness, and that is by reversing the pattern of this culture. The drive or push
to succeed must be reduced, and the life of the body expressed through feeling must
be increased. We must realize that the drive for success is an attempt to compensate
for an inner sense of failure as a man or a woman. It is an effort to convince our
parents and the world that we are worth being loved despite the fact that we don't
feel lovable. But no matter how much we try nor how successful we become we
never arrive at feeling loving or lovable and we succumb to the despair we refuse to
acknowledge.
Trying works against new learning because, when it comes to the body and
movement, trying to do something different ironically reinforces what already exists.
In acting, there is a maxim that if one wants to play a drunk scene, one should
concentrate on being sober. That is, a drunken person trying to be sober actually
reinforces the drunkenness Similarly, a sober actor trying to act sober actually
pushes him or herself away from 'sober'. Said another way, a sober actor would
reinforce sobriety by trying to pretend to be drunk, because conscious effort stifles
change, even if the change can be imagined.
Trying is very compatible with, and in fact, often associated with 'underachievement.'
Trying to feel better, ironically, is often an impediment to feeling better. It is only
useful to put oneself 'at risk' of feeling better by engaging in pleasurable activities
without trying to force a result.
Trying in relationships also leads to an insensitivity to others. Most people
have had the experience of someone who 'tries too hard' to please or to be needed
and functions as a nuisance as a result. What most people want at bottom is love and
acceptance, and no amount of trying will obtain either.
Trying is also associated with fighting reality, since what one is trying to do is change
reality, but sometimes unrealistically. This generates stress where it need not be.
Ceasing to try all the time, does not lead to doing nothing, or to acting completely
randomly. On the contrary, taking a 'vacation' from trying allows feeling and
creativity to operate.
...it may seem that we back off from excellence because it is hard to achieve and
because it is a hard taskmaster once it is reached. But excellence and
ease can coexist; in fact they exist together far more readily than do excellence and
effort. It is easier to be excellent by being naturally expressive than it is by making
the enormous effort required to hold back
Will is a word that describes the ego's ability to overrule the body's
feelings and desires, including, at times, the desire to do nothing. The will
sets humans apart. The term strong-willed is a compliment, and perhaps it should
be. When the will is used, it should have a decisive effect.
Now truly, modern adult life is beset with many coercions and bribes that can seem
to dominate decision making, and distort greatly the idea of the innate agreeableness
of an activity. It is realistic to recognize this. At times, it is simply wise to conform to
strong social incentives, so that freedom may be even greater down the road.
However, divorcing decision-making too much from natural satisfactions
undermines feeling and purpose.
Very basic survival behavior, such as actual fight or actual flight is instinctive and not
use of the will. However, more complex survival behaviors, such as not fighting or
fleeing when that is the feeling, or pretending one is not upset when one is, are uses
of the will. Modern competitive living offers complex threats to which fight or flight
is rarely successful. Instead complex maneuvering divorced from instinctual or
straight-forward gratification comes to be seen as the essential task. This elevates
will power into a societally-endorsed trait. The continuous use of will power is
encouraged in our culture because it is believed to lead to the highest achievement,
(and the highest achievement is believed to lead to the highest happiness.)
Unlike desire, the will is all or none. Even though the will is often applied to arbitrary
mental targets, once it is set in motion there is a tendency not to recognize that the
inciting goal is no longer really needed or helpful. The term 'willful' is applied to a
person who cannot change goals dynamically as situations change. Willfulness
always leads to a tendency to try to control others and situations, rather than
respond to others and situations.
The all or none aspect of the will affects the nature of solutions that are
sought. 'The fix' is a will based image of a solution that can be chosen
instantly and which is powerful and obliterates the problem. The arena of
human healing has been taken over by the fix. In general medicine, 'the fix' is the
purportive power of one intervention to 'reverse' the problem. While this rarely
actually happens, it somehow remains as the pattern expected for 'help.' The
modality of the pill is an embodiment of 'the fix.' While even an effective pill may
need to work in the body over time, the decision to take it is instant and
unambiguous. Often people feel better just deciding to take or being prescribed a pill,
but this is the reward pathways of the brain and is not an effect that can be built
upon. Traditional healing strategies, on the other hand, support the life process, and
are not conceivable as 'obliterators' of problems. They can be chosen, but they cannot
operate as 'fixes' to bolster the ego's sense of control. They require on-going
attention, and tolerance of ambiguity. All the practices in the Reich and Lowen
tradition support the living process over time, none are 'fixes.'
Also, living by will leads to a continuous vigilance. The ego and the body are
constantly on the alert for external circumstances that threaten plans. This vigilance
leads to an exhaustion of body and spirit, and a sympathetic shift. It has been
shown that will-power rises and falls with blood sugar level. It is an interesting
question whether the explosion of diabetes in recent decades is tied to the increase of
will-based living.
"Freedom of the will” is a misnomer; what man has is a "freedom of the won't!”
Man can only block or impede or channel the radix flow, he cannot originate it.
Any given structure sets limits on function. Humans are no exception. The structure
of the human body determines limits. However, the human ego, if not in harmony
with the body may deny those limits. Technology can work around many limits,
helping to give the ego the illusion of limitlessness. When limits are denied, the
integrity of the structure is no longer respected. Limitlessness is partly described
by narcissism but there is another problem posed by limitlessness which is lack of
understanding where things come from or what they are a part of.
'Cut and paste' is a metaphor derived from computer manipulation of words and
images. Pieces and snippets are isolated from their origins and recombined on a
purely impressionistic basis. (This has been called post-modernism, but that term
has many other meanings). While this can provide a near limitless aesthetic
experience, it cannot provide a sound emotional or biological experience. The
elements that are affecting a person in body and mind are not set in any tradition or
context. People end up charged but with no understanding or feeling why, or how to
discharge, or how to interact with others in the same state. There is no way to
really become involved, heart, mind, or body.
Power is the socially-sanctioned ability to stop someone from doing what they want.
Secondarily power is the ability to get people to do what one wants because one can
punish or favor them. Authority on the other hand is the understanding in a
community that a person's opinion and actions carry great weight and should be
respected. If one goes against authority, one has the potential to be ostracized from a
community. If one goes against power, however, one has the potential to be
destroyed.
Authority and power has always existed in this world, but power has mostly been
used by a few such as kings. Community and family matters have tended to be settled
by authority. Now of course authority can and often is 'wrong' and can be abused. But
authority is based on an understanding of the needs, history and limits of the
community. Power, on the other hand, has no intrinsic limit. How power was
obtained is irrelevant to how it is used. Money is the perfect symbol of this; how it is
used is in no way tied to how it is obtained.
Money is the modern form of power. As everything becomes defined by money,
power usurps authority. Even if large amounts of money are obtained by accident or
birth, it still conveys to the holder, power over others. Political power is a strong
second. Even well-intentioned efforts to improve living by the exercise of power (i.e.
communism) weakens communities by obscuring limits.
Authority at least implies a relationship. Parents and teachers do not have the
authority they used to. That is, children do not listen to parents and teachers as if
those opinions had weight. Rather children assess the potential for reward and
punishment. But reward and punishment are issues of power, not authority. When
children and adult are in a power struggle, the limits, needs and structure of the
family or school are of course obliterated, because power, unlike authority, has no
embodiment of limits.
Conspicuous Consumption
As a people, we have been told, since World War II at least, that we must consume as
much as we can, and that we must consume an ever increasing amount for our
economy to survive. The idea is that the economy has no limit. But the economy is
based on human labor and on the planet. As consumption without limit is
encouraged, the structure of both the planet and humans is weakened. For
individuals, consumption becomes a substitute for constructive or community
activity. Generally, families used to be concerned with training children in
production. Consumption was thought to take care of itself. Now a great deal of
family attention is taken up with managing consumption. Not uncommonly children
learn consumption better than production, but can they be blamed?
There is belief becoming more operative that to truly celebrate or honor something,
the observance has to be bigger, more elaborate, or more expensive than previous
celebrations. In a family for instance, the weddings of the present generation might
be pointedly bigger than the weddings of the parents. In society at large, parades,
memorials, fireworks shows, etc.. are all designed with exceeding previous shows in
mind. Even olympic medals are trending larger, with the 2012 ones now actually out
of proportion to the human bodies they are supposed to adorn! Needless to say, taste
and beauty often go by the wayside. The statues on Easter Island come to mind.
Self-Deprecation
There seems to have been a great loss of humility. I do not mean just as seen in
grandiosity and narcissism. Humility is the understanding that one lives in a
natural world and a large human community, and that one's
contributions are real but do not skirt natural laws and are supported by
many other forces not of ones' doing. In humility, one appreciates where things
come from. The idea of limits is built in.
Self-deprecation, on the other hand, is apologizing for not being perfect.
It is based on the erroneous idea that if one applied oneself properly, perfection
could be obtained. It denies limits, or at least the applicability of limits to oneself. It
is actually the opposite of humility. In fact, it is common to get the sense,
when someone is deprecating his- or herself, that they often actually
mean the opposite. Self-deprecation has been substituted for humility as a social
norm. Self-deprecation can be fairly insincere, as described here, or fairly sincere but
still mistaken as described under the topic of respect.
Financial Instruments
Financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, securities debt, mortgages, etc.. have a
basic role in exchange of wealth. Secondarily they have a role in bringing some
income to those who trade them. However, there is no way that an entire
society can be supported by financial instruments because in themselves
they produce nothing. However, in our culture, there has come to exist the belief
that everyone can become rich by such instruments, or that long affluent retirements
for everyone can be paid for this way. This was behind the boom in real estate from
1982-2008, and the stock market run up from 1920-1929. Apart from the small
amount of actual income produced by the underlying assets, financial gains in
such instruments by some are balanced by losses to others, except it may
take years or decades for the losers to realize who they are. Not
understanding the limits of financial transactions shows a dissociation from the
physical world.
A body that has lived a full life is ready to die because this is consistent with its state
and feeling. The body understands limits. The ego however, wants to live forever. All
individuals and cultures must balance the reality of death with the desire for
immortality. Overall, however, and generally in folk culture, children were embraced
as the solution. Once survival is secure in a culture, and sometimes before, children
have been valued highly.
Our modern technological culture has seemingly obscured the reality of death. While
the death rate has not changed at all (it is still one per person) a great deal of
resources is now being diverted to immensely complicated expensive medical care at
the very end of life. For all of us, individually, it is difficult to turn down anything
that may extend survival for even a few days--the ego will take anything it can get.
But as a culture there has been a reversal. Instead of older adults serving and
finding generativity in younger people, younger people are expected to sacrifice for
the extended survival of older people. In the US, the national debt is increasing to
support medical care. That is future generations will have to pay for end of life
medical care that took place before they were born. Undertakings that support
quality of life for everyone, education, leisure time, or ease of making a living, are
being squeezed.
In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself
as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has
moved away into a representation.
Guy Debord
Survival Mentality
Of course, the actual need to survive trumps the search for feeling and purpose.
Survival behavior, as far as the body goes, is intended to start quickly and end
quickly. After the survival behavior, autonomic balance can be restored to the body,
and pleasure and satisfaction becomes possible again. But for most of us,
survival is not just a goal, it is a mode of perceiving. How this comes about is
discussed below.
Ideally, young children feel danger only very rarely. It is the parents role to manage
survival for children. Children need to see their parents as indestructible. An
extended period of external security allows for an internal security to develop that
allows creativity and achievement as an adult.
Children from families where there is not much material security can still be secure if
the parents make it clear that it is not the children's responsibility to 'hurry up and
fix things'. Quite commonly, though, the parents' anxiety does leak out, and children
feel they must contribute to survival.
An obvious survival behavior is doing for money what one really does not want to do.
A less obvious survival behavior is the struggle to become rich and powerful. Some
very rich people work on survival until they die. A good practice is to review activity
that is not enjoyed and see if the felt motivation (as opposed to rationalization) is
survival or security, and whether survival or security is really at stake. Trying to get
by with as little as possible is a survival orientation just as much as trying to make as
much as possible--they are both ways of ensuring a surplus..
At some point, extensive physical orientation toward survival becomes fixed in the
body. Survival mentality produces sympathetic shift, poor grounding, an
incapacity to relax, and incapacity for pleasure. A survival orientation can have the
long term benefit that the practical usefulness of things is understood very well, and
that can be a resource for others. But for the individual, practical application often is
hampered by hurry and poor mastery. That is because, if survival is at stake,
getting something done is everything, how something is done is
irrelevant. Injuries are common because the body may be flung at a problem willy-
nilly. This contrasts of course with bringing about contact, pleasure, and comfort.
With survival, 'quantity fights quality' Low quality food, goods and services may be so
compelling that one chooses them even when higher quality is affordable or
available. Hoarding or stockpiling of marginal items may consume the attention and
no energy or interest is left in making things more satisfying. The supposed benefit of
feeling secure never materializes because security come from a quality of experience
not a material surplus.
Hurry and Human Rhythms
Fear and danger has always been a cause for hurry. But these hopefully have always
been infrequent emergency situations. Increasingly, hurry comes from an attitude
of attainment. Increasingly, we live in a social milieu of hurry, based on the
industrial idea of efficiency and greater production. The 24/7 activity cycle is a strong
evidence of the cultural speedup. Forty years ago, most stores closed in the early
evening and were entirely closed on Sunday. Television was not available overnight.
Power is also a motivation for hurry. If one gets ahead of one's fellow humans, more
power and money is available. It is hoped that if no satisfaction came in the hurried
getting of a social or professional goal, then satisfaction will come from the 'having'
of the position. Of course it never works out that way.
Meeting up with natural rhythms does not always mean slowing a lot. Real speed is
the illusion provided by mastery. Mastery comes from harmony of body, heart
and mind. Slowing down is a useful idea for change however. This is because
expectations for accomplishment tend to go at the speed of thought, which is almost
instant, while creativity flows at the speed of the body. To slow down (from a frantic
pace) is not the same as to lose out on satisfaction.
However, slowing down is different from just prolonging the duration of something
by inserting stops and pauses. The point of slowing down is not to reach some
arbitrary pace but to reconnect with a natural flow. A very basic rhythm is the
duration of a breath. The pace of breathing has sped up. Modern 'healthy' people
breathe 14-18 times a minute. Six breaths per minute is the optimal rate for nervous
system balance. There is a folk saying "just stop and take a deep breath." which
seems to suggest that reconnecting with breathing brings back a healthy pacing.
There is also a saying "stop and smell the roses." Airflow through the nose helps
restore autonomic balance.
Indigenous cultures are sometimes judged harshly for not 'being on time' and being
lazy. But that is because indigenous people are inclined to act upon a feeling of
readiness more than upon an arbitrary time. It is obvious that this is less efficient,
but if the goal is a community or satisfying experience, then it is more effective.
In our culture, rigid starting times and expectations of production dominate work
norms. If a worker is allowed to organize his or her own workday, then some
adaptation to natural rhythms is possible. The 'assembly line' is a notoriously
dehumanizing way to organize work. A very apparent rhythm is the day night cycle.
Increasingly our work culture runs things 24 hours a day. The sabbath, apart from
any religious connotations, was one day of rest a week in which nothing was done.
This is part of the weekly cycle that ensured the body could both rest and reset its
rhythms.
Folk Saying
Attainment
Attainment is the idea that there is something to do or obtain in life to be happy. This
is where the idea comes for the the phrase "making it" in life. But there is nothing to
make in life. Larger joys and meanings derive from and are built on
simpler satisfactions. Simple satisfactions are readily available to all people with
reasonable freedom.
Attainment is partly about doing something when one cannot just be, and partly
about being special to avoid the pain of feeling unloved. Often the strain of attaining
something makes it impossible to take in already available satisfactions. The desire to
'attain and obtain' causes constant pressure to act contrary to one's feelings and
beliefs, and connection to feeling is often lost. Attainment and endgaining go
together, making everything a means to an end, with no experience of arrival or
peace.
Attainment, at bottom, is usually about seeking approval. The need for approval
comes from lack of basic security. Basic security is the feeling that we can do
no real wrong, and there is no chance that we will be cast
out. Unfortunately, most people do not emerge from early experience with that
feeling. Attainment is an effort to gain basic security, but it does not work. It is no
wonder that many people approach psychotherapy with the idea of attaining
something. Disillusionment is inevitable even if the therapy is sound. Basic security
does not come from any accomplishment however. It comes
from contact, grounding, satisfaction, self-expression, and other, 'in-the-
present" phenomena.
When something is not working right, three basic approaches are possible: do
nothing, remediate (fix things at the source), or compensate (apply a 'fix'). Doing
nothing is appropriate for small or transient matters, but not in matters of human
unhappiness.
Compensations can misuse the resilience of the body. Here is an analogy: if one's car
runs out of gas, or a tire is flat, it is necessary to fix the specific problem to get the car
going again, even if one just 'wants to get there.' The human body however, is more
flexible. It can find many alternate ways of doing something by altering gait, etc..
This is why the human ego doesn't have to stop its march toward its goals if a
problem develops somewhere in movement.
In the task of feeling better, planning is often putting the cart before the
horse. Planning has a natural role where great deal of activity is going on and a lot of
resources are being used. However, a natural progression in single-person endeavors
is first spontaneous activity, then planning, if necessary.
Where planning is a good idea, it does come before implementation. That is, in
planned endeavors, elaborate thought comes before limited action. This yields great
advantage, say, in the building of a bridge. Planning is essential in endeavors that
many people are engaged in. In our society, the model of planning comes from
business and government. Planning generates an advantage for business or
government because the money or direct power will lead to others doing specifically
what is planned. This gives planning the aura of great power.
From this aura of power, the hope arises that planning will provide motivation as
well as organization. When we plan for ourselves, however, we usually don't follow
up or persist in areas where there is no satisfaction. As individuals, we follow
satisfaction (or satisfaction substitutes) more than plans. People who plan in the
absence of enjoyment usually end up berating themselves for a perceived lack of will
power. When satisfaction is very low, it may seem that satisfaction is a difficult task
and so planning is needed more than ever.
Planning in the absence of much ongoing pleasure has three main drawbacks. 1) It is
abstract and future oriented, taking us out of the present and out of the body, 2) It
can become a type of fantasy, that is, the energy that would go into building a
feeling is drained off. While feeling impels action, fantasy does not. 3) It can produce
an elated feeling, but elation leads to disappointment, even when things turn out
pretty much as planned.
Children do not plan play. Playing is trying out a lot of things and seeing what is
liked and what feels good. Every child knows that if someone overly dictates what
everyone will do, the play becomes no fun.
We live in a culture that devalues and distrusts the senses. This leads to an alienation
from a large part of natural life. I wish to call this insensitivity, but some clarification
is then in order. What the word 'insensitivity' implies these days is a disregard of the
right of others to feel good and respected. It is possible, however, to intend very
much to protect the good feelings of others, while fighting unconsciously the input of
one's own senses. Now while the two meanings of insensitivity can usefully be
separated in discussion, in practice they are related. Sensitivity as described above is
also erroneously confused with a low thresh-hold to complain or a high emotional
dependency. In actuality, high emotional dependency in an adult is a style that often
co-exists with insensitivity.
Often in early life, the truth of the senses becomes at odds with the wishes of the
parents. Or the senses may detect a problem that a child is not allowed to address or
even talk about. This is an unbearable situation, and it is the senses that must be
sacrificed, because they are the only thing over which the child has any control. The
desensitized state becomes automatic, and structured into the body. There are
perhaps two general ways to avoid feeling and sensing:
2. A lack of grounding and real contact with physical reality, so that what is
sensed stays vague, and also has no real implications for action. In this way,
what is sensed has a lesser order of reality, or is distorted into a safe idea. This
tends to a mystical outlook.
Sensitivity, on the other hand, is the ability of the senses (including and perhaps
especially the kinesthetic) to appreciate (both as in to weigh and as in to know the
value) all that is happening with our selves, are bodies and the immediate
vicinity. Much of our culture strongly discourages sensitivity because it
seems to reduce efficiency and slow down material progress. One might
say that the present mainstream culture depends on some insensitivity for its smooth
operation. Crowded conditions require the development of some insensitivity.
Perhaps also, sensitivity interferes with the workings of power and control. That
is, just as reducing human functioning to a bunch of chemical reactions is a reduction
that obviously misses a lot, reducing human relations to a bunch of incentives and
coercions is a reduction that obviously misses a lot. Just as manipulating chemistry
in a person can control life, manipulating power can control life, but that does not
mean that either is the 'best' in life. The current dominance of chemical and
power explanations in human affairs belies the growing insensitivity in
our culture.
Because sensitivity varies greatly from person to person, the concept suffers greatly
from the abuse of charlatans, knowing and unknowing, who claim sensitivity they do
not have. To do this they insist the target has an insensitivity but in fact there is these
fraudulent instances nothing to sense. This is a problem with all invisible
things. For this reason, science and public discourse usually refuses to have
anything to do with invisible things. However 'love' is invisible, therefore 'fake-able',
and science has nothing to do with it, but most people find it both compelling and
'real'.
Science in fact fails to make a distinction between mysticism and sensitivity, and so
science strongly opposes sensitivity. In this, science becomes mechanistic, and
therefore can be very comforting to those who had to deaden themselves in order to
survive their family upbringing and their cultural upbringing. Science then prides it
self on the insensitivity of its scientists but also prides itself on the 'sensitivity' of its
instruments. In truth, few instruments that measure things that humans
can sense are as sensitive as a human, though instruments are of course more
consistent.
A related ideal is common sense. Common sense is not any particular fund of
knowledge. Rather it is a state of harmony between the senses, the mind, the physical
environment, natural laws, and the human community. With this harmony in place,
proceeding realistically in the world is easy.
Thus therapy and growth in the Reich and Lowen tradition has a paradox, or a boot-
strapping problem. A goal of the work in this tradition is to increase sensitivity, but
clearly sensitivity is required to recognize and fully feel the phenomena that the work
seeks to increase. Further, and this is controversial, sensitivity is required for some
biological or emotional phenomenon to happen at all. This not merely saying
sensitivity is required for recognition of a phenomenon.. It is rather saying in fact
that sensitivity is required for the thing that could be sensed to happen at all. For
instance, an exchange of eye contact can at times lead to relaxation or positive
excitement. But if one is not sensitive, perhaps that will never happen.
Perhaps because of the fact that insensitivity defeats contact, Reich and Lowen as
doctors and therapists both came to put clients rather quickly into strong
experiences--Reich using hyperventilation and Lowen the 'bow' position. Both
are capable of eliciting new phenomena and new feeling from relatively insensitive
bodies.
Is the insensitivity written above the same insensitivity that is spoken above in
interpersonal relationships? I think that it is. Interpersonal insensitivity comes
from a body and sensory insensitivity. This seems to be bourn out by the
common observation that 'nice' men and women who endeavor strenuously by will
and intellect not to offend or hurt others actually show a great deal of insensitivity.
While insensitivity is encouraged in work life, most people recognize that there is
something called sensitivity that is valued by some in personal relationships. This
can lead to trying to 'will' sensitivity. However, the will tends to produce
neurological and chemical events that decrease actual 'sensed' sensitivity. What the
will can produce is vigilance about the interests of others. The problem
that arises, is that it is difficult to sense nuance or adjust in a state of
vigilance. Vigilance leads to over-doing and 'getting it wrong' quite a bit and so the
effort 'to please' is not well-received. Also it is difficult to balance self-interest and the
interests of others so that, with vigilance, the wishes of others are sooner or later
experienced as coercive and stifling, and resentment results.
People don't die of a broken intellect, they die of a broken heart. People don't tell
you to get off their thoughts, they tell you to get off their back.
Peggy Martin
"Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that
awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use."
Emily Post
Homer Hickam
Rescue
There is also a style of trying to earn love by imposing help on others with or without
invitation, and usually insensitively. This is illustrated by the rescuer role in
the Karpman Drama triangle. While this is an important topic in its own right, it
is not exactly the rescue referred to here. For this discussion, it is considered self-
evident that some type of forbearance and extra allowance is at times appropriate in
healing relationships. However, if an entire relationship becomes built upon rescue,
it becomes caretaking.
Caretaking is having the responsibility for cleaning up future messes, but no control
over the actions of the person causing the problem. Caretaking is a strategy of both
trying to be lovable and quelling existential anxiety by protecting others from the
consequences of their actions.
Elation refers to the positive mental reaction when the ego's hope of eventually being
happy seems imminent or likely. It is future oriented. It can boost energy in the
present and provide a 'heady' type of positive feeling. The opposite idea is dejection
which is a negative evaluation of future prospects of being happy. Elation and
dejection are different from emotions. Emotions are based in the body, not in the
ego, and emotions are in the present. To the extent that a person is estranged from
the body and from emotion, elation (and dejection) will assume huge importance.
However, elation, while it can bring about some excitement, cannot bring
about satisfaction. That is why elation can act as a mirage--seemingly offering the
prospect of pleasure but never really delivering it.
All depression is to some extent 'bipolar', that is, it stems from the flooding in of
dejection when an illusion is burst and resolves, (usually), when an illusion (perhaps
the same basic illusion) is rebuilt around another idea. The way out of the cycle of
depression is usually thought to be overcoming dejection, but it is really about
overcoming elation and the false promise of joy that elation provides.
Endgaining
Endgaining is focusing only on the completion of an action, and not on the action
itself. The term was coined by FM Alexander. With endgaining, everything becomes a
means to an end, but the satisfying end never seems to arrive. When endgaining is
taking place, contact is lost with the present, with the surroundings, with feeling, and
with the self.
Pleasure is lost in activity, not just because of inattention to detail, but also because
of loss of gracefulness. With endgaining, no pleasure is experienced moving toward
the goal, and actions have a mechanical quality. Endgaining may arise in part from
paying to much attention to time and too little attention to space.
The key to health is to live fully the life of the body. This means that feeling is more
important than doing, that being free is more important than being rich, and that
the present is always more important than the future. This is not to deny some
validity to the reality principle. But in sacrificing the present for the future, we
must be sure that the future is not an impossible dream, an illusion that can never
be fulfilled. In terms of the body there is neither success nor failure. Life is to be
lived and in the living of it one grows old and dies. But when the living is postponed
until the success is achieved, "He made it," the end is always tragic.
Because humans have imagination and reasoning, the 'future' will always have a role
in desire, and it is probably disingenuous to pretend otherwise. The key is for the pull
of the future to 'spice' the present rather than sacrificing contact with the present and
actual for pursuit of an image.
*Stress and Illness: A Bioenergetic View (1980)
You never want what you want, you want the wanting!
Jack Willis
Pornography
The biggest danger is that the concept of sexual freedom, which is, at
base, the freedom to feel, becomes distorted into the supposed freedom
to take, use, stare and insist. But these latter actions are secondary drives.
Just as, in an individual, the emergence of secondary drives seems to justify and
vindicate the repression, so too in a society does the emergence of secondary drives
seem to justify and vindicate sexual repression.
Related to this concept is the way in which modern life has become the
consumption of spectacles rather than the living out of
relationships between people and things. Take the evolution of the vacation.
Originally it meant a time of restful renewal in a setting of some beauty. Now it has
become a splurge of consumption of packaged spectacles which is exciting but
exhausting and often ultimately unsatisfying.
Guy Debord
Drama
In drama, the response of others becomes paramount, so that one's own actions no
longer arise out of conviction but rather arise out of strategy of some sort. If actions
are chosen, consciously or unconsciously, in anticipation of the response, then it can
be said that a 'game' is underway. The outcome is judged in terms of winning or
losing. Few people are fully aware that they do this, but the competitive format is also
evident in the sense of struggle between people. In a game, people are unable to
really cooperate, even to mutual benefit.
In drama, the situation is often maneuvered so that one is justified' in having the
feelings one wants to have (projective identification). Drama also gives the false
impression that something profound is happening when actually something cyclical
or repetitive is happening. The cost of this is that the real building blocks of
satisfying living or solid relationships are neglected.
Spontaneous, very upset behavior in extreme situations is not drama. Behavior that
is drama-driven has a 'fakeness' to it that is easily perceived next to real sincere
behavior. Yet drama also has an intensity and provocativeness which seems to
override the slight flavor of insincerity. Most people resort to drama sometimes when
they feel overlooked.
One way to look at drama in relationships is with the Karpman Drama Triangle. This
model comes from the tradition of Transactional Analysis and not the Reich and
Lowen tradition, but is very useful and practical. In the model there are three
'triangle roles' --Victim, Rescuer, and Persecutor--and by implication, one 'non-
triangling' role, the 'adult'.
Basics
Two people in conflict tend to involve or blame a third person or entity to reduce
tension. All participants consider themselves either victims or rescuers, which are the
'good' roles, and struggle to be acknowledged by the others as such. Participants also
struggle to prove one of the others to be a 'persecutor' which is the bad role. The roles
are never stable, of course, because no one believes they are a persecutor. All roles
place the power to change things on other people. Said another way, all roles use
blame.
Most turmoil and drama in life is caused by players endlessly trying to change places
in the triangle. People tend to identify strongly as basically a rescuer or as a victim in
life, and they maintain that role during times of low to medium tension, but when
tension gets high, things turn into a rapid scramble through all the roles. Honest,
assertive, behavior that avoids the drama is called the ‘adult’ role. Below is a
breakdown of some aspects of the roles. Whenever drama is conspicuous in a
situation, participants are playing all the roles.
Helpless Victim
Core Beliefs: I’m only lovable if I’m helpless like a child. The world owes me.
I never get a break. People gang up on me, and they don’t understand me.
How to Avoid (Adult Role): 1) When asking for help, state clearly what is
needed 2) Ask for suggestions from others but know only you can solve your
problems 3) Welcome and acknowledge suggestions. Have an open mind and
avoid “yes, but…” 4) Be clear about what you are willing to give in exchange
for help. 5) Form a plan of action that makes clear everyone’s understanding
of what is going to happen. 6) Be clear on what you can and will do, and what
you expect.
Righteous Victim
Core Beliefs: I’m a good person so if bad things happen, it is entirely someone
else’s fault. I always try to help people and I get burned and taken advantage
of. I can’t be responsible if other people don’t cooperate. I’m right and if
others would agree with me everything would be fine
Payoff : Gets to meet the need to be taken care of, without admitting that is
what is wanted. Avoids the full feeling of rejection. Avoids responsibility.
Distracts self from shame. Gains power and control over others. Exploits
others’ sense of justice. This is the victim behavior of people who start out as
rescuers, giving help or attention ‘with strings attached’
Rescuer
Core Beliefs: I’ll only have love if I earn it by taking care of you. I think I'm
bad, but if you need my help I am better than you. A relationship is only safe if
I’m in control and leading.
Behaviors: Offers advice. Takes on others problems like they are his or her
own. Gives time and money even unasked. Offers sympathy. Gets increasingly
upset, judgmental, and controlling if the victim doesn’t ‘get better’ or doesn’t
start returning nurturing. In fact rescuers are often hungry to be taken care of
and can’t take care of others very long. Will start calling him or herself the
victim, and start calling the original ‘victim’ a 'persecutor'.
Payoff: Has the expectation, usually unspoken, that he or she will become
special and loved by the other person. Can feel superior, and forget about
one’s own problem and situation.
Persecutor
Motives and Needs: Wants power and control, feels betrayal, believes love
and credit has been withheld or stolen
Core Beliefs: I earned your love and loyalty but you are ungrateful. You are
making me a victim. You are making me do this. You deserve what you get.
Payoff: Regains control when other tactics have failed. Relieves unbearable
tension. Drowns out bad feelings from rejection, loneliness etc…
How to Avoid (Adult Role): 1) Don’t be surprised that others will act in
their own interest 2) State your feelings honestly without abusive anger or
intimidation 3) Listen! 4) Understand what you expect, state it, and ask what
others expect of you 5) Avoid seeing other’s efforts to cope as an attack toward
you. 6) Don’t blame others for your feelings or behavior 7) Avoid the rescuer
role, empower other people
Quietism
Quietism is the general belief that the best emotional and spiritual strategy
for humans, is to use the mind to overcome attachment to the world and
worldly outcomes. This stance promises to provide a peace of mind, and
proposedly, an end to suffering. Not uncommonly, in Western culture, quietism is
attempted by individuals who in some way aspire to an ideal image of being 'highly
evolved'. Usually, being highly evolved in this sense means eschewing both desire
and anger, or at least the expression of desire or anger.
Quietism often has its origin in the misapplication of 'Eastern' spiritual traditions
onto Western social and interpersonal dilemmas. In those actual traditions, having a
quiet mind and heart seems to be premised on the idea of already self-
possessing emotions and desires. But sometimes, this ideal can seem exactly the
recipe for feeling better if one has turmoil or anxiety in one's life. However. adopting
a quietistic stance before gaining self-possession is putting the cart before the horse.
It results in a superficial detachment but greater indirect struggle in relationships.
'Higher' desires, (such as altruism) can guide simpler desires, but only if the simpler
desires are possessed. Otherwise, more basic desires are expressed
subconsciously, in distorted form.
A form of quietism is placing all social and interpersonal conflicts in highly abstract
philosophical or spiritual terms. This comes from fear of conflict. Human
satisfaction and contact only happens when people are able to struggle
with one another. At high levels of generalization, all differences and
therefore all conflicts disappear, but this is a false peace. There is a
(possibly apocryphal) Zen parable about this:
A zen master sets his student a task. He instructs the student to come the next day
and tell the master what is the key to the end of suffering. The student is both
nervous and proud, and immediately begins contemplating the problem. He hardly
sleeps. At the appointed time, he comes, kneels before the master and begins to
deliver a lengthy, erudite, highly nuanced answer. After about three sentences, the
master raises his thick wooden staff above his head and slams it down hard on the
student's shoulder. "No! that's not it, come again tomorrow!". The student is
naturally crest-fallen (and hurting) but he devotes the next day to revising the
answer, making it even better and more elaborate. The next day he comes and
kneels before the master and with renewed confidence begins to deliver his answer.
After a sentence or two, however, The master raises the staff and whacks the other
shoulder. "No! Again tomorrow." Now the student is very nervous (and pained). He
of course doesn't sleep, and tries his best to improve his answer but is at a loss to
know what direction to go. When the time comes the next day, he kneels down in
front of the master, but this time, shoulders aching, he keeps his eyes on the staff.
He starts to speak hesitatingly. As he sees the staff start to rise, he almost
involuntarily raises his hand to block it. "Yes!" the master says, "now that you know
how to stop your own suffering you know something about the end of suffering."
The intellect looks for opportunities to enhance pleasure or survive. This search gets
reduced to information that the mind takes an interest in. This provides some ego
satisfaction and 'mental pleasure.' Mental pleasure is excitement, without any real
resolution or satisfaction, however. The interesting isn't felt in the body. Pre-
occupation with interesting information can increase the estrangement both from the
body, and from other people. The internet, for instance, is an endless supply of the
interesting. Ironically, one of the ways to get side-tracked in the Reich and Lowen
tradition is to find the ideas interesting!
The world is more than information about the world. One misses contact with the
world and others when the senses are used just to obtain information. Over time,
using the senses only for symbolically-coded information rather than contact leads to
a dulling of the senses.
In some man-made endeavors, having the right idea or information allows relatively
quick and complete success. For instance in business, knowing the right move to
make is the almost the same as making it. Or knowing how to use software makes the
software useful immediately. This experience can produce the impression that the
right information instantly leads to success for humans. Clients often come to
psychotherapy expecting to find the information or idea that will make everything
work.
Information is only one aspect of perception. Sensation itself is harmonizing and part
of satisfaction. However, the brain and the ego have a natural priority for
information. For instance browsing the internet has a high informational but a low
sensory aspect. A hike in the woods has a low informational but high sensory aspect.
The hike in the woods has much more satisfaction potential, but the internet
browsing grabs the attention, and many people find themselves browsing until it is
too late to go outside! There is another layer to this problem, in that over time, the
informational apparatus of the person grows large, but the sensory apparatus
atrophies. Relationships, at least non-professional ones, suffer.
Entertainment is itself the start of separating the interesting from the rest of
experience. However, there is a trend in entertainment that is pushing this further.
On stage, before television, and in the early television era, variety shows were
common, that is, one would watch singing, dancing, stand-up comedy etc.. There was
no plot. The benefit was a sensory one, not an interestful one. Variety shows cannot
make it anymore because they are considered too boring. Now when singing and
dancing is shown, it is in the context of some dramatized elimination process. Game
shows and sports are not about play of course, but suspenseful processes that
provoke interest in what will happen next.
The internet and video gaming both accelerate this process of the
informationalization of life. Heavy use of informational technology also has two
other troubling effects: attentional diffusion, derealization, dopamine abuse.
Attention has always had two targets, toward the interesting and toward
the important. Small children are skewed toward the interesting and adults
are supposed to be skewed toward the important. Of course what is important varies
drastically from person to person and situation to situation. But the important has a
certain durability to it. The interesting actually is more consistent from person to
person, based on the human nervous system and the alert function. There is always
an interplay between the interesting and important. Commercial advertising is
always an attempt to use the interesting to imbue products with a sense of
importance. But often the 'boring' is important. People suffer greatly from boredom
when they have a weak sense of the important because they cannot get involved.
With self-possession and purpose, the important comes to 'hold interest' The
sense of important is a body-based feeling. If the mind judges something to be
important but the body doesn't feel it, the interesting will take away attention.
There is no way for any person to determine what is important for another person.
But it is possible to tell when another person has only a weak felt sense of the
important, because attention seems short and distractible. This is called Attentional
Deficit Disorder (ADD)*. With ADD, people are not able to use the feeling of
important as an anchor for attention. Instead the anchor of interesting is used.
Sometimes the interesting and the important overlap. The interesting however is
subject to rapid decay--it is based on novelty or change. The interesting part of things
tends to be the start, and the important parts tend to be in the middle and end. With
ADD, one tends to start many things and not finish them. Therefore with ADD
people feel they have never done anything important, and there is a truth to that.
Important is not a aspect intrinsic to an activity, person, or thing, but is an aspect of
one's relationship to that activity, person, or thing. Growing up and living in high-
stimulus environments seems to skew development toward 'ADD' whatever the
underlying tendency.
*This is not meant to be a summation of ADD or ADHD which is a complex patterns of functioning.
The human brain is wired to favor opportunity. Anytime something is found that is
promising (though not certain) to improve experience, the mind tends to drop what
it is doing and 'follow the trail' to find if there is more of the same. This preference is
mediated by dopamine in the reward center of the brain. Traditionally, opportunities
were by chance and not that frequent. With the development of retail marketing, it
became not just possible, but also good business to manipulate the human response
to opportunity. This is the nature of a large store or mall, where the display windows
contain the most promising items in order to get shoppers to follow the trail inside.
Window shopping became known as a mood lifter because it enhances dopamine.
Still, shopping requires some travel and movement and can only be manipulated so
much. Hoarding may have an element of manipulating the opportunity response.
But with the advent of browsing and screen applications in the last twenty years, the
ability to manipulate the opportunity/reward/dopamine system took an exponential
leap. Every click or touch is following a trail. This is truly addicting. I call it 'enriched
picking' and and the effects are insidious but cumulative. A situation that
provides essentially "no wrong click," indefinitely manipulates a
human's wiring to ignore the 'present' if an 'opportunity' for 'future gain'
'pops up'. It does not matter how sound the topics searched, mere screen time past
a point will start to change the way the brain works.
Video games were the first to deliberately use this dopamine spigot, to keep people
playing. The key is to make most clicks rewarding but just not every single one. This
keeps the opportunity seeking aspect going, but keeps real effort and challenge low.
But over time blogs, message boards, instant messaging, social-networking sites, and
wikipedia all can be addicting because they are naturally imperfect but have an
enriched interestingness that the user manipulates. (This contrasts to a book, which
has interesting parts but the reader must follow as it is written and does not jump
around.)
Words and Images and Conversation
We are a culture that values verbal and symbolic intelligence. They are responsible
for our material well being and 'Culture' and most of the nuances and variety in life.
Most clients and therapists are verbally adept and symbolically intelligent. In makes
sense that persistent human unhappiness, a tough problem, would be tackled
through sophisticated word choice and use of images.
Experienced showed Wilhelm Reich, however, that verbal therapy alone ( 'the
talking cure,') had limited results. Clients could agree with interpretations, but it
didn't seem to affect them to their core. He later came to think of them as
having 'armoring' that protected the core from responding to words and images.
A Reich moved away from psychoanalysis to vegetotherapy, he mostly did away with
analysis and almost entirely did away with conversation. His main interventions
were what we would now call body work. Reich felt conversation was
counterproductive or ineffective. Today, Reichian therapists still conduct most
sessions with almost no conversation.
For instance, in the sixties and seventies, using conversation to direct attention to the
body became a popular technique of gestalt and other experiential
therapies. Eugene Gendlin called this focusing and he, and others felt it was
sufficient for significant therapeutic change. 'Focusing' became incorporated by
others into the Reich and Lowen tradition because it was more easily acceptable to a
broad range of clients. When Alexander Lowen in the eighties reviewed how
bioenergetic therapists were practicing, he was dismayed to find that most were not
doing any bodywork, but rather had substituted conversation and images about the
body for bodywork. He felt this was a devolution of technique, and in his later work
he tended to emphasize grounding and other bodywork more than conversation.
It seems that the pull to translate feeling and impulse into words and images is very
strong, and the feelings and impulses elicited and released by bodywork are no
exception. However feeling does not require explanation, sometimes explaining a
feeling is a way of avoiding the tension of possessing it. Likewise, actions can 'speak
for themselves.'
Concentration
Almost always, concentrating involves blocking out the immediate perceptions and
body state. Often concentration involves losing track of where one is and what one is
doing. Concentrating does not have to be effortful -- losing oneself in a book "for
pleasure' is concentrating. To be brought out of concentration by say an unrelated
interruption or question is almost painful to a person inclined to deep concentration.
Extended concentration lessens the social engagement system, and besides a
sympathetic shift, perhaps strengthens the immobilization, or dorsal vagal
system. However, this latter immobilization is accompanied by a dissociated rich,
free, cognitive life. It may be that really deep thought is dependent on the
dissociation from the immediate environment made possible by dissociation.
Self Absorption
The search for completion in life is a red-herring. In the context of feeling and
purpose, completion is the idea that life will be fundamentally different later, after
something is completed. For instance, one may feel that social relations will be
different after one has 'completed' getting married, or that life will be different after
one 'completes' making a lot of money, or that one can start expecting to be treated
well after one 'completes' proving oneself. Circumstances change of course, but the
feeling of completion never comes. One occasionally meets people who can report
'content' but never one who can report 'completion.'
There is nothing to make in life, and nothing to complete. Mission and goals
can give life meaning, but what detracts from feeling and purpose is the lack of full
participation in relationships based on the idea or feeling of 'something pending.'
Also, a great deal of insensitivity to the present situation results from pursuing
'completion' for something else. Still more, the illusion that something is complete,
leads to insensitivity. For instance, it is common to view a relationship as 'complete'
at marriage, and so the marriage becomes (in the experiencing anyway) a static
thing, not a relationship. In life nothing has been completed, and nothing
will be completed.
David Richo
Rewards and Reward Pathways
'Reward' is a word that very generally just means something good. However, in
discussing the Reich and Lowen tradition, in which the concept of pleasure plays
such a pivotal role, it is important to distinguish pleasure, a full process that occurs
in both body and mind and which comes to completion, from a shorter process, that
occurs only in the mind and which does not always complete into pleasure. I call this
shorter process 'reward'.
Everything that happens in the body is mapped in the brain. If one injuries one's toe,
activity in the brain will reflect this. Pleasure is no different. Pleasure is mapped in
the brain. To some, this means that pleasure occurs in the brain. As a
philosophical discussion, this is unresolvable, but it has implications in the way that
the pleasure function gets distorted in people's lives. Humans have found ways to
bypass the body, or at least the health of the body, and stimulate areas of the brain
that are connected to pleasure. But the body and the personality do not gain the
salutary effects of pleasure. These brain areas are reward pathways, and
deliberately manipulating them is a core process in addiction.
An example is heroin use. It is possible, when heroin is affecting the brain, for a
person to feel an intense pleasure-ish sensation, even if the body is in dire straits as is
often the case in middle and late addiction. All recreational drugs including nicotine
and caffeine use this shortcut. Some prescription drugs do also, including
prescription opiates. Endorphins from exercise do this. Even manipulating swings of
blood sugar can do this.
While pleasure is a self-regulating process that does not lead to excess, reward is
short cut that leads people into endless, unregulated loops of excitement without
any satisfaction, and without the vitality that satisfaction brings with it. Our
culture often confuses reward for pleasure. Exploiting reward often leads to
excess, while pleasure does not. Where there is basic pleasurelessness, though, one
can be convinced that reward is all one has.
Drugs are a clear example of normal body processes being bypassed. But it is
possible also for the ego to exploit reward pathways in the brain
independently of what is really happening to the body and to the person.
It does this by manipulating stimuli that produce dopamine in the brain's reward
centers.
One role of the ego is to aid and assist the pleasure function. In this, the ego
conceives of means to an end (of pleasure) The hurt ego also conceives of means to
obtaining love by becoming lovable. The ego is able to derive a certain excitement
and elation from obtaining these means. The means can be almost anything, money,
praise, a promotion, an academic success, a seat at a fancy place, etc... To the ego,
an external reward is anything it believes will lead to pleasure or love. As
is generally well known, this anticipation leads to an immediate if
unsatisfying reward, in the brain and in the mind.
In limited amounts, this makes great organismic sense. Real opportunities in life
should get strong attention, and the reward function works as an attention getter.
The ego can be correct that an opportunity will lead to love or pleasure, but the ego
can also be laboring under an illusion. Most importantly though, the means
can come to be confused with the end. In our complex culture, a great many
awards and status symbols are created to fill the demand for a sensation of reward.
The basis of the elating effect of external reward seems to be 'opportunity' to get
pleasure or love in the future. But a dedication to obtaining rewards can lead to get
stuck on an endless search for 'opportunity' and 'future'. While a balanced interest in
opportunity can lead to more intense pleasure, an unbalanced interest in opportunity
and future both probably arises from pleasurelessness and also serves to increase the
pleasurelessness.
It has been said that all behavior is motivated by obtaining pleasure or avoiding pain.
However, this concept is often distorted into the idea that all behavior is motivated
by seeking reward or avoiding punishment. Pleasure and pain are body-
mediated experiences, and are similar between all people. Reward and
punishment are ego-mediated concepts, and are wildly variable, person
to person, and even moment to moment to the same person.
Activities can be addicting and depleting when they abuse the brains
response to opportunity. Surfing the internet, because it provides nonstop
'opportunities' in the form of inviting clicks can do this. Workaholism, especially if
one works with business opportunities or information can do this. Gambling can do
this. Consumerism can do this because the material success of the culture provides
an ease and an abundance of shopping opportunity which is perhaps 'unnatural'
Video games are the 'heroin' of 'opportunity abuse' The games are set up to make
each click an opportunity, and people have died playing them for days at a time. The
brain's natural priority for opportunity pulls a person completely out of
the body and out of the present if abused.
Pornography has become another type of heroin. Viewing it through high volume of
images gives rise to both sexual arousal and dopamine spikes. A tolerance develops
to both the dopaminergic and arousal effects which may for a while be 'treated' with
an increase in dose. Eventually the viewer develops an indifference in the
body (impotence) coupled with an obsession of the mind. This state might
be mistaken as being very sexual because of the overwhelming mental interest, but it
is essentially non-sexual.
When people are asked to consider the role and extent of pleasure in their lives, they
frequently refer to 'rewards' or successes. When it is pointed out that they are not
enjoying these reward or successes, it is usually a shock, because the culture at large
has encouraged these efforts to obtain rewards. Of course, at times, reward and
enjoyment are the same thing, for instance a favorite food can both be a reward and a
source of completed pleasure. Largely however, the indirect search for love leads to
incredible chains of rewards in which the actuality of pleasure or love is lost.
Our larger culture tends to see the way to obtain and keep good feelings
is to deliberately do things to affect the brain. In this, it is addiction-centric.
Explanation Abuse
Formulating an explanation for something that has happened releases dopamine in
the brain also. This makes some sense, if for instance, explanation of why a bridge
fell down results in the building of a new solid bridge and a more enjoyable river
crossing experience. The explanation then represents an real opportunity for future
comfort or ease. But the brain does not distinguish any explanation from another.
Impractical or inaccurate explanations, or explanations that are speculative and top
of the head all release some dopamine. Possible explanations are infinite, Even
explanations of failure or inability to do something release dopamine. That means
that giving up quickly on something, with an explanation, provides immediate
comfort, while struggling a bit with a learning period only provides a possibility of
satisfaction in the unknown future but without the instant gratification of
explanation. Explanations tend to become very habit forming. Over-intellectualism
may be a form of explanation abuse.
Starting Abuse
The start of anything new can be a goldmine of reward for the brain, because
possibilities seem endless and have not been challenged by reality. Often the first
things done are easy things. A pattern can easily arise in which many things are taken
up, and none finished. This is not premeditated, but easily becomes a habit. Over
time, however, the practicalness of an undertaking can drop out of consideration,
and many impractical things are taken up just to be 'stripped' of the early thrill.
Dabbling
Often compatible or complementary ideas are gathered from different sources and
traditions. This gives a certain comfort and validation. In developing lifestyle
principles, it is probably inevitable that there will be a mixing of sources. When it
comes to the search for satisfaction with bodywork, however, this may play a role in
avoiding 'closing the deal' and arriving at real change.
An eclectic bunch of ideas from several sources, will always appear fuzzy.
It will never be completely evident what to do. It will be hard to have any
regularity. While several traditions may be pointing to the same thing, each tradition
is meant to be a doable practice. A hodgepodge may not be so doable.
With lack of fidelity to any practice being the cultural norm, another resistance can
slip in. It is very common for a person to 'embrace' a tradition without really
following the implications. For instance, in Alexander Lowen's Bioenergetics, it is
possible to do some exercises that are easy and avoid others. But in avoiding part of a
practice, even the smaller part, it is possible to miss the benefit. What is essential is
to be consistent.
Eventually, a condition of learning any art is a supreme concern with the mastery
of the art. If the art is not something of supreme importance, the apprentice will
never learn it. He will remain at best, a good dilettante, but will never become a
master. This condition is as necessary for the art of loving as for any other art.
Unlike fantasy, (and unlike opinion), feeling impels movement and contact. A
general guide to regaining satisfaction is to put the energy into the
feeling not the fantasy. If feeling is thought of as having the density of a liquid,
then fantasy might be thought of as having the density of a gas. Fantasy is a low
energy activity, but it tends to expand to fill available mental space. The possible
deception is this: a person with a lot of fantasy may believe there is a lot going on, but
feeling, for the time being at least, is low. Folk wisdom speaks about the danger of
'talking' about something all the time and not actually doing it. Possibly this is
because on some levels the mind and brain do not distinguish between fantasy and
action.
Many important fantasies tend to be 'secret', and while many people try to keep
feelings secret also, feelings tend to leak out while fantasies do not. Disclosing a
fantasy to another person is often awkward, in part because it is often very distant
from reality, and also because these fantasies are often organized around aggressive
or angry feelings that are vehemently denied otherwise. Fantasy should not be
thought undesirable because it contains 'negative feelings' but rather because it helps
prevent these feelings from being integrated.
One type of fantasy is concentrating on how things should be rather then on how
they are. Yes, imagination has a role in making things better, but fantasy often acts as
a non-acceptance that actually undermines creative action.
In working with hand tools, the force of the movement needs to be proportionate
with the item being acted upon for graceful, enjoyable effective movement. When a
person is in a state of insecurity, imbalance, stress, endgaining or trying,
however, muscles tend to be fully contracted and maximum force is used for all
movement. This causes clumsiness with hand tools and manual tasks. Also as Moishe
Feldenkreis pointed out, this severely decreases sensation and thereby decreases
learning., so that for many of us, clumsiness seems like a permanent state.
To use the intellect to overcome this, push-button or digital controls were developed.
With push-button control, it is only the explicit mental intention that matters. With
complex tools or machines, controls developed that do not have any relationship to
the resulting action. For instance if one pushes an elevator button really hard or just
hard enough, or anywhere in between, the result is the same. If the elevator has to
come from one floor away or twenty, no difference is needed or even possible in
calling the elevator.
Processed food that is reheated at the push of a button, likewise removes the senses
from the preparation of food, apart from any nutrition compromise.
While push-button controls make great productivity possible, they help alienate us
from our physical selves, from gravity, and from other sources of grounding. They
also exaggerate the role of will in our lives.
Abstraction
Abstraction in this sense is treating other people as if they were ideas or intentions.
Abstraction is often joined with a general intent to improve things and ideas of
equality. However, the altruism is actually weakened by the lack of contact.
Abstraction is most prevalent in liberal political thought.
Consistency is always expected, and often falsely projected onto the other,
because ideas, after all, are meant to be consistent.
Little real feeling develops, including like and dislike. In its place are approval
and disapproval.
Action is limited
Idealization is common, but only of things that are not really well-known
Plays out similarly in close and distant relationships. Groups formed splinter
or disintegrate easily, because of inevitable differences in ideas in the face of
little feeling of loyalty.
Pleasure, emotion, and relaxation are mediated by the vegetative systems. That is,
they can happen reliably but they do not happen instantly. Thought on the other
hand, happens virtually instantly. Perhaps that alone leads thought to be valued
above natural or biological processes. Thought also, for those so inclined, is
necessary to gain power, and since we live in a power-centric culture, thought is often
considered the end all.
Any adult or teenager of course understands intellectually that most processes occur
over time. But where there has been danger or emotional deprivation, processes are
not trusted. There are three body/mind processes that seek to overcome
time and create an illusory mental feeling of immediate okayness or
promise. All these tendencies dampen feeling and contact. They interfere with
growth because they keep the person from simply letting a process work. Often a
recommended process is distrusted, because "can't be sure its working."
A Rush to the Goal This is the internal state behind endgaining Once a goal
is conceived it becomes imperative to have in mind all the steps to achieve
it. Planning may be elaborate or simple, but any complication in the plans is
very distressing. Other activities, whether important or satisfying, or
previously rushed toward, are set aside. Unrelated social interaction or
contact is often seen as an interruption. Behavior may be frantic, and actions
are usually clumsy physically and perhaps also clumsy mentally.
Power and Control This is the attempt to ensure an outcome by limiting the
responses and choices of others. The idea is, if one has the power and control,
to think of doing something is the same as it being done. Power of control in
this sense could include coercion, but also consist of urgent wheedling or
persausion, a strong tendency to assert 'what is right', or even illusion.
There is greater feeling than in abstraction, but the feeling often steers into a
sadism/masochism format
Protection is offered for insiders but little real support. Outsiders receive little
empathy, or are even demonized.
Shame is the feeling that one is not enough, or not legitimate. Commonly, shame
stems from early rejection, neglect, or growing up in a manner outside community
standards. The discussion of dealing with one's own shame is here. This page
describes how shame has become a socializing tactic.
Another common source of shame is expecting of children what they are not
developmentally ready for. Early toilet training of course is the main culprit. Another
is expecting children to show adult like self-control in kindergarten or younger 'for
enrichment. Children may manage to do with difficulty things that a year or so later
they could do with ease. They may be praised for this small precociousness, but the
feeling of difficulty usually remains for the rest of their lives (because of neuro-
muscular habit) and a feeling of shame always accompanies the action, or similar
action. Shame affects the body, undermining a sense of self in the belly. A hurried
child is a shamed child.
The after childhood, shame gets evoked during any mistreatment, or rough personal
interaction. But shame also arises when anything is difficult. Very capable people
with shame may avoid competing or learning anything really new, while
compensating by learning an excess of the familiar, or doing an excess of what they
do well. A sign of shame is not having a sense of enough. With shame, people
are always looking for outside indications of what is enough, but not trusting those
indications when they do find them. The effect is either getting discouraged and
giving up, or always erring on the side of too much. Shame may be behind a lot of
achievement but 1) the person is unable to get any satisfaction from it, and 2) it is a
type of achievement that lacks originality and the person's imprint.
Shame is painful, and often leads to automatic patterns of reaction to ward off
incipient shame. One is the ashamed manner, often with tail tucked under. The flip
side of that is shameless behavior-- belligerence, violence, vandalism, drunkenness,
exploiting others, etc. Both ashamed and shameless actions actually
perpetuate the shame because they ensure ongoing rejection. Rejection is
the engine of shame. The antidote to shame is finding and allowing unconditional
acceptance that has nothing to do with performance.
Cyclical Behavior
Cyclical behavior produces quite a bit of drama. The common stem of the
contradictory behavior is not understood. Other people tend to shift their behavior in
response to the seeming change, which tends to deepen the swings. There is often
repetition of elation and disheartening.
What doesn't happen is neither the cycler, or the frequently present enabler, takes a
sustainable stance that addresses the underlying unmet need in a healthy way.
Rather all parties stay in crisis mode, and lose self-focus and purpose. Often
immense energy is wasted trying to control the situation, which is falsely reinforced
when the inevitable swing in the other direction seems to indicate that the
controlling tactic 'is working.' In this circumstance, it is difficult to learn from
experience, because approaches that will never really work seem to 'start to work.'
The problem comes to be seen as complicated and elusive, when in fact, it is simple
but requires hard choices to surmount.
Materialism
Materialism is the belief, that if something is good, then the more of it one has, the
better. The relation is mostly to quantity and not to quality. Of course, it is also
possible to pay attention only to quality and not quantity or affordibility--this is
epicurianism. Quality relates roughly to the pleasure principle, and quantity relates
roughly to the reality principle.
Materialism shifts human priorities from using a good thing, to getting more of it.
Accumulation becomes an end in itself and a false sign of progress. Materialism
arises from the ego--the body has a natural sense of 'enough'
But the same thing often occurs in health or self-improvement. Rather than letting a
group of practices or a method work, it is common for the seeker to check more and
more avenues, or to learn more and more anecdotes and footnote-like information.
Or alternately, exercises are done mechanically, just to 'rack up numbers'
Accumulation is a will based practice that requires no trust and
no surrender. Discovery is often missed. In the Reich and Lowen tradition this
has been termed bioenergetic materialism.
In pursuing the impulse for goodness, the ego may identify with an inhuman image
of purity. But purity is only applicable to thought--nothing is pure in real life. No
actions are pure. Actions can, however, be wholesome if they promote the life
process. Motives are rarely pure, because humans have many drives--safety,
pleasure, love, altruism, self-interest--that should intermingle. Trying to nail down
and cleanse motives is a red herring because it is actions humans are responsible for.
(Motives are after all, involuntary in the short and medium run.) Purity is often
attempted in diet (food is nurture), niceness, non-aggression, or sexuality.
The search for purity often arises out of early rejection (or conditional acceptance
which is the same thing). Trying to be pure tends to inaction, because if nothing is
done, nothing is regretted. Except eventually some 'impurity of omission' arises.
Neurotic guilt is the belief that one hasn't done enough. This undeserved guilt leads
many people to try to 'be pure' but purity is not an attainable target and so guilt
actually multiplies.
Entertainment Contrasts With Enjoyment
Participatory enjoyments are more satisfying than passively watched ones. Dances,
picnics, country fairs, pick up games, fishing and hunting have been traditional
enjoyments. Plays or shows were rare treats, and happened in person where
interaction by the audience was possible and even expected. With technology and the
rise of the entertainment industry, those things available for watching have become
much more engrossing and interesting, if not ultimately more satisfying. Interaction
on a human basis is not possible. Entertainment has come to be a greater and greater
proportion of people's enjoyment.
Entertainment may use the eyes and ears, but tend to bypass the body below the
neck. It also trains people to look upon everything that is 'actually'
happening in their lives as just more spectacle. Because entertainment
competes to provide greater and greater stimulation, there is a desensitization to
important events that are actually happening.
Ambiguity describes the case where the senses perceive a situation that doesn't fit
any category already existing in one's mind. J. K. Krishnamurti coined the term
'choiceless awareness' to describe the tolerance of ambiguity. Ambiguity is actually
an opportunity to get away from unnecessary judgment, and to get out of one's head.
Truth be told, all social and interpersonal situations are ambiguous because the sum
total of others intentions, motivations, feelings, etc. are unknowable.
But the ego likes certainty and abhors ambiguity. It produces a false sense of
certainty out of thin air often, with judgments, unnecessary inferences, and
explanations. The greatest anti-ambiguity measure is splitting, in which other people
are sorted as either all good or all bad. In projective identification, others are coached
and manipulated into being (temporarily) all good or all bad, to provide a sense of
certainty.
There are other ways to achieve reliability or dependency other than certainty. It
used to be that small businesses might close during the day for some good purpose. It
was understood that most patrons would understand and come back later. The
feeling was that being uncertain was not a testament to ultimate
dependability. Faith was put in people, not routines. Now, business fear
closing in any irregular manner at all will infuriate patrons. There is an actual loss
here because humans acting like machines to provide certainty are less capable of
providing warmth and contact.
Intentions versus Results
It goes without saying that usually intentions and results are strongly involved with
one another. Results cannot be completely controlled, but intentions can. (It is
possible semantically, to speak of unconscious intentions, but that muddies the point
being made here) In a moral sense, then one can only be held accountable for
intentions. Life, however, is much more than defending oneself in an imaginary court
of morals.
Intentions lead to results through actions, and action (and future intentions) get
fined tuned this way. Actions are the connection between intentions and results.
Results reflect much more than intentions, they also reflect the totality of human and
natural forces active in a situation. Results are sometimes not fair, and sometimes
bizarre. But over the long haul, results have a truth to them.
Intentions can also de-couple from results in another way. Within the mind,
intentions can take on a life of their own, becoming a false reflection of what is
happening. The effect on emotional and interpersonal functioning is to provide a
closed system of self-justification that limits real contact. If one examines futile
arguments, it is evident that one side is questioning results but the other side is
defending intentions.
One can learn from results, but one cannot learn from intentions. To learn
from results, one has to own the actions (which is not the same as taking the blame.)
This also underlies the difference between a reaction and a response. In a reaction,
which is a defensive action, the responsibility for the results is placed entirely on to
the person offering the provocation (innocently or culpably) and the reactor disowns
the results. The intentions of the reactor is doubtless to restore peace of mind and
harmony, but the reaction often escalates the tension. Besides fruitless wrangling in
the short term, there is a block or 'immunity' on learning. A response on the other
hand, acknowledges the provocation, and acknowledges some limitations of choice,
but still owns the actions, and therefore permits learning. To also explains why
coercing or manipulating people into doing something doesn't result in much
durable learning. Even if the result is compliance, the unspoken intention is to resist.
It is folk wisdom that everyone has to learn the important thing him- or herself from
natural consequences, because artificial consequences are disowned.
Social Norms
The distinction between violating the rights of others and violating social
norms is often blurred, to the detriment of vitality. It is desirable to make it a
behavioral goal never to violate the rights of others, but it is impossible and foolish to
make it a goal never to violate a social norm, yet many make exactly that a goal, as if
goodness depended on it.
The rights of others are violated when their emotional integrity or physical safety in
violated, or when their options for self-determination are durably altered. The
question of what are the rights of a person, when really examined, have been very
consistently described throughout history and throughout place. The variance in the
justice of a culture has been in who is considered a person. That is groups (ie women,
children, minorities, etc) are de-humanized, then violated.
Social norms are generally agreed upon practices that make life nicer (at least for
somebody). Social norms vary from time to time, and place to place, and quite
widely. In fact, social norms can quite easily violate the rights of others, think of
slavery, segregation, etc.. Still, most social norms have a positive use. Social norms
are mostly about public behavior--the idea that one might violate a norm in private
generally makes no sense. (For certain high interest behaviors like sex, even scant
indirect evidence that becomes public may violate a social norm.)
Not following a social norm calls attention to itself, and violating social norms for
this purpose alone is called rebellion. Rebellion is not freedom of behavior but rather
manipulating others through social norms. Rebellion is the traditional province of
adolescents. Usually the issue is with the relationship with parents or authority, and
the norms are innocent bystanders.
There are, however, social norms about being quiet, nice, polite, undistracting,
unintrusive. Many people, seeking to be lovable, develop self-images around these
norms. The norms become not just general guidelines but 'must-dos.' But norms
will never address conflict--they have a largely opposite purpose. Healthy
functioning requires the healthy embracing of conflict. It is the nature of social
norms to be incorrect from a human point of view from time to time
But more common and more insidious is a reverse double-standard. This a sincere
bias against one's own interests, but with the hidden expectation that one will be
rewarded for the self-repression. A reverse double standard doesn't give a firm basis
for others to push against, and is frustrating and crazy-making at the least, and often
draws others into an unhealthy double-standard. A reverse double-standard has its
origin in childhood experience, but it looks to social norms rather than feeling to
guide action.
Intensity
In our culture we have a special case of materialism (the belief that more is better).
This is the belief that more intense is always better. Intensity naturally draws the
attention of the person. The brain is drawn preemptively to intensity, because in
nature, intensity is rare and important. Modern culture though has used technology
to present ever increasing intensity as a consumer product.
Deadened bodies often look toward intense experience to feel alive. But intensity
'abuse' usually causes a further down-regulation, increasing the deadening in the
body. Furthermore intensity draws one 'up,' and grounding is lost.
'Niceness' and Pleasing
Ideally kindness arises out of empathy--if so it will tend naturally conform to what is
really best for the recipient. Real kindness does not leave a resentment because
empathy and self-possession have transformed the desire to be in line with the
actions taken. This cannot be a willed practice. Where empathy is low but
goodwill is high (increasingly common) kindness will be practiced (or simulated) in a
mechanical or unrealistic way. Etiquette or manners are culturally-influenced brief
practices that are meant to cover potential lapses in empathy and kindness for casual
transactions, when distracted, or with strangers.
The capacity for empathy varies quite a bit from person to person. Character
armor in the Reichian sense provides a durable dampening upon empathy, but
empathy is also temporarily diminished by threats, intense activity, greed, hunger
etc..
By niceness I mean a strong ego image of perfect kindness that causes an unnatural
forced vigilance about the concerns of people. Niceness can be both a deliberate
ideology and an automatic and largely unconscious habit (reaction
formation). Because the behavior is insensitive and unrealistic, it causes both
annoyance in the recipient and resentment in the sender. Clearly it doesn't serve the
interests of other people at all, because it is a forced attitude with no real feeling, and
no real commitment. "Be nice" may be a reasonable admonition for children because
children are weak in forbearance whatever their empathy capacity. With older
children and adults, however, there will be a falsity to the actions.
Niceness as a term can also be used to describe good manners, sensitivity, or general
civility, and of course there is no issue to be taken with that in everyday affairs.
Meaningful relationships however cannot always be governed by etiquette or they
become false. Niceness as a trait can of course can describe a natural pleasantness to
be around. However, this only naturally occurs in a body that feels alive and in a
person that is not at war with him- or herself. Where there is fear of honest feeling
and self-expression, a type of forced substitute is put in place.
Social masochism is more deeply structured than niceness, although the social norm
of niceness helps disguise it. Social masochism is prominent in the consolidator
character, while reactive niceness is prominent in the communicator
character.
Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that
awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.
Emily Post
Urgency
A crisis is a situation in which doing nothing is not an option. While natural forces
may bring a crisis, most crises are engineered by humans trying to remove the option
of doing nothing from themselves or others. Crises can become a bad habit, because
it removes the need to do the hard thing or the constructive thing, and replaces it
with the need to do the quick or stop-gap thing. That is, a crisis orientation, can work
as a get-out-of-real-responsibility card.
In human affairs, power is a concept with two very different meanings--'power to'
and 'power over.' ‘Power to’ refers to the ability of a person to change the
circumstances of his or her life by creating and exercising options.
Taking it to the next level, and controlling people, however. becomes power over,'
which refers to the ability to change one’s life by limiting the options of others. It is
naive to think that a civil society can run without any power over. Police have limited
power over civilians, for instance. When 'power over' passes a threshold, it is
reasonable speak of “control” Parents have control over small children. But as the
abilities of children increase, good nurture requires that power over them be
relinquished steadily and be replaced by influence. Influence is the effect of how
we live on how others perceive and manage their options. Influence does
not take options away.
Having one’s ‘power to’ make choices overruled by another person’s ‘power over’
leads to an experience of powerlessness. Powerlessness early in life tends to produce
a later undue interest in power, sometimes in ‘power to’ but most commonly in
'power over'.
Our culture is increasingly based on power. Power over nature is considered a right.
People are esteemed based on what they 'can make happen.' There is increasingly an
emphasis on sheer capacity rather than on inclination or satisfaction.
Perfectionism
The ego easily slips into the mode of trying to be perfect, losing not only the concept
of 'good enough' but also thinking it can control everything, even nature. Even time is
considered subject to the ego--hindsight is misused and the belief is strong that all
problems should have been foreseen. When the inevitable evidence of non-perfection
arises, denial or rationalization is used to protect the self image. Both relationships
and reality testing are impaired. Self-deprecation, contrasted with humility, is an
aspect of perfectionism because it is a disingenuous apology for not being yet perfect.
With perfectionism, cooperative undertakings are discouraged, because self-
sufficiency is seen as the basis of perfection.
One deleterious trend related to perfectionism is the developing social norm that any
problem has to be addressed in the 'best' way as opposed to a 'sufficient' way. There
is a folk expression "There's many ways to skin a cat" but one almost never hears this
expression anymore.
The problem is, of course, that in most matters, there is usually no way to established
what is best, everyone has different ideas. Because there is never certainty as to
whether the best is being done, there are constant demands to change course. There
is no sense of 'enough.' The downside is 1) wide spread self doubt, people don't feel
competent even in everyday matters, and 2) tried and true sound practices and
principles get abandoned and forgotten, in the rush to find some tricky or unique
solution to the present instance of the problem. Opportunists often rush into the gap,
proposing generally unsound approaches which further their own interests, because
skeptics of the new have the burden of proof that the proposed solution will not work
well in this particular exact instance.
To search for perfection is all very well. But to look for heaven is to live here in hell
-Sting
Substitution
It is common advice to start something new to get over something, and the ending of
something can be an opportunity. We have an economic life now based on novelty,
and it is expected that everyone will want to ''go after' the 'latest thing.' Hidden in
this constant churning often is a shrinking away from an emotional challenge of
some sort.
Usually the substitution involves dropping the previous interest rather than resolving
the problem, enriching the relationship, or working through the shame feelings.
Idealistic or fantasized 'success' is valued more than the depth of relationship, and so
serial substitution is encouraged until some easy success is found, but such successes
do not provide satisfaction.
This is true for 'liberals' and 'conservatives' alike. Controversy implies that someone
fears that work in this tradition will lead to bad actions, faulty beliefs (and ensuing
bad actions), or at the least, waste of hope, time and resources. While many ideas of
Reich and Lowen are at odds with modern beliefs (based on how things 'should' be)
they are uncannily aligned with folk tradition (based on how things are).
Reich created the idea of 'emotional plague'. Emotional plague arises from
emotionally crippled humanity as a hatred of vibrant humanity. This concept may
have merit in theory, but in practice it is too little 'grounded, and easily devolves into
a slogan with which to dismiss all resistance.
This section is intended to discuss areas in which traditional Reich and Lowen
principles clash with modern mores or modern concerns, and how the controversies
might be reconciled.
Subjectivity
Subjectivity refers to a person's sensation and perception. Because this can and often
does vary among people, subjectivity can at times refer to a single person's
perspective. Unfortunately, a single persons perspective can and often is
contaminated by illusion and other neurotic elements. This can be overcome by
several people consulting in good faith, but it is not a easy process. Anyone can claim
to perceive something they do not, knowingly or unknowingly.
First, occasional results are unprovable by random controlled trials. Such studies are
designed to document what usually happens, not what sometimes happens (that is,
what can happen). If excellence means an unusual result, then random controlled
trials can never prove something excellent has happened. Yet in their everyday lives,
most people, even subjective-phobic skeptics want excellence: excellent careers,
excellent sex, excellent books to read, etc...
Second, some results or phenomena only affect subjects that are ready or susceptible.
An example could be seeing auras, or feeling streamings. In this tradition, that
usually means that the most mechanical deadened among us are the least likely to be
able to perceive 'the dependent variable'. And in the current scientific culture,
scientists are the likeliest to self-select science because of a deadening of subjective
perception. Randomized selection of subjects works to dilute average 'readiness to
perceive' enormously. Of course, 'readiness to perceive' can be contaminated by
suggestibility, or charlatanism.
Third, the effects of Reich and Lowen work are subtle and mostly contributors to
health rather than whole causes. This means that these effects are transformative
over a lifetime perhaps, but undramatic in a single situation. Behavioral study on
humans has developed the de facto requirement that studied effects exceed the
placebo effect. In psychotherapy settings, the placebo effect is considerable. In fact,
most conversational therapy works no more than as a placebo. The placebo effect in
psychotherapy can be perhaps restated that subjects are able to feel modestly better
if they believe that something is being done about their problems, and that someone
is sincerely trying to help them. Arthur Janov calls this 'symbolic present fulfillment.'
The placebo effect can last many months or a year. However, its limitation is that it
decays and that it cannot be synergistic with other more fundamental elements of
feeling better. In fact therapy in the Reich and Lowen tradition, while it slowly puts
into place a more sound foundation to feeling better, eschews the quick fix of re-
assurance that 'placebo-based' therapy relies upon. For this reason, the effects of this
work are often hidden 'in the troughs' of the placebo effect until many months or
years later, when the effects have multiplied.
Fourth, any therapy that considers feelings the criterion of success, rather than social
adjustment, is deeply planted in the subjective. For instance, a Reich and Lowen
client may have more ego strength to uphold their part in a relationship, but have a
different feeling about past maneuvers to keep stability. The relationship becomes
less stable. The client may feel more depressed for a time but over-archingly the
client feels more convicted and truer about what they are doing. This is a result that
is hard to measure.
All the above means that some results and experiences cannot be verified objectively,
which is to say, they cannot be verified by just anyone, or in a robotic manner, or by
non-human instruments. It does not mean that they cannot be verified!
Still, occasionally dramatic, if not quick, results from therapy are undeniable. This
type of result is noted by other people in the client's life, who are certain something is
different, even if they are hard pressed to put their finger on it. Subjectively, they
know something has happened.
The state is made for man, not man for the state. And in this respect, science
resembles the state
Albert Einstein
Research is to see what everybody sees but to think what no one has thought.
Albert Szent-Gyorgye
Touching by Therapists or Bodyworkers
In bodywork, the therapist at times touches the client for two broad purposes. First,
the therapist might touch so that the client can achieve a position, movement or
physical state that the client could not achieve alone. For instance, the therapist
might apply pressure to a tight muscle to get it to 'let go.' Alternately, the therapist
might provide a specific resistance which permits the client to develop a charge by
using an underused movement, or 'meaning' a movement.
Second, the therapist may touch the client to provide support and grounding through
physical contact with another energy system. In this it is understood that what is
being provided could be provided by any sufficiently experienced person. In fact, in
groups, another group member is often employed for this purpose. Touching
is never considered to be transferring something 'special' like healing to the client.
Unfortunately, being a 'healer' is a common human fantasy, and any tradition that
involves touch draws individuals who have the fantasy of giving 'healing touch'. Some
concepts of therapy are organized around delivering healing touch, but this is not
bodywork as defined here.
For both of the above reasons, touch has become suspect in some academic and
regulatory communities. While much bodywork, perhaps most, can be done without
touching, the way the non-touching work is done is sure to be influenced subtly by
the knowledge that even judicious touch will never be used. The Reich and Lowen
tradition, especially, developed some strong touching techniques just for those
situations in which the client cannot make the breakthrough unaided.
Mothers
The psychodynamic tradition has been criticized for blaming mothers. Reich and
Lowen both attributed the bulk of neurotic and schizoid traits to failures in nurture
by mothers. To see this as blaming mothers requires however the belief that all
behavior and results stem from individuals direct use of the will. But life is bigger
than any one person's use or over-use of the will.
If one thinks of a infant as a young plant, and his parents and the entire community
as a watering can, it seems reasonable to think of the mother as the spout. If water
fails to come out the spout, then possibly the spout is clogged to some degree, but it
is very likely that the can as a whole is empty. A spout can do nothing about that. A
mother than hasn't received love and support from her partner, is like a spout that is
trying to water a plant with an empty can behind her. One can avoid blaming the
spout, but it would be irresponsible to ignore that the young plant is getting no water
and it's growth is hampered.
Despite the role it might play in sexism, it seems inescapable to conclude that biology
and development makes the role of a mother to an infant unique. But while the roles
of mother, father, and extended family in nurture are assymetrical, the responsibility
should not be.
Gender Behavior
However, if life is pursued more on the basis of what is agreeable, then general (not
universal) differences are found in what men and women find agreeable. Though
genderless will-based living may be consistently reflected in conscious ideology, the
agreeable (and therefore gender) creeps into perception. This is so even if
pleasurelessness predominates the life. People who dispute gender behavior
are referring to capability; those who affirm gender behavior are
referring to tendency.
It used to be taken for granted that mature women, in general, tended to ways of
perceiving, behaving and experiencing that were different from mature men in
general. This was based on everyday observation, and has been termed primary
asymmetry. With patriarchy and male privilege, gender roles were developed. While
gender roles are based on some aspects of gender behavior, they were additionally
intended to reinforce male privilege and protect the powerful. Gender behavior,
where it exists, is spontaneous, and very different in energy from a gender role,
which is imposed from outside.
When gender roles were rightfully challenged, they were confused with gender
behavior, and both were suspect and maligned. In large part this is because of
sexism, which clearly exists. In the United Sates, sexism seems to have two prongs,
economic discrimination and male privilege.
Economic discrimination perhaps evolves from the following: The masculine is more
mission oriented, geared toward 'getting' or 'building' something, while the feminine
is geared more toward tending to conditions or people. But in our greedy,
expansionistic economy, 'getting' more and building more is considered to be where
the 'value' is added. So it is rewarded with more money and of course, money
secondarily gives power. Women-rich ( I won't use the usual term 'dominated') fields
such as nursing, teaching, child raising, and now counseling are paid less than
construction, sales, or business maneuvering, despite requiring equal or greater
responsibility and complexity.
Male privilege refers to the tendency of men to allow and expect women to take on
an unequal division of labor, responsibility, and self-denial. It can be thought of as
having both a relational and a societal element. Men are less affected by the cry of
babies, the demands of children, the needs of sick people, or an unkempt house and
women will often end of taking care of these things on their own because the men in
the household make no immediate move to help. Even if each individual piece of
work by the woman seems voluntary, the overall picture is not. For example in a
household where both partners work full-time, the woman is often expected to cook
and clean when she gets home. Or for another example, a woman will be expected to
do all the childcare, and housework, even if it amounts to far more than the man’s
job. Though some have proposed that male privilege came about from force, common
sense observation in our present time indicates that male privilege is all about men
exploiting the tendencies of women. Most readers will be familiar with the 'old-
fashioned' social norm that a man supported his wife and did not allow her to work
outside the home. Now the oppressive and self-serving possibilities of this are easy to
see. But could this not also be, in some crude way, a social norm that was intended to
prevent the male privilege that is rampant in our time, that of a women with two
jobs, the home and a job outside the home?
However, everyday observation shows that gender behavior is as strong as ever, and
stronger in a person generally as the strength of the sense of self increases. The
lamentable situation that has arisen is that most 'well-socialized' people are at war
with themselves because they cannot stamp out all the vestiges of gender behavior
that they fear to show. To be politically correct, women 'must' be more like men and
men 'must' be more like women. The result is a quasi ''unisex" gender role that is just
as imposed from outside, and which no one fulfills very well.
Homosexuality
Goodwill is wanting to do the right thing, and by extension, efforts to do the right
thing, and interest in finding out the right thing to do. It is a present strong cultural
belief that goodwill is not only necessary but sufficient for happiness (subjective well
being).
There is an allegation that arises from time to time against the Reich and Lowen
tradition, that it does or can create social mayhem. That is, it is feared that an
individual will become too unrestrained and behaves, selfishly, predaciously, anti-
socially, and everybody is the worse off.
This is really the doctrine of original sin. If in fact fundamental human nature is
savage and bad, and civilization is the only restraining force, then freedom could be
bad. However, a basic belief in this tradition is that human nature is good, and that
bad behavior is a secondary drive. Secondary drives arise from the natural drives
that are distorted by muscular holding and the concomitant psychopathology.
Because repression in the muscular layer often gives rise to secondary drives,
conscious inhibition may seem the crux of civilized behavior. From time to time
social movements or 'inspirational' therapies arise which are based on the quick fix of
disinhibition. They self-destruct. But natural, 'unarmored' behavior is pro-social and
gracious. Natural behavior and disinhibited behavior should be readily
distinguishable from each other by the lack of contact and real satisfaction in the
latter.
It takes a lot of courage, even among those committed to this tradition, to trust in the
eventual arrival of self-possession and self regulation. Self-control is hard to let go of.
Many are looking for a more enlightened self-control. To demonstrate that self-
regulation does not work, widespread noxious behavior is often referenced. Because
we live in a very imperfect world, this is an issue that cannot be resolved by debate.
Rather each individual has to resolve it for his- or herself by looking and feeling
inward. Below are several examples of secondary drives:
Sadism
On a semantic note, the word sadism is usually used in a specific sexual meaning, or
to denote grave cruelty. It is used here however in a slightly more general but useful
meaning. Sadism is the drive to put things right by having power over
someone, or by causing someone distress. Punishment is based on sadism. No
one is free from sadistic impulses entirely.
Rebelliousness
Rebelliousness comes from a dependency that is fought against internally. For that
reason it is also called counterdependency. A tyrant or dictator is a person with
power that rebels against everybody and so tries to limit and control everybody. That
is why it is extremely common for an autocratic leader to emerge out of a revolution.
Hostility
Hostility is a distortion produced by suppressing and not dealing with the basic
emotions, anger and fear. Hostility heightens or creates the perception of danger in a
situation. To others, hostility feels like an attack. To the hostile person, hostility feels
like being attacked (partly through projection, and partly through a heightened
sensitivity to the other's hostility). It is easy to see how any situation can quickly turn
adversarial and unproductive where hostility is present in much quantity.
Hostility is always ego-dystonic. No one believes they are hostile, because if they did,
they would deal with the anger and fear differently and the hostility would dissolve.
It is this inadmissability into one's self-image that is largely responsible for the
distortion of anger into hostility. Where self-control is high, hostility tends to be
indirect, with ample 'plausible deniability.' Where self-control is less, hostility is less
disguised and more openly disruptive, but tends to be defended as a reasonable
response to a hostile world, and not a state of the person.
Will to Power
Power over others is desired when one feels controlled or humiliated by others. The
healthy drive for acceptance and autonomy is distorted because the restrictions
inside the person are felt to be coming from outside the person, who feels he or she
must dominate others to be free.
Fascism
Fascism is usually confused with the autocracy that is its endproduct, but
functionally it is a complexly distorted drive toward healing and freedom. Robert
Paxton defined it as: "a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation
with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of
unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist
militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites,
abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without
ethical or legal restraints, goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."
Though it is also tempting to think of fascism as an aspect of right-wing politics,
think of the Khmer Rouge in the film The Killing Fields.
The destructive effects of volition are especially acute in the present stage of the
evolution of purpose. This is the stage in which inherited biologically evolved values
have been largely lost, but individual self- developed values are rare, formed only
by the exceptional person. It is social and cultural processes that promulgate and
perpetuate value structures in this unfortunate interim in human evolution.
Societies and sub-cultures within societies are organized around values which have
evolved socially. Because of the mass distortions of thought due to the radix block,
these values incorporate mass irrationalities such as mysticism (e.g., in Judeo-
Christian and Asian religious values), mechanism (e.g., in Marxism and in
academic science), racism (e.g., in fascist values), etc.
A great deal of attention has been focused on what the recent study of the brain
contributes to psychotherapy and knowledge about feeling better. It could be
conjectured, that if Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen had developed their
theories now, they would be less concerned about life below the neck, and happier to
concentrate above the neck. After all, it is said, the brain is part of the body.
However, no one is actually laying hands on the brain, and the brain can easily
become a metaphorical stand-in for the ego or will in discussions. Most study of the
brain seems chemistry oriented rather than biology oriented. That is, it focuses on
individual mechanisms with cause and effect thinking, rather than focusing on
life processes that are reciprocal.
It is also important to keep in mind, that the map is not the territory.
While the brain probably monitors everything that goes on in the body
(and perhaps also the mind) that is not the same as the brain actually
being the place where everything happens. Of course the brain, as a map, is a
wonderfully self-updating map! It is also a map that has become a control panel that
cannot be dispensed with. Brain plasticity makes no sense apart from the body
plasticity, or perhaps better, human plasticity.
Cognitive work has a disappointingly slim record at making people feel much better
for very long. It does have a better record for making people feel somewhat better for
a while. In cognitive therapy, most practitioners think of the task as replacing bad
ideas with good ideas. Now, in a similar way, body-shy workers may think of the task
as replacing bad synapses, by using the will and intellect to choose the proper
experiences, and keep control. The brain has become a new homunculus which
drives the body, and by its organization, determines happiness or misery. The brain
is a real organ of course, but within the context of conversational therapy, the brain is
an ego-mediated concept which doesn't require quite the seeming loss of control
that self-regulation does.
Alexander Lowen encouraged people to get more in touch with themselves below the
waist. He certainly encouraged people to get in better touch with themselves below
the neck. The attraction of brain metaphors seems to be the very flight from heart-
and belly- led living that this tradition seeks to restore. Growth is a process that
occurs outside the realm of control. It takes a faith in life for us to allow it to
work. The attraction of brain metaphors of healing may be the hope that mentally-led
living can work after all. The intellect has more impact, however, and provides more
creative contributions, when it is working together with the rest of the person.
I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I
realized who was telling me this.
Emo Phillips