Wilhelm Reich--anyone Familiar With Him?

[Nxixcxk]

Is anyone familiar with the works and thoughts of Reich and or psychotherapy in general?

According to some psychotherapists and Reich, when an individual goes through trauma, the body (in its nervous system) remembers the trauma and holds onto it in the form of "armoring"--a term coined by Reich.

Apparently, Reich didn't believe that anyone experiencing some sort of trauma could be fixed via psychotherapy alone--there'd have to be some sort of bodywork involved in order to trigger the body's remembering of the incident--otherwise, an individual could be completely cognizant of a traumatic incident (say, incestuous relations b/t a son and father) but b/c the body wouldn't let go of it, neither could the mind.

Let me give a pretend example to help concretize my confusing paragraph above:

Pretend a 25 year old woman is traumatically raped while going for a jog. For the next few years, she experiences intense depression and cannot seem to figure out why. She goes to a psychoanalyst who puts who through a series of tests and comes to figure out that her depression is probably a result of the traumatic rape. The unveiling of this knowledge to the woman doesn't help her at all with her depression, but merely restates a fact.

The psychoanalyst doesn't know how to fix her depression and decides to refer her to a Reichian bodyworker/psychotherapist. The Reichian beings to work her diaphragm during the session, asking her to take nice, deep controlled breaths. After a minute or so of this work, the women begins to shake, cry, and mildly hyperventilate--all of which she ellicited during the rape.

They finish the session have a few follow up ones, and the woman's depression quickly begins to go away.

END OF EXAMPLE

The Reichian bodyworker would probably say that the woman had built up armoring from the rape, and that the bodywork reminded her of the incident, but the shaking, crying, and mild hyperventilation were the ways she needed to get rid of the rape form her body and thus subconscious.

Anyhow, I have more to say if anyone's interested, but I'm curious about anyone's thoughts or opinions on the matter.

[Nxixcxk]

Oh, and also, I've read in several places that his material was burned by OUR US government (the same one that suppose to protect liberty, the pursuit of happiness, etc)...regardless of how ludicrous his works may have seemed, censorship of any kind is quite scary.

[NIJamesHughes]

Oh, and also, I've read in several places that his material was burned by OUR US government (the same one that suppose to protect liberty, the pursuit of happiness, etc)...regardless of how ludicrous his works may have seemed, censorship of any kind is quite scary.

Reich is a nut.. read about his orgone box made of layers wood and i think copper that he used to trap sexual energy.

[kilgoretrout]

"Reich developed a theory that the ability to feel sexual love depended on a physical ability to make love with what he called "orgastic potency." He attempted to "measure" the male orgasm, noting that four distinct phases occurred physiologically: first, the psychosexual build-up or tension; second. the tumescence of the penis, with an accompanying "charge," which Reich measured electrically; third, an electrical discharge at the moment of orgasm, and fourth, the relaxation of the penis. He believed the force that he measured was a distinct type of energy present in all life forms. He called it "orgone.""

Bwahaha... I think what he was measuring is called electricity. Electric impulses are what make the nervous system work. Perhaps this was not common knowledge during his time. Is this 'orgone' the muscle memory you speak of?

I don't think there is any validity to any of his work. (Put on your tinfoil hats people) However, book burning is evil. If anything it would have been great entertainment for psychology students. Unfortionatly, we will never be able to enjoy the splenders of Reich's work because of the evil book burning government.

[Hal]

Reich is a nut.. read about his orgone box made of layers wood and i think copper that he used to trap sexual energy.

And this justified burning his work?

[Eric Mathis]

Reich's books are not the only ones the FDA has ordered destroyed:

[in May of 1998]the FDA ordered a distributor of the dietary supplement stevia to destroy more than 2,500 copies of three books. Why? The offending books refer to the natural sweetening properties of the herb Stevia rebaudiana. By some estimates the extract is 200 times sweeter than sugar, with no calories.

Federal law allows stevia to be marketed as a dietary supplement, but stevia has been under FDA import alert since 1991 as an "unsafe food additive." Since the books in question are distributed by Stevita--a company that imports and distributes stevia products--the FDA accused them of illegally marketing the herb as a food additive. This puts the FDA in the awkward position of declaring that a product is safe when sold as a supplement, but not safe when marketed as a food additive.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._29/ai_54062625

[JMeganSnow]

The FDA is an evil organization in its very intention. It should hardly be surprising that it feels no compunctions against engaging in evil activities.