The Language of the Body

Book excerpt: A guide to physical and psychic joy. The Language of the Body is the psychological masterpiece that showed how and why conventional analysis was failing. And itʼs the spark that ignited the movement toward body language as the key - and cure - for many psychological problems. Millions of Americans have become victims of their tension-producing environment. They have lost sensibility and sensuality in the struggle for survival. They have betrayed their bodies - and their bodies are betraying them. Dr. Alexander Lowen brilliantly demonstrates how body is the mirror of character and can act as the clue to emotional disorders. A pioneer in the dramatically successful field of bioenergetic analysis, Dr. Lowen explains this method of therapy and documents his work with detailed case histories as well as psychological and physical descriptions of a host of character types: oral, masochistic, hysterical, Phallic-narcissistic, passive-feminine, schizophrenic and schizoid. What emerges is the clear and astonishing relationship of personality functioning to patterns of bodily movement and muscular tension, and a classic portrait of the disturbed individual in his many physical guises. The Language of the Body is an eloquent contribution to the understanding and treatment of human emotional disturbance.