Body and Mind

The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud believed that when unconscious conflicts were made conscious psychological problems would disappear. One of his students, Wilhelm Reich, who after studying hundreds of patients treated according to Freud's method, found that this was not always true. Some of the most thoroughly analyzed cases remained uncured.

When searching for a reason why, he discovered that the one factor that differentiated the cured from the uncured was a satisfying love life. Cured patients were able to regularly achieve a pleasurable orgasm with total involvement of the body. This led him to realize that emotional wellbeing is intimately connected to the capacity for surrender. To let go!

The armored (rigid) body

When we are able to let our energy flow we are happy and content, but when we dam it up our emotions become rigid, and our muscles become stiff. Reich referred to this as body armor. There are several signs of body armor or rigidity.

One of Reich’s student’s, Alexander Lowen, built on his work; developing a system of therapy he called Bioenergetics. The fundamental thesis of bioenergetics is that the body and mind are interconnected: that is, what goes on in the mind affects the body, and vice versa.

Dr. Lowen wrote of the purely verbal therapies, “They may help a person become conscious of his tendencies to deny, project, blame, or rationalize, [but] this conscious awareness rarely affects the muscular tensions or releases the suppressed feelings. At the same time though, a purely physical treatment … such as massage and yoga has a positive value, but is not specifically therapeutic in itself."

Bioenergetics exercises you can do at home

“On the unconscious level, both thinking and feeling are conditioned by energy factors. For example, it is almost impossible for a depressed person to lift himself out of his depression by thinking positive thoughts. This is because his energy level is depressed. When is the energy level is raised through deep breathing … the release of feeling, the person comes out of the depressed state.”

Now, I love Alexander Lowen, and have read most of his books, but the best book on bioenergetics exercises was written by Dr. Jack Willis. Jack Willis is not famous and there is not much known about him other than that he graduated with degrees in biochemistry, psychology, and chiropractic medicine. He practiced as a psychotherapist for over 35 years and was a passionate individualist and limited government libertarian. I think you would like him if you met him. His book, Reichian Therapy: A Practical Guide for Home Use is available on Amazon but being the great person he was, he made it free for anyone to read. Click here.

The Skin

In somatic psychology and Bioenergetic Analysis the skin holds profound diagnostic and therapeutic importance. Rather than just a biological wrapper, it is viewed as the dynamic boundary of the ego and the primary interface for human energy flow.

The Periphery and "Energetic Charging"

Lowen posited that a healthy individual maintains a strong flow of life energy from their physical core to the periphery (the skin and extremities).

The Charging Process: Through bioenergetic grounding and breathing exercises, energy moves outward. When the periphery is highly "charged," it manifests visibly in the skin's healthy tone, color, warmth, and responsiveness.

Energy Contraction: Conversely, trauma, fear, or chronic stress cause the biological drive to withdraw inward away from the skin, leaving the body surface cold, pale, or numb.

The Skin as the Biological "Ego Boundary”

In bioenergetics, the skin behaves as an energetic skin or psychological boundary. It represents the contact zone where the "self" meets the external environment.

Lowen observed that individuals with a fragile sense of self or boundary issues often exhibit poor skin tone, skin hypersensitivity, or chronic physical detachment from their outer tissue layer.

Under Reich’s embryonic layer framework, the skin, brain, and nervous system share the same origin (the ectoderm). This explains why psychological disturbances translate instantly into cutaneous reactions.

Reich's Bioelectrical Skin Experiments

Wilhelm Reich conducted pioneering laboratory experiments in the 1930s studying the relationship between human emotion and the skin. He measured the electrical charge of the skin (using galvanic skin response) during states of pleasure and anxiety.

Reich proved that feelings of pleasure expand energy outward, significantly increasing the electrical charge at the skin's surface.

Anxiety and trauma cause a massive drop in skin voltage, as energy flees into deep internal organs, making the skin contract.

Illustrated chart of Reich’s seven body armor segments

Body Armor vs. Skin Streamings

Reich and Lowen mapped out how repressed emotions turn into chronic muscular tension, famously called body armor.

When a therapist works to dissolve this armor through bioenergetic movement, breathing, or physical manipulation, the trapped energy is released back to the skin surface.

Patients frequently report immediate sensory changes on their skin during therapy, including tingling, prickling, paresthesias, or warmth (referred to by Reich as "vegetative streamings"). These skin sensations act as clinical proof that a previously "deadened" or armored area of the body is waking back up.

The "Butterfly Touch" (Eva Reich)

Extending Reich's observations on the skin, his daughter, Dr. Eva Reich, developed Gentle Bio-Energetics. She demonstrated that heavy, invasive touch causes the energy of an organism to contract defensively. Conversely, a very light, feather-like stroking of the skin, called the "Butterfly Touch Massage." It elicits an expansion of life energy outward, safely healing trauma in premature infants and adults without triggering the body's armor.

John C. Pierrakos

Born in Greece, Pierrakos emigrated to America, studied psychiatry and became a student of Wilhelm Reich.vHe co-founded Bioenergetic Analysis with Lowen in the 1950s. Later, he developed his own therapeutic approach, Core Energetics, integrating body psychotherapy with spirituality and theories of the human energy field.

One distinctive aspect of Pierrakos's approach was his belief that a person's psychological history could be understood partly through the physical characteristics of their body. He examined posture, muscular tension, breathing, movement, facial expression and the condition of the skin.

In an account of his therapeutic approach, the physical characteristics considered include:

Skin texture and resilience.
Hair quality.
The appearance of the eyes.
Muscular tension and bodily rigidity.
Posture, movement and physical responsiveness.

He interpreted these features as clues to the individual's character structure and patterns of emotional defence.