Contemporary Orgone (Reichian) Therapy

Four-Year Online Training in Somatic Psychotherapy
Daniel Schiff, PhD
 

Year Two

The Somatic Organization of Character

Addressing Character via working with the body in dialogue and movement

The second year of the program deepens the somatic dimension of the work by examining how emotional life and character structure are expressed through the body.

Building on the relational and phenomenological foundations established in the first year, students begin to study the body as a functional expressive system. Particular attention is given to Reich’s understanding of somatic (biophysical) armor, the patterns of muscular tension, breathing, movement, and posture through which emotional conflicts and relational adaptations become stabilized in the organism.

The year also introduces the concept of orgonotic (bioenergetic) pulsation, Reich’s formulation of the rhythmic biological process underlying emotional life. Students explore how this pulsatory model relates both to the Gestalt cycle of experience and to contemporary theories of affect and emotional regulation.

Throughout the year the emphasis remains on understanding these concepts as living processes observable in therapy, rather than as abstract theoretical constructs.

Major Theoretical Themes

1. The Somatic Perspective

Students explore the somatic perspective in psychotherapy through the concept of the functional identity of character and the body. Emotional attitudes, habitual modes of contact, and patterns of defense are understood as simultaneously psychological and somatic organizations of the person.

This perspective provides the conceptual basis for understanding how character becomes embodied and how therapeutic work with emotional experience inevitably involves the body.

2. Orgonotic (Bioenergetic) Pulsation

A central theoretical theme in the second year is Reich’s understanding of biological pulsation.

Students examine:

• the four-beat cycle of tension – charge – discharge – relaxation
• the relationship between pulsation and autonomic function
• the role of pulsatory rhythms in emotional expression and regulation

This model is explored in relation to:

• contemporary affect theory
• the Gestalt cycle of experience
• the moment-to-moment unfolding of emotional process in therapy sessions.

Through this exploration students learn to observe how emotional experience tends to follow rhythmic patterns of intensification, expression, and release within the therapeutic encounter.

3. Affect Theory

Two class units introduce students to contemporary affect theory, particularly the work of Alexander Lowen, Stanley Keleman and  Sylvan Tomkins.

Students examine:

• The deep plasmatic and bioenergetic foundations of affect and emotional experience

• basic affects as biologically grounded emotional responses
• the distinction between affect, feeling, and emotion
• how affect becomes organized into enduring emotional patterns and characterological styles
• the functional identity of movement, feeling, and emotion

These concepts are then explored in relation to Reich’s understanding of orgonotic pulsation, highlighting the ways in which contemporary affect theory and Reich’s biological model illuminate different aspects of the same emotional processes.

4. The Somatic (Biophysical) Armor

A substantial portion of the year is devoted to a detailed examination of somatic armor.

Students study:

• the nature and development of muscular armor
• the relationship between emotional conflict and bodily organization
• how chronic muscular patterns shape emotional expression and relational behavior

The material is presented in two stages:

Somatic Armor I

• basic principles of muscular armoring
• historical development of the concept in Reich’s work
• the relationship between character structure and bodily organization

Somatic Armor II

• deeper exploration of how armor functions within the organism
• the relationship between defensive organization, emotional inhibition, and expressive movement
• the ways in which armor shapes perception, affective experience, and interpersonal contact

5. The Expressive Language of the Living

Students develop the capacity to read the body as an expressive system through observation of:

• posture
• gesture
• movement
• breathing patterns
• facial expression
• rhythm and tone of speech

These expressive processes are studied not as isolated symptoms but as functional expressions of the organism’s emotional and relational organization.

Clinical Practice Focus

Throughout the year the theoretical material is continually connected to clinical observation.

Students learn to:

• observe emotional expression in bodily process
• recognize how character patterns appear in posture, movement, and voice
• track pulsatory shifts in emotional intensity during therapy sessions
• understand somatic expression as communication within the therapeutic relationship

Gestalt Therapy and Experimental Methods

The year also introduces Gestalt therapy’s use of experimentation as a method for deepening therapeutic contact.

Students learn how carefully structured experiments can help clients:

• become aware of habitual patterns of experience
• amplify subtle emotional or bodily processes
• explore alternative ways of organizing contact with themselves and others

Experiments are understood not as techniques imposed on the client but as collaborative explorations emerging from the unfolding therapeutic process.

This year establishes the somatic and energetic foundations that will be further developed in the third year of the program, where attention turns more directly to:

• respiration and emotional regulation
• the segmental structure of the somatic armor
• attachment organization and relational patterns
• the integration of character analysis with contemporary developmental theory
• working directly with the somatic armor – Reich’s orgonomic technique