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
27 Publizr Home