Author Topic: "Muscular Armor" Essay  (Read 193 times)

truthaboutpois

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Re: "Muscular Armor" and Reichian Therapys
« on: April 06, 2015, 08:06:38 am »


The goal of therapy is to remove or sufficiently ameliorate the armoring so that energy can flow freely through the organism. In the process of accomplishing this, blocked emotions will flood to the surface. With the support of the therapist, the patient might learn to tolerate this energy movement, which at first will most often be perceived as “fear,“ even “terror.“ Eventually, castration anxiety and orgasm anxiety will come to the fore, where they need to be tolerated, and the patient is encouraged to yield to his emotions and face his genital fears. The process of therapy involves simultaneous work on the character armoring and the muscular armoring, which are functionally identical. The patient must be brought in contact with the ways in which he behaves and the muscular tensions sustaining these traits. The therapist does this by showing and helping the patient understand how he behaves, while also working manually, doing deep massage on places of muscular armoring. Most often these will be places where tendons insert into bone. This is painful work and, obviously, the patient must be well motivated to change and have a sufficiently strong ego.

One begins the work on the muscular armoring by attention to segments above the diaphragm unless the patient is in a state of low energy. This is the only situation where work on the pelvis is useful, even safe, early in therapy. (Premature work on the pelvis can release large amounts of energy that the organism might find difficult to manage. What often happens is that the patient will rearmor in a segment, such as in the eyes or mouth, to bind the freed energy. This can result in a so-called “hook,“ where it becomes extremely difficult to release the re-armored segment while the pelvis remains open. The patient feels helpless and hopeless in these situations. Sometimes a hook can occur naturally, but most often it occurs through poor therapeutic technique or other dramatic opening of the pelvis, such as kundalini work.)

Usually, the practitioner starts with and attends to the eyes (an extension of the brain) and the respiration. The former is necessary so that the patient can sustain decent contact with himself and the world. Most everyone has some blocking in the eyes, and it is important that they be reasonably unarmored for therapy to proceed without running into some chaotic situation. Respiration is important to build up and sustain an energy level that will “push“ emotions to the surface of the organism. Very few patients, indeed few people, breathe to near full energetic capacity. One of the best ways to suppress painful emotions is to hold the breath. Infants and children spontaneously hold their breath in frightening situations. This happens to them many times each day in a life-inimical environment. By adulthood, the chest is frozen in chronic inspiration.

Thus, in orgone therapy or vegetotherapy, one works from the head down toward the pelvis, leaving the latter for last. Simultaneously the characterological work is proceeding with the peeling back of layers of character attitudes that hide emotion. The combined work results in spontaneous emotional release and a deepening of the therapy. (By working systematically and consistently from the superficial characterological attitudes to the deeper ones, and from the head toward the pelvis, there is a natural concentration and focusing of pregenital libido into genital libido. Prematurely working on genital libidinal problems or releasing armoring in the pelvis can result in a “chaotic“ situation from which there may be no resolution, or the patient may prematurely defend himself more deeply against resolving his genital problems. Working with the body only, outside the context of characteranalysis, is working “blind.“ If there is emotional release, it is usually temporary, with the patient rearmoring at a later date. An understanding of the character of the patient tells the therapist “where to go“ to deepen the therapy.

In the process of this therapy, the relationship to the therapist and to significant figures in one’s life also deepens. Sometimes radical changes are necessary in the patient’s work or love life in order to move forward. Here, the therapist discusses matters with the patient and supports their movement toward health.

References
1.   Braatoy, T. 1954. Fundamental of Psychoanalytic Technique. N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2.   Groddeck, G. 1961. The Book of the It. N.Y.: Vintage Books.
3.   Reich, W. 1949. Character Analysis. N.Y.: Orgone Institute Press.
4.   Lowen, A. 1971. The Physical Dynamics of Character Structure. N.Y.: Collier.
5.   ——. 1957. Bioenergetics. N.Y.: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc.
6.   Kelley, C., Ed. 1978-80. Radix Journal.
7.   Maisel, E. 1995. The Alexander Technique. N.Y.: Corel Publishing.
8.   Blasband, R. A. 1975. Book Review: Alexander Lowen’s Physical Dynamics of Character Structure & The Language of the Body. Journal of Orgonomy 9(2):252-63.
9.   ——. 1980. Book Review: Three “NeoReichian” Journals. Journal of Orgonomy 14(2).
10.   Reich, W. 1942. The Function of the Orgasm. N.Y.: Orgone Institute Press.

Dr. Richard Blasband M.D., has been a psychiatric orgone therapist for 40 years and is Research Director of the Center for Functional Research in Sausalito, CA. • 415-331-2536 • rablasband@sbcglobal.net.