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Vol 37 May, 2009 International Journal of Biosynthesis Pre-and Perinatal Psychology Somatic and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Somatic Therapy and Transpersonal Psychology Creation and Courage

Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto. Me dió dos luceros, que cuando los abro. Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado, Y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo. Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto. Me ha dado el oído que en todo su ancho Graba noche y día grillos y canarios Martillos, turbinas, ladrillos, chubascos Y la voz tan tierna de mi bien amado. Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto. Me ha dado el sonido y el abecedario. Con él las palabras que pienso y declaro, “Madre,” “amigo,”hermano,” y luz alumbrando La ruta del alma del que estoy amando. Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto. Me ha dado la marcha de mis pies cansados. Con ellos anduve ciudades y charcos, Valles y desiertos, montañas y llanos, Y la casa tuya, tu calle y tu patio. Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto. Me dió el corazón, que agita su marco. Cuando miro el fruto del cerebro humano, Cuando miro al bueno tan lejos del malo. Cuando miro el fondo de tus ojos claros. Gracias a la vida, que me ha dado tanto. Me ha dado la risa, me ha dado el llanto. Así yo distingo dicha de quebranto, Los dos materiales que forman mi canto, Y el canto de ustedes que es el mismo canto. Y el canto de todos que es mi propio canto Thank you to life, which has given me so much. It gave me two beams of light, that when opened, Can perfectly distinguish black from white And in the sky above, her starry backdrop, And from within the multitude The one that I love. Thank you to life, which has given me so much. It gave me an ear that, in all of its width Records – night and day – crickets and canaries, Hammers and turbines and bricks and storms, And the tender voice of my beloved. Thank you to life, which has given me so much. It gave me sound and the alphabet. With them the words that I think and declare: “Mother,” “Friend,” “Brother” and the light shining. The route of the soul from which comes love. Thank you to life, which has given me so much. It gave me the ability to walk with my tired feet. With them I have traversed cities and puddles Valleys and deserts, mountains and plains. And your house, your street and your patio. Thank you to life, which has given me so much. It gave me a heart, that causes my frame to shudder, When I see the fruit of the human brain, When I see good so far from bad, When I see within the clarity of your eyes… Thank you to life, which has given me so much. It gave me laughter and it gave me longing. With them I distinguish happiness and pain The two materials from which my songs are formed, And your song, as well, which is the same song. And everyone’s song, which is my very song. Gracias a La Vida (Thank you to Life) poem by Violeta Parra English translation by William Morín

Contents Articles 6 8 9 11 15 19 26 36 47 56 Book Review 62 63 64 67 73 Editorial A Bridge Between Worlds: a Personal Message for Eva Reich by David Boadella Eva Reich: “The peace on earth begins in the uterus” by Renata Reich Moise At the turn of the pendulum’s swing by Renata Reich Moise The Battle for a New Humanity by Eva Reich Household Use of the Orgone Energy Accumulator by Renata Reich Moise Reich Was Right - Self Regulation from Wilhelm Reich to Contemporary Applied Neuroscience by Jacqueline A. Carleton Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment by Courtenay Young Feminity, Gender and Essence in Body-Psychotherapy Part I: Reflections on theory, clinical and teaching experience by Liliana Acero Systemic Intervention in Biosynthesis: how to work with relational field with families by Esther Frankel Psychothérapie Corporelles, Fondements et Methodes Reviewed by Jerome Liss The Hill Speaks Reviewed by David Boadella Consciousness without end Reviewed by David Boadella Training and Courses in Biosynthesis Editorial Information

Editorial by: Silvia Specht Boadella David Boadella Esther Frankel Milton Corrêa T his issue pays homage to Eva Reich who, as written in the Personal message by David Boadella, dedicated her life to build creative bridges between worlds. Eva’s passion for truth and her clear enthusiasm for helping people in trouble was an inspiration for David and Silvia and also for us and we hope that she can inspire all the people who want a better and peaceful world. An introductory biography (and the obituary) of Eva Reich is presented by her daughter Renata Reich Moise, with the title The peace on earth begins in the uterus, which describes Eva’s travels to 30 countries, battling for a better world. In this article Renata also reminds us about “Butterfly Baby Massage”, created by Eva, and that in Berlin, special ambulances rush to homes where babies are crying inconsolably, using her methods to calm the babies. The article Household Use of the Orgone by Renata Reich presents a touching story about the beginning of Eva Reich’s life as the daugther of Wilhelm Reich and as the revolutionary doctor in a small town in the coast of USA. Renata shows how Eva for as long as 10 years, with love and courage used creatively, all her skills, traditional western medicine, natural medicine, and Orgone medicine. She diagnosed people, combining her understanding of character structure, Reichian blood test looking for t-bacilus, as well using skills she had learned in medical school. With care and admiration Renata lists some clinical notes that Eva wrote about her clients and how Eva treated them with orgone acummulator. The design of some acummulators is described by Renata and she shows also how they was used to help Eva Reich in her illness before she died. At the turn of the pendulum’s swing is a collection of texts from an Eva Reich diary organized by Renata Reich. In this intimate writing Eva express her soul, despair, anger, idealism and faith. Eva Reich in her article The Battle for a New humanity wrote about her preventive work based on the biological evolution according to the findings of Wilhelm Reich. The biological evolution which produces human beings who could tolerate gentleness and pleasure in life, who would shun violence and to whom war would be anachronistic. She also claims that self-regulation and responsible freedom must be encouraged from infancy onward. She shows that the biological evolution is possible from the “right of the babies to be wanted babies”. Eva Reich writing from her vast experience traveling around the world, brings hope that is possible to change how the world works when childbirth education available to all expectant parents. In her article Reich was right: self regulation from Wilhelm Reich to Contemporary applied Neuroscience Jacqueline Carleton explores the relevance of Reich’s thought, in special his basic principle of self regulation, to contemporary neuroscientific research and to neuroscientifically-based treatments of trauma. She presents an interesting bridge between the pioneer ideas of Reich and the recent researches of neuroscience and neuropsychoanalysis. The article Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: The process of Re-embodiment by Courtenay Young, presents an overview of Body Psychotherapy according of Neuroscience, Anthopology, Psychosocial, Cultural images, Transitional objects, narrative therapy and body images, He explores and deepens the concepts of embodiment and re-embodiment. In this article Courtenay advises about the indiscriminated use of touch without a carefully ethical posture adequate to the real necessities of the client and as he states “we don’t touch because we have learnt about touch and the effects of touch and because we can now achieve almost exactly the same effects in different ways, if needed, without touch. We can only now work without touch because we have worked extensively with touch; maybe we have embodied touch sufficiently so that we can touch our clients differently, without touching them physically”. Courtenay emphasizes the importance of therapeutic alliance and the quality of emotional attachment between client and therapist for an effective benefit of therapy. In her article Femininity, Gender and Essence in Body-Psuchotherapy: reflections on theory, clinical and teaching experience, Liliana Acero presents a critical review of how women and female sexuality

have been dealt within and outside neoreichian psychotherapy. She argues that, the absence of a clear use of a Gender Theory has biased theoretical formulations, research and practice even neoreichian psychotherapy. Some aspects of contemporary psychology views on these topics are outlined and conclude with examples on Latin American cultural and social researches on women’s social behaviour. Systemic psychotherapy integrated with individual somatic Biosynthesis psychotherapy is presented by Esther Frankel in her article Systemic Intervention in Biosynthesis: How to work in the relational field with families. With a personal introduction to the systemic theme, Esther writes about her own process of healing and shows from her clinical experiences how the systemic and individual somatic psychotherapy are complementary. Theoretical links based on the Biosynthesis Life Fields, and field of intentionality model are shown in a practical session with family constellation. The book Psychothérapie Corporelles, Fondements et Methodes, by Michel Heller is reviewed by Jerome Liss. The feeling that we are returning to ancient origins of body awareness, and therefore the Western history of Freud, Reich, Lowen and Boadella, is seen as coming from deeper roots. Especially interesting is the presentation of Darwinian notions regarding the evolution of the body and emotions and Cannon’s work regarding homeostasis. As pointed by Jerome the understanding of the basic message of this book is essential for body psychotherapists. David Boadella reviews the book The Hill Speaks by the poet Elsa Corbluth. As David comments: this new collection may sound local, but is quite global in scope. For Elsa a landscape on earth is an opening to a landscape of the heart. Whether it is a flower, a tree, a rock, or a mountain, she presents this from her artistic vision as a bridge between her vision of the world of nature, where even hills have a voice and can speak, and the inner passions of being human. The book is full of breath-taking currents that lead us into worlds of myth and legend, or back to solid earth with a bump. The new book of Pim van Lommel, Consciousness is reviewed by David Boadella. This book Volume 37, May 2009 International Journal of Biosynthesis The 82th English publication, since January 1970 Covering prenatal and perinatal psychology, somatic and psychodinamic psychotherapy, somatic therapy and transpersonal psychology ISSN 0013-7472 Copyright © by the International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS. All rights reserved Publishers and International Editors: Dr. h. c. David Boadella and Dr. phil. Silvia Specht Boadella International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS Benzerüti 6, CH-9410 Heiden, Switzerland tel: +41-71-891 68 55 fax: +41-71-891-58 55 e-mail: info@biosynthesis.org www.biosynthesis.org Producers and Managing Editors: Dr. Milton Corrêa (PhD) and Dr. Esther Frankel (MA) Biosynthesis School of Rio de Janeiro Rua Barão de Ipanema, 56/902, Rio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil - CEP 22050-030 tel: +55-21-3816 3626, +55-21-8891 3626 fax: +55-21-2523 5617 e-mail: mncorrea@gmail.com e-mail: esther.frankel@gmail.com Order and subscriptions: Orders and subscriptions can be required by http://www.biossintese.psc.br/energy-character.html or by e-mail: mncorrea@gmail.com or by fax +55-21-2523 5617 Please send complete contact information Submissions of articles: without end, presents a deep study of the near-death experiences and consciousness. Van Lommel, who was for 26 years a cardiologist at a hospital in Arnhem, Holland, concludes that consciousness is not produced by the brain, but acts through the brain, and is trans-somatic, in the sense that is not locally dependent on the life processes of the body. The book is supported by over 450 detailed footnotes, and 360 major references to neurological, biological, quantum-physical, psycho-energetic and philosophical sources. Lommel’s detailed but panoramic survey of the field of consciousness beyond the brain and the body, is a masterpiece of clinical, scientific and cultural research. Authors should send their articles in the RTF or Word format for Windows PC to Dr. Esther Frankel and Dr. Milton Corrêa by eletronic mail: esther.frankel@gmail.com mncorrea@gmail.com milton.correa@biossintese.psc.br Authors whose work is accepted for publication will be required to revise their work to conform Energy & Character style Art Project Milton Corrêa, Luis C. Gomes, Walter Guerra Design, Layout and Typesetting: Micael Hocherman Corrêa

A Bridge Between Worlds: a Personal Message for Eva Reich by David Boadella I first met you at the San Francisco conference, at Esalen, in 1974, on Wilhelm Reich and the Politics of the Body. I was inspired by your passion for truth and your clear enthusiasm for helping people in trouble. I felt you to be a builder of bridges: between male and female energies, between the excitement of the child, and the forcefulness of the adult. Our paths crossed from time to time over the years, in different countries on both sides of the Atlantic. When my daughter died suddenly in 1980, you were one of the first to ring me up with support and empathy. Later you visited me at my home in Dorset, and we sat together on Chesil beach, listening to the rhythm of the sea. The pulsation of the waves reminded you of your life’s work with expansion and contraction. When the first growth centre in Europe was established, at Quaesitor in London, you were one of the first therapists to be invited there. You oriented yourself so quickly in the neighbourhood in a way that taught the leader of that centre how practical you are and how quick to put your feet down on new ground. In the early nineteen eighties you and I were jointly invited to give lectures on our work at a conference centre in west London. I found your speaking very direct, and able to arouse lively responses from the audience. They could see that you embodied what you spoke about. I encouraged you to write more, and was hap py that I could publish several of your fine articles in Energy & Character. You were always provocative, ne ver conservative. After I moved to Switzerland in 1985, Silvia and I invited you as a guest trainer to our Institute for Biosynthesis, in Zürich. Your teaching was forceful and passionate and transmitted a deep trust in the ability of a person to regain vitality. You taught that the healing of wounds is indeed possible. Later you were a guest in our house, and you sat comfortably on the floor making easy and natural contact with our baby son, who was just starting to crawl then. You travelled widely, as I did at that time, to many 8 7th European Congress of Body Psychotherapy - 1999, Homage to Eva Reich David Boadella, Gerda Boyesen, Malcom Brown, Eva Reich and Renata Reich. places in the world. In your travels you were constantly reminding people of the needs of the newborn, and challenging them to rethink their views. You built bridges towards a more dynamic understanding of what the pulse of life is about. When you were once in Venezuela you saw videos of Biosynthesis sessions I had given in a therapeutic group in Caracas. You told me then that they deeply influenced your development of your own soft and non-invasive style of therapy. You said it reconnected you to the spirit of your father’s work which was founded in establishing emotional contact with the expressive language of the living. At the last time we met, at the EABP conference in Travemunde, North Germany, in 1999 you paid public tribute to this influence, and to our common roots. At the end of the conference you were awarded an Honorary Membership of the EABP, as a recognition and honouring of your life-long work for the prevention of neurosis and for what you described as your “battle for humanity”. Eva, for all that we could share together, at those moments when our paths crossed, visibly, or invisibly, I thank you from my heart, as I salute you, across the last bridge, between life and death. David Boadella A Bridge Between Worlds: a Personal Message for Eva Reich

Eva Reich: “The peace on earth begins in the uterus” by Renata Reich Moise E va Renate Reich, MD, a resident of Hancock, Maine, USA for more than 50 years, and an internationally known lecturer on emotional health, died Sunday August 10th 2008 in her daughter’s arms at her home on Hancock Point Road. She was 84 years old and had been in failing health for some time after a stroke of the spine on New Years Eve 2001 left her a paraplegic. Dr. Reich was born in Vienna, Austria on April 27th , 1924, the daughter of two luminaries in the world of Freudian Psychoanalysis, Wilhelm Reich and Annie (Pink) Reich. She and her younger sister Lore immigrated with their mother to the United States in 1938 after their parent’s divorce, and lived in New York City. In this country Eva attended Barnard College, and the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, earning her MD in degree in 1949 at the age of 25. During these years she was married to and then divorced from Jerome Siskind, a social worker, with whom she had corresponded daily during World War 11. After a two year rotating internship she became a General Practitioner (akin to Family Practice), maternal child health always her special passion . She met William (Bill) Moise, the artist, while both worked at her father’s laboratory in Rangeley, Maine. There they studied Orgonomy, a science of energy and Eva with Freckles, Oil on Canvas, Renata Reich, 1989 energy & character vol.37 may 2009 9

body therapy, and participated in many of Wilhelm Reich’s experiments. In 1952 Eva and Bill moved to Hancock, Maine, where she opened a small medical practice out of her home while Bill taught art in the schools. At the age of 28, and the first female MD in the area, Eva soon became loved and respected as a country doctor. Through much of the 1950s Eva and Bill were also deeply involved in her father’s work. After Wilhelm Reich’s death while he was imprisoned for his scientific ideas in 1957, Eva struggled with depression and plunged herself even more deeply into her rural private medical practice. She applied many of the principles she had learned from her father with good results. Together she and her husband also operated a small organic farm, where they were forerunners in the organic food movement. In many ways Eva was always ahead of her time, preaching the benefits of natural food, gentle birth, and mother-child bonding long before these ideas found the main stream. In 1960 Eva gave birth at home to a daughter, Renata Moise, the only child she would be able to carry. She closed her medical practice in 1962, after suffering herself the loss of several pregnancies. She ran a Montessori school in her home for Renata and neighboring children from 1963 to 1966. In 1970 she established mobile birth control clinics for all ages, which served central and eastern Maine. Eva’s principle was to make her efforts available at low cost or free, and she lived very simply. After her divorce from Moise in 1974, Eva began traveling around the world, invited to lecture on, and demonstrate her father’s work, as well as her own. William Moise died in 1980. Eva, who had studied infant emotional health under her father’s tutelage and as a primary care physician, developed a gentle orgonomic treatment for upset infants and colicky babies. She coined the term “Butterfly Baby Massage”, since the touch used was as gentle as the touch used to pick up a butterfly. This method has been taken up especially in Austria and Germany. In Berlin there are special “ambulances” which rush to houses where babies are crying inconsolably, using Eva Reich’s methods to calm babies. She found that this level of touch worked with both adults and children, melting the body armor rather than breaking it down. She eventually traveled to 30 countries and rounded the world 7 times, giving lectures on Orgonomy, gentle birth, breast feeding, sexuality, organic foods, birth, baby 10 Renata Reich Moise Eva Reich: “The peace on earth begins in the uterus” massage, as well as running therapeutic workshops, all without a secretary. She believed in starting with the wanted child, natural nonviolent birth, prepared parents, bioenergetic therapy for the traumatized newborn, and self regulation as a guiding principle in educational and all institutions. Throughout her life Eva championed peace, stating that peace on earth begins in the uterus. Each summer she returned to the farm in Hancock to be one with the land. Although not affiliated with a religion, Eva felt led by god. In the United States and Europe students have carried on her work, and she is regarded as the founder of Gentle Bioenergetics. After her retirement in 1992 due to a small stroke, she lived year round on the farm again, able to garden, ski, canoe, hike, and teach those who sought her out. Even in her disability after the spinal stroke, she brought deep lessons to all who cared for her. A few months before her death, she remarked that, ”All old people need is to be loved”. Dr. Reich leaves behind a daughter, Renata Moise and son-in-law Antonio Blasi, both of Hancock, Maine; a grandson William Christopher Ross, of Trenton, Maine; a sister Lore Rubin of Pittsburgh, PA: a brother Peter Reich and his wife Susan of Leverett, MA; a cousin Sigrid Kirsners of Boston, MA; much loved nieces and nephews, as well as her helpers Valerie, Kathy, Mary, Danielle, and Laura. A memorial service was held on Monday August 18th at 4 pm in Hancock, at the Monteux School Forest Studio. All was welcome back to Eva’s house after at 53 Point Road for food, music and talk, with a walk down Eva’s path to the shore. Donations in Eva’s name may be sent to the public health nonprofit: Downeast Health Services 52 Christian Ridge Road Ellsworth, Maine 04605 This is the obituary which Renata wrote after Eva’s death.

At the turn Of the pendulum’s swing by Renata Reich Moise (To Eva), T he dream of your being, how it was when you walked upright, who you were, and are now, all like gauze and fog, white cool vapor from the snow fields. I long for those days of impossible keeping on, of the last touch of your paper dry hands and shoulders, skin stretched parchment over bone. How do I write about you, woman of motherness, rooms filled with every piece of interest, of sustenance, of silk or velvet scraps for my creation? Of explosion, passion, thunderstorm, to my still deer, calm and watching, behind the willows or near the forest edge? And when I feel this way, you write back to me, across 23 years, in your beautiful gliding hand, blue pen across yellowed unlined sheet. 9 April 1985 - Sitting at 7:30 am at kitchen table, with snowflakes falling (by Eva Reich) Oh Lord… I studied till midnight Grinding facts into my overloaded brain Or even getting up again After a few hours sleep I pushed my body Even though it was spring outside I sacrificed: being young And dancing around a Maypole I persisted for years Driving toward a goal My medical degree To be a doctor To be a doctor on an expedition had been “known to me” since five… I was the first to stay in Medical school After a marriage I had Cried when admitted to an all women school Those were grim years, gray with war news I washed dishes for my meals and Lived in an expensive six dollar a week room Eva and Canoe, late 1980s energy & character vol.37 may 2009 11

I baby sat while studying and mostly the babies slept…. We worked 36 hour days The hospital fed us rotten food Cockroaches crawled in the dark and I knew I was draining my vitalityAnd all through the ordeal they said Someday you’ll make lots of money That’s why it’s OK to slave drive You now I weep for you medicineNow you are the other way round Profiteering from illness Fie fie upon you The highest of incomesI tried GodWhen I worked years (10) As a country doctor When I did the best I knew howHead to toe exams with urinalysis and CBC thrown in for $5. They had drilled me so hard To give of myself for free “for the experience” That I could not charge enough, lacking a buffer to collect! After ten years, still poor, with $100 in the bank And drained to the dregs, Knowing suddenly from one step to the next, cold post hemorrhage (Dec.1962) Step to step, walking into a snow white forest Step to step- up rose a clear knowledge- from somewhere in my belly This is not what it is going to Be This is not what I want to do with my life This I must change- this stepRight now- registering the change with surprise I carry many wounds… The wounds of the past have been Healed By prayer The issues are worse More clear The debacle of life… All down the line I followed my ideals, Made no profit 12 Renata Reich Moise At the turn Of the pendulum’s swing Worked with concentration On things “for their own sake” Gave away what I had Expecting God to heal the world, as also myself I see me objectively Impulsive Gambling my all On God is OK She cares for me And will not let me Drop to the uttermost point Will catch me Before I fall Thus safe, I traveled far Ten years traversed this Earth- (1975-1985) Add up the efforts, like Seeds spread far and wide Gods purpose beyond my Comprehension 24 countries hundreds of workshopslectures, talk talk talk-Seed scattering10 April 1985 I Snow flurry starts In April It is Time for Spring Oh ye killers Of the spring expansion Exploding nuclear bombs In the bowels of the earth Is the only feeling You know The feel of a Trigger in your hand? You have lost Without knowing What it is you are missing The luminous Gentle spring expansion Translucent apple blossoms Petals floating earth ward “I have lived in Maine almost 33 years” All’s not well with the world II Things have been lost On earth Without the profiteers

Being aware Interest rates are not what life is all about you are ravaging the earth you are extinguishing species Once a crowd of ducks Coated the swells of Autumnal blue green ocean coves In Maine, and the Sky was blackened by The V’s of flying Water fowl You profiteer do not Even know what it is That you have destroyed “Life does not pay” it is not based on the profit motive III To the war mongers, The death merchants, and the life-killers I must break the deadlock Which seals my lips (when I am in the USA) The cry of outrage From that courtroom SceneRepressed in my father and in witness-me Yes you do know what You are doing. Yet we must forgive you. You know, profiteer, warmonger, Power happy influencer, bully Squanderer of hard won LibertyYou criminals, bending The law to your will, In the so called bastion of freedomThe innocence of each crop of new life, in humans if continually massacred, for expedience. IV I am sitting on my bed Shivering On the edge of the mattress My companions in this room Are silent plants, Whose being-ness in silence Reinforces mine. Yet once, at the Congress in London, Plants, I heard your brethren Greet me with electronic Music, warbles, twitters, Responses- life to life V Drinking Cocoa At my kitchen table Heavy of heart and body Where is the inner push Like the push of a seed’s germ from the earth? The driving force of my years Of hard work, The motivation of My ideals? I followed the path of my Truth And it led me to this kitchen table defeated and drained of energy And therefore I understand nothing, for life is so strong and keeps surviving (but how much longer?) VI I can’t meet my goddess Of life and peace Looking into the Alter: two plates filled with little papers I cannot meet The profound-truth That bottom tone of honesty When I am marching Up and down the alter steps Careful not to fall, raising up a robe with slip on satin collar It was better, for many Years sitting on roots down at the water Praying my heart out For change in the world (maybe I should go again?) VII I feel very alone No one can give me answers I have stopped asking. I suffer my spiritual nausea in silence… They keep on killing the life and babble of salvation… energy & character vol.37 may 2009 13

Poor Jesus-spirit, Look, they are still at it! VIII Where ever I turn the path is blocked – I had activated my activity To a burn out point And now is a rest time, A low pause point, A vacuum of purpose Of faith, Awaiting a new infilling This time I will not rush Gladly Daring my all ..”Once more into the breach, dear friends” – was Bill’s fondest quotation I weep – alone – for him, Because I am a rudderless sail boat, Drifting, Before repairsIn my former manner I would have gone to Africa To spend myself as a doctor on that Hungry catastropheBut is not the answer To modify the climate To re-establish East West flow And get the moisture in From the ocean With the cloudbuster? The discrepancies of my life Are too great for my Small human aging vehicle Of a bodyI find myself waiting(WR asked “for what-?”) For my next life! That’s what! Where things may be a bit Better! Yet, no longer with notions Of suicide, I have the patience to Wait it out, till my ending Which is sometimes, with curiosity, in my mind (“they also serve who only stand and wait” was my own favorite quotation) EndingsBalanced by beginnings Death recycled,The divine compost pile Of every forest littered floor… 14 Renata Reich Moise At the turn Of the pendulum’s swing Renata Reich Moise, granddaughter of Wilhelm Reich, was born in Hancock, Maine, USA in 1960, the only child of Eva Reich MD and the late artist, William Moise. In addition to being an artist, Renata obtained a Masters of Sciences in Nurse Midwifery from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994. She lives in Maine, and currently practices in a group of four Nurse Midwives who deliver babies at the local hospital. Her husband, Antonio Blasi, is a Modern Jazz Saxophonist, as well as a sea kayak guide. Her son, Christopher Ross, age 24, leads the band Stiff Whisker. This writing soothes That growing spot of pain, I’ve carried from my childhood, That melancholy Yearning painConnects me to the Russians. Oh how I loved them When I woke from dream the other morning– 11 April 1985 Morning silence Still below freezing Yet promise of spring In greening of grass And a chickadee’s chirp There comes a pause At the turn of direction Of the pendulum’s swing I have slept deeply – And woke without depression When Eva lay dying in her bedroom, and I, with friends and family, sat near, wrung through and through with the deep rattle of her breath and my own grim strong duty, at that very time, torn between vigil and action, on the second, or maybe the third day of her extended death, I found this writing, or it found me. Profile of the author

The Battle for a New Humanity by Eva Reich D r. Wilhelm Reich discovered an effective therapy for the dissolution of character armoring. However, he always stressed the importance of the prevention of neurosis rather than subsequent treatment. Society creates conditions which stunt the direct growth and unfolding of the human personality to full potential. Active interference with natural functions is the norm in western civilization. If Wilhelm Reich was correct that the primary life instinct is “good”, that self-regulation is a basic natural law, and that it is only the blocking of the life energy which creates “secondary” impulses¹ then we ought to act above all to protect life in the young as it is growing and functioning from the beginning. I agree with Wilhelm Reich that “politics is a disease of mankind,” and, therefore, it is futile to put our energy into bringing about political revo1ution. I would prefer to bring about the biological revolution, a revolution of a return to the unarmored state, of a change which would allow the “genital character” to survive growing up into adulthood. The biological revolution follows the sexual revolution, Reich said. The biological revolution would produce human beings who could tolerate gentleness and pleasure in life, who would shun violence and to whom war would be anachronistic. I recommend further studies confirming that tribes who allow both body pleasure in infancy and premarital sexual intercourse in youth show no violence, crime or perversion.² Unimpeded growth of the human potential is as yet a dream on earth. It seems to me that a chain of events affects each human being from conception on. The earliest events are most crucial, simply because they happen first on the time-line. Also, the same amount of force has a more damaging impact on a small seedling, whose stem becomes kinked, than the same force exerted upon the twig or a large tree. We must reconcile two viewpoints, the “paradise lost school,” which prefers to mourn over damaging traumas of childhood, and the “growth movement” in which grown-ups are stretching out toward a more expanded creative life of the here and now. I have worked toward the prevention of trauma inEva Reich, 1989 energy & character vol.37 may 2009 15

flicted upon the human organisms’ life force. I call this effort “the battle for the new humanity.” It is a battle, because anyone who tries to make changes in institutions affecting human life, such as birthing hospitals or schools, will soon encounter obstacles and blocks from persons in power. Wilhelm Reich described the nature of this opposition in his book, “The Murder of Christ”. He defined a character type, “the Emotional Plague” individual, who cannot tolerate letting others find their way to full, free-flowing life, and who must always interfere or exert power, brainwash or control others. This plague is infectious, and is handed down from generation to generation. However, I am finding that the chain of transmission can be broken. For instance, parents who were battered and beaten as children, can, if they become conscious of their own past pain due to mistreatment, stop beating their own infants. They can overcome the compulsion to hand in their own script of an unhappy childhood. It helps to recognize one’s own unconscious life script, which has the nature of a hypnotic command.³ The principle of self-regulation affirms that nature is not chaotic, but organized and is in a state of dynamic balance between opposite trends. Furthermore, selfregulation does not result in chaos, but eventually in a state of fluid order. Self-regulation and responsible freedom must be encouraged from infancy onward. Freedom cannot be imposed later on human beings who have grown upunder authoritarian rule. Self-regulation demands that people who are affected by institutions should also have a voice in their function. Procedures and rules should grow out of experience, and not be arbitrarily handed down from the old to the young. The reasons for rules must not be forgotten, Every generation should have the right to question existing rules and try out new ways. Grown-ups owe children a safe environment. For instance, Paul Ritter, a city planner in Perth, Australia, and author of The Free Family4 has designed a suburb in which, from the backyard of each home, children can walk or bicycle for miles without crossing motor traffic, through a system of over- and underpasses. Human priorities should come first in all design, and Life needs should have priority over present Death expenditures. Life’s self-regulation also requires that at no time should every member of the human community be forced into the same mold. Since each varies from the other, though all function according to common life principles, institutional structure whether state, local government or school—must allow individual expression within the limits of “not hurting others”. The alternative is an ant—like society, waging interplanetary destruction. We must guard the right of the underdog, the minority, 16 Eva Reich The Battle for a New Humanity the alternative voice to be heard in the land, A society which shoots its own critics or brainwashes them with psycho-political electrical shock to the brain, is anti-life. The group which practices communal living and group sex, while holding property in common, must allow their own children, on growing up, to choose private life in a two-lover, small family, if they desire, operating by the law of opposites to change their lifestyle from the previous generation. The law of opposites is my term for describing the process in which youth, in separating from parental lifestyles, may either incorporate the parents’ way of being or change it to an extreme alternative. An example would be the general change toward longer hair and beards, influenced by the Beatles around 1960. Another example would be the change in America from a desire for “romantic love” with marital expectations to a position of “non commitment” among the “cool generation” of college students living in co-ed dormitories and practicing sexual freedom. Our planet contains varying degrees of human liberation. I do not believe a truly new kind of unarmored human life can arise on earth in one section while elsewhere totalitarian repression of human rights is practiced in America; the Equal Rights Amendment for the rights of women, after fifty years, has not yet become law. A bill of children’s rights needs to be proposed as well. Many countries, including Australia, lack any declaration of human rights in their constitutions. Because of the irritation which armored life feels in the presence of unarmored life, there has been a war going on between grown–ups and against children, throughout the history of the Western world5 . It was Wilhelm Reich who finally understood and pinpointed the details of this war, and who pointed out its motivation. The extremely restrictive Sparta attacked Athens. Hitler attacked the Netherlands. Once the shooting starts, there is little time for the slow changes which allow for a new kind of life to make its appearance. With the incredible reality of nuclear war and overkill, at the push of a button facing us today, we can lose nothing by trying the new, unarmored way; it has never been fully tried yet. Traveling around the globe, l have had the opportunity to study human structures bioenergetically. I have convinced myself that as yet there exists no country on earth where life is not distorted by external pressure. Though each country varies a bit in exactly how and where it causes armoring to become a necessary survival mechanism, the end result is the same. Everywhere I meet human beings who have suffered unjust tortures of one kind or another during their growth period, and who now wish to liberate themselves to undo the results of previous conflicts. From each situation, I try to

deduce what was preventable, to learn what changes are needed to make a better world in the future. This approach is very fruitful. It has made an optimist of me, for I know “It Can be Done”. That was the slogan on the laboratory wall of my father. The fruits of my tiny efforts reinforce my hopefulness. Where does the biological revolution begin? The first factor in the chain is the right of babies to be wanted babies. This requires the availability of 100% birth control services for all who require them, irrespective of age or marital status. This means the last and the least woman on earth, on reaching menarche, should be instructed in the various methods of contraception. The service should be near at hand when she actually commences heterosexual intercourse, even though she may be a minor, still living with her parents. I battled for several years (1972-1975) in my home state of Maine to make birth control for all a reality. A description of the events which happened as I tried to apply Wilhelm Reich’s Sexpol platform (forty years after he first proposed this policy) would fill a volume. Birth control clinics need to be widely available and publicized so that all people know about them. When birth control fails (which it does in only a small percent of cases), it should be backed up by legal abortion services. Birth control is aimed at making possible the birth of wanted offspring and the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. Arthur Janov has shown, through Primal Therapy, that the unwanted baby may experience pain even in the uterus. Babies are human beings and should be treated as such. Babies do feel, even at birth, and also remember their pain. Therefore, no painful procedures should be inflicted on them unnecessarily or against their will. What male infant would choose to be circumcised without anesthesia? Let us stop hurting the young; let us stop putting burning silver nitrate drops into their eyes after birth, for instance. The medical reason given for this practice is that it prevents gonorrhea, which can cause blindness. Instead, why not test ( by both smear and culture) every pregnant woman for the infection at term and again during labor? This simple preventive test is easily done and avoids functionally impairing eyesight. The baby whose eye has been hurt by the chemical quickly learns to resist the second drop in the other eye. We teach pain before we utter a welcome! Though every procedure has an apparent rational reason, let us question, and find better ways. Let us find the truth and the counter-truth in each situation as we gradually change our treatment of the young to nonviolent, humanitarian ways. In order to change the world, we need to proceed in a logical, step-by-step fashion. We must make childbirth education available to all expectant parents. This consumeroriented group is actually changing human awareness on the subject of birthing: The International Childbirth Education Association, through its courses, is fostering a positive, joyful, creative attitude to parenting6 ; for some decades meddlesome, controlling, mechanistic obstetrics has been the vogue in the United States. Sadly enough, it is being copied all over the world. The National Organization of Parents and Professionals for Safe Alternatives in Childbirth (NAPSAC)7 holds annual congresses for those searching for better ways of birthing. Consciousness is being raised and nonviolent, natural births, followed by loving massage of the infant’s body within the mother’s energy field (aura) can become the goal of new parents. Groups of new parents can meet and exchange experiences concerning childbirth. Gentle, butterfly-touch bioenergetic therapy, given immediately following a difficult birth, can heal the consequent birth trauma. Fourth trimester adjustment problems of babies result from violent births or cruel treatment by insensitive grown·ups. Babies need warmth, body contact, breast milk. They would vote for being with their mothers, not isolated in a white glaring nursery. They would prefer the oral pleasure of a living nipple from which warm milk streams into their quivering mouths over a cold rubber nipple, or being propped on a pillow for feeding. When needs are fully satisfied in infancy, the person is free to develop into total independence later on. The argument that it is good for people to suffer is a vicious one. This argument, sometimes veiled in the eastern religious terminology of “karma”, makes excuses for cruelty to the young. I believe we must change human structure by changing each of the harmful assaults on the young. I would like to conclude with a plea to all professional psychotherapists, who are making their living by treating human misery, to tithe some of their time and effort into activity in the social scene, aimed toward preventing some of the specific root causes of neurosis. My hope is for a world where self·regulation will be a guiding principle. Only by our allowing human character structure to become healthy will we at last actualize healthy human social and political institutions in the New Age. NOTES 1 Secondary impulses are defined by Elsworth Baker in Man in the Trap, (New York: Discus Books, 1974), as “Expressions of the body which have to come through the armor and are therefore forceful and destructive? He defines armor as “The sum total of the muscular attitudes (chronic muscular spasms) which an individual develops as a defense against breakthrough emotions and vegetative sensations, especially anxiety, rage and sexual excitation, functionally identical with character armor.” 2 James W. Prescott, “Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence,” The Futurist, April 1975. Published by the World Future Society, P. O. Box 30369, Washington D. C, 40014. 3 Claude Steiner, Scripts People Live. (New York:Grove Press, 1974. energy & character vol.37 may 2009 17

4 Ritter, P., Ritter, J., “Self Regulation in Birth,” pp.113-122. D. Boadella, Ed,, In the Wake of Reich, London: Coventure, 1976. 5 Richard Farson, Birthrights, (New York: Macmillan, 1974). Paperback edition; New York: Penguin, 1978. 6 ICEA, 195 Waterford Drive, Dayton, Ohio 45459. ICEA Supplies Center, P. O. Box 70258, Seattle, Washington, 98107. 7 NAPSAC, P. O. Box 1307, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514. BIBLIOGRAPHY Baker, Eisworth, “The Concept of Self-regulation.” Orgone Energy Bulletin, I, No. 4 (1949), pp. 160-164. ——, “Genital Anxiety in Nursing Mothers.” Orgone Energy Bulletin, IV, 1952, pp. 19-31. ——, “A Further Study of Genital Anxiety in Nursing Mothers? Journal of Orgonomy, III, No. 1 (1969), pp. 46-55. Boyesen, Mona Lisa and Boyesen, Gerda, “Spontaneous Movements and Visceral Armor,” Energy and Character, VIII, No. 1 (1977), p, 32. Charon, Mary, “Armoring in 7-yr. Old Baby.” Journal of Orgonomy, HI, No. 1 (1969), pp. 57—68. Denison, Lucille, “The Child and His Struggle.” International Journal for Sex-Economy and Orgone Research, IV, 1945, pp. 173-190. Dreyfuss, Ann and Feinstine, A, “I Am My Body, My Body is Me”. San Francisco: Josey Bass, 1976. Ganz, M.A, “Functiona1 Child-rearing.” Journal of Orgonomy, X, No. 2 (1976), pp. 249•262. Jones, Peter, “’The Use of Vegeto-therapy in Childbirth,” in D. Boadella, In the Wake of Reich. London: Coventure, 1976, pp. 123-137. Konia, C, “Circumcision: An Assault on the Newborn. “Journal of Orgonomy, X, No. 2 (1976), PD. 276-278. Leboyer, Frederick, Birth Without Violence. New York:Knopf, 1975. Neill, A.S, “Self-regulation and the Outside World.” Orgone Energy Bulletin, II, No. 2 (1950), pp. 68-70. Ollendorff, Ilsa, “About Self-regulation in a Healthy Child”, in Annals of the Orgone Institute, Volume I. W. Reich, Ed. Rangeley, Maine, Orgone Institute, 1947, pp. 81-90. Philipson, Tage, also known as Paul Martin. “Sex-economic‘Upbringing’ “, International Journal for Sex-Economy and Orgone Research, I, 1942, pp. 18-32. Prescott, James, “Bodily Pleasure and the Origins of Violence.” The Futurist, April 1975. Raphael, Chester, “Orgone Treatment During Labor.” Orgone Energy Bulletin, III, No. 2 (1951), pp. 90-98. Reich, Eva, “The Biological Revolution”, International Journal of Life Energy (Toronto), I, No. 2 (1979), pp. 110-124. Reich, Eva, “Dr. Eva Reich - all Interview.” International Journal of Life Energy (Toronto), I, No. 4 (1979), pp. 221-251. Transcript of radio broadcast at Melbourne, Australia in November, 1976. Reich, Wilhelm, “Armoring in a Newborn Infant.” Orgone Energy Bulletin, No. 3 (1951), pp. 121-138. ——, “Children of the Future.” Orgone Energy Bulletin, II, No. 4 (1950), pp. 194-206. ——, “The Expressive Language of the Living in Orgone Therapy.” in W. Reich, Character Analysis. New York: Orgone Institute Press, 1949, 3rd edition, pp. 357-397. ____, Listen, Little Man! New York: Orgone Institute Press, 1948. ——, “On Laws Needed for the Protection of Life in Newborns and of Truth.” Orgone Energy Bulletin, V, Nos. 1 and 2 (1953), pp. 3-4. Ritter, Paul and Ritter, Jean, “Self-regulation in Birth”, in In the Wake of Reich. D. Boadella, Ed. London: Coventure, 1976. pp. 113-122. 18 Eva Reich The Battle for a New Humanity Eva Reich, M.D was born in 1924 in Vienna, Austria, the oldest of three children born to Dr. Wilhelm Reich. She lived in Vienna, Berlin and Prague until emigration to the United States in 1938. She died in Hancock, Maine, USA August 10th 2008. She attended Montessori schools in Vienna and Berlin; Gymnasium in Vienna and Prague; high school at “progressive” Walden school in New York City; and college at Brooklyn College and Barnard College in New York City, She graduated with a B.A. in biology in 1944. She received an M.D. from Women Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1948, followed by a rotating, two-year internship at the Jewish Hospital of Philadelphia (now called the Albert Einstein Hospital, Northern Division). She then joined Dr. Wilhelm Reich as a Research Assistant to the Wilhelm Reich Foundation at Orgonon, Rangeley, Maine, from 1950-51, where she had a chance to study Orgonomy and learn about several of Wilhelm Reich’s basic experiments, such as orgonometry, and the use of the orgone energy accumulator for medical purposes. She was present during the 1951 Oranor experiment and later during the OROP expedition in the Arizona desert in 1954–55. In 1951-52 she served as pediatric resident at Harlem Hospital. She had a general medical practice, applying principles of orgone therapy. She lives in Hancock, Maine, where she has a farm home. She has been active in sex education, birth control, natural birth (in the home), and the bioenergetic treatment of babies’ birth trauma by “butterfly touch” orgone therapy after birth. She lectures and holds workshops internationally, in Australia, Italy, France, Holland, Norway, England. Sandel, Francine, “Adolescents and Babies in Trouble.” Orgonomic Medicine, II, No 1 (1956), pp. 42-50, Saxe, Felicia, “Armored Human Beings versus The Healthy Child.” Annals of the Orgone Institute, I, 1947, pp. 35-72. ——, “A Case History”, International Journal for Sex-Economy and Orgone Research, IV, 1945, pp. 59-71. Silvert, Myron, “Orgonomic Practices in Obstetrics?” Organomic Medicine, I, No 1 (1955), pp. 54-64. Waal, Nic, Anne Grieg and Mogens Rasmussen. “The Psycho-diagnosis of the Body”, in In the Wake of Reich. D. Boadella, Ed. London: Coventure, 1976, pp. 266-281. Please note: the preceding bibliography was compiled by Harold Treacy, President, Reich Archive West, 301 Washington Street, San Francisco, CA 94115, by request of Eva Reich, M.D., consultant to Reich Archive West’s Wilhelm Reich Bibliography Project. Profile of the author

Household Use of the Orgone Energy Accumulator by Renata Moise Reich T o begin, I feel it important to present some background about the Orgone Energy Accumulator, and how my family has used the accumulator over four generations. My parents, William Moise and Eva Reich settled in 1952 on the rugged Atlantic coast of North America, in Hancock, Maine, USA. They chose Hancock over the South Pacific because Margaret Mead met with them and advised them to save the world closer to home – this really happened- and because the towns around Hancock needed both a doctor (my mother) and an art teacher (my father). Most importantly, Hancock was within a few hours drive of Rangeley, Maine, the interior village of lakes surrounded by mountains, where my mother’s father, the scientist Wilhelm Reich, had established his summer home and laboratories. He named this complex in Rangeley, Orgonon, after the energetic substance he called Orgone Energy. He chose Rangeley because of the clear atmosphere (at that time) and the low summer humidity; he had found that his experimental results changed during the high humidity of New York summers. Imagine this: a young woman doctor arrives in an area which has never before seen a woman doctor. Some homes do not yet have indoor plumbing or electricity. There are several families who have fifteen or twenty children. There is no health insurance for anyone and certainly no special health care program for the poor or elderly. This is an isolated, beautiful and difficult land; populated by fishermen, farmers, or woods men. Some have jobs, but most work for themselves. Women do the hard work of raising, feeding, and clothing their families, or working for the wealthy “summer people” in the few warm months. Eva´s house, Oil on canvas, Renata Reich, 2004 energy & character vol.37 may 2009 19

And imagine this: the young woman doctor, along with her husband, opens her medical office in the farm house where they live, and they set up what looks like an anti-aircraft gun in the garden. The husband is an artist, handsome and friendly. The woman doctor, her hair gray at the age of 28, is serious, intense, and speaks English with a slight German accent. The caution the villagers feel is quickly over come, because they do need a doctor badly, and Eva proves to be a most excellent doctor. Also, her husband, Bill as he is called, joins the fire department, drinks beer with the neighbors, and is delightfully attractive. This part of the story is, of course, unfolding before I was born, and has been told to me; but it is also verified by the hand written medical records of her practice. For ten years, between 1952 until 1962, (except for the time off in the late 1950s spent on the expedition west with Wilhelm Reich), my mother practiced medicine using all of her skills; she used traditional western medicine, suggested healthy diets of fresh foods, and she recommended and provided Orgone medicine. She diagnosed people, combining her understanding of their character structure, as well as using the skills she had learned in medical school. She looked at their blood under her microscope, both counting red and white blood cells, but also performed the Reich Blood Test, looking for t–bacillus. She used the box accumulator and the Dor Buster on her patients, as well as sent patients home with smaller accumulators for wounds treatment. In simplistic terms, the accumulator absorbs (accumulates) the Orgone Energy from the surrounding atmosphere. This is the energy which Wilhelm Reich first found streaming through the human body. He realized that the blockage of this flow affected the orgasm reflex and the full happy functioning of the human organism. He then found this same flow of energy to exist in all living or organic things, like trees, wool, plants, and even the atmosphere. I like to think it is the same as “Chi”. He found it was attracted to water, which was likely why his experiments in humid New York summers were so much weaker–the Orgone in the atmosphere was less willing to let go of the water and flow into the accumulator. He discovered the amazing rapid healing of wounds, especially burns, if the accumulator was applied right away for 15 to 30 minutes. Even using the accumulator after the fact, intermittently, speeded healing dramatically. He found the remarkable sense of well being and happiness brought on by spending a few minutes sitting within the person size “Orgone Box”. He felt that this “charging” of the organism would be helpful in preventing future cancers, when the cancer was caused by a chronically low or contracted energy field of the body. This was before the widespread toxic contamination of our environment; although a strong immune system, well charged with Orgone, is better able to withstand a carcinogenic environment. He found that cancer patients who used the large accumula tor felt invigorated and happier, but he did not find th e m “cured” of cancer. He realized that prevention was much more effective. His observations then led him into weather work, as he learned to gently draw and mo ve the atmospheric Orgone energy, bringing gentle rains during drought, or clearing low pressure systems when they became stuck. Unfortunately for Wilhelm Reich and humanity, his work was ridiculed by the media, and his Orgone Box was dubbed “The Sex Box” in the popular press of the United States. The FDA (the Federal Drug Administrati on of the USA) spent millions of 1950s dollars discrediting him. Eventually, in 1954, the FDA made it illegal for Reich or his organization to ship accumulators across state lines or disseminate information about the accumulator (this became known as the “injunction”). A student of his shipped accumulators, and Reich was arrested. It is written that none of the many of patients who had full body accumulators in theirs homes desired to return their accumulators. His books were burned (and ordered burned) by the government, and he was forced to order accumulators disassembled. Reich responded to his court hearing with a letter stating he was a scientist, and the court did not have the right to judge his work. For this “failure to appear”, he was sentenced for contempt of court, to 2 years in Federal Prison, where Wilhelm Reich died, and was found in his cell on the morning of Nov 3, 1957. Eva, however, had moved to Hancock and begun her medical practice before the legal/governmental persecution and she bravely continued to use Orgone medicine within her solo medical practice during those terrible years. I believe it would have felt unconscionable for her to withhold the accumulator, or her knowledge of Orgone Medicine, from her patients who needed it. My mother closed her medical practice in 1962, when I was two years old, after suffering several pregnancy losses herself. Eva kept hand written records of her years in practice in manila folders. She begins each with a patient history, noting issues like birth or childhood traumas, sexual history and enjoyment, as well as all of 20 Renata Reich Moise Household Use of the Orgone Energy Accumulator

the person’s various physical complaints. Families are filed together, making an interesting historical picture of the fabric of the community. Over the fall and spring of 1953, Eva saw a young woman, C., age 21, married with one child. Eva notes: pallor, underweight, pelvic spasm. On 10/10/53 Eva writes “Think Anorgonia…states husband is nervous”; on 5/10 /53 C. comes with headache and weakness... very apathetic- is undercharged- at least on periphery. Accu suggested, However, injunction interfered. ”By 5/31/56 Eva writes that C. is “in love for the first time. 9 months. No discharge yet (meaning discharge of excitation) No previous excitation - never orgasm - aware of living lie. Intercourse with husband every night, ‘I just lie there and grit teeth’ Aware she is guilty, will sacrifice self and get sick”. 6/6/56 Eva writes : C. Chooses living the lie, pallid. Interestingly, in the same folder is a man’s chart, L. 28 yrs. old, who seems to be C.’s husband. He first comes to Eva on 7/18/55 ; “tired, all feeling gone x three years, doesn’t feel like eating, more nervous. Dor Buster used on boil on neck, lanced.” 7/27/55 visit by L.; “stomach still hurts. strong hitting impulses and rage. Med O B used (medical orgone blanket)- pink all over. Unable to raise voice but “laughs about everything”. Feels living in throat- cough type gag reflex (easily evoked). Org. reflex through- ‘reacts with nausea to all excitement’”. One year later, on 7/6/56 L. was seen again. “24 hours of vomiting and diarrhea - (in parenthesis: wife told him “you can pack your bags“- intercourse nightly- she doesn’t enjoy him). On 7/7/56 he returned. Eva writes; Dehydration. Fever blisters. His family is there – his mother. A spectacle. Stayed on living room couch. Starts on skim milk. Advised in a letter to come and discuss problem.” On 4/05/54, Eva saw first a 52 year old woman, E. : “Husband W., laborer. Telephone-0 (none). Wants routine check up, Feels miserable all over. 6 children, youngest 9 yrs. used digitalis in the past but it made her sick“….Eva then draws a picture of blood cells, including T-spikes of Reichian blood test (which suggest low charge, precancerous condition). Blood pressure 190/100…pulse 80… Expression of despair..pallor…Emaciation…anemia, neg urine…exam non remarkable..suggest use Accu, Rx vit B12. E. did use the accumulator from 5/24/54 through 6/19/54, with several visits. By 6/19/54 Eva writes that” used accu since 5/24/54… has better energy…Better color. Is digitalized. ..B/P lower, 140/80 this week, was 190/100, seems to be gaining some weight”. The patient did worsen by August and was set to specialist- Eva writes “is a cardiac”. It is important to remember Eva Reich was practicing medicine in a remote area, before the availability of numerous medications for high blood pressure. Generally we do not use the accumulator for high blood pressure, as that hypertension can be a sign of over charge, but Eva was greatly concerned about the patient’s precancerous blood picture. On 12/27/52 Eva saw Mr. M., a 38 year old scallop and lobsterman: 4 infected boils on inner right wrist, obtained after shelling scallops. Eva writes in parentheses: Problem: need better occupational protection. He had 101 degree temperature and a swollen arm. “Incised skin-no results, prescribed Penicillin 600,000 units (likely a shot), Sulfa 2 grams q 6 hours x 5 days with fluid, soak”. Mr. M. returned the next day. “Some improvement. No fever . Localizing. Start on org. blanket: improvised 4x daily ½ hour, penicillin 600,00 units. On 12/29/52 “ready for drainage Rt. 2 sites (she draws a picture here) Distal one extends way into tendon sheaths. Call on Dr. Coffin per phone advice. 2 iodophorm drains.” 12/30/52 “Redress- exchange (iodophorm) drains for plain”. 12/31/52 “much improved. Redress. To remove plain drains himself”. 1/2/52 “Redress: healing but distal Rt. Opening still open into Bursa, use pillow org ac one more week”. I have randomly selected medical charts to review, and it appears Eva did use Orgone medicine on children in her practice. On Labor Day, 1956, she saw a five year old boy, R., who was not from the local area. “Infected button abscess of toe, treated 1) compresses 2) followed by I and D (incision and drainage). Dor Buster hastened drain “pointing” process of abscess. Next day drain out–better”. The accumulator is simple. It is a layering of organic material (cotton or wool work best), with inorganic (steel wool). The steel must be on the inside (skin side); aluminum doesn’t work. The layers of organic and inorganic should be each of equal thickness to each other, energy & character vol.37 may 2009 21

and the pairs of layers should all be about the same thickness to each other. My parents made the first little accumulators over a steel funnel, like one would pour fluids through, instead of over a bowl. So, for my whole life, the accumulator that we used if we burnt our fingers or cut ourselves, was called “The Funnel”. The outside layer had to be the organic one, covered by a thin soft flannel or cotton cloth. Usually the accumulator was three layers, for practicality sake, because if there are too many layers it becomes harder to hold the whole thing together, although “10 fold” (meaning ten layers) accumulators certainly are stronger than three layers. The Funnel was held together by strong gray Duct tape around the bottom circular edge, holding down the flannel cover over the layers. The Dor Buster is to me a more mysterious device, since my own experience with it is limited. Practically speaking, it is simply a small accumulator built in the shape of a box two foot square, metal on the outside, and functions locally on the body, in the same manner as the cloud buster does in the atmosphere. The Dor Buster features four one inch diameter hollow, flexible metal pipes bound together, coming out of a hole in the box. One similar length of hollow, flexible pipe comes out of the box near the bottom, and is meant to be immersed in a pail of water when using the Dor Buster. Since water pulls or attracts the energy, the end of the bundle of four pipes is held near the body part that requires greater flow of energy, often gently moved back and forth. I remember my mother using the Dor Buster on localized infections which needed to be “brought to a head”. Eva recalled an incident as a Medical Resident (the several years of training in hospital after medical school) when she brought an accumulator blanket into the hospital and used it on a young girl who was in the throes of an agonizing sickle cell crisis. The pain of the girl magically disappeared. Soon after, hospital officials forbade Eva to bring the blanket into the wards. The same child had another sickle cell crisis: Eva told me the girl screamed, over and over again, to be given “that blanket”, but of course, Eva could not. My earliest memories of the accumulator are of the box shaped, person sized accumulator my parents kept in the tall barn of our farmstead. This barn also housed several cows and many fowl in various stalls and cozy alcoves, so it was an alive barn, rich with the smell of hay and animals. As I described in my “Letter to Grandfather”, previously published by this Journal, I remember being a bit bored; the crack of light above the simple door, the sounds of the barn, then the wonderful feeling of well being which flooding over me after a few minutes sitting on the chair in the box, replacing my stuffed- up, feverish feeling. This improved vitality would last a few hours, and then back to the box for 15 more minutes. We kept our family “Funnel” on the self in the kitchen entry way. Accumulators should be kept where they can get fresh atmosphere readily, and not stored in bedrooms or near television (and probably computers) – they can absorb what Reich termed “DOR” (dead Orgone energy) as well. Accumulators in all shapes and sizes were the staple first aid treatment in our household. Neighborhood children became accustomed to it and saw the benefits, just as their parents had come to see the results in Eva Reich’s medical practice. The use of the small accumulator on burns is the most significant and obvious effect. I was 14 years old, and cooking at a friends house before I ever experienced that a burn would cause a blister! I had certainly had many small burns, as we lived on a country farm; I cooked frequently, at home and over campfires, and even played with small fires that I built in the muddy driveway for the warmth of my tiny adventuring dolls. When a burn is experienced, immediate application of the local accumulator is best- the hand, for instance, is held within the bowel, not against the bowel, but within the cavity. Actually the pain of the burn becomes sharper for several minutes initially. Then the pain is felt to leave, and a feeling of warmth, and sometimes pleasant tingling is eventually felt. This treatment should extend for between 15 and 30 minutes; more than 30 minutes is generally not needed. When one removes the accumulator, the burned area will look and feel as if several weeks have passed in the healing of the burn. More minor burns are gone completely, with no red area. Burns which would have blistered are pain free; no blister is present, but the skin of the burn area is dry, thin, a bit darker, and harder than the surrounding healthy skin; within hours or a few days, this layer will begin to flake off and healthy pink, new skin is evident underneath. My guess is that the new skin is underneath the dry area right away, but I would not advise peeling off the dry protective layer. The pain free part is a major advantage, and the healthy new skin needs the protection for a little while.As a teenager I cooked at a country inn and restaurant my father and I owned; I remember clearly burning my hand badly during the busy dinner hour, using the accumulator, and within a half hour washing dishes without any thought to my burn. My parents used the accumulator to successfully treat wounds of the animals of our farm, in particular I remember the remarkable recovery, via ac22 Renata Reich Moise Household Use of the Orgone Energy Accumulator

cumulator, of our female turkey who had been attacked by the fox; her skin torn from much of her breast and her wing shredded. In more recent times, I reached for a cup of water which had been placed in a microwave; for some reason, whether a malfunction of the machine or perhaps that specific porcelain mug was not meant for microwaves, the actual mug itself had been heated to the boiling point. I had grasped the handle tightly between my thumb and fingers in the usual manner, bringing it against my palm- the searing pain of the heat hit me as I lifted the full cup up out of the machine, which was on a counter at waist height. I did not simply drop the cup since it was full of boiling water and I was afraid of further burns from the splash if it fell in front of me. After hastily sitting it down (perhaps 3 seconds), I was aware with shock that the skin on all areas of those fingers and my palm, where I had held the cup, was white, wrinkled, and bizarre, as if a layer of thin pastry, instead of skin, had been molded and wrinkled by the pressure of the grasp. Immediately I put the hand within the bowel accumulator, but had no hope that I would be healed. I am a Nurse Midwife, and must use this hand for examining and delivering. Despairingly, I believed that I would be unable to perform these duties for several weeks, at minimum. Within the accumulator, the pain escalated briefly to a nearly unbearable level, increased from what I had previously thought was severe! (The fact that I initially had pain means that this was a second degree burn, versus a third degree burn, which has no pain initially). I sat for 30 minutes, amazed as the severe pain gradually left, and the familiar warm tingling sensation replaced it. After this time, I removed my hand- the accumulator had worked- the broad areas of burn were now made up of the dry, hard, thin skin that I have described. I had a little difficult in bending my index finger and thumb because of the lack of skin flexibility, but there was no blister and no pain and virtually no redness, only the slightly browner color. I retreated the hand several times that day, and perhaps the next. Other than a temporary stiffness and decreased sensation until the dry layer came off, I had no residual effect and could work as normal. An example of delayed treatment, of what may have been a third degree burn, I found most interesting. My husband leads ocean kayak tours, and was forced to deploy a hand held burning flare to ward off a fishing boat in heavy fog. A burning piece of the flare material fell onto his inner wrist, burning a 1 1/2 cm round hole deep into the tissue, just missing large blood vessels and the tendon. I was away at the International Conference at Orgonon, and when I returned the wound was four days old. He had not applied the accumulator, thinking that since he hadn’t done it right away, there was no use. He also said he had no pain, and so he wasn’t alarmed, and didn’t mention it. When I noticed the wound I was became alarmed- the hole appeared slightly infected and very deep, the edges blackened and not alive. He said the burn had not really changed or begun to heal at all over the four days. He also was in a very busy part of his season and had little patience for sitting still with an accumulator bowel over his wrist. I fashioned a tiny accumulator out of a band aid (as outer most layer) and three layers of materials, covered with gauze, and taped it over his wrist. I decided that this wound needed lengthy treatment- 24 hours continuous, if possible. After 24 hours the wound showed pink new skin at the edges, and the redness around had abated. We continued with frequent treatments (but not continuous as it proved difficult to adhere to his wrist) over the next several days, watching as the wound healed rapidly inward toward the center. In the past I suffered from migraine headaches and found amazing relief from lying under the blanket (head included) for longer than the usual treatment- the headache ebbed and I fell asleep, without the usual cycle of severe pain and vomiting. Normally it is recommended that the accumulator not be used over the head for more than a few minutes, and a person not sleep under it. My most prolonged treatment use of the accumulator occurred over the last 7 years, in the attempt to prevent bed sores in a disabled elderly person- my mother, Eva Reich. I also strongly believe that the full body use of the accumulator blanket kept her alive much longer than expected, or perhaps even longer than she herself desired. She had told me of a case from her own medical practice in the 1950s; Eva was called to the home and bedside of an elderly woman; the woman exhibited the prolonged spaces and gasping breath of approaching death. The family was gathered around. Eva decided to apply the accumulator blanket she carried with her. Very shortly after the blanket was laid across her, the old lady opened her eyes and said strongly “get that thing off me!!” She revived and lived 6 more months, much to the dismay of the old woman herself. The family felt furious with Eva for reviving her, the care giving being a huge burden. The old woman had wanted to die. On New Years Eve of 2001, Eva Reich suffered a stroke of the spine, the result being complete paralysis except energy & character vol.37 may 2009 23

for her elbows and her head; she continued to breath, be completely alert, able to eat, etc. For a woman of such great vitality, this situation felt absolutely tragic. During a three month hospitalization she regained much of her upper body, but had lost forever the ability to control her bowels and bladder, or walk normally, her spinal nerves being damaged. While in the hospital the nurses turned her frequently, and due to good previous nutrition Eva did not develop any bed sores; unusual in a woman of 78. My decision was to bring her home, rather than send her to a nursing home. I made this decision more from a gut reaction than from sensible consideration of the difficulties, but I do not regret the years spent. We renovated her farm house, across the street from my home, accessible by wheel chair, both inside and out. I hired a few friends as part time care givers, and Eva came home in early March of 2002. Eventually I decided that she would wear diapers, as the indwelling catheter caused frequent urinary infections. By this time her bladder released urine continually. As a nurse I worried about her skin integrity, both from the pressure of bed rest, but also from the irritation of urine. Because we could not afford 24 hour nurses, Eva spent the night time hours sleeping in her home; she could call for help if needed, but I could think of no realistic way to turn her every two hours or change her diaper in the night. From the beginning of her return, I instructed the helpers to apply a small accumulator pad to her coccyx (the base of her spine) for a few minutes several times each day. We also used the full body accumulator on her nearly every day for 10-30 minutes. We continued her natural foods diet; as we live in such a northern climate, her meals were not strictly raw or fresh, but were organic and vegetarian. As the years passed, her mobility and ability to sit up, or even leave the bed at all, became limited. Moving became painful. We placed foam pads over her mattress, as well as a fleece layer, but all layers shortly became compressed. We did not always remember to use the accumulator pad on her bottom as the other daily personal care tasks for Eva mounted. I realize now that her vitamin D level was likely low, which may have contributed to her pain with movement. Unfortunately, in the midst of so many health issues, her doctor and I neglected to test for this deficiency. Her doctor is a wonderful man. He let us care for her in the ways that we liked and gave us advice if needed. He was not aware of our regular use of the accumulator, although he was aware of Eva’s connection to Wilhelm Reich and her own belief in many alternative therapies. Her doctor made home visits occasionally, and remarked many times how amazing it seemed that Eva continued living as long as she did, with such vitality. Eva became thinner, which put even more pressure on the bones of her bottom. In the last several years of her life, an occasional red, broken skin area opened on her coccyx; when this happened, we remembered and again applied the local accumulator diligently. Healing then occurred within a few days. In the last year her nutrition also suffered because she disliked the taste of food; Eva had more difficulty chewing and swallowing (even fresh juices), which along with her increased bedridden state, made keeping her skin healthy more difficult. During the last year of her life Eva began to dislike the accumulator blanket, although she would still allow the local treatment of her bottom. She suffered at times from more dementia, but also was often realistic and coherent. Eva knew that she would never walk the fields or garden again; “hop around”, as she called it, and wondered why she didn’t simply die. During this year her doctor kindly offered her in-hospital palliative sedation (intraveEva Reich, 2002 24 Renata Reich Moise Household Use of the Orgone Energy Accumulator

nous narcotic which would have helped her go to sleep and quietly die), but she declined. “Not yet” Eva said. My sense is that she no longer wanted the increase of energy from the accumulator blanket; it interfered with her natural process. I also believe that a strong absorption occurs via application of the accumulator over the chakra of the coccyx, and in this way, by trying to treat potential bedsores, we were inadvertently giving her doses of Orgone energy into her whole being. Previous experience with that chakra occurred when I made my husband a small accumulator using an old cumber bund (the waist strap from a tuxedo) for the framework. My husband wore it in cumber bund fashion, directly over his coccyx, and obtained a tremendous charge into his whole system. There are two uses therefore: the use on injuries and the maintenance use to “charge up “ the energy system of the being by daily whole body treatment. I don’t think this daily “charge up” is needed in most people until near middle age. For most children, teenagers, or 20somethings, the accumulator is most useful for illness and injuries, since humans tend to have good energy until perhaps the 30s or 40s. Armoring (blockage) of energy is another issue, and I have seen instances where regular whole body accumulator usage seemed to loosen somewhat the armoring. It took longer for this individual to be aware of the warmth or feeling of “enough” than a less armored person. I believe that “Orgone therapy” in the body work sense is more effective than the accumulator (in regards to melting armor), but likely the two used together would help the most. Although I have used small accumulators for wounds all my life, eight years ago was the beginning of my daily use of the Orgone blanket (or in my husbands case, daily vest, blanket, cumber bund, or sit- in box) to increase vitality. (Making an accumulator blanket is tedious, since I unroll steel wool in layers, which tends to bunch up or fall apart; in other words, it is a project!) I remember distinctly the first trial run of our big blanket; one at a time, we lay on the couch under it. Huge smiles grew on our faces. Both of us felt immensely “delighted”, almost “high” in a wonderful, clear- headed way. I continue to use the blanket to revive after a strenuous work day, clear myself after a long computer session, “rev” up before going to work (instead of coffee), and even to help myself relax in the middle of the night if I have insomnia. The accumulator seems to provide balancing, in whatever direction is needed. As we age, we have found applications of accumulators of all sizes good for treating joint and muscular pain. My husband’s mother, a spry little woman of 85, uses the accumulator pad I sent her for her arthritic pain at night; it works so well she asked that I make pads for her friends! The accumulator is not a magic or mystical device; it is simply a mechanism for concentrating the energy that flows through us and nature. I hope for the day when use of the accumulator can be spoken of openly. I work within the American hospital system, as an employee; well supported in many aspects of natural birth practice. But I can not use the accumulator or suggest it to my patients. So, I am not truly able to be who I really am. In a way, perhaps, I am “living the lie”, as Eva wrote about her patient. I can speak about “energy flow” and “breathing all the way down”, but I can’t bring an Orgone blanket to a tired woman in labor and help her to regain strength. I can’t recommend accumulator treatment to the patient with the burn, or fibromyalgia. I am not alone in this dilemma. Nearly all of us who know about accumulators and also are licensed to practice within the medical establishment of the USA do not recommend the accumulator to patients, even though we use it ourselves. I believe this is caused by both a fear of legal attack and being thought of as “crazy” by the establishment around us. My mother spent her life spreading information about her father’s work around the world, and teaching people in many countries how to make their own accumulators. Her father died in prison due to the persecution of this work. Eva didn’t work for institutions or carry malpractice insurance. Many thought she was “crazy”. She tried as hard as she could in one life time, driven by this body of knowledge. Now her old farm is empty; the full moon shines over the white barn and the winter fields. Her spirit is nearby. She is thrilled that I can feel “delighted” so easily, she encourages me to paint. She is thrilled that my son is making music with his band. And, I believe she understands that I am doing the best I can, in trying to combine my two worlds. The Orgone Energy Accumulator is but one piece of a much larger body of work. The Accumulator can be used effectively for practical purposes, without any understanding of the principles behind it. Understanding the principles, however, grounds the Accumulator in reality and legitimizes it. With this understanding, the Accumulator is no longer a “magic box” or placebo, but a manifestation of the amazing healing qualities of the energy all around us. energy & character vol.37 may 2009 25

Reich Was Right Self Regulation from Wilhelm Reich to Contemporary Applied Neuroscience 1 by Jacqueline A. Carleton Introduction I n this paper, I begin to explore the relevance of Reich’s thought, especially his basic principle of self regulation, to contemporary neuroscientific research and to neuroscientificallybased treatments of trauma. The two treatments I have selected to reference for this paper are Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing© and Pat Ogden’s Sensorimotor Processing©. In subsequent papers, many of the topics only touched upon lightly will be greatly expanded.2 After a brief introduction, this paper will be divided into 5 sections: 1. Reich, Freud and Self Regulation 2. Reich and the Autonomic Nervous System 3. Reich, Pierrakos and Contemporary Neuroscience 4. Neuroscientific Principles in Adult Treatment 5. Case Vignette and Conclusion For Reich, self regulation was a philosophy of childrearing as well as a principle of healthy adult functioning throughout the lifespan. He was particularly interested in the prevention of developmental trauma and of shock trauma to infants, especially newborns. In the late 1930’s, as an outgrowth of his theoretical and clinical experience with adults and his profound interest 1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the European Association for Body Psychotherapy Conference, November 8-11, 2008, Paris. 2 One of the areas I find fascinating is complex self-organizing systems theory. One could view self regulation as one aspect of the human psyche/nervous system’s self-organization. That is how Reich saw it. Expectation, Gustav Klimt, 1905 26 Jacqueline A. Carleton Reich Was Right

in children, Wilhelm Reich began to formulate a theory of child-rearing and healthy adult functioning that he and his followers would refer to as “self regulation”. For Reich, self regulation was a biological concept which, when properly applied by parents and caregivers, would allow optimal development of the infant organism as a whole. He advocated such things as allowing the newborn to remain close to or on its mother’s body, breastfeeding on demand, toilet training only when initiated by the child, and freedom for children to masturbate and explore each other’s bodies (Carleton, 1987). He also pointed to the importance of the eye contact between the mother and the baby in his writing on the possible etiology of schizophrenia. Reich believed that children raised this way would grow up to be emotionally healthy adults capable of full sexual expression in intimate relationships. His underlying assumption was that healthy sexuality in a healthy bodymind was a “normal function” and that optimally all we really have to do is not inhibit or pervert it in the developing organism. These assertions were mind-boggling and paradigm-challenging to many of his contemporaries as were many of his important socio-political ideas. Emphasizing self regulation as a biological concept taking into account what was then known about the autonomic nervous system, he intuited many of the concepts that contemporary neuroscience and attachment research have now made quite concrete. Reich, Freaud and self regulation: An introduction First, a little history… By 1930, when he came to write CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS, Freud had, according to Reich, betrayed much of his own earlier work, including Reich’s contributions to it. In a 1952 interview with Kurt Eissler for The Sigmund Freud Archives (Higgins and Raphael, 1976), Reich states that Freud wrote CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS in direct response to a lecture Reich gave in Freud’s home. In any case, Freud does suggest a poor prognosis for the relationship between sexuality (which we can simply see as life energy) and society. Freud derives an antithesis between civilization and sexuality from the circumstance that sexual love is a relationship between two individuals in which a third can only be superfluous or disturbing, whereas civilization depends on relationships between a considerable number of individuals. (Freud, 1930,p.108) [More generally,] sublimation of instinct is an especially conspicuous feature of cultural development; it is what makes it possible for higher psychical activities, scientific, artistic or ideological, to play such an important part in civilized life… ( Freud, 1930, p.97). To paraphrase Freud, civilization is dependent upon the primacy of the neo-cortex, which can and must be the regulator and controller of the remainder of the bodymind. This attitude underlay much psychoanalytic thought in the 20th century and was frequently applied to the treatment of infants and children. Reich and the body psychotherapies which his work spawned (along with contemporary applications of neuroscience such as those promulgated by Allan Schore and discussed below), see it differently. Reich refused to accept the inevitability of such an antithesis or the necessity for such instinctual sublimation in the interest of cultural development. He therefore rejected the necessity for regulating infant feeding, elimination or sexuality, seeing them as natural functions and expressions of the organism. Reich, in fact, posited that true sublimation of antisocial impulses would be possible only in the absence of repression. Infantile and antisocial impulses can be given up only when normal physiological needs can be gratified (Reich, 1945, p.19). Reich, then, distinguishes between natural, biological needs and impulses and the secondary antisocial impulses which result from their repression. Nature and culture in his view, are not, as Freud concluded, inherently antithetical. If a person’s (especially an infant’s) primary instinctual needs are gratified, it increases his capacity for both love and work. In Reich’s opinion, (following Rousseau) there can be harmony between nature and culture (Reich, 1945, p.25). If normal impulses are not suppressed, society need not fear their revolt. After the birth of his son, Reich became particularly interested in how infants could be treated to promote their self regulation from the beginning of life. He felt that in contrast to the strictly controlled infant treatment of his day, usually identified with John Watson and B.F. Skinner, babies should be fed, preferably breastfed, on demand, circumcised only when medically indicated, would toilet train themselves when physiologically capable, and should be free to explore whatever gave them pleasure in their own and each other’s bodies. Are these ideas still “revolutionary” or have they been incorporated into contemporary child-rearing? energy & character vol.37 may 2009 27

Although some segments of the culture have adopted, or better yet never lost these practices, they are far from universal. For my doctoral dissertation, in the 1970’s I interviewed at length both Ilse Ollendorff (Reich’s wife and the mother of his son, Peter) and Gladys Meyer (Theodore Wolff’s widow) and also Evelyn Tropp (Oscar Tropp’s widow) as well as some of their children, and also some adults who had gone to Summerhill as children. At that time, all my interviewees considered themselves part of a “cognitive minority” and quite distinct from the cultural mainstream. And, when I presented some of these ideas at a Somatic Experiencing Conference in California recently, a surprising number of mental health professionals said that Reich’s suggestions were far from common practice. More recently, Peter Levine and Maggie Klein wrote prescriptively about the treatment of infants in Trauma Through a Child’s Eyes. I found enormous similarities to Reich’s ideas in what they propounded, again bringing home the lack of full cultural acceptance of such practices. Levine and Klein emphasize the importance of both the prevention of developmental trauma and the development of what would now be called resilience. They employ slightly different vocabulary informed by more recent research. What was speculative on the part of Reich is neuroscientifically-based and elaborated by Levine and Klein. An extended comparison will be made in later papers in this series. In recent years, the term “self regulation” has again become current, this time in the literature of applied neuroscience and neuropsychoanalysis. Authors such as Allan Schore (1994, 2003), Amini, et al. (1996), Daniel Siegel (1999), and Louis Cozolino (2002), have used the term to refer to the affect regulation developed by the infant in concert with the effective parent or caregiver. Peter Fonagy and his associates (1995) have explored the relationship between affect regulation and the development of the self. (See also literature review by Shapiro and Moore.) So contemporary neuroscientific research has picked up where Freud, and subsequently Reich, left off. With tools such as fMRI’s, scientists are able to trace happenings in the nervous system that Freud and Reich could only intuit or suggest. Freud left the neurological research in which he had been trained to find a whole new “science” of psychology. Reich at first followed his mentor but subsequently disagreed with him about, 28 Jacqueline A. Carleton Reich Was Right among other things, the biological/energetic basis of psychosexual development. What Freud ultimately saw as metaphoric, Reich saw as strictly physical/energetic. Reich and the autonomic nervous system Utilizing the model/metaphor of the amoeba, Reich noted that the human organism is in a constant state of expansion and contraction at every level. Most easily observed in pulse and in respiration, this principle is characteristic of every cell and organ in the body. He observed this expansion and contraction, sympathetic/ parasympathetic alternation, most poignantly in the human orgasm and a lot of his work eventually centered on the meaning and achievement of healthy sexual functioning. As we know, it also characterizes the emotions and is evident in the natural oscillation at low stress levels of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the nervous system. Withdrawal of energy he termed anorgonia, and blockage by muscular contraction he termed armoring. Reich observed clinically that the control of anxiety was the main function of either armoring or withdrawal of energy from a body part. In the 1930’s, building on the work of Walter and Kathe Misch, and also the experiments of Krause and Muller, Reich began to associate anxiety with a blocked response of the sympathetic nervous system and to associate the parasympathetic with pleasure. Alternatively, the vagal system he associated with libidinal expansion and movement outward while the sympathetic was essentially the system of libidinal retreat, drawing back into oneself. What is important is not so much the details but the overarching principle of expansion and contraction characteristic of a healthy organism. Peter Levine would later characterize it as autonomic pendulation. According to his biographer Myron Sharaf (1983): …Reich was the first psychoanalyst to emphasize the role of sympathetic response in neurotic illness. It is interesting to note that current bio-feedback techniques often involve the replacement of anxiety states [sympathetic] with calmer ones by conditioning the patient to relaxing (parasympathetic) thoughts and feelings….It should be stressed that Reich’s therapy, unlike bio-feedback techniques, did not aim at the avoidance of anxiety states. On the

contrary, the binding of anxiety in the armor was more of a problem than free-floating anxiety itself. Intense anxiety was often aroused in the course of therapy as the armor loosened. The patient was helped to work through his anxiety states, not avoid them. The cardinal therapeutic problem became the fear of intense emotions and, in particular, the fear of strong pleasurable sensations (what Reich termed “pleasure anxiety”) (Sharaf,1983, p. 208). In a personal communication, Kristi Foster, a doctoral student at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, points out that: This concept of autonomic nervous system response ties in with polyvagal theory. Polyvagal theory states that in situations of sympathetic nervous system activation the capacity for the ventral vagal, or social nervous system, to function is impaired (Sahar, Shalev, & Porges, 2001). Attendant with impaired social nervous system functioning is a shutting down in nerve pathways to the gut. This shutting down of nerve pathways to the gut affects the enteric nervous system, or gut brain, and also lessens one’s capacity for pleasure (Porges, 1998). What Porges’ (1998) theory suggests parallels the work of Reich (1942/1973). An impaired capacity to experience pleasure leaves one with a tendency toward anxiety. This tendency toward anxiety pushes one toward social shut-down as well as enteric nervous system shut down. This shutting down of social or bodily intelligence creates an inability to read the warning signals generated by one’s body. So Reich was concerned with what would be seen by neuroscientists and traumatologists such as Pat Ogden and Peter Levine1 and their colleagues as dissociation of the anxiety. But, unlike many Reichians and neoReichians, they have developed many techniques for titrating the amount of anxiety that is aroused in the course of therapy. Great emphasis is placed on gradual introduction of highly activating material, with the therapist keeping a close watch on the patient’s gradually increasing tolerance and thereby, resilience. Some of these principles will be outlined below in the section on clinical applications. 1 Perusing Peter Levine’s doctoral dissertation, I noticed that he briefly noted (pp.65-6) the significance of Wilhelm Reich’s thought to the development of contemporary paradigms used in many somatic psychotherapies, chief among them, Somatic Experiencing. He specifically highlighted Reich’s theory of energetic charge/discharge involving the autonomic nervous system. Reich, Pierrakos, and contemporary neuroscience In Reich and Freud’s time, and still in John Pierrakos’, most patients came to therapy heavily armored, rigid, with resistance that had to be penetrated. That is how I was originally trained by the Reichians (Orgonomists), and then in Core Energetics. But, by and large, those are not the people we see today. Today, our challenges are containing, grounding, and preventing fragmentation as we help our patients heal themselves. Over the years, I have had to learn to modify techniques, to titrate, to PREVENT people from going too deep all at once rather than helping them go deeper quickly as I was trained to do more than 30 years ago. One particular patient comes to mind as I think of what neuroscience has taught me: a North African man I worked with many years ago. He had been repeatedly traumatized by physical punishment in elementary school and then by his parents at home. He told me about one particularly significant event when he was about 8. His parents went out on a Sunday afternoon, leaving him with a massive amount of arithmetic to learn for a test the next day. He remembered trying for a while and then, lured by the sounds of his brother and sister playing in the courtyard, finally joined them. When his parents returned, his father quizzed him on the math. When it was obvious in his father’s eyes that he didn’t learn enough, his father beat him so badly that he could not go to school for the next several days. Nobody in the family would speak to him, except for a maid who crept up to his room and dressed the lacerations on his back, buttocks and legs. In one therapy session we agreed he needed to revisit that afternoon expressing the feelings he was unable to express at that time. As we worked through it, he hit, punched, kicked, yelled obscenities (only in Arabic, of course), etc. We worked until pretty near the end of the session. When he got up to leave, we did some grounding, but I could tell that he was still somewhat dissociated, so I suggested he sit in the waiting room a while before venturing out onto the streets. He missed his next session because of an attack of bronchitis, but that didn’t register with either of us as retraumatization. It was just the kind of thing that occasionally occurred in therapy. In the following session, he told me he was pretty out of it for the entire day following that session and we both figured he had done some good, deep work in that session. energy & character vol.37 may 2009 29

Looking back, I think he was retraumatized by that session. Knowing what I have now gleaned from neuroscience and trauma treatment, I would have conducted the session quite differently. I would have first reviewed with him what support and resources he had in his present life, and had him articulate some safe person or place that he could vividly imagine. Then, I would have taken him piece by piece through that iconic afternoon, bringing him back and forth between past and present, allowing his nervous system to integrate after each segment. We would not have been able to revisit that traumatizing event in one session, but that would have been fine because he would have been able to be fully present when he left. I also suspect he would have been able to return the next week to continue because the overload on his nervous system would not have stimulated the bronchitis in his lungs and caused him to miss his next session. (Just to reassure you, he did survive, and completed advanced degrees in both law and business in the US and is currently holding an important position in one of the Arab Emirates). Reich’s comprehension of the connection, even the identity, between emotions and the body was a precursor of both medicine and psychology today. Concepts such as self regulation have been adopted and elaborated upon with the assistance of technological advances in neuroscience such as the fMRI. What we have called “energy,” neuroscientists call “resonance” and measure the changes in brain waves when two people such as mother and baby, as well as patient and therapist, interact. Bridges that were wobbly and tentative spanning the gulf between verbal psychotherapy (such as cognitive behavioral and psychoanalysis) and body psychotherapy are beginning to look to both sides like the newest frontier. Writers such as Allan Schore applying neuroscience to psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, constantly allude to the importance of the body, non-verbal communication, etc., in the early mother-baby pair, in adult relationships of many sorts, and in the psychotherapy office where body psychotherapists are experts. Schore emphasizes the body in virtually every paper he writes and every presentation he gives. In a 2005 article, Schore heralds a “new paradigm” in psychoanalysis which must inevitably include non-verbal, bodily-based interventions directed toward nonconscious, procedural processes. In this same paper, he quotes V. M. Andrade in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, citing information from neuropsychoanalysis as concluding, “As a primary factor in 30 Jacqueline A. Carleton Reich Was Right psychic change, interpretation is limited in effectiveness to pathologies arising from the verbal phase related to explicit memories, with no effect in the pre-verbal phase where implicit memories are to be found” (p.677). He goes on to point out that body psychotherapy, originally a product of “certain pioneers of classical psychoanalysis and trauma theory” has developed independently and often in opposition to contemporary psychoanalysis. But, the body psychotherapies are also now adopting an interdisciplinary outlook. Psychoneurobiological data and attachment research have supported a neglected dialogue between psychoanalytic and somatic psychotherapies. Interpersonal neurobiology and trauma research are making enormous contributions. Theorists and researchers have made important advances in understanding exactly how the central nervous system processes both trauma and its repair. On one hand, neuroscientific research validates a lot of what Reich proposed so long ago. It also articulates and refines and explains a lot of our work. And, of course, it occasionally mandates modification or even invalidates some of our practices. In the final sections of this paper, I will outline a few of the principles and resulting techniques that Levine and Ogden and their colleagues have applied to the treatment of adults and then conclude with a brief case vignette. It will be seen that each of these principles and techniques is fundamentally geared toward reestablishment of self regulation. For if, as Peter Levine insists, “trauma is in the nervous system, not in the event”, that trauma is the interruption of the self-regulatory capacity of the organism, specifically of the nervous system. Neuroscientific principles in adult treatment Whether it is acute or developmental, the nervous system needs to process trauma slowly. We must nudge the nervous system to do what it needs to do, slowly and carefully, to process and release the trauma, to allow the bodymind to return to self regulation. The human organism, with its unlimited neural plasticity, is designed to heal even intense, extreme experience. As I have applied such neuroscientific principles in a way that increasingly honors this process, even patients I have worked with for many years have had remarkable lessening of symptoms, increased creativity, and improvements in relationships. I am thinking of a man I have worked with for a long time as he has fought his way through life-threatening health problems for the last 20 years. Now, at 50, having

worked through a lot of issues of childhood abuse, he was just beginning to think he MIGHT want to entertain the idea of a relationship with a woman for the first time since his health crisis began. A few months ago I began working with him carefully applying Somatic Experiencing© principles of resourcing, titrating, pendulating, etc. The results have been quite astonishing to both of us. He has begun dating and discovered a sexuality far deeper and more exciting than anything he remembers feeling when he was younger and hormones were raging. And concomitantly, the urge to do his creative work has become unsquelchable. Each session leads to deep relaxation which he cannot ignore (he is a workaholic), followed shortly by creative and sexual openings. He now openly admits that he feels my deep caring for him, can allow me to touch him without inwardly flinching, and pats the hand I place on his abdomen. A portion of a session with him is in the vignette below. The following concepts and procedures have been gleaned mostly from two modalities of body psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing© and Sensorimotor Processing©, both of which are based on neuroscience and trauma research. I will briefly survey five of their many ways to facilitate the process: pendulation and titration, resourcing, utilizing all components of experience, the use of mindful language and discharge (state change). Pendulation and titration are concepts easy to apply to even purely psychodynamic sessions. Many of us were trained to allow the patient to complete a horrific narrative in the hope that the neocortex would make sense of it and thereby lessen its ramifications in the person’s present life. The autonomic nervous system, however, is hard-wired, in its optimal, resilient state, to pendulate between sympathetic and parasympathetic modes. Extrapolating, we have learned that the energy locked into the system by trauma is most effectively released in small increments. Therefore, pausing in the account (which we call titration), to allow the nervous system to “recycle” avoids iatrogenic retraumatization. This can be done in a number of ways: by resourcing at the beginning and as it unfolds, by asking the patient to focus in the present and on bodily sensation, and by any one of a number of grounding and stabilizing exercises. It is also important to work within range of resilience: don’t push through resistance or promote catharsis. In this approach, the narrative is used to track nervous system activation, not search for memories. Resources are whatever is positive in patient’s life or imagination: they can be any element of experience: sensation, image, behavior, affect or meaning. It is important to locate and list them with patients at the outset of the therapeutic process. They are reparative in themselves and can also be periodically introduced to allow the autonomic nervous system to pendulate and avoid retraumatization. Titration keeps the nervous system activation within the “window of tolerance.” It is important to allow lots of time as the autonomic nervous system processes more slowly than the motor system or cognition. Traumatic material must be introduced slowly and in small bits, allowing or fostering re-regulation of the nervous system continuously. Utilizing multiple components of experience enlarges the experience, makes it wider and deeper and thereby increases the healing capacity of the intervention. The five components are: • Sensation, which involves any of the 5 senses • Images, which can be internal or external (red ball in chest vs. sunset) • Behavior can be verbal/nonverbal, voluntary/ involuntary, conscious/unconscious. • Affects, or feelings, are actually patterns of sensations • Meaning refers to an explicit linguistic concept or statement (Adapted from Somatic Experiencing Training Manual, 2007, p.B1.27) Language must be mindful, invitational, including open-ended questions such as “How would it be to…”1 Discharge (state change) can take place through awareness of any aspect of experience: sensation, images, behavior or movements, affects, or through meaning (cognition). Our exploration of this phenomenon has been led by Peter Levine’s ethological observations. Why don’t animals have PTSD? They shake after a traumatic event, pick themselves up and walk away. This led to Levine’s exploration of what human beings can and often manage to do. Trauma lies in the nervous system, he concluded, not in the event. If a person’s nervous system cannot manage an event on its own, it must be helped to process the activation which lies outside its range of resilience, ultimately increasing that range. This usually happens most efficiently when we work bottom up (concentrating on sensations), rather than top down energy & character vol.37 may 2009 31

1 Non-Mindful Statement Mindful Statement “Why do you think you have that reaction do your father? “Perhaps you could try telling him that you feel uncomfortable…” “It feels like it is your fault…” “You feel ashamed—even though you know that he wasn’t appropriate?” “I notice when you talk about him your body tenses up” “Notice what happens inside when you imagine telling him that?” “You feel ashamed—even though you know that he wasn’t appropriate?” “You feel ashamed—even though you know that he wasn’t appropriate?” Fisher (2005) (cognition): when we keep bringing awareness back to sensation, emotions and meanings often spontaneously change. We explore, savor and deepen sensation whenever possible. It is important to be able to recognize signs of discharge without inhibiting them in both oneself and the patient. “Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the event itself. They arise when residual energy from the experience is not discharged from the body. This energy remains trapped in the nervous system where it can wreak havoc on our bodies and minds.” (Levine,1997) Indications of discharge or state change should be noticed, supported and encouraged by the therapist. Examples are: exhale, yawn (a parasympathetic response), burping, tingling/numbing depending on context, sense of flow, warmth/heat (can also be mobilization), sweating, crying, shaking and trembling (trembling may have fear mixed in), coughing. Case Vignette This brief vignette illustrates many of the points in the previous section. 3/21/07 “Today I had one of the most profound experiences of my life” – Journal Entry by Adam. Adam, a 53 year-old playwright, enters the consulting room and sits opposite me. He has recently broken up with Deborah, an artist with whom he had been in a relationship for about a year. She was his first lover in close to 17 years, a period during which he was chronically ill and in debt. After, at my suggestion, reading Peter Levine’s book, Waking The Tiger, Adam wants to explore on a somatic level traumatic experiences from his childhood that have made him frightened of intimacy with a woman, and of feeling free to express himself 32 Jacqueline A. Carleton Reich Was Right artistically. We have been doing various forms of somatic work over the years as seemed appropriate. One of his most debilitating health problems has involved constant pain and malfunctioning of his intestines. So, recently, I had begun very gently placing my hand on his abdomen for a few moments as he lay on the couch. We had very gradually increased the time from one minute to about ten. Over the next couple of months we were doing that, and his symptoms improved markedly as did his courage to seek a relationship with a woman. In the session I am recounting, he mentions that he wants to explore the trauma he experienced being emotionally abandoned and rejected by his mother, but I apparently surprise him by asking a broader question, which takes the session in a direction neither of us had anticipated. “What images come up for you when you hear the phrase, ’traumatic experiences in your childhood?’” Adam is surprised by the first image that surfaces: of his dad slapping him in the face when he was 12 years old. I ask him to return to that experience and to let himself be there as it occurred. He closes his eyes and begins to speak. Because I know him well, I am not concerned that he will dissociate, so I do not comment on his closed eyes. “It was a weekend in February, probably over Lincoln’s birthday,” he tells me ”and Dad had taken Mom and me to a ski resort in Vermont. We stayed in some kind of lodge. I think it was a Saturday afternoon when I became furious at dad for lying to me about something he had promised to do and then denied that he had. I remember confronting him in the living room and accusing him. I can’t remember everything I said, but I’m certain I said, ‘You’re a liar!’ “ At this point, Adam’s legs have begun to tremble. He’s

agitated and breathing rapidly as fear courses through his body. I tell him to just allow the trembling and his rapid breathing and to notice what else is happening in his body as he feels himself solidly in contact with the couch against which he is leaning and the floor on which his feet are resting. He moves slightly to feel the couch and the floor under his feet. I suggest he notice what is happening in his arms and he says they are tingling, especially his fingers. I assure him that this is a natural discharge of the autonomic nervous system’s blocked orienting response to danger, which could not be called upon. As the trembling begins to subside, he mentions that he scared himself by saying such a thing to his father. But, then it becomes more complex. Adam continues…. “At that dad became enraged and slapped me very hard in the face, probably with his left hand because I remember holding the right side of my face afterwards.” Adam puts his hand up to the right side of his cheek and his legs begin to shake harder than before, seemingly uncontrollably. He’s shocked by the strength of the movement in his legs, but I again encourage him to stay in the moment. ”It’s your desire to flee,” I suggest. “You couldn’t then. It’s all right. You need to let your legs run the energy out now. It’s okay.” I invite him to imagine himself running and he sees himself running up and then down the ski slope to the room of his old nanny, Mary. As his legs make more purposeful running movements, they at first increase in strength and then subside. “Tell me what happened next.” Adam’s legs slowly come to rest as he speaks. “I was stunned and hurt, more by his anger than the pain. I certainly knew I was provoking him but it never occurred to me to run before he could hit me, or to fight back. Maybe it all happened too quickly, or more likely I became immobilized out of fear. All I can remember is my face stinging as the sound of the slap reverberated, looking at dad with hurt and astonishment, then running to my bedroom. I locked the door and began to sob. I had never felt such profound hurt in my life. I had been certain Dad didn’t love me and now it was proven. Dad came to the door and asked if I would let him in. Eventually I did and he apologized, but I remained turned away from him and wouldn’t speak. I wanted to teach him a lesson he’d never forget: that if you fail and wound someone, you cannot count on their forgiveness. “ J: As you imagine yourself there in your bedroom with your father, what do you feel in your body? Adam: Nothing. I am numb, frozen, cold, unfeeling… At this point Adam begins to sob. He reaches for my hand with one of his hands and covers the right side of his face again with the other. His shoulders shake as he cries and then they gradually relax and he releases my hand and brings his other hand down from his face. We both sit for a few moments, just letting his experience wash over us. I contemplate just letting the session end here, but counting on his resilience, I ask him if he would like to take a step further. He sits up a little straighter, and with interest reflecting in his eyes, says, “Sure.” “Can you go back there now? Would you go back there and talk to him?” Adam takes a deep breath. “What is it you might want to say to him?” I ask carefully. “I’m not sure I can talk to him,” Adam replies, so I make a suggestion. “Try talking to someone else, someone you trust who would comfort you. Who would that be?” “My friend, David. He’s warm and direct, a great father. I wish I’d had a father like him.” “Then talk to David. Tell him how you feel and what you need.” Adam imagines David sitting opposite his 12 year-old self, allowing him to reach out and touch his hair and then hold and comfort him. It morphs smoothly into being held by his father. He mentioned later in the session that the feeling of being held was “palpable.” As soon as he is able to speak, he is able to do so directly to his father, often sobbing between sentences. “I need you to recognize who I am….to love and support me; hold me. Can’t you see how sad and frightened I am, how shy? I get teased at school and you’re not there to help me (He had inherited a genetic anomaly of overly large ears from his father, which were operated on only much later and very traumatically). Nothing I do ever gets your approval. I’m so lonely, Dad. I need you so badly. Please hold me and tell me that you love me.” He is sobbing deeply again, but with less tension. I encourage him to imagine his father reaching out and touching him. Adam is able to describe his dad stroking his hair, embracing him with love, apologizing with all his heart. Adam is able to return the love. After he has stopped sobbing Adam reminisces that when his dad was dying in 2004, they never talked about Adam’s childhood misery, and Adam never asked for an apology, but one was made obliquely to a nephew who energy & character vol.37 may 2009 33

came to visit. Adam’s father apologized for letting him down as an uncle and burst into tears. Adam knew his father was speaking to him and was filled with gratitude that his dad could come even that far in admitting his failures as a parent. After the session Adam reported feeling a surge of optimism about his life that was new. Curiously there was also a bruise around his right eye that lasted for several days and then healed. He said he couldn’t help but assume that in re-enacting the experience of being hit by his dad, there was a kind of body memory, which brought the bruise back. A week later he wrote about another result of the session. “The experience of being held by Dad was as palpable, as real, as if it was actually happening. I felt an enormous relief and surge of love; a combination of forgiveness and profound connection to this man who I knew loved me deeply yet could never express such feelings directly. I was aware of healing myself and also him at the same time, despite the fact that he was dead now. So I suppose I was healing the part of him that I have carried in me, the shadow. Somehow I felt the healing that occurred had not o nly an emotional but a spiritual basis; that somewhere I was releasing dad from his guilt and shame over hitting me, and in acknowledging my need for him to love me, and the fact that he did indeed love me with all his heart, I was helping to make him whole as well as myself. I had worked with Adam for the majority of his celibate 17 years as he fought a syndrome of immune system disorders. Progress had been slow, and only in the last couple of years had I been sure he would survive. Sessions such as that described above had to be carefully titrated and worked through, but he and I both agreed that it was this sort of work that had begun to materially loosen his creative drive and his willingness to seek and find a relationship with a woman. 4/14/08 Journal Entry by Adam “My work in therapy is yielding new results. Since I began to acknowledge the pleasure I feel in selfdenial, I’ve opened the door to examine the ways in which I cut off pleasure and excitement. Piano playing has become a kind of workshop and focus for this process. Writing is the other. Jacquie has asked me to be aware of how the excitement is building when my creativity and pleasure begin to flow, and 34 Jacqueline A. Carleton Reich Was Right then notice how I cut myself off. Her feeling is that I can learn to slow it down so it doesn’t become overwhelming. I believe I can channel it into the work I’m doing. The truth is that since my early teenage years, I’ve had very little experience with real pleasure and truly immersive and transformational creativity. Yes, it’s been there in spurts, and certainly when I was sexually active the channels were more open, but I’ve never kept them open, thrived on them, used them so that they became a consistent part of my being. That’s what I need now; that’s what will allow me to have a full and satisfying life.” Conclusion This vignette brings together and illustrates some of the principles and techniques that have been fashioned by contemporary trauma specialists, based on neuroscientific evidence for much of Reich’s work. Body psychotherapists, it seems to me, are at the nexus of an amazing number of treatment options which are being increasingly accepted and utilized by increasing numbers of psychotherapists. Only a few could be described in this paper. It’s an exciting time for us to reassess some of the early figures in the field such as Reich, while we welcome and embrace and propagate new ideas and techniques. References Amini, F., et. al. (1996). Affect, attachment, memory: Contributions toward psychobiologic integration. Psychiatry, 59, 213-239. Baker, E.F. (1967). Man in the trap: The causes of blocked sexual energy. New York: Avon Books. Baumann, N., Kaschel, R. & Kuhl, J. (2006). Affect sensitivity and affect regulation in dealing with positive and negative affect. Journal of Research & Personality, 14, 239-248. Bentzen, M. (2004). Shapes of experience: Neuroscience, developmental psychology and somatic character formation. In G. Marlock & W. Weiss (Eds.), Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie. Stuttgart: Karger S. Verlag für Medizin und Naturwissenschaften. Boadella, D. (2005). Affect, attachment and attunement. Energy and Character, 34, 13-23. Boadella, D. (1987). Lifestreams: An introduction to biosynthesis. New York: Routledge, Kegan & Paul. Carleton, J. (1987). Self-regulated childrearing practices among the followers of Wilhelm Reich: An exploratory study of belief systems and social structure in cognitive minorities. Doctoral Dissertation. Carleton, J. (1991). Self-regulation. Energy and Consciousness, 1, 16-237. Carleton, J. (1991). Self-regulation part I: Its roots in Reich and Neill. Journal of Orgonomy, 25, 68-81.

Carleton, J. (1991). Self-regulation part II: Three types of childrearing literature. Journal of Orgonomy, 25, 255-269. Carleton, J. (2007). Self-regulation: Bridging body, mind and spirit in child development. Manuscript submitted for publication. Cozolino, L. (2002). The Neuroscience of psychotherapy: Building the human brain. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Cozolino, L. (2006). The Neuroscience of human relationships: Attachment and the developing social brain. New York: W.W. Norton. Fisher, J. (2005). Psychoeducation aids for treating psychological trauma, 5th Edition. Fisher, J. (2007). Dissociative Phenomena in Everyday Life. Paper presented at Boston University Medical School Psychological Trauma Conference, Boston, MA. Fonagy, P., et al. (1995). Affect regulation, mentalization and the development of the self. New York: Other Press. Foster, K, (2008) excerpt from unpublished doctoral dissertation. Freud, S. (1930). Civilization and its Discontents. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Higgins, M. and Raphael, C.M. (Eds.). (1967). Reich speaks of Freud. New York: Noonday Press, Kain, K.L., et al. (2007). Somatic experiencing: Healing trauma. Boulder: Foundation for Human Enrichment. Levine, P. (1997). Peter Levine on the trauma resolution and polarity. Retrieved on May 10, 2007 from www.chittyl@energyschool.com. Levine, P. (1976). Accumulated stress, reserve capacity, and disease. (Thesis) Levine, P. and Klein, M. (2006). Trauma through a child’s eyes. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. Levine, P. (1997). Waking the Tiger, Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. Ogden, P., Minton, K., & Pain, C. (2006). Trauma and the body. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Reich, W. (1942). The discovery of the orgone: The function of the orgasm. New York: Noonday Press. Reich, W. (1945). Character analysis. New York: Noonday Press. Reich, W. (1945). The sexual revolution. New York: Noonday Press. Scharff, D. & de Varela, Y. (2006). New paradigms. Lanham: Jason Aronson. Scharaf, M. (1983). Fury on earth: A biography of Wilhelm Reich. New York: St. Martins Press. Schore, A. (2002). Dysregulation of the right brain: A fundamental mechanism of traumatic attachment and the psychopathogenesis of posttraumatic stress disorder. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 36, 9-30. Schore, A.N. (1994). Affect regulation and the origin of the self. Hilldale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Shore, A.N. (2001). Effects of a secure attachment relationship on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22, 7-66. Schore, A.N. (2003). Affect regulation and the repair of the self. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Schore, A.N. (2005). Attachment, affect regulation, and the developing brain: Linking developmental neuroscience to pediatrics. Pediatrics in Review, 26, 204-217. Shapiro, L. & Moore, D. Self-regulation in its many forms: A literature review. (unpublished). Siegel, D. (1999). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. New York: Guilford Press. Young, C. (2008). The history and development of body-psychotherapy: energy & character vol.37 may 2009 35 Jacqueline Carleton, is the founding editor of the US Association for Body Psychotherapy Journal and serves on the association’s board of directors as treasurer. She has been a clinical member of the EABP for many years. She has practiced body psychotherapy for more than 35 years and taught in Europe and Latin America for the past 25 years. The heart of her work remains her private practice in New York City. Profile of the author The American legacy of Reich. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, 3, 5-18.

Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment by Courtenay Young Introduction: T his article follows on as a second distinct part to an article I wrote with the same main title (Young, 2005a). I would now like to go into the subject a little more detail. In that first article, I looked at why we might need to be much more clear about why, when, how, and where we touch. And I also looked at various techniques that we can use that essentially come from within body-psychotherapy, but none of which involve touch. I now want to go a little wider and deeper. I would like to explore the concept of ‘embodiment’ or (as we shall see) the process of re-embodiment. David Boadella spoke eloquently, at the 2006 4th Biosynthesis Conference in Lisbon, about 4 different levels or types of integration and how the therapeutic relationship or alliance is the containment for the process of integration. I want to look at the goal or intention of body psychotherapy and the purpose that I believe underlies the therapeutic alliance in body-psychotherapy. I believe that – as a body psychotherapist – I am working to assist the client get a better sense of, or achieve a better state of ‘embodiment’: by that I mean a felt sense of self within one’s body, when one feels centred, grounded, autonomous, empowered, in contact with one’s authentic feelings and with a healthy boundary to others and the outside world. This concept is not unique to any one method of body-psychotherapy, but – I believe – is probably common to all, though the language varies considerably from method to method. Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up, Egon Schiele, 1917 36 Courtenay Young Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment

EMBODIMENT Whilst we all want our clients to get better (and ultimately not to need our therapy), we might not be quite so clear as to what our immediate goals or intentions are. I think that we are, as body psychotherapists, probably working on a meta-level to assist our clients to get a better sense of, or state of, ‘embodiment’. By this I am meaning that we are working to help them towards a place or a time where they can experience themselves more within their body; that they have a better proprioceptive sense; that they have a regular, closer, deeper, and more intimate relationship with their bodies; that their ‘grounding’ in their body is better; that they can relate better from their body to other ‘bodies’; and that their body has an interconnected sense of being in its wider situation. This, I believe, would also tend to give them a better state of their health, less stress and more relaxation, a clearer set of relationships with other people, a healthier interaction with their environment, a better sense of themselves in society, and sometimes even a greater connection with spirit. In people with (say) schizoid character structures, there is traditionally a profound splitting-off or ‘disembodiment’ from the person’s felt sense of self, from their body. In people, for example, with borderline personality disorders, there is often (if not nearly always) a deep existential fear of their bodily (or felt sense) experience, as it can be either chaotic or like a void, a nothing-ness. Any direct contact, or degree of intimacy, both in relationship terms, or in the ‘felt sense,’ is thus experienced as being quite invasive, or even terrifying. In a more defended character structure, such contact is often experienced as being unsatisfactory, or ‘distance’ is projected onto the other person so that the other person is felt to be too far away, or ‘abandoning’. In all of these cases, gentle consistent (and sometimes very different and difficult) work is needed to assist the client to come into their bodies more completely. This is a process of embodiment. From that place of feeling and accepting themselves more, they can then start to heal some of their early childhood issues, injuries, defects and traumas. This is a generic body-psychotherapy perspective. I am also arguing that this can be done – with or without touch – effectively by changing our (and their) perspectives of themselves and thus their experiences of being embodied. Similar dynamics can be seen with other character structures: there may be an over-groundedness or overboundedness (Boadella, 1987); or there may be a rigidity or lack of mobility where the person experiences flexibility as threatening. Or there may be an over-emphasis on the person’s needs beinggratified (oral); or the ‘hysteric’ character may experience an inability – and fear – to be grounded (solid, stable) and sees their security in their ability to rage or flee. These are all different character structures caused by different, and often disturbed patterns of upbringing, and they all affect our capacity of, and pleasure in our ‘embodiment’. Stanley Keleman argues in his book ‘Emotional Anatomy’ (1985) that tensions and distortions in the various tubes that constitute the body are “insults to form”. To overcome these ‘insults’, as clients, we will have to find a way to come to terms with our body as it is and then re-embody it in a less distorted way, and this may be a continual process as we work in different ways with different aspects of our bodies, or – in the Reichian concept – the different ‘segments’ of our body: eyes, jaw, throat, chest, belly, etc. These are not just character structures, they are all different experiences of chronic embodiment. These are not disembodied people: ghosts. These are people and they have bodies: but their process of embodiment (to date) has been disrupted or distorted, and their resulting embodiment is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. The person’s particular and different experiences have disturbed their relationship with their body – from what it could have been – from the natural, healthy form that is our human potential. As body psychotherapists, I believe that our task is to assist the person (client) to create a better (and less dysfunctional) relationship with their body, and with their self, and thus hopefully eventually with other people as well. I hope that we can help them to overcome most of the difficulties in their current embodiment and create a new embodiment: a re-embodiment. It is difficult – from this perspective – to understand how this healing journey can be done without looking at the concept of embodiment. But it is also a concept that does not have to include touch per se. We do not have to touch someone to help them feel themselves: sometimes touch could even take this feeling (of embodiment) away from them. Embodiment is becoming an increasingly accepted concept in traditional psychological and psychotherapeutic circles. Traditional psychology is now questioning the Mind-Body split, reinforced by millennia of patriarchy and now by an increasingly industrialised society; originally verbalised by Plato and Descartes and one that has dominated scientific thinking for so long. It is now slowly energy & character vol.37 may 2009 37

but steadily changing. There is a greater sense of inclusion: both-and rather than either-or. One’s experience of life and events is being seen as both ‘detached’ (scientific/objective) and ‘embodied’ (being-in-the-world) – as experienced by the perceiver. Embodiment is being seen as the experience of being in the ‘here’ and the ‘now’. There are fundamental changes in one’s perception of reality: you can be a particle (static form), or a wave (dynamic movement), or the potential that both are true. As body psychotherapists, we are obviously professionally very interested in embodiment, and quite a lot has been written about it, clinically, within BodyPsychotherapy literature (ref: EABP Bibliography, 2006). However the ramifications of this change of perspective are affected by and affect a huge number of other areas, perhaps more than we are conventionally aware of. So I would like to explore this concept a little further. We can look at embodiment in a number of different ways. The basic concept of ‘embodiment’ – “I am that which is my body” – is both influenced by, and affects, a vast range of perspectives or different arenas. These perceptions and these affects vary widely; far beyond the scope of traditional Body-Psychotherapy. By bringing these concepts more within the scope of Body-Psychotherapy, I argue that we are increasing our range, depth and efficacy as body psychotherapists. A body-psychotherapy colleague of mine, Michel Heller, commented at a recent Body-Psychotherapy congress in Paris (2008), that whilst we were both very well trained in touch, both he and I now hardly ever touch our clients. Instead, we see more; we perceive more; we often understand them through thought and resonance, and guide them through explanation and suggestion. We definitely ‘do’ less and that has (perversely) often a greater long-term effect: in the words of Gerda Boyesen (and others) “Less is more.” We don’t touch because we have learnt about touch and the effects of touch and because we can now achieve almost exactly the same effects in different ways, if needed, without touch. We can only now work without touch because we have worked extensively with touch; maybe we have ‘embodied’ touch sufficiently so that we can ‘touch’ our clients differently, without touching them physically. They can then use this ‘contact in their process of re-embodiment. In a book that came out of a previous EABP Congress, The Flesh of the Soul, (Heller, 2001), there are a couple of chapters relevant to this theme, especially In Search of the Embodied Self (Marlock & Weiss, 2001). These two very experienced practitioners, from different disciplines, share some of the theoretical background and aetiology of the concept of the ‘self’ in psychotherapy (from Kohut, through Winnicott, Kernberg and Maslow, to Schwarz and Wilbur), and then introduce the concept that there is really no ‘self’ without a body and no ‘body’ (nobody?) without a ‘Self’ – or without various ‘Self-states’ that can be integrated into a whole. This is the process of re-embodiment. Neuroscience: From the recent development of neuroscience, we get a number of fascinating insights as to what is going on in our body ‘proper’ and our brains (also part of our bodies), in our neurons, on a cellular level, chemically and micro-biologically within our bodies. However there are both good points and bad points about these perspectives. Wonderful as it is, neuroscience is telling us so much more about how the body and the mind work, but, in doing this, it can also manage to perpetuate the mind-body dualism. This is counter-productive to our goal. In a quote from a recent book on Embodiment: “Damasio states ‘neuroscience has focused on functions [particularly motor functions] as if it had nothing to do with the person’. This estrangement of ‘the person’ from ‘their’ functions is one type of dualism. Another type is where neuroscience promotes a view of mental processes as residing only in the brain — thinking is neurology – and being distinct from bodily processes.” (MacLachlan, 2004) Much of neuroscience focuses on the localisation of functions: where things are and what happens when that particular area or part of the body is triggered: this is a ‘static’ view. However, as is also very clearly demonstrated by the same neuro-scientific processes, that every human is slightly different - unique; every brain is plastic: it is not pre-programmed. And the human brain also grows dynamically, adapts and changes in a process called ‘epigenesis’, uniquely to each individual. Even in identical monozygotic twins, neurones in the same area (performing the same function) have different dendritic structures (Edelman, 2002). Our brain therefore grows and changes; it retains a degree of plasticity that only diminishes slowly throughout our life. Neuroscience largely ignores this aspect, except perhaps in the repair of brain damage after injury or trauma. Neuroscience, whist it may give us incredible insights into what is happening in our bodies, might 38 Courtenay Young Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment

thus also have its own particular blindness. But there is a slow and increasing understanding that the brain and body ‘proper’ are a functioning whole. In another article (Young, 2006), based on a talk at several conferences about Body-Psychotherapy, I use the illustration of the cockpit of an aeroplane. The cockpit does not fly the plane: it is the power of the engines and the shape of the wings that do this. But the plane could not fly without a functioning set of controls (and a pilot) in the cockpit. It is however the passengers in the body of the plane that experience the flight and give it a raison d’être for its existence. Anthropology: From an anthropological perspective, about 5 million years ago, we separated from the other primates, leaving them – for the large part – in the receding forests as the Pliocene drought tightened its 2 million-year grip on the planet. As a species, we went somewhere where we were safe from predators; where we lost most of our body hair; where we developed subcutaneous fat; where we had an excess of salt that needed to be got rid of through perspiration and tears; where there was a sufficient supply of special proteins and fats to develop our brain size by a phenomenal three-fold factor; and where there was a need to develop specialised forms of verbal communication. We almost certainly did all of these things up to our necks in warm shallow seas, probably in part of what is now Ethiopia: we became aquatic apes. (Morgan, 1990) From this gene pool, various generations of hominids emerged over the subsequent aeons into the African arena via the Great Rift Valley. These were: various forms of Australopithecus, then Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, and so forth until eventually Homo sapiens emerged. (Young, 2005b) This evolutionary process had a huge impact on our embodiment. It is not just the different psychological developments like the fact that the larger brain requires a much longer, and thus a much more significant, parental relationship: there were various, very significant, sociological developments. Our relative physical vulnerability, and lack of physical armour or intrinsic forms of defence or attack (horns, hooves, claws, spines or stings) requires an increased reliance on our immediate social group. Our capacity for language and abstract thought enabled our society to develop a complexity unique amongst animal species. Our manual dexterity allows us to develop necessary tools and weapons, shelters, clothes, and means of food storage so that we become less dependent on, and also more separated from, our environment. Our enlarged cortical brains allow us to overcome or suffer temporary imbalances of our Autonomic Nervous Systems and so we can abuse this basic mammalian emergency response mechanism in ways that we now call ‘work’; and when we are ‘forced’ to sustain this abuse, we call it stress. Our ability to adapt ourselves to various different and extreme situations has allowed us to colonise the whole planet in an everincreasing swarm: some might see this as a plague. As we moved out of Africa and spread out across the planet, we separated and differentiated further. We developed different cultures and sub-species (races). In time, these later cultural differences were also ‘embodied’. In groups, I sometimes do a guided meditation that includes this evolutionary development and as a way of re-connecting with much earlier forms of development: basic forms that we carry in our embryological and genetic development. Cultural Images: From a cultural perspective, we view our bodies and other people’s bodies from the perspective of what we see as a ‘good’ shape; what is ‘attractive’; what markings or adornments are used; what skills are important; what clothes are worn; how the person holds and presents themselves; and what messages these send us about that person’s body. We also get a whole series of cultural messages from the way we use our bodies to communicate (body language), and the ways we make contact, which also differs from culture to culture. A Samoan lady is admired (as was the pre-historic concept of the female deity) for her size, for her female power, and for her fecundity. The Pre-Raphaelites changed the image of the desired female form from the previous Victorian rigid porcelain pantheon (a reaction to the earlier buxom Rubenesque nudes) to an elegant, effete femininity. Part of the influence of modern feminism gives our girl children the possibility to be active and powerful, like Pocahontas or Laura Croft. The ‘Goth’ look (viz: The Rocky Horror Show) became a cult icon for teenagers a few years ago and the traditional Hollywood female icon changes over the years from the days of back-and-white silent movies, through the voluptuousness of the 40s, contrasted with the prim 1950s social acceptability of Doris Day and Lucille Ball, energy & character vol.37 may 2009 39

to more gawky but glamorous modern-day icons such as Virginia Roberts and Madonna. This is also very apparent when two cultures clash. When the ‘white men’ (actually disconnected Europeans) met the North American native population: to take on the ‘white man’s ways meant to lose touch with everything that was meaningful (MacLuhan, 1971). We saw similar disasters, betrayals and genocide when ‘disconnected’ British (uprooted convicts) encountered the Australian Aboriginal culture: a continuum that had been largely unchanged for 40,000 years. What are the cultural images have been influential on our clients: what images do they relate to, aspire to, and deny? What impact have these images had on their process of embodiment? I will come back to this point again when I talk about self-esteem. If you are a female psychodynamic psychotherapist, working in Farsi with a male refugee from Iran who has been tortured, work with any suggestion of touch is obviously inappropriate. The immediate work is around acceptance, dealing with grief and loss, reclaiming a sense of self, of safety and of health, transference and the expression of anger. The client reported the pleasure of coming back into his body (Azari, 2006). (Reversed) Transitional Objects: However, when we do lose touch with our bodies, then we can even start to see our body, the body, as a ‘transitional object’ (Winnicott, 1971). Normally this type of transitional object is created to protect oneself against anxiety derived from the loss of the real object, so that a child’s teddy bear or doll represents the (emotionally absent) parental loved-one. Maclachlan (2004) theorises that we ‘sculpt’ our bodies (in adolescence and adulthood) into reverse transitional objects, so that our bodies are shaped to become like a film star’s (i.e. widely admired) or a ‘Goth’, ‘Flapper’ or ‘Punk’ (peergroup accepted) and it is this that comforts us. Our body is also a transitional object: but the real reversal is when we don’t try to change it, when we can accept the body that we have, and then begin to adapt it towards a more comfortable or functional ‘shape’, which is the process of re-embodiment. Narrative Therapy: Coincidently, also in The Flesh of the Soul (Heller, 2001), Maarten Aalberse speaks well about how Narrative Therapy can develop into what he calls Choreographic Therapy “since once again working with felt gestures is added to the verbal work.” (Aalberse, 2001, p. 118) He also combines this with some ‘focusing’ work, or effectively a ‘mindfulness’ practice, that “relies less on linguistic sophistication and invites more of an embodied process.” And, with a client case example: The way (the) intervention is phrased enables the client to disidentify himself from (his) loneliness: there is a “you” that senses and knows there is a lonely place inside the larger whole of you; the problem is seen as “a part of you” that feels unloveable. The problem both becomes grounded in bodily experience and is seen as a facet of a larger self, a self that can sense and contain this loneliness and much more than that. Both the fact that this loneliness is perceived as a part of one’s selfexperience (even though it may feel as a big part, there is still an acknowledgement that “you are more than that”) and the fact that this loneliness is acknowledged as it is, may lead to significant felt shifts, that enable a more trusting and complete exploration of the issue at hand. A deeper and richer meaning can evolve, as more and more facets emerge from this bodily felt experiencing. (p. 121-122) (my emphasis in bold) There is a lot more in this article that shows how different verbal or narrative psychotherapeutic techniques, including Almaas’ work, and what Dilts calls “somatic syntax”, can be applied in a graceful bodily-oriented way that does not really involve touch but assists the client’s re-embodiment. Body Images: I mentioned this as a technique in the first article. But it also affects our process of embodiment. Stanley Keleman uses “Somatoforms” (Keleman, 1987) where the client draws an illustration of the dynamic forces within their own body. This is more an image of their proprioceptive self. It is influenced by many factors, but is the current present-moment emotional experience that the client has of their body. It is a representation of their current state of embodiment and the forces that influence this. This is the place and direction we are moving from. But what are we moving towards? I hope that we shall find out. Health: Health – as a definition – is a current state of the moment, and it is a continual process towards something, and away from illness or ill health: experienced as a 40 Courtenay Young Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment

disturbance in our embodiment. What illnesses have we had, and which ones did we manifest, and how might we have used these in our life story? This is not a form of diagnosis (like Louise Hay) but more looking at how we see our bodies in terms of health or illness. Much has been written about this theme from various health perspectives: traditional medicine, social health, spiritual path work, and complementary medicine. The bio-psycho-social model is now considered as the most appropriate one in traditional, conventional medicinal treatments for illness and chronic pain: this means that illness and pain are a combination of biological, psychological and social influences. But this model still sees us, the affected, as a fairly passive component in illness: it is something that happens to us. However, with the concept of embodiment, we can perhaps consider the interaction of ourselves with bodily illness in a much more active light. Has our body ‘failed’ us by getting ill? Is our illness a result of our dissociation with our body: what warning signs did we ignore? Do we perhaps (consciously or unconsciously) use illness as a hiatus, a respite, or an interruption to our normal existence or our working life? In what ways might this particular type of illness that we have manifested actually work for us? Or – a serious illness having happened – can we use this as a turning point in our lives. (Sachs, 1984, 1985) Self-Esteem: From a self-esteem perspective – how we see ourselves, and often how we see ourselves in relation to others – how we dress, how we present ourselves, our body stature, our aura – there are very different messages depending on how we are ‘embodied’ and on our mood. There are so many factors associated with embodiment involved in self-esteem that it is almost difficult to differentiate these. I write about some of these in the previous article on doing effect body psychotherapy without touch (Young, 2005a): body awareness, vitality, affect, body language, self-image, expressive forms, etc. One of my clients said to me recently, “I don’t do mirrors.” She was not grossly fat, but only somewhat over-weight. But she could not look at herself, possibly because the prevailing cultural images of anorexic pubescent femininity were causing her to deny her own self-image. Her embodiment was affected. The depression that she was experiencing was, in part, related to a deterioration in her relationship with her husband. She said she had taken some steps to ‘correct’ his faults, but she also became quite confused when I asked why she might have “kept her lip buttoned” for the previous 20 years. It became much clearer when we started to talk about her self-esteem. She was brought up with some classically feminine mores: women don’t speak up or challenge their husbands. We worked firstly on imaging what the inner image was: what would she look like, how would she be, if she could step out of this ‘fat suit’, if she could reclaim her self-esteem? Could she identify with – and like – that ‘inner’ person: in part the person she once was, but also, in part, the latent potential – the person she knew somewhere she could be? Then, how can that inner person, that more real part of her self, nourish and support herself in more productive ways, in ways that did not involve comfort eating, or keeping quiet, or not doing the things she wanted to do, when and how? Day-to-Day: From the individual’s daily perspective of what do we daily do to our body, what do we eat, how much do we exercise, how well we sleep, or how we dress, are all indications of what sort of day-to-day relationship we have with our bodies. What is the continuum of our embodiment? This may be a culmination of genetic components, physiological development, childhood stories, family habits, self-esteem, traumas, and characterological formation (Keleman, 1985: Macnaughton, 1997). Embodiment is a continual changing process throughout our lives. Were we allowed to enjoy the use of our bodies in climbing trees and playing in the woods and fields, or were we prevented from doing this by concrete pavements, notices saying “No Ball Games”, or our parental inhibitions to torn and dirty clothes. In Body-Psychotherapy workshops, I often use a ‘script’ that takes people through these influences as an introduction to “The Body that Brought Me Here”. Continuum: Where and when and how we can (learn to) dissociate from our bodies is not so relevant. We will almost inevitably do so at one point in our lives: maybe from the experiences of loss of contact with the mother (Bowlby, 1997; Leidloff, 1975; et al.); maybe during an illness; maybe as a result of abuse; maybe when we had to wear shoes and go to school; maybe when we were traumatized (van der Kolk, 1996; Rothschild, energy & character vol.37 may 2009 41

2000; Ogden, 2006); or in love; or through work (in a mine, factory or at a desk in front of a computer screen, when we don’t use our body); or as a way to cope with stress; or in a spiritual crisis when we (mistakenly) try to surmount the earthly and material forces of the body; or when a loved one died and we could not bear the pain and grief. There are a multitude of ways and means to become disembodied. From a karmic perspective, maybe it is our fate – or choice – for our essential spirit or soul to become embodied or incarnated (‘in the flesh’). We choose an exact time and place and family in which to be born. This is so we can learn a particular set of lessons or repent for a particular mistake in a pervious life. Part of the conditions or requirements of this school classroom (this corporal life) is to forget the continuum and to become disconnected with that part of our Self. This also means loosing touch with our body. The lesson is then to find one’s embodiment back. I would maintain that, parallel to this process of refinding one’s embodiment, is the mature quest for a greater connection to spirit. With my wife, I do a workshop entitled “The Spirit of the Body”. There is not a lot of touch involved – indeed, the more transpersonal the work, the less one is inclined to touch. Right-Brain / Left-Brain This separation often happens naturally with the development of the left brain functioning in the 3rd and 4th year of life. Up to then the child operates with essentially a right-brain predominance. The social environment, including eye contact with the mothers face, the mother-infant attachment, facial expressions, communication, posture, tone of voice, tempo of movement, actions and responses (Bowlby, 1969), is essential for establishing this basis of communication. “The main thing is a communication between the baby and the mother in terms of the anatomy and physiology of live bodies.” (Winnicott, 1986) These are all affect features and are centred in rightbrain functioning. When the child becomes more capable of a return communication is when the left hemisphere starts to come into its own. The child begins to define itself as separate from its mother and thus as separate from the basic right-brain functioning. Hopefully this is on a solid and healthy functioning right-brain basis, but where there are deficits in this basic functioning, the individual will have dysfunctional components. As Allan Schore was telling us so clearly and emphatically yesterday, the right-brain is not just essentially the source of non-verbal, inter-subjective, unconscious, affect-oriented, bodily-based, existential processes. The right hemisphere represents the unconscious psychic system described by Freud and this drives all human emotion, cognition and behaviour. Embodiment is thus quintessentially a right-brain process. In order to feel our humanness, which has a social and evolutionary value, we are performing essentially a right-brain function. All information from the limbic system must go through the right-brain imaging empathic experience before it crosses over to the left brain consciousness. The symptomatology of neurosis is found in deficits of right hemisphere functions in “maintaining a coherent, continuous and unified sense of self” (Devinsky). Nonconscious regulatory functions of corporeal-emotional implicit self are at the core of various developmental psycho-pathologies, and therefore become forces for treatment. We now use this perspective in psychotherapy nowadays with the concept of somatic resonance. (Shaw, Psychotherapy Research, 2004) “Self-awareness, empathy, identification with others and more generally intersubjective processes are largely dependent upon … right hemisphere resources.” (Decety and Chaminade, Consciousness and Cognition, 2003) The right-brain hemisphere is also dominant in perceiving threat and dealing with stress. This is basic ANS dys-functioning. It is therefore essential to help the person rebalance their ANS. Whilst this can be done by techniques involving touch such as Gerda Boyesen’s Biodynamic Massage: this is not self-regulation. The high centres of the right-brain need to come back into their own autonomous balanced and unique functioning. Since these are more associated with images than words, art therapy might be more appropriate than cognitive behavioural work. But there are also benefits to movement therapy, dance therapy, voice work: all therapies. Gut Feelings: As we get more in touch with our bodies, and as we get more in touch with our feelings, we start to appreciate what Gerda Boyesen called the “Emotional Digestion” and something what Will Davis calls ‘endo-psychic’ processes that lead towards an Endo-Psychic Self. An essential part of better embodiment is the switch from more sympathetic, adrenaline based, stress-motivated, activity towards more gentle, soft, emotionally-oriented , 42 Courtenay Young Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment

parasympathetic activity. This is an essential re-balancing of the client’s ANS. It does not really matter exactly how we help the client to rebalance their ANS. Gerda claims that psycho-peristalsis (the digestion of emotions) is the day-to-day regulator of the person’s body energy. We will not feel the subtly of ‘soft’ feelings or the depth of our gut feelings without a better parasympathetic component. With sympathetic activity, the gut closes down: we do not digest our lunch when we are trying to avoid being someone else’s lunch. Only with a reasonable switch towards the parasympathetic can we start to feel more balanced. We may need (ironically) to do some aerobic exercise first, so that the stress hormones in our bodies are burnt off, before we can relax and gently potter around and not be overwhelmed or jittery, being full of cortico-steroids. The techniques of how we do this are unimportant. It is the direction of the process that is important. We may need to contact our selves better, before we can make better contact with others. We may need ‘healthy’ contact with others in order to get a better contact with ourselves; but this is an aid. The contact with the self is primary. Pulsation: Reich believed that the basic life energy flowed and pulsated. He talked about ‘expansion’ and ‘contraction’ and seemed to prioritise the former over the latter. Outward movements (out-stokes’) are expressive, expansive, action-oriented: inward movements (‘in-strokes’) are more introjective, more contemplative, where more identification happens, and they tend to be more feeling-based. But out-strokes can be gentle and in-strokes can be violent or aggressive. We need to find a healthy balance between rest and activity; movement and calm; power and empathy; inward flows and outward flows. This assists the client’s embodiment. Again, the techniques can vary: they can be touch-related (like psycho-peristaltic massage) or they can be not connected to touch, like Tai Chi. This embodiment depends on a cyclical process, that Reich describes, of in-stroke, integration and incorporation, and then comes an out-stroke. Then the perception of the reaction of others and feed-back from outside will start the in-stroke process again: and so forth. We go back inside so that we can the move out again. The basic pulsation never goes away: it cannot. It can restricted and distorted, it can vary, and be facilitated. But the pulsation only stops with death. Relationship with Self: All of these perspectives and processes help the client form a much better relationship with themselves. They begin to see themselves as an autonomous being, and independent person, a grounded and embodied entity. The relationship with self becomes primary, so that you can have better relationships with other. We need quiet times in order to be with our self. We need to relax and just ‘be’. We may need times alone, even doing things alone, just to experience our self. It is self-experience that brings us back home to ourselves. The classic split between psyche and soma is a split of an original primary undifferentiated self. This is, in part, not just the psyche (mind) relating to the soma (body), but also the psyche relating with the primary self and the soma relating with the primary self. This primary self is what first comes in to existence; what first develops. Eric Jantsch wrote a physics text about a “selforganising universe.” Carl Rogers also talks about selforganising. We have to have a self to relate to our Self in better ways. The primary self is primarily concerned about maintaining its existence. If that is not being currently threatened, then it will relate to itself. And it is the relationship with the self, the basic in-stroke that then helps us to relate better with the outside. The dance of relationship starts. However the primary relationship is with the Self, or the genetic DNA-based blueprint of the self. Thomas Moore talks about the “acorn” of the soul. External experiences either hinder or facilitate the development of this potential. We become thwarted or facilitated. We like or dislike our relationship with our Self: how much we are close or far from this blueprint of the Self. Then we ether grow as a distortion or we can grow towards this potential. We cannot relate primarily to anything other than this internal blueprint: that is the Self that relates to others. RE-EMBODIMENT The Therapeutic Alliance: In body psychotherapy, we are relatively familiar with the concept of somatic transference. Several different perspectives in psychotherapy are now beginning to accept this on a much wider level and as a significant factor in the therapeutic relationship. A recent book, ‘The energy & character vol.37 may 2009 43

Embodied Psychotherapist’, discusses this in some depth. “In order to capture the essence of the experience of the therapist’s body in the therapeutic encounter I have coined the term psychotherapist embodiment’. This is a complex subject and I have tried to tackle the issue of mind-body dualism which is inherent in our western society. In a sense embodiment is an attempt to address this mind-body dualism and introduce a holistic method for viewing the therapeutic relationship – or put another way, my research has from a clinical theoretical point of view tried to collapse the mind-body dualism present within psychotherapy culture. I am aware, too, that an inextricable aspect of this work has been the necessity to look at language and the types of interpretation we as therapists use to describe the variety of physical reactions we feel while working within the therapeutic relationship. This has been challenging for me and I suspect for the reader. My solution to this particular language problem has been to advocate the incorporation of narrative methods into the therapeutic relationship. This at least allows for psychotherapist embodiment to become an overt part of the relationship, and not become hidden in the murky waters of countertransference, a term which I do not think captures the essence of psychotherapeutic embodiment. (Shaw, 2003, 156) Allan Schore spoke well about the affect involved in, and the effectiveness of, the therapeutic alliance: “It does not in and of itself represent an intervention or technique; rather it is the vehicle within which therapeutic progression is facilitated – a growth-facilitating environment.” (Lisbon, Biosynthesis Congress, 2006) Over half of the beneficial effects of psychotherapy are linked to the quality of the therapeutic alliance. It accounts for more of the variance between the treatments than any other factor. The primary component of the alliance is the emotional bond between the patient and the therapist. This is a psycho-biological bond: it is an empathy. It has nothing to do with touch: it has everything to do with presence. Touch, or the wrong sort of touch, may very well disturb this, rather than enhancing it. Can you take this risk? Are you sure? How about establishing an alliance first – and then seeing if touch is appropriate? The therapist’s tone and volume of voice, their patterns and speed of verbal communication, and eye contact also contain a multitude of elements of subliminal communication. The client reads these – all the time. These are subliminal, moment-to-moment, background, subconscious, intuitive, empathic, implicit, listening and receptive. We can help the client (or patient) to re-pattern their right-brain hemisphere using the therapeutic contact. This is also the process of embodiment, or perhaps (more accurately) re-embodiment. The client’s right-brain listens to the therapist’s right-brain – and heals. The relational unconscious is where one unconscious mind communicates with another unconscious mind. (Schore, 2006) The quality of the interaction is what is quintessentially important. This is not a process whether the skills or techniques of the (body) therapist change the client’s awareness, their emotions, and thus their relationship with themselves. This is an interventionist perspective. I am not saying that sometimes interventions are not justified: they are – but they should be the exception rather than the rule. The relationship is more effective and it allows the client to develop their own path or heal their own aspects. Furthermore, instead of having a particular model of wholeness: a check-list with which we can assess our client’s progress towards healing – or embodiment, or a muscle-tone type of diagnostic so that we can assess how well the body scores, I want to suggest to the client a new relationship with their body: perhaps a less conscious one. It is not pre-conscious; it is more subconscious. Thomas Moore speaks about the “acorn of the soul”: the sense the acorn has of its potential to grow into an oak tree. Somewhere deep within us there is that ‘knowledge’ of our potential. We can only find that potential through a process of embodiment – and more than embodiment. But that potential was denied us, often through forces of circumstance, often both as clients and therapists, and it is a long, hard journey to re-find it. Scott Peck (1986) calls this “The Road Less Travelled”. We are still trying to find it again – and so are our clients. We need to feel this in ourselves, in our bodies, so that they can resonate with this, and we need – as therapists – to have this sort of consciousness in order for the client to have this consciousness. If we deny this unknown potential in them, as well as in ourselves, then we are repeating the process of, or the experience of, becoming dis-embodied. Other Influences: From the perspective of health studies and health economics, we are concerned as to what illnesses are prevalent in which sections of society and what are 44 Courtenay Young Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment

legitimate ways to treat these. This is a form of medicosocial dis-embodiment. The amounts spent each week on armaments, would provide clean water, feed, house and educate the millions of people without these basic necessities: this is a form of socio-economic disembodiment, and often disenfranchisement as well. From a psychosocial perspective (as has been mentioned) we are concerned with how we, as a society, see our bodies and what do we do to them. Do we support our children to have their lips or belly buttons pierced or their bodies tattooed? Do we support our daughters to have Victorian-style wasp-waists held in with stays, or our sons to have an upright military iron-man type of body-stature, or to slouch on street corners in ‘hoodies’ and baggy trousers with untied over-sized shoes? Do we feed our children a diet that makes them obese? Do we give them processed foods when we know that these contain excess sugar, salt and food-colourings? From illusions and images (perpetuated by ‘disembodied’ deities or film stars), are we concerned that magazines spew forth epithets and judgements about whether they are pregnant, spotty, over-weight or slimming? And do we buy or read such stuff? From the perspective of new medical treatments like contact lenses, liposuction, prosthetics, implants, and stem cell research, are we concerned that the ‘purity’ of our original body is compromised, or delighted because our body deficiencies can now be enhanced. What do we communicate – verbally or non-verbally to our clients? How do we help them with their process of embodiment if we are encouraging them to exercise their way out of depression, and we weigh 100 kilos (220 lbs)? – as I do! From consumer economics and the sale of body products, do you buy L’Oreal products because “You’re worth it” but only if you buy those products, or do you feel that “You are worth it” without the product. Enhanced self-esteem is an essential component to the client’s process of re-embodiment. From the debate now between medical ethics and health care economics, where the complexities of saving life and giving intensive care to a 65-year old, obese, diabetic smoker are compared with the same facilities being given to a healthy 24-year old, non-smoker; post-code availability of treatments; or whether we are compromising the Hippocratic Oath by assisting someone in a chronic terminal illness towards a more pain-free death, we need to be clear about what we mean by various aspects of any form of embodiment. From an environmental perspective, with increasing occupational health & safety legislation; acceptable limits of chemicals; genetically modified crops; environmental pollution; global warming; or a pandemic arising from bird flu arising from intense farming practices to fulfil people’s desire for cheap, unhealthy food, we need to take a personal and possibly even professional stance – or we may risk losing our life or lives of our loved one, or our clients. As a part of their process of ‘embodiment’ do we support, or advise, our clients to eat only organic food, not to fly on a aeroplane, or join GreenPeace. Do we encourage them to consult a trade union that supports legal or political action against their employers who are forcing them to work in buildings that are ‘sick’, in restrictive uniforms, in noisy and dirty factories, or in ways that give them stress – all in the name of profit. How do our perspectives on our client’s struggle to embodiment affect our advice and interventions and our professional ethics? From legal perspectives of ‘habeus corpus’, incarceration, torture, enforced sterilisation, and whether we support the death penalty, we can get an intellectual sense of what it is to have an autonomous and free body, and support for our right to have one. How do we encourage this perspective in our clients, especially if we and they are in a culture that seems to say one thing and do another (viz: Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graib). From the field of politics, where decisions on health care, international aid, retirement age, pension funds, and so forth affect all pf our lives – and our bodies – considerably, we need to take a position and perhaps even vote – with our voices, our bodies (in which party we support), or our feet? And from studies of collective behaviour (population statistics) where the ‘individual’ differences form a coherent and understandable ‘body’, do we gasp with astonishment if someone can predict whether we will do this or that; buy this or that; move here or there; and predict when we might die – the list of influences on our process of embodiment is almost endless. Regression or Progression: So where does this all take us? As we assist our clients towards greater embodiment – with or without the use of touch – let us be aware of which direction we are helping them in. Do we help them to revert to a wonderful, pre-natal or pre-conscious state of embodiment, when we – as a child – experienced that ineffable lightness of energy & character vol.37 may 2009 45

being? This is relatively easy: it is helping them towards (often) a known, remembered, experienced or glimpsed place. Even if they did not experience it as a child, it is ‘known’ in the sense of this is what should have happened: we have the seed, acorn or kernel of existential experience in our soul; we have a sense of what life should have been. Yet, one can argue – and I do – that this is essentially a regressive experience. What I would like to do is to help my clients towards is a progressive experience – but it is, as yet, an unexperienced and unknown place. It is the position that accepts that the Cartesian split has happened, that the client has lost contact – a bit or a lot – with their sense of self, their body – and that the client is now trying to move forward to a new balance, a new embodiment. They are not re-finding embodiment again; but re-embodying themselves into a new balance or reorganisation that will take them forward. I would therefore like to think that this is a progressive development that hopefully extends long after they stop having therapy and forms the basis for the rest of their life. So I hope that they can continue to enjoy their journey of re-embodiment. This is your body, your greatest gift, pregnant with wisdom you do not hear, grief you thought was forgotten, and joy you have never known. Body work is soul work. Imagination is the bridge between body and soul. Marion Woodman REFERENCES Aalberse, M. (2001) Graceful Means: Felt Gestures and Choreographic Therapy. In Heller, M. (ed) The Flesh of the Soul: The body we work with, pp 101-132. Azari, S.A. (2006) Working with Refugees: a personal experience. International Journal of Psychotherapy, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp 54-61. Bowlby, J. (1997) Attachment & Loss. London: Pimlico. EABP Bibliography (2006) The EABP Bibliography of Body-Psychotherapy, v.2.1 on CD-ROM. Amsterdam: EABP. Edelman, G.M. (2002) From brain dynamics to consciousness: how matter becomes imagination. Paper presented at 23rd Jean Piaget Society Conference: The Embodied Mind and Consciousness: Developmental perspectives, Philadelphia, 6-8 June. Heller, M. (ed) (2001) The Flesh of the Soul: The body we work with. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. Keleman, S. (1985) Emotional anatomy. Berkeley: Center Press. Liedloff, J. (1975) The continuum concept. London: Duckworth. MacLachlan, M. (2004) Embodiment: Clinical, critical and cultural perspectives on health & illness. Maidenhead, Open University Press (McGraw-Hill Education). Courtenay Young has been Vice-President, (2001-2002) and President of EABP (2002-2006). He is a fully accredited and registered Psychotherapist with around 25 years of professional experience. He works in several different modalities, has experience in a number of different clinical settings, and with a wide range of different client groups. He is actively involved in several professional associations in psychotherapy, leads workshops internationally, and has written several articles, chapters and books on psychotherapy, as well as writing poetry. His various other articles about Body Psychotherapy can be accessed through his website: www.courtenay-young.com. Macnaughton, I. (ed.) (1997) Embodying the mind & minding the body. Vancouver, Integral. Marlock, G. & Weiss, H. (2001) In search of the embodied self. In Heller, M. (ed) The Flesh of the Soul: The body we work with, pp 133-152 McLuhan, T.C. (ed.) (1971) Touch the earth: A self-portrait of Indian existence. New York: Promontory. Morgan, E. (1990) The scars of evolution. London: Souvenir. Ogden, P., Minton, K. & Pain, C. (2006) Trauma and the Body: A sensorimotor approach to psychotherapy. New York: Norton. Rothschild B. (2000) The body remembers: The psychophysiology of trauma and trauma treatment. New York: Norton. Sachs, O. (1984) A leg to stand on. London: Picador. Sachs, O. (1985) The man who mistook his wife for a hat. London: Picador. Shaw, R. (2003) The embodied psychotherapist: The therapist’s body story. Hove: Brunner-Routledge. Van der Kolk , B.A., MacFarlane, A.C. & WEisaeth, L. (eds) (1996) Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society. New York: Guilford Press. Winnicott, D.W. (1971) Transitional objects and transitional phenomena, in D.W. Winnicott (ed.) Playing and Reality. London: Tavistock. Young, C. (2005a) Doing effective body psychotherapy without touch. Energy & Character: The international journal of Biosynthesis, Vol 34, Sept. Young, C. (2005b) A physiological theory of evolution. Unpublished; draft available on www.courtenay-young.com. Young, C. (2006) One hundred and fifty years on: The history, significance and scope of body psychotherapy today. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy: AN international journal for theory, research and practice. Vol 1. No 1. Profile of the author 46 Courtenay Young Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment

Feminity, Gender and Essence in Body-Psychotherapy Part I: Reflections on theory, clinical and teaching experience by Liliana Acero Summary T he present article (Part I and II) mainly argues that, the absence of a clear use of Gender Theory within psychology has biased theoretical formulations , research results and practice, even within neoreichian psychotherapy approaches. It also argues that, given the type of gender alienation found in contemporary Occidental societies, as trainers, students and graduates, it is crucial to focus on working with essence when dealing with sexuality and sexual identity, both in our personal work, as well as, with the people that seek our help and knowledge. Part I, will first present a very brief critical review of how women and female sexuality have been dealt within and outside neoreichian psychotherapy. Then, some aspects of contemporary psycho logy views on these topics will be outlined, to conclude with a reference to and examples on Latin American cultural and social research on women´ s social behaviour. Part II will explore the contributions made by The Bride of Wind, Oskar Kokoschka, 1914 energy & character vol.37 may 2009 47

Biosynthesis to the theme, as well as, to the definition of essence. The role played by the feminine principle within the healing arts, in reconnecting us to essence, will then be discussed and illustrated through examples from Latin American popular healing practices. The article concludes with a note on healthy adult relationship, as a privileged realm for the development of essence in our lives. It also includes a poem I wrote to my father as a farewell in his recent transition, to honour the important part he played in the definition of my identity, subjectivity and professional choices. PART I Introduction My motivation to explore the relationship between femininity and essence was awoken, as is frequently the case, by a number of professional and personal insights. First of all, by an array of sociological observations, mainly: the global social devastation caused by neoliberal economic policies and their recent negative effects upon the lives of Latin American working parents and consequently, on the education of their children. As direct or indirect results of these policies: longer working hours, lower wages and income, a rise in unemployment levels, the growth of one-headed households and adolescent pregnancies, the still insufficient, expensive and erratic diffusion of contraceptive methods, the revival of traditional sexual stereotypes among influential social groups and the decrease in the number of extended families. This type of families, through offering emotional and economic support, used to partially compensate for increasing poverty levels. Individualism and poverty have substantively hindered the health and well-being of these populations and often reinforced gender patterns. Second, it is true that traditional gender roles have become more flexible in the last four to five decades. Women have conquered greater economic independence and developed more psychological assertiveness, mass media discourses on body and self-determination are widespread, legislation increasingly reflects free choice in marriage, divorce and care-giving and, though racial, ethnic and sexual minorities are still persecuted or discriminated, there is better social ‘tolerance’ for different sexual choices and living arrangements. However, we are still far from implementing Reich´s notions of social equality (2), that could promote healthy personal relationships and contribute towards orgasmic potency, or towards a fuller expression of our essential qualities in our daily existence. Third, in my clinical practice and in the experience gained as Trainer in various neoreichian approaches (3) during the last 30 years, I have observed a significant increase in the number of clients and students with secondary narcissistic traits, in the acuteness of their problems and their resistance to treatment and/or to substantial change. Other contemporary psychological modalities report similar experiences. These partly reflect the effects of ongoing social and gender trends upon the lives of both sexes. A short, though relevant, history Gender inequality is inscribed in our minds and bodies even when we believe in the need for change. Gendershaping is multiply determined: sexual difference is originally biological but gender categories, to explain these differences, are socially and culturally built to assure and enforce the dominance of the male over the female sex. A very brief history will show how selected psychological theories attempted to explain identity shaping and, in so doing, contradictorily reproduced gender patterns. Freud ´s (1905; 1931; 1933) theory on sexual identity considers all children as born bisexual, physically androgenous and, with a complex mental combination of masculine or active characteristics and female or receptive ones. Towards the Oedipal genital phase, the child becomes gradually more conscious of her/his genital feelings and associated fantasies. At present, it is widely accepted that Freud mainly wrote about the male child´ s experience. He considered the father ´s castration threats, as the main reason for the child´ s willingness to postpone the sexual possession of women till adulthood. Thus, boys sublimate their own incestuous desires through identification with paternal power and male cultural privilege. When the Oedipal complex is not ‘resolved’, misogyny becomes the main expression of masculine castration anxiety. Freud was indecisive and contradictory in his approach to female sexuality. Girls were seen as having to make three renunciations to be able to become heterosexual women: a) to their first love- object: their mothers; b) to their active sexual drives towards their father. (Their aggression becomes internalized; passivity towards their father develops, and they loose part of their sexual desire) ; c) at puberty, to their interest in their clitoris, replaced by that in their vagina. Women- contrary to men- were considered as incapable of identification with male authority. Penis envy would develop during this process, unless they married and were able to have ‘a penis-baby’, to whom their love would be then mainly transferred. When opposed by his female colleagues, Freud recognized the intensity of early mother/ daughter bonding. He also began to argue that the roots of penis-envy were found in the ‘inevitable narcissistic wounds’ brought about by early feeding, that would draw daughters 48 Liliana Acero Feminity, Gender and Essence in Body-Psychotherapy Part I: Reflections on theory, clinical and teaching experience

closer to their fathers. Girls were seen as developing a physical sense of inferiority, due to their initial representation of the male penis, as acquired through peer games or otherwise. For Freud, girls were attracted to their fathers in search for a penis, that would make them similar to them. And only when they realized that they were not going to be males, they would ‘accept the second best option’, that of femininity . Girls would then feel heterosexual desire and hope to be ‘their fathers´ little girls’. However, towards the end of his life, Freud recognized that female sexuality remained as much a mystery to him as to any other man. And he encouraged female analysts to develop his ideas further. During the suffrage movement of the 1920s, a first debate on female sexuality took place within the psychoanalytic movement. One of the most important opponents of Freud was Karen Horney (1924). She accused him of being biased towards men and of creating a theory that devalued women. One of her main assumptions was that each sex had something unique that provoked envy in the opposite sex. Womb envy was seen as more significant and pervasive than penis envy. Men attempted to come to terms with their secondary role in procreation and, unconsciously compensated for it, developing womb envy. Horney also argued that women were born with an innate tendency towards heterosexuality. She disagreed with two aspects of Freudian theory: a) that girls had no knowledge of their vagina, and; b) that they necessarily had to go through a phallic masculine developmental phase. She considered that girls did not feel castrated. Horney regarded penis envy as a transitory process, of limited importance, to which girls would only regress if they did not recognize their own sexual desire. Her theories were supported by other influential psychoanalysts like, Ernest Jones (1927; 1935), Melanie Klein (1928;1957) and Wilhelm Reich (1942; 1949) himself. Penis´ castration, according to Klein, was not the main root of girls´ deeper anxieties. These were caused by their fantasies and/or experiences of potential damage to the insides of their bodies, to their female organs. Mothers could eventually inflict such wounds, in revenge for their daughters´ envy of the maternal body, principally of the breasts. They could thus be capable of destroying their daughters´ capacity to bear children in the future. As a pioneer of Object Relations Theory, she substantively influenced the development of a ‘Mother-Centred Psychoanalysis’. British Object Relations authors and American Ego Psychologists have pursued further these early theoretical developments. Women have been portrayed as having enormous emotional power, based on: the reproduction of the human species and children´ s encompassing maternal dependency during early life. Women are seen as having greater impact on children´ s psychic life than men, in spite of the prevalent stronger male economic and political power. However, women´ s dominant emotional role during childhood should also be attributed to an engendered social division of labour, i.e. as it originates from the way gender is socially structured. Cultural patriarchy largely accounts for the role assigned to females as ‘main gatekeepers’ of children ´s upbringing. This includes: a) an overall secondary social role for women in ‘rational and efficient’ societies; b) social and cultural gender constructs that denigrate the ‘feminine’ (feeling, emotions, internal life) and, in so doing, hinder the development of healthy female and masculine attributes for both genders. Reich, in a number of ways, supported Karen Horney´ s theoretical reframing. But his theory also represented a leap forward. He showed that society repressed not only genital (4), but also pre-genital sexuality, leaving adults vulnerable to genital sexual insatisfaction and /or to regression to forms of pre-genital sexuality. In the “Function of Orgasm”(1942 ), he showed that no orgasm could be considered complete, unless all the body participated through voluntary and involuntary movements. Reich defined healthy female roles in revolutionary terms for his time. And these permeated his social work and psychological thinking, though he did not particularly discuss female sexuality in itself. In his Sex-Pol writings (1935) and his social hygiene clinics, he defended equality between the sexes and the economic independence of women, their right to sexual satisfaction, enduring love relationships and natural versus compulsory families. He strongly believed that women had to develop their own careers, in order to sever the link between love and economic necessity. Already at the end of the 1920’s, he discussed a variety of patriarchal attitudes that women had to endure: double sexual standards, the notion that women were naturally sexually passive, tolerance of male infidelity and education towards male supremacy with female connivance. His position on divorced parents’ childrearing practices was, however, somewhat contradictory: at times, supporting State participation in childrearing; at other, that of community organizations. From Reich´ s therapeutic work, there are a number of lessons to draw for gender change: a) receptive traits were given equal value to active ones, in the development of orgasmic potency; b) harmony between both these sides in an individual, was considered a precondition for the sexual satisfaction of both women and men; c) cultural gender inequalities had to be radically transformed for individuals to obtain and maintain pleasure energy & character vol.37 may 2009 49

and health. In his early writings, Reich ´s proposed way to reach these goals was educational in practice and revolutionary in theory. In his later writings, he placed a greater emphasis upon human fear of freedom and responsibility: as a privileged source of neurotic destruction of the life force, including sexuality. He also designed and actively carried out programmes to support healthy living among teachers, nurses and mothers, who sustain, raise and educate future generations. However, Reich´ s approach put too many demands upon women, while at the same time, failed to articulate a consistent critique of gender relations that would support his many endeavours to support females. Jung (1921; 1933; 1934-1954) enriched the debate, when he developed the concept of animus ( in females) and anima ( in males). These were considered sexual components within mind and body, unconsciously acting in most people. Women would psychosomatically carry within them a small, rigid and primitive man; and men, an ambivalent, sensual and inferior woman. If these components were not consciously worked through, both sexes would display a primitive inferiority quality. He thought that a strong attraction between the sexes was only possible, if there was also an antagonistic force of a similar strength: a primitive sense of guilt, a ‘state of destructive antagonism’, similar to the one found between Adam and Eve. Men could not tolerate a second class masculinity in women, and similarly, women could not tolerate a dubious femininity in men. Jung explained these trends, as if they pertained to absolute or general humanity, ‘flowing’ within the ‘collective unconscious’. He presented them as unconditioned by gender. He showed this type of duality was reflected within myths, fairy tales and archetypes, where masculine and feminine natures are dealt with separately, ‘in a state of non-relationship’. More precisely, they intend to be harmonically reunited within these genres. Questions to be asked to Jungian theory, include: Which is the original cause of this separation or duality and, of the ‘bi-polarity of the chaotic’, that is ultimately united? Is this an immanent quality of Nature? How and through which processes does separation into two antagonistic principles take place? How does duality and polarity interrelate with gender? (5) For Jung, individuation and self-realization impulses are initially an unconscious drive within us, a form of human authenticity or sincerity. Imposed to us by Nature or Destiny, people are to consciously understand the meaning of this ‘ obscure drive’. Instinct, in its animal form, demands its own sacrifice to be able to express itself through human acts and language. This process gradually transforms ‘antagonism into polarity’: a higher state that allows for real relationship, one that does not abuse any of the sexes. For Jung, behind anima and animus, there is a personality realm and an image of the Divine. The interplay between both, leads the development of consciousness itself- propelled by Nature- towards the realization of one´ s personality. However, he does not discuss the social constructs that shape the manifestation of anima and animus in everyday life. Contemporary female Jungian analyst Marie-Louise Von Franz (1990,p. 172), develops these concepts further, somewhat relating them to gender difference. She states women tend to originally exteriorize the development of their masculine side in arrogant, inadequate and powerful ways, compensating for their distorted feminine side. Were men drawn to antagonism by this behaviour, they will reinforce their own distorted side or ‘perverse anima’. Thus, genuine love between them would become impossible. She describes what she regards as a central problem of today ´s youth, the ‘grey zone between opposites’: whereby men reinforce women ´s masculinity through possession of their animus, and women feminize men through possession of their anima. Social symptoms of drug-abuse and open displays of chaotic emotions, reflect current trends in ‘ the surfacing of the Unconscious’. Traditional forms of consciousness need to fade out, to allow the development of a new order. Differentiation trends are presented as immanent to human nature within most Jungian theories. The psyche is seen as manifesting and being transformed by forces that transcend the social, and penetrate ‘ all times’ in an undifferentiated manner. Once again, no explanation is offered about historical conditioning in the behavioural choices made by each gender, or about the gradual social processes that shape identity and subjectivity. Contemporary Views on Female Sexuality Mother and Father Centred Psychology and Gender Current psychological thinking is still influenced by these diverse, though unresolved, ways of dealing with the feminine and the masculine. However, a long road was traveled, during the last century, to lay the foundations for a more comprehensive contemporary understanding. The 1920s’ and 1930s’ debates were renewed in the 1960s’, when feminism generated a new wave of interest in female psychology. On the one hand, early feminists were divided in their views on sexual identity, with Horney being usually considered more radical than Freud. They disagreed on 50 Liliana Acero Feminity, Gender and Essence in Body-Psychotherapy Part I: Reflections on theory, clinical and teaching experience

various points: 1) whether women and men are born heterosexual or are, thus shaped, by culture; 2) in the potential of psychoanalysis to facilitate change, specially among women, and; 3) on the influence of the sex of the psychotherapist upon transference processes. The writings of pioneering feminists like Juliet Mitchell (1974) and radical ones, such as Kate Millet (1975) , also positioned the debate on female sexuality within critical Gender Theory, and went beyond the sole description of behavioural dichotomies between the sexes. On the other hand, in the 1970´s, new theoretical developments on the role of envy and motherhood permeated British Psychoanalysis and American Ego Psychology, following the work of Winnicott (1957; 1964; 1971) and Bowlby (1969; 1973; 1980), among others. Winnicott, contrary to Klein, showed that envy is not innate. He regarded it as one of many of the potential children´ s reactions to the environment, given repetitive experiences of pain, loss and lack. The envious child could be showing a behaviour similar to that of her/his parents. (Various other congenital traits- physical/ psychological, masculine/feminine, maternal/paternal- were considered also central to the child´ s development of her/his sexual identity). If human beings confronted and accepted early dependency feelings, they would have less of a need to ‘avenge them’, through developing negative cultural habits and political exclusion. A whole new approach to psychology developed around Winnicott’ s writings. It focused upon female power over psychic life and, largely ignored male social and financial power. Stoller (1975), for example, arguing against this trend, stated that, as most men do not sufficiently identify with their mothers during differentiation, they tend to have a more rigid and fragile sexual identity than women. Their identity can only be ‘apparently strengthened’ by the social reproduction of traditional male value supremacy. Early mother/child bonding theories have been more recently expanded, empirically tested and reformulated, through the latest and very valuable research on attachment, attunement and the interpersonal by authors such as, Stern (1990; 2000; 2004), Trevarthen (2001a; 2001b ), Downing (2000) and Schore (2000; 2001; 2003) . Their approach has proved extremely useful to refocus on the substantial impacts of early developmental processes and intersubjectivity on children and adult mental health and provide empirical data. But it does not explicitly or predominantly address difference in behaviour per sex, and, less so, as shaped by social and gender conditioning. Unfortunately, gender constructs or ‘gender blindness’ tends to permeate research designs, methodologies and data interpretation, a situation that can distort or bias research results and conclusions. Since the 1980s , there has also been a renewal of debates on the Father Figure, mainly following the work of Lacan ´s female students and critics. Lacan (1977; 1985) was critical of contemporary theoretical trends that emphasized the mother-child relationship. First, he considered that the Oedipal stage was the central moment of psychic structuring. Second, he thought that boys were idealized by mothers, contrary to girls, due to the latter´ s lack of penises. Also, mothers idealized their boy´ s desire to become their unique and most desired object: their phallus. He showed how patriarchal laws are reproduced in the Unconscious, through identification with a symbolic order, rather than with the father figure. His focus in psychotherapy was the patient´ s need to confront and accept ‘unavoidable castration and lack’, in order to overcome the narcissistic position of early mother-child bonding. Adult sexual and love life were considered necessarily unsatisfactory, as loved ones are regarded as mere substitutes of the lost ‘first love’. Lacan differentiated biology from psychoanalysis, the penis from the phallus, more than Freud had done, showing how the unconscious is shaped through the language of the Other. Neither sex possesses the desired phallus: the desire to posses it (as in the boy); the desire to be it ( as in the girl). Lacan ‘s writings reflect father idealization and mother devaluation, as they predominate in contemporary society. However, he proposes psychic liberation through ‘an impersonal paternal law’. But this Law itself actual stems from specific gender positions within a culture dominated by men and male principles. Irigiray, (1977) discusses Lacan from a feminist psychoanalytic perspective. She shows how the author only recognized male desire and saw all desire as masculine. Contrary to some other feminist authors, she emphasizes not equality and equity but sexual difference, and argues for the creation of a female symbolic order to counteract the omnipresence of male social images. Symbolic language should be recreated between mother and daughter, as she considers that, currently, girls do not have enough healthy women and female images to identify with- a statement open to questioning. However, she adequately reclaims the experience of the female body and of specifically feminine forms, as sources of multiple and diverse pleasures. Jessica Benjamin (1988), another feminist critic of Lacan, substantively contributes to this reclaiming of the specificity of female bodies. She focuses on women´ s difficulty to recognize desire as truly internal, reflected in and through spatial images (6). Metaphors on holding and exploration could account for the active aspects of receptivity. The author also proposes a new reading of the Oedipal complex: Oedipus´ intent to evade the prophecy considered as proof that he could not contain energy & character vol.37 may 2009 51

his desire to substitute for the father. She argues for a new PostOedipal stage of separation, where the metaphorical death of the parents would result in ambivalence between the joy of survival and the sadness of loss. This conscious ambivalence would guide women and menthough mainly the first- to become responsible for their own desire and own it, instead of abandoning it. Both feminists´ rich thinking pose a number of questions, relevant to body-psychotherapy: How could somatic sensations-that are psychically-inscribed through a variety of cultural processes- be described through new forms of language and imagery? How could they be symbolized from a feminine perspective and associated to the Whole? And, how would one work through the pain of separation and theoretically understand difference, if one rejects incorrect assumptions on: paternal authority and psychic liberation through paternal domination? Assumptions within Neoreichian Thought There has not been a lot of specific theoreti cal thin king on female sexuality within neoreichian bodypsychotherapy culture (7). A common ground is that sexual difference is rooted in feeling, and that women and men experience their body differently. Biology was placed at the heart of the matter by Reich, through the concept of the bi-polar nature of life processes and his ‘ functional identity and antithesis principle between psyche and soma’. His follower, Lowen (1995), showed that women would only feel penis envy if they were out of contact with the intensity of their vaginal sensations and their reproductive potency. He also emphasized how active and receptive movements during sexual intercourse, are healthy qualities found in both sexual organs and the pelvis itself. Women need aggressive movements to actively hold the penis during pelvic thrust. Men are receptive towards the flow of their own semen and towards the involuntary movements characteristic of orgasm. In this sense, he contributed to a redefinition of femininity. In many a way, Lowen (1980; 1988) advanced Reich´ s thoughts, widely documenting differences in the unfolding of the Oedipal complex within psychotherapeutic practice, among numerous cases of contemporary women and men. In his writings, he discussed the type of non-genital sexual attraction girls feel towards the opposite sex in the Oedipal phase. At that life stage, when excitation is experienced all over the body and tends to concentrate in the pelvic area, he showed girls need to have physical, loving contact and closeness with their fathers. Incorrect reading of the child´ s innocent actions, due to the parent´ s own unresolved conflicts, endangers the natural resolution of the complex and traumatizes the child. This difference with the classical Freudian reading, gives scope for therapeutically exploring more seriously women ´s memories and experiences of sexual abuse and violence. However, Lowen´ s observations have inbuilt a number of gender stereotypes. On the one hand, he argues against double standards that, “ denied women as persons and ignored the body as a source of truth” (1965, p. 161). On the other, he argues that differences between male and female values have been blurred in Occidental societies, as part of a current loss of identity. But these values are defined as a set of social constructs presented as ‘objective’, and used to establish healthy practices. His writings also deal contradictorily with evidence and interpretation, on when and how functional differences between the sexes are biological or cultural. This influences character definitions and descriptions, specially relative to the sub-characters of the Oedipal phase (the phallic-narcissistic and passive-feminine for men; the hysterical and masculine-aggressive for women), where gender becomes a key variable. The problem is not simply one of ‘names or words’- as has sometimes been argued. But it is one of scarce resort to Gender Theory. This lack tends to permeate approaches to character dynamics as a whole, including that of Stephen Johnson ´s (1994; 1985) excellent reframing. Pierrakos (1997), working from a similar framework, describes the Oedipal sub-character type of the aggressive women and men further than other neoreichian authors. These women are portrayed as having the need to dominate men, whom they simultaneously want to possess and denigrate. He compares their feelings to those of psychopathic men, who also have a substantive contempt of women. Both type of distortions are considered as a central contemporary problem and, partly, a result of the erosion of traditional gender roles. In the ‘here and now’, he argues, there is potential room for both sexes to overcome traditional roles. Pierrakos also describes the types of therapy problems that arise within this new dynamic between the sexes: most specially, the need to change aggression into self-assertion and passivity into receptivity, as both sexes are seen as distorting their ‘natural gifts’. An alternative explanation, could be that: neither traditional roles or patriarchal society has significantly changed yet, in order to embrace the true self-identity of women and men and, sufficiently facilitate, relationships based on difference between equals (8). Biology, culture and the psyche collude to reproduce the cultural subordination of female generations. Women, to break this vicious cycle, need to identify creatively ( or identify and simultaneously dis-identify), 52 Liliana Acero Feminity, Gender and Essence in Body-Psychotherapy Part I: Reflections on theory, clinical and teaching experience

with their father and the masculine psyche in both sexes, without devaluing their femininity. First, girls develop an early identification with their mothers ; then they need to identify with their fathers without idealizing his sex and creatively transform early and late feminine and masculine identifications, in societies largely shaped by patriarchy. A difficult task. Also, identification is far from a passive process. Children actively seek it. In many subtle ways, they introject and project aspects of themselves and the Other in this process, through memories, non-verbal fantasies and energetic expressions of desire. Until relatively recently, psychological debates mainly portrayed each sex as the ultimate carrier of the feminine and masculine principles. However, these principles are part of each sex, and both sides are shaped in both sexes by patriarchal domination and its continuous and creative reformulations. In terms of feminist author, Gayle Rubin (1989, page 113), “… as sexuality is a nexus of relationships between the genders, an important part of women ´s oppression is contained and mediated by sexuality.” And new, increasingly growing, sexual orientations: homosexuality, bisexuality and transexuality, among others, reframe our concepts of the feminine and masculine in ways beyond precedent, and merit new theoretical focuses and developments from within the neoreichian movement. Cultural and Social Research on Women Cultural and Social Research has shown that, at a structural level, the social situation of women and men has substantively changed, since most of the psychological theories discussed were formulated. First, men are more-though not enough- involved in childrearing and household work. Second, the increasing, though still unequal, participation of females in employment at a global level, the gradual though growing presence of women in social and political realms, in the Sciences, Arts and Culture, a sustained growth in the use of contraceptive methods, and positive changes in the medical attitudes towards pregnancy and parenting, have made women more socially visible and led them to occupy a larger amount of positions, enjoy better conditions and take relevant decisions, within previously exclusively male terrains (9). Male vulnerability and fragility has been exposed, with less projection onto women. Men have become more aware of their emotional lives and problems, partly due to the gradual erosion of traditional roles. Organized women in a or several movements have tended to publicly own self-reflections on, how they sometimes simultaneously oppose and embrace gender stereotypes. Both sexes- though most frequently women- have begun to acknowledge that false ‘masks’ of independence are sometimes used to hide or compensate for confused and chaotic internal landscapes, arising from gender patterns. ( See for example, Segal, L., 1990; Mandell, N. et.al., 1995, Butler, J. 2004) In Latin America, local trends on gender transformations are similar to global ones. However, there are ‘objectively’ less social and economic possibilities for the majority of women to actively participate in the public sphere. Many times, the threat of poverty curtails independent initiatives and throws women back into dependency, submission and stereotype. In the 1990s, I undertook a series of studies on household, sexual and reproductive patterns, involving more than one thousand working families in Brazil and Argentina (Acero, 1991a; 1991b ;1995). It showed a number of interesting intergenerational changes in gender patterns in the way crucial life events- like marriage, first contraceptive method used and first children-, were handled by women and men, as well as, some substantive inter-country differences (10). For example, younger generations, of up to 25 years of age, mainly in Brazil, had perceptions on and attitudes towards fertility, reproduction and union quite distant from traditional ones. However, domestic violence, performed mainly by men, is still a very severe regional problem. It is also positively correlated with gender stereotypes. Men confronted with hardship and/or economic failure, frequently resort to desperate and irrational responses, like violence and abuse within the home. For example, selected evidence for Chile, showed that, between 2002 and 2003, female complaints on intra-couples’ violence were in the order of 108.9 and 127.7 cases (per 10.000 females of age 15 and over). In 2005, half the households of Santiago´ s Metropolitan area had experienced some form of violence. This was mainly psychological in nature (43.2% of cases), but mild and acute physical violence accounted for almost a quarter of cases, and sexual violence represented 14.9% of cases. ( PAHO, 2006). Other prevalent indirect forms of violence on women are associated to maltreatment and/or inefficiencies in Sexual and Reproductive Health services. For example, 21 % of maternal deaths in Latin America are related to pregnancy, childbirth and postchildbirth, which are mainly caused by complications from clandestine abortions, of the order of four million a year (Alan Guttmacher, 1999) (11). Many social conditions are to change still, to attain social equality between the sexes. The majority of local and international populations need also to have access to adequate material means of subsistence and other resources, such as education and health; precondienergy & character vol.37 may 2009 53

tions for a true respect for difference. Psychological and neoreichian thought and practice need to review their theories, to account simultaneously for changes and reproduction of gender patterns, and include new premises within prevention and clinical treatment. In Part II of this article, to be published in the next number of Energy & Character, we will further explore the relation between feminine and masculine sides, this time, within the psychotherapeutic environment, Biosynthesis and the healing arts and, refer to selected examples from Latin America. Notes: (1)Based on papers and Workshops presented at three International Biosynthesis Congresses in: Mayorga, Spain, 2000; Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, 2002 and Lisbon, Portugal, 2006. (2)Defined by Reich (1942) as, a cooperatively organized group or society, without hierarchical control, where each member contributes with her/his abilities, based on natural authority, the authority of what each one creates and develops. He contrasted this, with the ‘emotional plague’, a collective acting out within the social scene of neurotic destructive feelings. (3)I am also a Bioenergetic Analyst 1989 and local Trainer in Bioenergetic Analysis 1992 from the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis, New York and ex-Director of the Society for Bioenergetic Analysis of Argentina (SABRA), 1990-2007. I have been a participant in selected trainings and/or psychotherapy in Core Energetics, Reichian and Posreichian methods, Kelleman´s Somatic approach, Barbara Brennan ´s and Rosalyn Bruyere ´s Hands-on-Healing. (4)Contrary to Freudians, here the central view is that excess energy is not to be sublimated in favour of culture, but that it must be explored and developed through the pleasure principle, for dominant cultural forms to change. (5) Boadella (2000, pages 7-16 ) has attempted a possible answer to some of these type of questions, in relation to character, in an illuminating article. He shows how bipolarity is a basic characteristic of the Universe and how the concept was deployed by a number of philosophers, psychologists and Schools of thought including those of, Pythagoras, Janet, Jung and Reich. (6)For example, many Native American groups, organize themselves through circles and wheels where feminine symbols on fertility are as important as, or even more so, than masculine ones, and there is a simple division of shared labour with less hierarchical traits. (See, for example, Bruyere, R.,1993). (7)Among the exceptions are the writings of Boadella and the Biosynthesis’ latest paradigm. (8) Many more neoreichian authors could have been reviewed here, but it is beyond our scope in this article. See , among others, Kelleman (1987; 2003 ); Cornell (2006); Hilton (1999). (9) For a discussion of Gender and Health in Latin America and internationally , see Acero,L.( 2005; 2006). (10) It found, among other, that: a) Most women used contraceptive methods only after having had a first child. Also, almost half of them used them regularly, but the types of methods chosen were higher risk ones, like: the cap or high-hormone pills. b) Although women kept a certain work continuity, their reproductive functions interfered with their work-cycle more than among men; c) Argentine women, compared to Brazilians, would decide important life events like: marriage, birth control, pregnancy and childrearing, more based on gender stereotypes. d) In both countries, men scarcely contributed to domestic work, even in cases when both sexes were employed full-time. Women extended their working hours to perform domestic tasks, in an average 2 to 4 daily hours, and also during Sundays, while men mainly rested. (11) Abortions are illegal in most countries in the region- even in cases of rape- and they are severely sanctioned by law, including with imprisonment. But they are clandestinely performed in extremely unsafe conditions ( See, for example, Acero, L. (2007); MairaVargas, G., Nazarit,P, and Saez, S. (2008). Bibliography Acero, L. (1991a), Textile workers in Brazil and Argentina: Work and Household Behaviour by Gender and Age, October 1991, United Nations University Press, Japan. Acero, L. (1991b), “Textile workers in Brazil and Argentina: Work and Household Behaviour by Gender and Age”, article in Women, Households and Change, eds. Masini E. and Stratigos S., United Nations University Press, Japan,1991. Acero, L. (1995), “Conflicts between demands in new technologies Demand and women´s households: Female work and training needs in Argentina y Brazil”, in Mitter et.al., Informatics and Female Employment, U.K., Routledge & Keagan, 1995 Acero, L. (2005), “Globalization, Gender and Health: Perspectives in Latin American sexual and reproductive health”, published in Kickbusch,I., Hartwig,K. and List,J. eds. Globalization, Women and Health: Coming to the 21 st. Century, Palgrave Macmillan,2005. Acero,L. (2006), “Engendering Biomedical Research”, Virtual course of Posdoctoral specialization for young women scientists, Regional UNESCO Programme for Women, Science and Technology and Fogarty International, (160 pages) in website: www.catunescomujer.org . Acero, L. (2007), ‘ Genetics and Gender: New Reproductive Technologies in Latin America’” in Atkinson, Greenslade & Glasner (eds.) New Genetics, New Identities, New Social Formations , Routledge, U.K. 2007 . Alan Guttmacher Institute (1999),”Sharing responsibility: women, society and abortion worldwide”, a Special Report, www.agi-usa.org Benjamin, J. (1988), The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism and the Problem of Domination, New York: Random House. Boadella, D. (2000), ‘Polarity and Character’, International Journal of Biosynthesis, vol.31 (1), pages 7-16. Boadella,D. (1997), ‘Soma, self e fonte’, Energia e Carater, Vol 1, Summus, Sao Paulo. Bowlby, J.(1969), Attachment and Loss: Vol.1. Attachment. New York: Basic Books. Bowlby, (1973), Attachment and Loss: Vol.2. Separation. New York: Basic Bowlby, (1980), Attachment and Loss: Vol.3. Loss. New York: Basic Bruyere, R. (1993), Wheels of Light: Charkas, Auras and the Healing Energy of the Body, Fireside, CA. Butler, J. (2004), Undoing Gender, Routledge: New York. Cornell,W. (2006), ‘Entering the gestural field: The body in relation’, Energy and Character, 32, pp.45-55. Traducción por Ps. André Sassenfeld J. ( en manual traducido al español) Downing,G. (2000), The Body and the Word, version inédita en ingles, Capitulo 2 y 3, pp. 6-20. Freud,S. (1905), Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, PFL 7, Harmondsworth. Penguin 1977. Freud,S. (1931), Female Sexuality, PFL 7, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1977. Freud,S. (1933), ‘Femininity’, in New Introductory Lectures, PFL 2, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1973. 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Horney, K. (1924), ‘On the genesis of the castration complex in women’, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,5:50-65. Irigiray, I.(1977), ‘This sex which is not one’, in C. Zanardi( ed.), Essential Papers on the Psychology of Women, New York: New York University Press 1990. Johnson,S. (1994), Character Styles, Norton & Company: New York/ London. Johnson,S. (1985), Characterological Transformation: The Hard Work Miracle, Norton & Company: New York/London. Jones, E.( 1927), ‘The early development of female sexuality’, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 8: 457-72. Jones, E.( 1935), ‘Early female sexuality’, in E. Jones, Papers on PsychoAnalysis, London: Maresfield Reprints 1948. Jung, C. (1921), Psychological Types, Collected Works, Volume 6. Jung, C . (1933). Modern Man in Search of a Soul. London: Kegan Paul Trench Trubner, (1955 ed.) Harvest Books. Jung, C. G., (1934–1954). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. (1981 2nd ed. Collected Works Vol.9 Part 1), Princeton, N.J.: Bollingen. Keleman,S. (1987), Bonding: A somatic-emotional approach to transference, Center Press, California, Capítulos 2 y 5. Keleman, S.(2003), Anatomía Emocional: La Estructura de la Experiencia Somática, Editorial Desclée, Bilbao. Klein, M. (1928), ‘Early stages of the Oedipus complex,’ in Love, Guilt and Reparation and Other Works 1921-45, London: Hogarth Press, 1975. Klein, M. (1957), ‘Envy and Gratitude’ in Envy and Gratitude and Other Works 1946-1963, New York: Delta 1977. Lacan,J. (1977), Ecrits. A Selection, London: Tavistock. Lacan,J. (1985), ‘Intervention on Transference’, in C. Bernheimer and C. Kahane (eds.), In Dora´s Case, London: Virago. Lowen, A. (1965), Love and Orgasm, USA: Penguin. Lowen, A. (1980), Fear of Life, Bioenergetics Press. Lowen, A. (1988), Love, Sex and the Heart, Bioenergetics Press. Lowen, A. ( 1995), Joy, USA: Penguin. MairaVargas, G., Nazarit,P, and Saez, S. (2008), Violencia Sexual y Aborto. Conexiones Necesarias’, Red chilena contra la Violencia Doméstica y Sexual, Corporación Humanas, Santiago de Chile. Mandell, N. et.al. (1995), Feminist Issues, Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall. Mitchell,J. (1974), Psychoanalysis and Feminism, London: Allen Lane. Millet, K. (1975), Sexual Politics, London: Random House. PAHO (2006), Observatorio de la Mujer y la Salud, Santiago: PAHO/ WHO. Pierrakos, J. ( 1997), Eros, Love and Sexuality: The forces that unify man and woman, LifeRhythmn Publications, Mendocino CA. Reich, W. (1935), Sex- Pol Essays 1929-1934, London: Random House. Reich,W. (1942), The Function of Orgasm, USA: Souvenir Press. Reich, W. (1949), Character Analysis, London: Simon & Schuster. Rubin, G. (1989), ‘ Reflexionando sobre el sexo. Notas para una teoría radical de la sexualidad’, en Carole Vance ( comp.), Placer y Peligro, Explorando la Sexualidad Femenina, Madrid: Talasa Ediciones. Schore, A. (2000), ‘Attachment and the regulation of the right brain.? Attachment and Human Development, Vol.2 N 1, pp.23-47. Schore, A. (2001), ‘Effects of a secure attachment on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health,’ Infant Mental Health Journal, Vol.22 (1-2),pp.7-66. Schore, A. (2003), Affect regulation and the repair of the self. Norton& Company. New York and London. Segal,L. (1990), Slow Motion, Changing Masculinities, Changing Men, energy & character vol.37 may 2009 55 Liliana Acero, P.h.D. University of Sussex, 1993 and PosDoctoral Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor, University of Massachussetts and Brown University 1992-1994; is currently President Honoris Causa of the Fundación Cuerpo y Energía: Teoría y métodos neoreichianos, CHILE, Senior Trainer in Biosynthesis since 1985, Bioenergetic Analyst (1984) and Local Trainer (1990). She is also an Associate Professor at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, FLACSO, Programme on Gender and Public Policies since 2003 and Visiting Senior Researcher at CENTRIM, University of Brighton, U.K. She has lived and worked as practitioner, Trainer and University Professor in different countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the U.K., Spain, the USA and Canada, and is author of books and numerous articles in Psychology and the Social Sciences. Profile of the author London: Virago Press. Stern, D. N.( 1985), The Interpersonal World of the Infant, New York: Basic Books Stern,D. N. (1990), Diary of a Baby. New York: Basic Books. Stern,D. N., (2000), ‘Putting time back into our considerations of infanct experience: A microdiachronic view’. Infant Mental Health Journal, 21 (1-2), 21-28. Stern,D. N. (2004), The present moment in psychotherapy and everyday life. Norton & Company, New York and London. Stoller,R. (1975), Perversion: The Erotic Form of Hatred, London: Maresfield. 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Systemic Intervention in Biosynthesis: how to work with relational field with families by Esther Frankel T he motivation to write this work is old and comes from a phrase that a colleague from my training program in Biosynthesis in the eighties said to me: “Esther, the war is over”. For me and many people who belong to the second generation of survivors of the Holocaust or other types of genocide this is not like that. We must many generations. We need to take care of the wounded souls of the children when the souls of their families were broken, wounded, destroyed. Some years ago I was working in Japan and I went My Grandparents, My Parents, and I (Family Tree), Frida Kahlo, 1936 very often to Germany, because I felt that it was there that I had to search for the origins of my problems. In Germany I found that my generation, second, or third generation of the victims after the war, suffers as much as the children of the aggressors. The Germans of my age are affected as much as the Jews of my generation, full of blame, illnes and problems. And on one of these trips to Germany I did my first systemic session. After years of Analytical and Reichian psychotherapy, there was something I could not reach and this was my relation with the dead that are so present in my life. A systemic work is a family psychotherapy that says that it is not the individual who is sick but the entire system. This specific work was developed in Germany by Bert Hellinger because of the consequences of the second war. Germans kept in secret what happened during the war and these families started to fall ill. Illnes, tragedies, and serious accidents marked these families painfully. The elaboration of these secrets through the work with family constellations showed a link between the destiny of the aggressors and their 56 Esther Frankel Systemic Intervention in Biosynthesis: how to work with relational field with families treat this subject transgenerationally because these residues remain alive for

victims. And for this reason this work interested me a lot. A specific session was very important to me. The therapist asked me about my first family. I said: “I, my father, my mother and my sisters” – and he asked me to place puppets to represent all of them. And then the therapist helped me to see that my mother in this family system was placed as if she was one of my sisters, and then he asked me: “where is your mother looking” ? And I concluded that my mother did not look at us in the system I organized: “She was looking at her dead relatives”. And he asked me: “Can I bring the dead relatives to this room?“ I said: “You can.” And my dead family had an identity for the first time. I placed the dead of my mother, I placed the dead of my father. It was strange for me, because the only person whose grave I can visit of this generation is my grandfather, the father of my father. who died of a heart desease before I was born. But my grandmother, my uncles on my mother’s side were all killed in the gas chamber and therefore nobody knows what really happened to them. People who were lost in these circumstances, do not have a name, do not have any identity. Even though my father and my mother told me about these events, I received the story in fragments, and this marked my life. At this moment of the constellation I could organize, remember my family, name each one of them. It was a very touching healing ritual. My mother took me by the hand and presented me to each one of her family. I was very moved and cried a lot, and the therapist cried together with me. Maybe because he was German and felt guilt about all this tragedy, and he was doing this in order to come to terms with the truth. It was an impressive session. To my amazement when I phoned my mother after the session, to ask her the names of the people she lost, to know who the brothers and sisters were, and then she said to me: “what a coincidence at that same time somebody was interviewing me here in my house for a documentary about the Holocaust”. This research was done by the team of Steven Spielberg, that was interviewing survivors of the second war all over the world. And my mother had been interviewed by them on the same day I had my session. After I did this session in Germany, I participated in many meetings between Germans and Jews, between victims and aggressors, American Jews, German Jews, and we spent one week arguing about peace, internal peace – they were groups of dialogue, of conflict mediation. And what was curious is that at the same time, my mother and some Jews were invited by the mayor of a small town in Germany – where the survivors of Auschwitz went in foot after they had been freed - for one week of dialogues. It was an attempt to pay homage to the victims, and my mother accepted. This was very healing for her. My mother and the others survivors of Auschwitz went on foot to this city. Many died on the way. My mother survived because she got back her boots size 33, that only fit her foot. So she could complete the walk to this town, before going to Sweden with the others. I think it was important for her, to have the opportunity to revisit the same place, many years later, during another moment in her life. I believe that from all this dialogue that I was paticipanting in - and she too – that the contact between us was reestablished. This experience made me understand better and go deeper into my origins, as a daughter of a survivor of Auschwitz, to see how much this still marks my life, to touch deep and unconscious wounds and to give a place in my soul for the dear members of my family that I didn’t have the fortune to know, reorganizing my life, thus weaving teogether torn parts of my existence. After this personal statement, I want to show how professionnally I am integrating the family systemic approach to my work in Biosynthesis. As a somatic psychotherapist working in the clinical area for more than 30 years, I am aware how important it is to work with the relational field of my clients, that is, to integrate their family histories with individual psychotherapy. Biosynthesis as a multidimensional psychotherapy makes this integration possible. The human being is seen in his/her somatic, emotional, relational, cognitive and spiritual dimensions. These are fields of life and they can be present through characterological traps, body blockages and restricted spirituality; or through deep contact with the heart, expressive emotional life and balanced energy. In the first case we have the unfolding of a characterological intentionality and in the second, the unfolding of an essential intentionality. (Frankel, E. and Corrêa M., 1999). The client who searches for psychotherapy in general presents problems in more then one of these fields. How can we access them? How can we help the patient? An unblockage of the throat that happens through a sudden shout can liberate rotation movements in the body (motor field of rotation) recovering the capacity to play and to move spontaneously. In trauma situations, the body unblockage should occur through the change of the traumatic scene, giving the possibility to the client to run (motor field of activation) and cry. (field of communication and expression). One of our objectives in Biosynthesis is to reintroduce the person to the amplitude of his/her motor fields which is our vocabulary as primates, our unconscious body (Boadella, 2002). Through touch the psychotherapist can hear the mesenergy & character vol.37 may 2009 57

sages of the client’s muscles, what the muscles want to do, what they are ready for, and the intentional movement patterns underlying the neurotic organization of the body. For us the character can be seen as a distortion of motor fields patterns. In Biosynthesis all the organism can be worked from a part. The psychotherapist is trained to perceive the easiest field to begin the work with each client and how to help him/her to connect himself/herself with the other fields. David Boadella calls this a holistic, biospiritual and transomatic vision. This is the art to work with multidimensional patterns of intentionality. One of the questions that appear when we work in Biosynthesis or another body psychotherapy is when we verify that the individual psychosomatic approach is not enough for a deeper understanding of the client’s problems. We must also identify how his/her commitments, obligations in the family relational field are over several generations. Maybe the problem is linked to transgenerational family issues. For this purpose I adopted the method of family constellation linking it to the Biosynthesis fourth Life Field (D.Boadella & S.Boadella, 2000): the Relational Field, integrating it with the others six fields. It is a rich experience that has extended the spectrum of my psychotherapeutic work. Clinical example Sistemic work in a group Subject: A client Ana1 body sensations. At the same time I, as the therapist tried to understand what the place in this constellation and body expression of the elements meant. At this moment of the constellation Ana cannot see her mother, and her mother cannot see her daughter, because the heart is placed between them and in front of the mother. The shame is on the side, almost next to the heart and looking at the ground. Ana’s mother felt inhibited by the shame, and said that she cannot see her daughter it was as if the daughter were hiding from her. The heart was between Ana and her mother. It was a heart that felt frozen inside and a lot of heat outside and wanted to fall to the ground and hide. The heart could not look Ana’s mother in the eye. “I do not want to see anything”, says the heart. This first form of the intentional field of the family reveals a part that doesn’t pulsate. What happened to your mother? I asked Ana. My mother was a war refugee. Her father wanted a boy. Ana’s mother was not registered because she was a girl. She lived through the bombings of the war and had the sensation of horror and fear for all her family to die in the war. This subject is her shame. Her mother idealized her father. The shame says: I belong to her (she points to Ana’s presents problems with her mother. Her mother was lucky to survive a bombing in the Spanish Civil War. She was cold hearted towards Ana, her daughter. Ana’s father said to her: your mother is a child. You’re my princess. Ana’s mother was missing the support of her own mother. The client Ana, brings the situations: shame and war that was a theme in her mother’s life, the hatred she had for her mother and a sensation of depression in her heart. This feeling closed her heart. The intentional elements I asked to be placed in the constellation were: shame, heart, the mother of Ana, and Ana. For each one of these elements Ana chose a representative of the group and I asked her to place the elements, in relation to each others. Ana moves the figures to where she wants, by the shoulders, very slowly. When she finishes placing these elements (figure 1) we have the first form of field of the family intentionality . The next step is to ask what the meaning of this form is. I asked the representatives of the elements to express themselves, about their feelings, thoughts, desires and 1 This session was real and Ana is a fictitious name. Figure 1 58 Esther Frankel Systemic Intervention in Biosynthesis: how to work with relational field with families

mother). This information reveals other intentionalities of the field: the rejection of Ana’s mother by her father (the grandfather of Ana) and a whole context of lack of holding during her birth and the beginning of Ana’s mother life. I asked to all the representatives to move to a more comfortable place. The intention is to search for some part of the field that still pulsates. The shame and the mother join (the shame is connected to Ana’s mother) and the heart, that still felt frozen goes to Ana’s side (figure 2). The field is transformed. The relations are truer: the shame is next to Ana’s mother and the heart is next to Ana. The search for situations nearer to the truth is to reconstruct confidence in the field direction we continue, if they are in an anti pulsatile direction we withdraw, and if nothing occurs we Figure 3 take another direction. (figure 3). Ana’s mother can lean cosily against her mother, feeling warmer. Ana, still on the side of the heart, is feeling her body divided and emptiness is on one of it sides. When Ana’s mother receives the support from her own mother, the field of the family intentionality becomes more pulsatile. Ana continues divided and empty, showing parts of the field counter pulsatiles. I invite all the elements of the constellation Figure 2 of this family. For the history of the mother, I introduce a new element in the field: a representative for the grandmother of Ana: the mother of her mother. But now this mother has a suportive quality, a mother who welcomed her daughter. It is a work with polarities: a mother (grandmother of Ana) that gives holding, that is the opposite to the real mother, who didn’t give the holding to her daughter. The intentional field is flexible and allows us to make experiences and to observe its signals. If these are in a pulsatile Figure 4 energy & character vol.37 may 2009 59

once more to move to a more comfortable position. The elements come closer to each other forming a small group (figure 4). The grandmother and her daughter hug each other involving the shame between them. Ana says: “I feel like a girl. I am calmer”. It is interesting how the field had this movement of flexion searching for more possibilities of contact. Spontaneously the field of intentionality expresses, like a collective motor field of flexion, a desire to go to a more secure place. In this work we are always searching for the essential intentionality field that is a part of the collective field that is still pulsating. ground. This was the natural movement of the field when Ana entered. This was the moment to construct a holding for Ana and I asked her mother to give her support from Figure 6 behind. The focus of the field was Ana, her mother and the heart (figure 6). I asked Ana to tell her mother what she always wanted to say. Ana says to her mother: “I want to be your princess. I can’t take anymore. Through my children I gained a warm and beautiful heart”. The mother answers: “daughter your problem is not Figure 5 At this moment I ask Ana to substitute her representative (figure 5). The therapeutic work happens in the interaction of Ana with the transformations of the field of family intentionality: its sensations, emotions, insights. During the session I speak to her and I feel which is the best moment for her to enter and to participate in the formative process of the relational field of her family. A good moment is when the field is more pulsatile. When Ana enters, there is a movement of search for more contact in the field. Ana feels her coldness towards her mother. It’s her chance to reach out towards a loving mother. I propose to her to use traction field with in breath on the arm of the mother, touching her heart. Her breathing changes with trembling of feeling in her body, and tears of contact and relief. The group shows more feelings. The traction motor field with breathing is a resource of Biosynthesis to load, to bring grounding and holding. It is a resource to nourish and to 60 Esther Frankel Systemic Intervention in Biosynthesis: how to work with relational field with families with your heart, but with my heart”. Ana: “Now we’re speaking the same language in the same tone”. And then the mother says in a very loving way to Ana: ”my daughter, my princess”. The mother hugs her daughter and the heart together. The therapeutic work at this moment was centred on emotions, energy, physical contact and breathing (third, second and first life field). It was important to reframe the relation between Ana and her mother (5th life field), since Ana was saying that they were understanding each other. Ana’s belief system changed. And now, like the father, the mother could say that Ana was her princess. The mother saying that the problem was with her heart and not that of Ana‘s, showed an attitude of discrimanation between the systems parents and children. Now, the heart do not join together, breaking a relation of co-dependence.

Conclusion This paper is an application of a theorical and clinical study about fields of intentionality and systemic that Milton Corrêa and myself are developing since 1999 (some of these publications are shown in the Bibliography). In this presentation, a theory to family system work is based on David Boadella’s Biosynthesis and on Bert Hellinger’s family constellation and shows that both methodologies can be integrated and applied in the psychotherapeutic clinic using a theory of intentionality considered not only as an abstract concept but also as a reality in itself acting like a field of intentionality. This theory offers us a base from which we can understand and work with family constellation using the fields in Biosynthesis and otherhand we can also verify through the motor fields what they can evoke in terms of family relations by means of the set up of these constellations. This constitutes the originality of this work to which we invite Biosynthesis and other psychotherapists to make their own experiences. The client is multidimensional therefore we have through this modality the possibility to have access to him just as much through the motor fields as through the field of relationship. I’d like to honor the creators of these two methologies bringing some of their own words: “In Biosynthesis constellations we work with the 4th field in the context of system of seven life fields, and not only with family system. We work with client centred mode and not with leading therapist approach. As we are trained in body language we use body signals to develop our work. The client is participant even during the time he is out observing his own constellation. New sentences are evoked by the client out of insight and context and not given by the therapist. Here we invite the client to understand his own process and are careful with dogmatic pronouncements. We understand that forgiveness can ripens as part of emotional maturation as this cannot be demanded by therapeutic ethos as in some other forms of psychotherapy. We are open to both positive and negative family influences and don’t have closed attitude of over respect for parents ”2 . “We participate in a soul rather than having a soul. This helps us to understand what happens in a family, e.g. that a family has a common conscience which to a great extent, is unconscious yet can be observed by the effects it has on all the family members. Furthermore there are several layers of intentionality operating in a 2 David Boadella, personal communication with Milton Corrêa and Esther Frankel commeting their new theorical and clinical approach, March 2004. 3 Bert Hellinger, personal communication with Esther Frankel, January 1999. family. More on the surface operates an intention that causes dysfunction and illness in a family, e.g. the urge to pay for something good by something bad. On a deeper level another soul seems to be operating. It shows up when the therapist withdraws from his own intentions and fears and proceeds only phenomenologically. When, for instance, two people are set up to represent the patient and death, the representants without the intervention of the therapist are suddenly caught by an irresistible movement that carries them to a solution they cannot plan. This solution is experienced by the client as deeply satisfying. The soul operating here I call “the greater soul” for lack of a better name. So in therapy the decisive step is to help the patient to move out of the realm of the family soul and the family conscience into the realm of the greater soul. This demands of the therapist that he stays in contact with this soul and allows himself to be guided by it”³. Bibliography Boadella, David, The Tree of Man and Fundamental Dimensions of Biosynthesis, Energy&Character,Vol 29, n° 1, June 1998a. Boadella, David, Streaming, Rapport and Inner Touching- The Seven Legacies of Mesmerism, Energy&Character, Vol 29, n°2, December, 1998b. Boadella, David, Shape Flow and Postures of the Soul. The Biosynthesis Concept of Motoric Fields, Energy&Character, Vol 30, n°2, April 2000. Boadella, S. Silvia & Boadella David, Biosynthesis, in Pritz, Alfred (ed.), Globalized Psychotherapy, Facultas Universitäsverlag, Vienna, 2000. Corrêa, Milton & Frankel, Esther, Embodied Intentionality, Energy&Character, Vol 33, September, 2003. Corrêa, Milton, Dream Work in Biosynthesis, Enegy&Character, Vol 36, December 2007. Frankel, Esther & Corrêa, Milton, A Cognitive approach to Body Psychotherapy, Energy&Character Vol 30, n° 1, September, 1999. Hellinger, Bert, Love’s Hidden Symmetry, Zeig, Tucker&Co, 1998. Hellinger, Bert, Die Liebe des Geistes, Hellinger Publications, 2008. Profile of the author Esther Frankel (Born 1948) M.A., Psychotherapist, International Trainer in Biosynthesis. Producer and Managing Editor of Energy and Character (see Editorial Information). energy & character vol.37 may 2009 61

Book Review Psychothérapie Corporelles, Fondements et Methodes by Michel Heller Brussels, Ed. De Boek, 2008 Reviewed by Jerome Liss Michel Heller’s book offers us a pleasurable voyage through the history of concepts pertaining to the awareness of the body and body healing. Instead of beginning with Wilhelm Reich or Fenichel, we begin with Plato, Descartes and Spinoza. In addition, body therapy concepts are drawn from other cultural traditions including Taoism, Zen, Tantrism, Acupuncture and Tai Chi Chuan. We feel that we are returning to ancient origins of body awareness, and therefore the Western history of Freud, Reich, Lowen and Boadella, is seen as coming from deeper roots. The book’s basic message is essential for body psychotherapists to understand. We have both auto-regulation Self dynamics and Dyadic regulation (or Self-Other dynamics) regarding our psychocorporel processes. Especially interesting is the presentation of Darwinian notions regarding the evolution of the body and emotions and Cannon’s work regarding homeostasis. At the same time the field of inquiry is vast, including Mesmer, Adler, Abraham, with the original contributions of Wilhelm Reich analyzed in depth. This part of Heller’s research develops the concept of auto-regulation. I will focus on Heller’s elaboration regarding Dyadic regulation. The main developments in this field have occurred over the last thirty years. Heller is in a special position for clarifying the nature of interactive processes that are necessary for personal development and emotional healing. His own research regarding video analysis gives him the awareness and language necessary for transmitting the fundamental points that have been revealed in recent years, since the studies he deals with have all been done using video registration of mother-child interaction. Therefore, we have a superb summary of what the work of Daniel Stern, Edward Tronick, George Downing and Beatrice Beebe have brought to light. 62 Book Review From Auto-Regulation to Self-Other Dynamics The movement from concepts of auto-regulation to concepts of Self-Other dynamics requires a jump in awareness. Auto-regulation can be understood in terms of emotions, humour, actions, attitudes, perceptions, motivations, and so on, that is, what happens in an individual organism. But Self-Other regulation is based on watching very subtle interactions between people, especially between mother and child. Even small deviances in body rhythm, eye focus, voice tone, and facial expression can disrupt the “attunement” between mother and child. A slight turning of the shoulders or a tension in a smile can be picked up by the other and create dissonance in the Self-Other relationship. Edward Tronick’s research regarding the Still Face Paradigm shows how the enfant is thrown into complete chaos when the interaction with the mother is interrupted for only 10 seconds. (The “still face” means that the mother creates, very briefly, an impassive expression on her face). Beyond this Louis Cozolino’s recent book, The Neuroscience of Human Relationshps, documents the overwheling impact of how a disturbed relationship between mother and child can create a disregulation among deep brain circuits that put emotions “out of control,” even years later in adult life. Heller cites fascinating research examples that show how minimal changes of facial expression – a slight frown, an almost imperceptble raising of the eyebrows, a slight shift of eye gaze – can occur between psychotherapist and patient. Such non-verbal and almost unconscious expressions can be correlated with the outcome of psychotherapy in cases of depression and suicidal behavior. Since the psychotherapist is not aware of such subtle expressions, this can raise questions re

garding psychotherapeutic training: How can the therapist develop this almost unconscious attunement to the patient? Perhaps concepts like Boadella’s “resonance” allow us, as psychotherapists, to give inner space to our own pyschophysical processes that can only be grasped by intuition and that are quite different from experiences that are explicit and that can be put into words. Therefore, in this period when psychoanalysts and all “depth psychology” therapists are turning more and more to the Self-Other interaction as a fundamental therapeutic tool (previously called the Object relationship, a very unhappy term coined by the British School of Objects Relastionship), the awareness that Heller brings to the most subtle nuances of non-verbal expression will help us, as body therapists, to become intuitively “attuned” to our patients. But while the video researchers emphasize the developmental impact of the Dyad relationship, Heller’s work keeps repeating a fundamental point: There are both self-regulation and Self-Other interactive processes going on at the same time. Emotional, behavioral and cognitive development, as well as their disregulation, cannot be reduced to one or the other. The Self-Other relationship must integrate the autonomous processes of emotion, thought and action that take place in the very same moment of Self-Other contact. At the same time the dynamics of solitude are the result of what happened during the Self-Other interplay with the primary caretaker. Therefore, this is a book that is worthwhile for all body psychotherapists to read. The Hill Speaks by Elsa Corbluth Jurassic Press, ISBN 978-0-9558870-0-0 Reviewed by David Boadella The Hill Speaks, is Elsa Corbluth’s 5th poetry collection, containing over sixty poems, in 123 pages. Elsa is a well known English poet, has won many prizes, and has broadcast on BBC. Her work was much admired by Ted Hughes, the former Poet Laureate, who once wrote: “Your poems give me a very keen pleasure…You do many original things in a perfect way.”¨ This new collection may sound local, but is quite global in scope. For Elsa a landscape on earth is an opening to a landscape of the heart. Whether it is a flower, a tree, a rock, or a mountain, she presents this from her artistic vision as a bridge between her vision of the world of nature, where even hills have a voice and can speak, and the inner passions of being human. The book is full of breath-taking currents that lead us into worlds of myth and legend, or back to solid earth with a bump. One of the poems is called “to a wind from all directions in a changing climate”. Her book moves you with deep unexpected rhythms, which sweep along like the tides of the sea. She embraces themes of life, love and death always in unexpected, sometimes ironic, ways that are meant to startle and invite you to look on the world in new ways. She confronts the always new faces of the seasons, and her landscapes range from the Jurassic coast of south England, to the volcanic island of Iceland, and the mountains of New Zealand. Elsa is not only a world-traveller through continents, but also evokes new aspects of famous artists: Ibsen, Brecht, Bob Dylan, Edvard Munch,and the blind and deaf poet Jack Clemo, to name a few. She can move between the intensely personal themes of her own children, to intense political themes such as Chernobyl and climatic pollution. Elsa weaves her poetic tapestry out of matters which are natural but also often tragically human, and yet she manages to breathe between them the fres h air of her sharp and startling humour, so that we are moved alternately to deep tears and to deep laughter by the way she guides us through the many unexpected facets of her long life. energy & character vol.37 may 2009 63

Consciousness without end by Pim van Lommel ISBN 978 90 259 5778 0 Reviewed by David Boadella Pim van Lommel was for 26 years a cardiologist at a hospital in Arnhem, Holland. In 2001 he published a study in the renowned medical journal, the Lancet, on a research study he made of 344 patients with heart failure, 62 of which reported neardeath experiences. His new book on “Consciousness without end” seeks to clarify whether such experiences are authentic, or are some kind of fantasy. His conclusions are that consciousness is not produced by the brain, but acts through the brain, and is trans-somatic, in the sense that it is not locally dependent on the life processes of the body. The book has seventeen chapters. In the first chapter he discusses different paradigms of science, and the sharp conflicts which exist between reductionistic materialism, and a more open-ended form of scientific enquiry. He quotes an article in the journal Science, which lists 25 questions which science cannot yet answer. In the second chapter he gives a detailed case-study of a typical neardeath experience. In chapter three he quotes research by Raymond Moody on twelve general characteristics of near death experiences, which are common to all, in spite of individual or cultural differences. Research from the USA and Germany estimates that some 25 million people world wide have had such experiences. He quotes studies by Kenneth Ring on five phases in the course of a near death experience, He then refers to the work of Michael Sabom, also a cardiologist, who was initially extremely sceptical about the validity of consciousness beyond the body, but was finally convinced by his own careful researches. Sabom distinguished between transpersonal experiences, which could not be verified independently, and “veridical” reports of events happening in the room during the near death condition, which could be independently confirmed. In the fourth chapter he quotes several studies on the life changes induced by the near-death experience, many of which lasted for years after the event. One of these was the great reduction in what Lommel calls “fear-death” : the normal deep human anxiety at the thought of dying, is replaced by a sense of deep connection to a dimension beyond the physical, which had been contacted during the out-of-body experience. In the fifth chapter Lommel reports on a study of 12 children with heart-failure and coma, who were re64 Book Review vived. Eight of these children reported out of the body experiences. Other studies looked at out of the body experiences which were found in 22 percent of a group of psychology students, none of whom had near-death experiences. Other causes had led them to such special states of consciousness. The sixth chapter looks at fourteen different conditions which can induce an out of body experience: in over half of these the brain was temporarily out of action. Lommel overviews the different neurological and psychological theories that seek to explain the experiences, and points out the difficulties many of them have in explaining the veridical reports on events that definitiely took place, which were later described accurately by near death patients who were in states of coma or deep unconsciousness. The seventh chapter reports in detail on Lommel’s own research on 344 patients with heart failure, which was published in the Lancet. 62 of these reported near death experiences when they returned to consciousness. Lommel then goes on to quote other medical studies by Bruce Greyson at a University Hospital in America (1595 patients) and by Dr. Peter Fenwick at a hospital in Southamapton (243 patients). All these studies conclude that the special states of consciousness took place precisely during the time of the heart-failure and the absence of brain function, and were not taking place before, or after the emergency, These detailed medical studies, all published in scientific journals, lead Lommel in his eighth chapter to look at what actually takes place in the brain, when the heart stops. Here his medical knowledge goes into great detail to show that experiences of states of consciousness that are higher, wider, or deeper than normal are occurring when the normal measurable brain functions associated with any form of consciousness, are showing no signals whatever of any activity. The brain is temporarily, but not irreversibly, dead. In the ninth chapter, Lommel goes deeper into the functioning of the normal brain. He looks at the functioning of the milliards of neurones, and the electromagnetic wave characteristics of the brain. He shows how consciousness research has failed to reduce the qualities of our experience to the quantities of excitation in the brain. He suggests that consciousness is not produced by the brain, and is not reducible to it, but functions through the brain (in a

similar way that information carried by electromagnetic waves functions through the TV set, but is not produced by it. He draws on famous neuro-scientists such as Charles Sherrington, John Eccles, and Wilder Penfield, all of whom had non reductive understanding of consciousness. The well known comparison of the brain with a computer raised the following question: if the brain is the hardware, where does the software come from. In the near death experience the hard-ware , the neurones, have stopped all functioning. The non-material information which corresponds to the soft-ware of consciousness nevertheless continues to exist, and is not destroyed by the “death” of the hardware. Chapter ten gives a detailed description of a near death experience, and its deep effects on the person, written by Monique Hennequin, who not only had a heart-failure at the age of 37, but a near-collapse of many major organs, including the kidneys and the liver. Her case seemed hopeless, but she was re-animated, and survived to write up her experiences during the intense somatic crisis. In the eleventh chapter Lommel turns to quantum physics, to look more deeply into the roots of matter, and beyond. He shows how the particles of matter, at the micro-level of sub atomic particles, are complementary to non-physical information waves of “probability”. They are coupled to eachother. Local energetic events are accompanied by waves of non-local information which are outside of normal time and space. Here he draws on the founders of quantum physics, such as Heisenberg, and Schrödinger, and later quantum scientists, such as David Bohm, to show the similarities between non-local events at the atomic level, and non local states of consciousness, which are complementary to the local states of neuronal energy in the brain, but not derived from them. In the twelfth chapter Lommel looks at the description by the philosopher David Chalmers of six theories of consciousness. Three of these are reductionistic and materialistic, and three of which lie beyond materialism. He then goes more deeply into a model of how the brain can function like a transformer between the non-physical and the physical. Lommel quotes the well known research of Jacob Grinberg-Zyllerbaum who studied the interaction between the brains of two people who were able to communicate telepathically. The two subjects were widely separated in space. The brain of one person was stimulated electomagnetically by a flashing light, which created a specific pattern of brain waves. The brain of the second person was also measured at the same time, and showed an identical pattern of response. The “evoked potential” in the first person has produced a “transferred potential” in the second. However, both persons were situated within Faraday cages, which block all transmission of electromagnetic nature. No energy passed between the two persons: a non local transfer of the local energy state in one brain had passed to the local state in the second brain. Lommel looks on this as a non-energetic resonance state. Consciousness, unlike energy, is not trapped behind the boundaries of locality. In the twelfth chapter he looks into the work of FritzAlbert Popp and his international team of collaborators, and their thirty five years of research into bio-photons. Lommel’s focus here is more on the body as a whole, rather than on the brain as a part of the body. He looks at the role of real physical ultra-weak light, and also of virtual light, as carriers of information linking all the cells of the body with each other. He discusses this in relation to the normal scientific understanding of DNA within the body and suggests that DNA is also a transmitter of underlying non-local information which is the basis of bio-communication. In the fourteenth chapter Lommel looks more widely at other special states of consciousness, including transpersonal states and telepathic states, and builds a bridge between classical paranormal research, and the empirical scientific work on “remote viewing” by Hal Putoff and Russel Targ, two quantum physicist working at the Stanford Research Institute. He also includes the important work of Jahn and Dunne at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Centre, in the USA, who could demonstrate, in hundreds of experiments, the effects of consciousness on otherwise random electronic devices. The fifteenth chapter, which is called “Nothing new under the sun” takes a rest from the scientific perspective, and looks at the historical roots of the understanding of consciousness in philosophy, going back as far as Pythagoras and Socrates, and in the world religions: christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Bon. He shows how these cultural understandings are complementary to and supportive of the natural-scientific understanding that the rest of the book is devoted to. The sixteen chapter discusses ethical aspects of whether or not a doctor has the right to terminate the life of a long-term coma patient. It also looks issues related to organ-donation, such as heart transplants, and the feeling that many receivers of such donations describe, that the implanted organ brings with it states of feeling or states of “mind” which are quite new and foreign to the one who receives them. Some aspects of the consciousness of the donor of the transplanted organ seem to be transferred to the receiver, for better or for worse. The final chapter offers practical advice to those who are accompanying a person in a dying process. Good care in a hospital or hospice not only involves physical and social care, but the empathic support for the person at a psycho-spiritual level, in ways that can help to reduce the fear of death, and prepare for the transition of what has been called “Life beyond life”. The book is supported by over 450 detailed footnotes, and 360 major references to neurological, biological, quantum-physical, psycho-energetic and philosophical sources. Lommel’s detailed but panoramic survey of the field of consciousness beyond the brain and the body, is a masterpiece of clinical, scientific and cultural research. Until now it has appeared only in Dutch, so I look forward to an English or German edition which can be more widely available. energy & character vol.37 may 2009 65

BIOSYNTHESIS - CONFERENCE Z Ü R I C H 2 0 1 0 T R A U M A AND ENCOURAGEMENT 12.3.2010 Workshop “Biosynthesis and Trauma” David Boadella Silvia Specht Boadella 13.3.2010 Lectures David Boadella Silvia Specht Boadella Anna Ischu Languages: German and English, each with translation Fee: CHF 250,Location: Volkshaus Zürich, Switzerland 66 Training and Courses in Biosynthesis Info and Registration: Anna Ischu Psychotherapeutin SPV/EAP Niederdorfstrasse 20 CH-8001 Zürich anna.ischu@bluewin.ch

Training and Courses in Biosynthesis At the International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS Leadership: David Boadella D. Sc. hon. and Silvia Specht Boadella Ph.D The word “Biosynthesis” means “integration of life”. Biosynthesis works on a basis of self-development processes, which promote organic growth, personal development, and spiritual integrity. The objective of our work is bringing together the three essential areas of human existence: somatic existence psychological experience and spiritual essence. Biosynthesis has been researched and developed over the past 40 years; it continues to be developed today in theory and a wide range of practical applications by David Boadella and Silvia Specht Boadella, as well as leading members of the “International Training Faculty of Biosynthesis”. The “International Institute for Biosynthesis” IIBS is a research and training centre for Biosynthesis. About 20 training institutes in different countries around the world are affiliated to the Institute. The IIBS is a member of various organisations, including the “World Council for Psychotherapy” WCP, the “European Association for Psychotherapy” EAP and the “Medicina Alternativa Internacional”. The IIBS has a guiding influence within various different international psychotherapy associations, for instance it has a presence on the board of the scientific recognition committee of the EAP, was involved in the psychotherapy and spirituality working group of the WCP, and many others besides. It is involved in a number of scientific research projects. The training in Biosynthesis – somatic and depth-psychology oriented psychotherapy at the IIBS is recognized by the Swiss Charter for Psychotherapy SCP. The Training fulfils also the requirements of an Advanced Training for Specialists in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy FMH as well as for Psychosomatic and Psychosocial Medicine APPM. In Brussels in October 1998, Biosyn the sis was the first body-psychotherapy method to receive scientific recogniLes Parau Parau - Conversation, 1891, Paul Gauguin tion from the European Association for Psychotherapy EAP. With the Diploma in Biosynthesis and the affiliation to the International Foundation for Biosynthesis IFB graduates can receive the European Certificate for Psychotherapy ECP. New Structures In 2009/2010/2011 the introductory courses take place as follows: 3 days (Friday-Sunday), all in Heiden CH (near St. Gallen). Each Training begins in May. It lasts over 3 years and consists of 3 course modules of 7 ½ days (4 ½ weekdays and 3 weekend days) per year. After 3 years students receive a certificate showing how many training hours they have completed. Introductory Courses / Introductory Training Anyone who is interested in Biosynthesis and would like to become familiar with it is invited to an Introductory course / Introductory training. Normally you must attend one of these introductory courses in preparation for the training. Tutors: David Boadella, D.Sc.hon. and Silvia Specht Boadella, Ph.D. energy & character vol.37 may 2009 67

Dates Location, Time: International Institute for Biosynthe s is 19.06. – 21.06.09 Heiden 11.09. – 13.09.09 Heiden* 13.11. – 15.11.09 Heiden 22.01. – 24.01.10 Heiden* 19.03. - 21.03.10 Heiden* 11.06. - 13.06.10 Heiden 10.09. - 12.09.10 Heiden* 05.11. - 07.11.10 Heiden 28.01. - 30.01.11 Heiden* * These introductory courses will be held in 2 languages (german and english), the same as our trainings and our extension courses. Location, Time: International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS Starting: Friday 13.00–20.00, Saturday 09.15–18.00, Sunday 09.15–16.45 Accomodation: Journey suggestions and accommodation (hotels, apartments, holiday homes, B&B): Tourist Information, CH-9410 Heiden/Switzerland, Tel. +41 (0)71 898 33 01, Fax +41 (0)71 898 33 09, heiden@ appenzell.ch, www.heiden.ch > Tourismus Course Fee: For all courses, 3 days: CHF 390.– (does not include board and lodging) Info and Registration: By email only: info@biosynthesis.org The number of students is restricted. Trainings The training T 21 (2009 / 2010 / 2011) begins in May 2009 with three course modules as follows: 1) 02.05. – 09.05.2009 2) 08.08. – 15.08.2009 3) 21.11. – 28.11.2009 The training T 22 (2010 / 2011 / 2012) begins in May 2010 with three course modules as follows: 1) 29.05. – 05.06.2010 2) 02.10. – 09.10.2010 3) 04.12. – 11.12.2010 The training T 23 (2011 / 2012 / 2013) begins in Spring 2011 with three course modules. The dates for this and for further introductory courses in 2011 can be obtained from our secretary’s office from February 2010. 68 Training and Courses in Biosynthesis IIBS in Heiden (Switzerland) Starts on first Saturday at 13.00, finishes on last Sa turday at 15.00. Wednesday afternoon is free time. Each course module consists of 4½ weekdays and 3 weekend days. Course Fee: CHF 225.– per training day, excluding board and lodging, incl. course material. Tutors: 11,5 days per y/ear: 11 days per year: David Boadella, D.Sc.hon., Silvia Specht Boadella, Ph.D., together with assistant trainers. Guest lecturers are also invited to give lectures on specialist themes. Extension Courses FT2-A: 26.09. – 03.10.2009 Fulfilling your Freedom, “Real Freedom is choosing the frame to be in” Language: the teaching, correspondence and confirmation etc will be only in English. FT2-B: 17.10. – 24.10.2009 Fulfilling your Freedom, “Real Freedom is choosing the frame to be in” Language: the teaching will be in German and English (with translation into both languages), but the correspondence and confirmation etc (all what there is in writing) will be only in English. FT3-A: 21.08.–28.08.2010 Trauma-Healing in Biosynthesis, “Discovering Resources and Healing Memories” Language: the teaching, correspondence and confirmation etc will be only in English. FT3-B: 18.09.–25.09.2010 Trauma-Healing in Biosynthesis, “Discovering Resources and Healing Memories” Language: the teaching will be in German and English (with translation into both languages), but the correspondence and confirmation etc (all what there is in writing) will be only in English. Tutors: David Boadella, D.Sc.hon. and Silvia Specht Boadella, Ph.D.; Location: International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS Time and days: total 7,5 days Saturday Sun/Mon/Tue Wednesday Thursday/Friday Saturday 13:00 – 17:30, 19.00 – 21.00 09:30 – 12:30, 14.30 – 17.30 09:30 – 12:30, Wed. afternoon free 09:30 – 12:30, 14.30 – 17.30 09:30 – 11:45, 13.00 – 15.00

Course fee: CHF 1.200.– each Registration and Info: By email only: info@biosynthesis.org The number of students is restricted. FTJS: 06.05.–09.05.2010 (in German and Englisch) “Life-Transitions and Rituals” Language: the teaching will be in German and English (with translation into both languages), but the correspondence and confirmation etc (all what there is in writing) will be only in English. Tutors: Joke van de Belt-Optiker, Drs. and Silvia Specht Boadella, Ph.D. Location: International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS Time and days: total 4 days Starts on Thursday at 13.00, finishes on Sunday at 16.45. Course fee: CHF 550.–, excluding board and lodging Registration and Info: only by email: joke.vandebelt@rito.ch Biosynthesis Conference Zurich 2010 Trauma and Encouragement 12. 3. 2010 Workshop „Biosynthesis and Trauma” David Boadella and Silvia Specht Boadella 13. 3. 2010 Lectures David Boadella, Silvia Specht Boadella and Anna Ischu Languages: German and English, each with translation Fee: CHF 250,– Location: Volkshaus Zürich, Switzerland Info and Registration: Anna Ischu, Psychothera p eu tin SPV/EAP Niederdorfstrasse 20 CH-8001 Zürich anna.ischu@bluewin.ch Thematic Training Units at the IIBS New possibilities for European and Overseas advanced students and professionals to take Thematic Training Units at the International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS, in Switzerland. Training Units at the IIBS 2009/2010 2009: I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX 2010: I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX Fou nding and Grounding Centering Holding and Charging Bounding Bonding Sounding Facing Crowning Forming and Shaping Founding and Grounding Centering Holding and Charging Bounding Bonding Sounding Facing Crowning Forming and Shaping T 21 02.05.2009 09.05.2009 T 21 08.08.2009 15.08.2009: T 21 21.11.2009 28.11.2009: T 20 21.03.2009 28.03.2009: T 20 27.06.2009 04.07.2009: T 20 31.10.2009 07.11.2009: T 19 21.02.2009 28.02.2009: T 19 06.06. 2009 13.06.2009: T 19 05.12. 2009 12.12.2009: T 22 29.05.2010 05.06.2010 T 22 02.10.2010 09.10.2010: T 22 04.12.2010 11.12.2010: T 21 27.02.2010 06.03.2010 T 21 26.06.2010 03.07.2010: T 21 23.10.2010 30.10.2010: T 20 24.04.2010 01.05.2010: T 20 07.08.2010 14.08.2010: T 20 20.11.2010 27.11.2010: P = Places available; W = Waiting list Description of the 9 Thematic Training Units at the International energy & character vol.37 may 2009 69 P P P W W P P W P P P P P P P P P P

Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS I Founding and Grounding The emphasis is on the root chakra and the spine as the basis of autonomy and on the difference between over grounded and under- grounded character tendencies. The understanding of the motoric fields as patterns of developmental movement, expressive gesture, and as affecto – motoric schemes is a main theme. Major teaching themes are holding patterns in the body, polarity tendencies in the body, and impulse qualities in movement. II Centering The emphasis is on the hara chakra and on pre- and perinatal aspects of experience, womb life, birthing, and ways to help clients with birth or pre-natal trauma. We teach principles of working with breathing patterns, hyper and hypoventilation; and character principles: the schizo - hysterical split as expressed as a distortion of the polarity between containment and release. III Holding and Charging The emphasis is on the first year of life, the throat chakra, oral character tendencies, healthy needs, and patterns of addiction. The Biosynthesis principles of the elements of touch as forms of healthy nourishment are taught. We work as well with the themes of pulsations of pleasure in the body, work with restrictions in the pelvis and the handling of healthy eros and sexuality. IV Bounding The emphasis is on the energies of the solar plexus chakra, and the sympathetic emotions of anger and anxiety, in relation to the movement patterns of constructive aggression, and constructive self defence, or safety - seeking. Character aspects of power, as in masochism or psychopathy are also main themes. V Bonding The emphasis is on the heart as the centre of a love relationship, and on patterns of cooperation in partnership, (as opposed to symbiotic collusion, or destructive collision). A central focus is on the energetics of the arms as channels for expression and contact. We work with character aspects of over activity, or over passivity in relationship and with the somatic basis for dealing with sexual problems of clients. VI Sounding 70 Training and Courses in Biosynthesis The emphasis is on the voice, the throat chakra, and the ear. We teach Patterns of clear communication in language and disruptions of this; also ways to help clients who are over rational and clients who have difficulty finding words for their experience. VII Facing The emphasis is on outlook and insight, eye contact and vision, including the third eye. Therapeutic work on the eye block includes ways of transforming restrictive imagery to creative imagery, and ways of grounding imagery in the body and in movement. VIII Crowning The emphasis is on the crown chakra as gate between personal existence, and the transpersonal. We work with themes of healthy spirituality as opposed to pseudo spiritual escape from the body. We look at attitudes to death. There is intensive teaching on working with resources and qualities of essence. IX Forming and Shaping The emphasis is a continuation of the previous week and a study of disturbances to the crown chakra functions of integration in psychosis, traumatic states and borderline conditions. We also look at the application fields of Biosynthesis in private practice, in clinics, or in other areas such as work with children or social applications. We include character aspects of the process of transition and saying goodbye, as well as resources in harvesting and new beginnings. General Information 1. Trainers: All units are led by Dr.h.c. David Boadella for 4 ½ days and Dr.phil. Silvia Specht Boadella for 3 days. 2. Admission These places are available to the following persons: • Trainers who wish to update their training and add some specialisation in two or more of the thematic course units. Additional time will be created for specific questions from trainers. • Assistants who accompany Biosynthesis National or Regional Trainers to the thematic training units and wish to support their trainers within the National or Regional trainings. • Biosynthesis - Therapists who already have received a

certificate or a diploma. • Advanced Students of a National or Regional Biosynthesis training outside the IIBS. 3. Number of Places available: In each training week there will be four places available. We are offering the opportunity to reserve one or more thematic units of the whole course. 4. Language: German and English. Theory parts mostly are fully translated into both languages whereas experiential and discussion parts are sometimes translated only as a summary. 5. Course-Fee: CHF. 1.200.-- per Unit, 7 ½ days, excluding board and lodging. 6. Time: Saturday Sun/Mon/Tue Wednesday 13.00 – 17.30, 19.00 – 21.00 09.30 – 12.30, 14.30 – 18.00 09.30 – 13.00, Wed. afternoon free Thursday/Friday 09.30 – 12.30, 14.30 – 18.00 h Saturday 7. Location: International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS Benzenrüti 6 CH- 9410 Heiden/Switzerland Tel.: +41-(0)71 891 68 55 Fax: +41-(0)71 891 58 55 E-Mail: info@biosynthesis.org www.biosynthesis.org 8. Choosing units: If you book more than one unit, we recommend you to book the units, if possible, in the same training group. 9. Accommodations: For accommodations contact the Apparthotel Garni Santé in Heiden (phone and fax: +41-(0)7- 891 21 77). Mrs. Mettler is happy to welcome people from all over the world since she speaks German, English, French, Italian and Portuguese; or contact the Tourist Information in Heiden for journey suggestions and fur ther accommodations: Tourist Information (Hotels, Appartements, B & B) CH- 9410 Heiden/ Schweiz Tel.: +41-(0)71-898 33 01 Fax: +41-(0)71-898 33 09 web: www.heiden.ch ---> Tourismus E-Mail: heiden@appenzell.ch The IIBS does not do reservations! 09.30 – 11.45, 13.00 – 15.00 h 10. Registration and Course Conditions: Registration by E-Mail only: info@biosynthesis.org Please register as soon as possible, the IIBS will take the orders on a first come, first served basis. After your registration, the IIBS will send you an invoice for your payment. After your payment, you will receive the confirmation of your place by E-Mail. 11. Cancellation: In case of cancellation the course fee will be refunded with a deduction of CHF 200.-- provided that the place can be filled by someone else. 12. Liability: Course participants are responsible for their own actions within the context of the course. The International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS and trainers running the course accept no responsibility for accidents or for consequences arising from the course. The participant confirms that he/she has accident and health insurance, valid in Switzerland and that he/she will maintain this policy for the duration of the course.The CopyrightAgreement with the IIBS has to be signed at the first course day at the IIBS. Special Training Modules at the IIBS: Advanced Training / Supervision Course T18 W 2009/2010 2009: 1. Module 23.04.2009 26.04.2009 2. Module 03.09.2009 06.09.2009 2010: 3. Module 25.03.2010 28.03.2010 4. Module 08.07.2010 11.07.2010 5. Module 16.12.2010 19.12.2010 lic.phil. Erwin Kaiser Dr.h.c. David Boadella* David Boadella u. Dr.phil. Silvia Boadella* * The detailed description of the Modules 1, 2, 4 and 5 you will find on our website www.biosynthesis.org. (In the Advanced Training T18 W the Module 2 with lic.phil. Leena Hässig Ramming corresponds to the Module 5 in 2011 and the Module 4 with Dr.h.c. David Boadella corresponds to the Module 3 in 2011). T19 W 2010/2011 The detailed description of all these Modules you will find on our website www.biosynthesis.org. 2010: energy & character vol.37 may 2009 71 Dr.h.c. David Boadella u. Dr.phil. Silvia Boadella* lic.phil. Leena Hässig Ramming*

1.Module 15.04.2010 18.04.2010 2. Module 14.10.2010 17.10.2010 2011: 3. Module 4. Module 5. Module ** Dr.h.c. David Boadella ** lic.phil. Leena Hässig Ramming ** Dr.h.c. David Boadella u. Dr.phil. Silvia Boadella ** The Dates for the three Modules in 2011 can be obtained from our secretary’s office from November 2010. Time 1. Day 13.00 – 17.30, 19.00 – 21.00 2. Day 09.30 – 12.30, 14.30 – 18.00 3. Day 09.30 – 12.30, 14.30 – 18.00 4. Day 09.30 – 12.30, 14.30 – 16.45 Place International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS Benzenrüti 6 CH – 9410 Heiden/Switzerland Tel.: +41-(0)71 891 68 55 Fax: +41-(0)71 891 58 55 E- Mail: info@biosynthesis.org www.biosynthesis.org Language German and English. Theory parts mostly are fully translated into both languages whereas experiential and discussion parts are sometimes translated only as a summary. Course-Fee CHF 900. – per Module, 4 days, excluding board and lodging . Accommodations For accommodations contact the Apparthotel Garni Santé in Heiden (phone and fax: +41 - (0) 71 - 891 21 77). Mrs. Mettler is happy to welcome people from all over the world since she speaks German, English, French, Italian and Portuguese; or contact the Tourist In formation in Heiden for journey suggestions and further accommodations: 72 Training and Courses in Biosynthesis Dr.h.c. David Boadella u. Dr.phil. Silvia Boadella Dr.rer.nat. Gisela Marxen-von Stritzky Tourist Information (Hotels, Appartements, B & B) CH- 9410 Heiden/ Schweiz Tel.: +41-(0)71-898 33 01 Fax: +41-(0)71-898 33 09 web: www.heiden.ch ---> Tourismus E-Mail: heiden@appenzell.ch The IIBS does not do reservations! Registration and Course Conditions Registration by E-Mail only: info@biosynthesis.org Please register as soon as possible, the IIBS will take the orders on a first come, first served basis. After your registration, the IIBS will send you an invoice for your payment. After your payment, you will receive the confirmation of your place by E-Mail. Cancellation In case of cancellation the course fee will be refunded with a deduction of CHF 200. – provided that the place can be filled by someone else. Liability Course participants are responsible for their own actions within the context of the course. The International Institute for Biosynthesis IIBS and trainers running the course accept no responsibility for accidents or for consequences arising from the course. The participant confirms that he/she has accident and health insurance, valid in Switzerland and that he/she will maintain this policy for the duration of the course. The Copyright-Agreement with the IIBS has to be signed.

Editorial Information Publishers and International Editors David Boadella (Born 1931), B.A., M.Ed., Dr.h.c., Psychotherapist SPV and UKCP. Studied education, psychology and literature. Trained in character-analytic vege to therapy. Founder of Biosynthesis. Since 1985 he has undergone ongoing further training in “Psychosomatic Centering” (Robert Moore, Denmark). He has spent over 40 years in psy chotherapeutic practice. He holds lectures worldwide, and is the author of numerous books and articles. In 1995 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the “Open International University of Complementary Medicine” for his pioneering work in the development and promotion of Energy & Character, as well as for his contributions to social sciences in this context. A selection of David Boadella’s books: “Lifestreams” (Routledge), “Wilhelm Reich: The evolution of his work” (Arkana). Silvia Specht Boadella (Born 1948), Dr. phil., Psychotherapist SPV and EABP. Studied philosophy, literature, psychology and art history. Trained in Biosyn thesis. Since 1985 she has undergone ongoing further training in “Psychosomatic Centering” (Robert Moore, Denmark). She spent four years lecturing at the University of Kanazawa (Japan). There she dealt intensively with Zen Buddhism and trained in Buto dance with Kazuo Ohno. Since 1985 she has had a psychotherapeutic practice for individual and group therapy. Since 1986 she has been a Biosynthesis trainer at an international level and director of the IIBS. She has published a book: “Memory as change” (Mäander). Acnowledgment Thanks to Renata Reich Moise for the painting, articles, Eva´s photos and article. Thanks to Josef Optiker for his support and donations to Energy and Character. The International Editorial Advisory Board Jacqueline A. Carleton (PhD) is a member of the Board of Directors of the US Association for Body Psychotherapy and founding editor of the USA Body Psychotherapy Journal. She is also an active member of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy. For more than 20 years, she has enjoyed teaching Core Energetics and psychoanalytic psychotherapy in different countries around the world. Helder Coelho (PhD) is a full professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Computer Science of FCUL (Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa) and president of the Institute for Complexity Sciences. He received a PhD degree in Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh University and his research interests include cognitive agent models and architectures, complexity sciences and multi-agent based simulation. Liliana Acero (PhD) studied Human Science. She is a national trainer in bio ener getic analysis and body psychotherapy, and president of the Foundation Centre for Bio synthesis in Argentina and Chile. Marianne Bentzen (born 1955) is a movement and relaxation therapist. Since 1998 she has been working at an international level as a freelance trainer and consultant in the field of Somatic Developmental Psychology. For four years she held the post of energy & character vol.37 may 2009 73 Producers and Managing Editors Esther Frankel (Born 1948) M.A., Clinical Psychologist and Psychotherapist, trained with Jean Piaget’s team at the University of Geneva. She was a student of Gerda Boyesen, David Boadella, Silvia Specht Boadella, Alexander Lowen, Jerome Liss and Alberto Pesso. She is one of the pioneers of Body Psychotherapy in Brazil. She is a director of the Biosynthesis School of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the Biosynthesis Training for Israel, the Biosynthesis Training for Portugal and she is the main trainer and supervisor of the Biosynthesis Training for London. Esther is a leading member of the “International Training Faculty of Biosynthesis”. She has over 25 years experience in the field and currently divides her time between training, supervision, psychotherapy practice and as a consultant to international institutions and organizations. Milton Corrêa (Born 1947) Graduated in Engineering, MSc in Computer Science, PhD in Artificial Intelligence, Biosynthesis Psychotherapist and Trainer. Studied Zen Buddhism, shiatsu, karate, ikebana, painting and mythology. He did more than 25 years of psychoanalysis, gestalt and bioenergetics. He was a student of David Boadella and Silvia Specht Boadella. His main area of interest is the bridge between Complexity and System Theory and Psychotherapy. He is a leader of a research project about trust, democracy and multiagents systems under the Brazilian National Council for Research. Milton is the Scientific Director of the Biosynthesis School of Rio de Janeiro, the Biosynthesis Training for Portugal and the Biosynthesis Training for Israel. He was the Chair of the Scientific Committee of the 4th International Biosynthesis Congress in the University of Lisbon in 2006.

chairman of the EABP Ethics Committee. One of her specialist areas is trauma work. Her work is influenced by transpersonal aspects and the chaos theory, as well as by somatic development approaches. Will Davis (born 1944) is an American with more than 25 years experience in the psychotherapy field. He is a psychologist who was trained by Charles Kelley in neo- Reichian Radix work. Will developed the Points and Positions techniques, a school of body psychotherapy that is based on functional energy, and he is considered one of the major researchers in the field of plasmatic origins of early character disorders. George Downing (PhD) works at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris where he is a chief psychologist in a child psychiatry outpatients’ unit at the hospital. He is also co-director of a research project on the subject of infant development, which is run jointly by the Salpêtrière Hospital and the Harvard Medical School (Boston). Esther Frankel Psychologist and Psychotherapist graduated by the University of Geneva, in 1976, and one of the pioneers to work with Body Psychotherapy in Brazil. She is International Trainer in Biosynthesis and directs the Biosynthesis Training for Portugal and Israel and the Biosynthesis School of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). She works with trauma and family in Biosynthesis. Esther also works as Adviser for institutions and international organizations. Ulfried Geuter (PhD, born 1950), is an independent practising psychotherapist and scientific journalist in Berlin. He is a private lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin, where he represents the field of body psychotherapy. He lectures at the Institute for Body Psychotherapy in Berlin. His qualifications in psychotherapy include “Integrative Bio dyna mics” and Jungian psychoanalysis. Michael Heller (PhD /born 1949) was trained by Jean Piaget’s team in Geneva, and he trained with Gerda Boyesen’s team in biodynamic psychology. As an experimental psychologist he specialised first in social psychology and then non- verbal communication. He is currently vice- president of the EABP and chairman of the Scientific Committee. Heller is one of the most important researchers of non- verbal communication at the University of Geneva. Barbara Jakel (M.Phil.) was born in 1954 in Poland, where she graduated in German and education. Her main focus was the link between psychological disorders and language. She was trained as a body psychotherapist by P. Bolen as part of an Emotional Reintegration team. She has many years’ experience in meditation and religious systems, which also contributed towards her change of focus to energetic phenomena in regression and therapeutic communication. Rubens Kignel works as a Bio syn the sis trainer in Brazil (Sao Paulo), Japan and France. He has been a teacher and body psychotherapist since 1980, mainly teaching neo- Reichian work on Biosynthesis and Bio dynamics. Hans Krens (PhD / born 1948), a psychological psychotherapist, is the founder of depth psychology body therapy. He has been the director of the International Academy for Body Therapy (IAB) in the Netherlands, since 1984. Depth psychology body therapy based on is a body-oriented therapy form with its origins in academic principles. From this perspective the significance of prenatal learning is particularly important. Heiko Lassek (born 1957) is a doctor with his own practice, and a fundamental researcher specialising in Life Energy re74 Editorial Information search. In 1979, Heiko Lassek, Dr. Bernd Senf and Prof. Arnim Bechmann established the Wilhelm Reich Initiative Berlin, as well as the Wilhelm Reich journal “emotion”. From 1987 – 1999 he has been the Chairman of the ‘Wilhelm Reich Society for Research into Life Energy Processes’. In February 2000 he became the first Western scholar under Prof. Lu Jinchuan to adopt the approach of merging Western and Asiatic life energy research, both at a high theoretical level and in practice. Peter Levine (PhD) received a doctorate in medical and biological Physics from the University of California in Berkeley. In addition to this he holds a doctorate in Psychology from the International University. Over the past thirty years his primary focus has been “stress and trauma”. He developed a new therapy technique (“Somatic Experiencing”) for treating severely traumatised individuals. Jerome Liss (Doctor of Medicine) is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at the La Jolla University in San Diego, California (European Campus, Lugano, Switzerland) and former Professor of Clinical Psychology at the West deutsche Akademie in Düsseldorf, Germany. He studied medicine at the Albert Einstein College. He is the founder of Bio systemic Psychology. Victor Seidler’s introduction to Reich and body psychotherapy came through meeting Myron Sharaf when he was living in Boston in 1970 as a postgraduate student in philosophy for a year. Over the years he has been influenced and worked with David Boadella, Terry Cooper, Stanley Keleman and Bob Moore. These influences have resonated in the theoretical writing he has been developing in relation to ethics, bodies and emotional life. Ulrich Sollmann (Dipl. rer. soc. / born 1947) practises as a body psychotherapist (bioenergetic analysis / Gestalt therapy) in Bochum, where he provides support for both commercial and non-profit-making organisations in the form of coaching, supervision and organisational development. He is also involved with the executive Boards of the DVBA and DVP at a professional/political level. Clover Southwell (born 1935) lived in an academic atmosphere until the age of 24. In 1973 she first experienced Biodynamic therapy. This affected her quite radically, and has been her passion ever since. Today she is writing a book about Biodynamic therapy. Her intention is to present the depth, coherence and simplicity of Biodynamics, and how it springs from the essential unity of soul and body. Ole Vedfelt (PhD / born 1941) graduated from the C. G. Jung Institute in Copenhagen in 1977, and has been a practising psychotherapist since then. He is also certified in Gestalt therapy, psychodrama and body psychotherapy. He completed four years of training in Biosynthesis with David Boadella. He is currently a training analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute in Copenhagen, member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology and the European Association for Psychotherapy. He is the author of numerous books about the dream and consciousness, in which he incorporates cybernetic models. Susana B. Volosin Sexer (PhD) has a Masters’ Degree in Psychology from the University of Buenos Aires. She is a didactic member of the AEPP (European Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy), and has trained in dance, bodily expression and body therapies. She is a former professor of psychology at the University of Buenos Aires, and works as a professor at the University of Palma, Mallorca. She works as guest trainer at the Institute for Biosynthesis in Heiden.

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