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Language of the_body-i

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Homayoun Shahri
Homayoun Shahri

In this presentation I discuss somatic psychology and the role of body in psychotherapy, as well as the mechanisms of character formation.

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Introduction to Somatic Psychology Homayoun Shahri, PhD, MA, LMFT http://www.ravonkavi.com homayoun.shahri@ravonkavi.com
Guest House (Rumi) This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes As an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Life Viewed as a System Open, Complex, Dynamical, and Self Organizing Systems
Introduction to Systems Theory A system can be viewed as a group of interacting, interrelated, and interdependent elements and bounded processes. Systems transform inputs that are consumed into outputs that are produced. Systems are characterized by their boundaries, which separate them from their surroundings. This boundary may be real or notional but it defines a finite volume, within which the system operates and exchanges energy or matter with its surrounding. Systems are also characterized by their internal laws of functioning.
Introduction to Systems Theory (Cont) The dynamical system concept is a formalization in which the behavior of the system is said to be dependent on the time and position of the system in space. Complexity in a system indicates how relationships between parts give rise to new behaviors and how a system interacts and forms new relationships with its environment and surroundings. Complex systems are open and dynamical, and tend to be self- organizing. Self-organization is the process by which the system may form a structure or pattern in its behavior without an external entity or element thats affecting it.
Introduction to Systems Theory (Cont) Example (Paramecium)
Paramecium (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn3MTYNe8mM)
Wilhelm Reich, M.D. Student of Freud, and president of Vienna psychoanalytic society Recognized as the father of somatic psychology Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness. Wilhelm Reich
Alexander Lowen, M.D. Student and analysand of Wilhelm Reich and founder of Bioenergetic Analysis Introduced Language of the Body. How to determine the inner workings of body (psyche) by observing it.
Language of the Body (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghZg34hKeCw)
Self-Portrait (David Whyte) It doesn't interest me if there is one God or many gods. I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned. If you know despair or can see it in others. I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world with its harsh need to change you. If you can look back with firm eyes saying this is where I stand. I want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living falling toward the center of your longing. I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day, with the consequence of love and the bitter unwanted passion of your sure defeat. I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even the gods speak of God.
Human Nervous System Central Nervous System (CNS) Brain, Spine Peripheral Nervous System Somatic Afferents (Sensory) Efferents (Motor) Autonomic Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) Dorsal Vagal Complex (DVC unmyelinated) Ventral Vagal Complex (VVC myelinated)
Central and Peripheral Nervous System
Optimal Window of Arousal - Sympathetic Nervous System - Hyper-arousal - Social Engagement System - Ventral vagal complex - Optimal window of arousal - Hypo-arousal - Dorsal vagal complex
Drive, Repression, and Identification 1. Drive seeking expression 2. Environmental negativity 3. Redirection of the original drive 4. Drive turning against itself 5. Drive seeking alternative expression 6. Muscular Armor blocking the drive I came to consider the instinct as nothing more than the motor aspect of pleasure.", Wilhelm Reich, The Function of the Orgasm
Old Object Relations, and Introjects Identification with environmental negativity, and/or introjection (7) And the truth must finally lie in that which every oppressed individual feels within himself but hasn't the courage to express, Wilhelm Reich
Mother, Father, Child Triad Formation of the psyche of a child Psychic illnesses are the result of a disturbance of the natural capacity for love., Wilhelm Reich
Character Structure Sum total all repressed ego instincts (drives) and their frustration, resulting in introjects, formation of false self, and formation of muscular armor
Character Armor The CHARACTER is the totality of the mechanical, automatic and unconscious ways of reacting, by which the individual maintained his or her psycho-physical balance; a balance that makes sure that the feelings, emotions and bodily impulses which for various reasons have been blocked, remain separated from the consciousness of the individual. (Alexander Lowen) Reich named this CHARACTER STRUCTURE - the CHARACTER ARMOR, because of its function as a defense. This armor has a bodily side in the form of chronic muscular tensions, where the repressed material is hidden. (Alexander Lowen)
Exercise (courtesy of Robert Hilton, PhD) Find a partner. Share your experiences of when you feel you are not real or live in a false self as well as when you feel anxious and/or dissociate. Share with your partner how you hide your real self, and what imagery do you use to describe the hiding place (Basement, Behind a Curtain, etc). As you describe your experience, be aware of any physical contractions or movement in your body, and share them with your partner who is empathically listening. Reverse roles.
Wild Geese (Mary Oliver) You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting- over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
Reference Toward an Integrative Model for Developmental Trauma Homayoun Shahri (http://goo.gl/UahNKP)

More Related Content

Language of the_body-i

  • 1. Introduction to Somatic Psychology Homayoun Shahri, PhD, MA, LMFT http://www.ravonkavi.com homayoun.shahri@ravonkavi.com
  • 2. Guest House (Rumi) This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes As an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
  • 3. Life Viewed as a System Open, Complex, Dynamical, and Self Organizing Systems
  • 4. Introduction to Systems Theory A system can be viewed as a group of interacting, interrelated, and interdependent elements and bounded processes. Systems transform inputs that are consumed into outputs that are produced. Systems are characterized by their boundaries, which separate them from their surroundings. This boundary may be real or notional but it defines a finite volume, within which the system operates and exchanges energy or matter with its surrounding. Systems are also characterized by their internal laws of functioning.
  • 5. Introduction to Systems Theory (Cont) The dynamical system concept is a formalization in which the behavior of the system is said to be dependent on the time and position of the system in space. Complexity in a system indicates how relationships between parts give rise to new behaviors and how a system interacts and forms new relationships with its environment and surroundings. Complex systems are open and dynamical, and tend to be self- organizing. Self-organization is the process by which the system may form a structure or pattern in its behavior without an external entity or element thats affecting it.
  • 6. Introduction to Systems Theory (Cont) Example (Paramecium)
  • 8. Wilhelm Reich, M.D. Student of Freud, and president of Vienna psychoanalytic society Recognized as the father of somatic psychology Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness. Wilhelm Reich
  • 9. Alexander Lowen, M.D. Student and analysand of Wilhelm Reich and founder of Bioenergetic Analysis Introduced Language of the Body. How to determine the inner workings of body (psyche) by observing it.
  • 10. Language of the Body (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghZg34hKeCw)
  • 11. Self-Portrait (David Whyte) It doesn't interest me if there is one God or many gods. I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned. If you know despair or can see it in others. I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world with its harsh need to change you. If you can look back with firm eyes saying this is where I stand. I want to know if you know how to melt into that fierce heat of living falling toward the center of your longing. I want to know if you are willing to live, day by day, with the consequence of love and the bitter unwanted passion of your sure defeat. I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even the gods speak of God.
  • 12. Human Nervous System Central Nervous System (CNS) Brain, Spine Peripheral Nervous System Somatic Afferents (Sensory) Efferents (Motor) Autonomic Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) Dorsal Vagal Complex (DVC unmyelinated) Ventral Vagal Complex (VVC myelinated)
  • 13. Central and Peripheral Nervous System
  • 14. Optimal Window of Arousal - Sympathetic Nervous System - Hyper-arousal - Social Engagement System - Ventral vagal complex - Optimal window of arousal - Hypo-arousal - Dorsal vagal complex
  • 15. Drive, Repression, and Identification 1. Drive seeking expression 2. Environmental negativity 3. Redirection of the original drive 4. Drive turning against itself 5. Drive seeking alternative expression 6. Muscular Armor blocking the drive I came to consider the instinct as nothing more than the motor aspect of pleasure.", Wilhelm Reich, The Function of the Orgasm
  • 16. Old Object Relations, and Introjects Identification with environmental negativity, and/or introjection (7) And the truth must finally lie in that which every oppressed individual feels within himself but hasn't the courage to express, Wilhelm Reich
  • 17. Mother, Father, Child Triad Formation of the psyche of a child Psychic illnesses are the result of a disturbance of the natural capacity for love., Wilhelm Reich
  • 18. Character Structure Sum total all repressed ego instincts (drives) and their frustration, resulting in introjects, formation of false self, and formation of muscular armor
  • 19. Character Armor The CHARACTER is the totality of the mechanical, automatic and unconscious ways of reacting, by which the individual maintained his or her psycho-physical balance; a balance that makes sure that the feelings, emotions and bodily impulses which for various reasons have been blocked, remain separated from the consciousness of the individual. (Alexander Lowen) Reich named this CHARACTER STRUCTURE - the CHARACTER ARMOR, because of its function as a defense. This armor has a bodily side in the form of chronic muscular tensions, where the repressed material is hidden. (Alexander Lowen)
  • 20. Exercise (courtesy of Robert Hilton, PhD) Find a partner. Share your experiences of when you feel you are not real or live in a false self as well as when you feel anxious and/or dissociate. Share with your partner how you hide your real self, and what imagery do you use to describe the hiding place (Basement, Behind a Curtain, etc). As you describe your experience, be aware of any physical contractions or movement in your body, and share them with your partner who is empathically listening. Reverse roles.
  • 21. Wild Geese (Mary Oliver) You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting- over and over announcing your place in the family of things.
  • 22. Reference Toward an Integrative Model for Developmental Trauma Homayoun Shahri (http://goo.gl/UahNKP)