The Reichian Lineage

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) began as a psychoanalyst in Freud's inner circle but broke away over his insistence on the central role of sexuality and the body. His key insight: psychological defense and muscular tension are two aspects of the same phenomenon. The "character armor" developed psychologically is simultaneously held in the body as "muscular armor." Before Reich, psychotherapy happened through words alone. Reich demonstrated that working directly with the body — breathing, movement, touch — could release held psychological material. Every somatic psychology approach that followed owes something to this insight.