with his thumb or the palm of his hand on a particular segment of body armor, the jaw,
neck, chest, back, or thigh. Such pressure often stimulated an outburst of crying or rage. His
kind of touch should not be confused with any massage technique. It was generally direct-
ed toward the release of emotion but was itself usually affectively neutral and somewhat
medical. I would note here that in devising the method of psychoanalysis, Freud had sharply
moved away from his earlier use of hypnosis, which at times included massage of the
patient. This “laying on of hands” had unsavory connections with the methods of Franz
Mesmer, an eighteenth-century physician and therapeutic innovator whose techniques were
criticized for, among other dangers, arousing female patients sexually. In my view, it was a
remnant of Reich’s psychoanalytic superego and reflected his fear of association with
pornography that he only occasionally used physical contact in a supportive, comforting way.
In the 1940s, Alexander Lowen, then a young therapist in training with Reich, mentioned
that he had inadvertently left his hand resting on the patient’s back, and the patient had com-
mented on how good it felt. Reich reflected, then commented without committing himself:
“The analysts would call that seductive.”^1
Reich also moved gradually and incompletely with regard to the patient’s nudity
during therapy. He saw Raknes in shorts and nude by 1938^2. He always saw female patients
clothed in bra and panties. Reich drew some lines out of social concern: rumors were rife
that he was seducing his female patients.
Touching the patient and seeing the patient either in the nude or seminude remain
two of the most controversial aspects of Reichian technique, especially in established circles.
The focus on touching and nudity has tended to obscure Reich’s central therapeutic endeav-
or: the dissolution of characterological and muscular rigidities, the eliciting of strong emo-
tions and energy “streamings,” the working through of the anxiety connected with pleasur-
able sensations, and the establishment of orgastic potency. Reich summarized his therapeu-
tic advances of the mid-1930s in a monograph entitled Orgasmusreflex, Muskelhahung, und
Korperausdruck(Orgasm Reflex, Muscular Attitude, and Bodily Expression),which was published in
I937^3 .One of his new and important emphases was on respiration:
The respiratory disturbances in neurotics are the result of abdominal ten-
sions...
What is the function ofthis attitude ofshallow respiration? If we look at
the position of the inner organs and their relation to the solar plexus, we see imme-
diately what we are dealing with. In fright, one involuntarily breathes in; as for
instance in drowning, where this very inspiration leads to death; the diaphragm con-
tracts and compresses the solar plexus from above. A full understanding of this
muscular action is provided by the results of the character-analytic investigation of
early infantile mechanisms. Children fight lasting and painful anxiety states, which
are accompanied by typical sensations in the belly by holding their breath. They do
the same thing when they have pleasurable sensations in the abdomen or in the gen-
itals and are afraid ofthem^4.18 : Psychiatric Developments: 1934-1939 223