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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Yes, I know, everyone's saying that, but it IS a neglected masterpiece.
The bulk of the book deals with "character armour" and "affect blocking" - the ways in which people suppress and shut down emotions by developing characteristic responses and forms of bodily rigidity. The last chapter, a case study on schizophrenia, is a masterpiece in its own right, perhaps the first example of anti-psychiatry and a forerunner of "Listen, Little Man" in Reich's angry and pointed denouncement of the stupidities of "homo normalis". For Reich, psychological normality is not at all the same thing as "mental health".
This is one of a very few theoretical books which directly engages with people's lives - you can read Reich and perhaps become aware of the character-armour you've developed yourself, the reactions of people around you and the genesis of apparently inexplicable social phenomena. In addition, Reich is a pioneer of the idea of bio-power; his analysis combines understandings of the body, the psyche and social relations in a manner unheard-of in his day. A truly magnificent book.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This important work is sometimes heralded as a landmark in psychoanalytic literature, as Reich changed aspects of analytic technique, focusing on character structure and not just the contents of free association, dreams, memories, etc. But any analyst or psychologist familiar with this work will usually say, but he went mad in the middle, and the last third of the book is nonsense. In fact, the last third--when he focuses on new forms of body-based treatment and theories regarding bioenergy, is even more brilliant. Take a gander at this section and you may recognize a mind way ahead of his times; Reich precedes and surpasses modern day notions of biological energy medicine, body-based psychotherapy, and emotional expression in healing. While his writing is usually uneven, here it is quite sharp, clear, and consistent throughout. We still have a lot to learn from Reich.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Conventional wisdom has it that the firest two-thirds of this treatise on character analysis improved psychoanalytic technique, focusing on character-based resistances rather than just on interpreting content--associations, dreams, etc. True enough, but the last third, which analysts and critics say represents Reich's slippage into maddness, is even more brilliant and farsighted. Here, Reich moves into the area of bioenergy and body-based psychotherapy. He presages some modern developments in psychotherapy, and in many respects, moves ahead of where mainstream therapy resides today. His bioenergy/therapy integration was also a forerunner of much of today's alternative mind-body and energy medicine modalities. Reich was not always the most trenchant writer, but here is writing his sharp, direct, and provocative. This is Reich's great contribution, still largely neglected.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A walk on the Wilhelm side
This is a challenging book especially for a lay person such as myself. Reich may have been on to something but he may also have been going mad. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2007 by calmly
Magesterial
Anyone with a serious interest in psychoanalysis should read this. But it cannot be understood through intellect alone; these characters have to be lived, experienced. Read more
Published on 12 Nov 2005 by Mr Anonymous
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