-From the moment we are born, we are forced to build an armor, a psychosocial identity that distances us from our human, affective and supportive nature, in order to adapt to a difficult environment. But by changing attitudes and habits we can neutralize its effects, get rid of tensions and enjoy a more just and humane coexistence.
The sky was gray and it was beginning to drizzle. Wilhelm Reich, after spending a few hours at the mental health clinic, was on his way to his private practice as a psychoanalyst. The year was 1930.
A few days earlier he had participated in a clinical meeting with his colleagues, among whom were Sándor Ferenczi, Otto Fenichel and the master Sigmund Freud. After exchanging impressions about the worrisome political situation in Berlin and the social unrest that was observed, Reich presented the case of an impotent young man that he had treated by focusing on the tenacious analysis of his main character trait, masochistic victimhood. He found the patient’s spontaneous reaction of sadness in contact with his fear that his father would censure his attitudes and humiliate him very stimulating and novel, a fear that increased when Reich encouraged him to look directly at him with wide-open eyes. But what really struck him was that, within a few minutes, grief gave way to a look of fury and a bodily expression of rage. It reminded him of the naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory that the expression of emotions was always accompanied by bodily changes. The young man’s forehead was often furrowed, so that his eyes could hardly be seen, and he had frequent headaches, which could be the result of this frontal and cranial tension.
Wilhelm Reich went into his office and thought about it. The patient was waiting for him. Once he lay down on the couch, Reich told her to open her eyes wide and let herself feel what she felt; meanwhile, he pressed on her occipitals.
He did this for a few minutes, first gently, then with more force. The patient began to weep with unbearable sorrow, unable to restrain himself, and the only word that came out was «Mom». Reich had just discovered the somatic basis of the Freudian unconscious and of character: the muscular armor.
Pedro and Ana came into the office of a Reichian center a few months ago. Their baby, who was only a few weeks old, was crying a lot and had difficulty breastfeeding. The pediatrician had advised them to stop breastfeeding and give him a bottle, and they were looking for another opinion. After asking them about their relationship and their experience of pregnancy and childbirth, the doctor picked up the baby and began to massage him. As she pressed on the occipital area, the baby began to cry inconsolably. The same thing happened when she massaged the baby’s forehead. To reassure the mother, the doctor explained that the crying was the result of the tension caused by the suffering experienced during the delivery (a suction cup had been used during the expulsion period), which would soon pass. A few minutes later, the baby stopped crying and, opening his eyes wide, smiled. From then on24 he suckled pleasantly.
From conception, the complex process of life is set in motion and, little by little, influenced by the genetic code, but above all by the affective and social relationships that surround its maturation, a specific systemic organization pattern is articulated that defines each human character structure. This will predispose the way of being, feeling, perceiving, thinking, walking, breathing, sexuality…. In other words, it will condition the psychosocial identity of the person.
If during intrauterine life, childbirth and the first months of life this process has been harmonious, stable and loving, its organizational pattern, that is to say, its character structure, will have a strong and consistent base, so that we will be facing a person with sufficient capacity to love and claim his or her needs. But the current family, school and social conditions, generally based on the repression of instincts, violence and the annulment of affective and sexual manifestations, generate muscular tensions and rigid and static attitudes.
In this case we are dealing with a character structure called «neurotic», which articulates a hard shell with two functions: on the one hand, to protect our loving human nature from violence from outside, submerging it in the depths of our being, which we will do at the cost of limiting the contact to our essential needs and our vital rhythm; and on the other hand, to adapt ourselves to the demands of the outside world. To this end, we contain our sadistic longings and drives with concrete dams that manifest themselves in chronic muscular tension and in rigid and static characteristic attitudes, which modulate according to experiences and relationships. In other words, we feel less, we lose humanity and the ability to express our emotions, affections and desires.
If this first vital period is surrounded by rejection, emotional conflicts, absences of people who generate life and affection, even physical violence, a very vulnerable, impressionable, depressive, resigned structure is generated, with a weak immune system and, therefore, with a tendency to generate serious psychosomatic illnesses. We call these character structures «borderline», because they are on the borderline between neurosis and psychosis. In these cases, the armor will also be very weak, which makes it much more malleable to the affective, social and economic conditions experienced at any given moment. These are people very dependent on the couple, on the work, on the family. Any strong mishap can cause them depressive crises and even autoimmune diseases.
In both neurotic and borderline structures, the natural self-regulation of the mammalian-human being is affected and, therefore, the process of sexual maturation of the person, the energetic regulator of our biosystem and our vital rhythm.
This alteration may have started in intrauterine life due to excessive stress on the mother, and continued due to frustrating or conflictive situations: if the woman has been injected with synthetic hormones to accelerate labor; if the baby has been separated from its mother abruptly as soon as it is born; if a rigid breastfeeding schedule has been imposed based on the pediatrician’s «knowledge» and causes the baby to crave, or resignation when the relationship with the breast and the mother’s body during the first months of life is rapid and forced, or progressively non-existent; if they are forced to control their sphincters when they are not yet ready; if they have to hide to touch their genitals……
All this implies a violence towards our own species that continues in the form of institutionalized violence in systems unjust, unsupportive and anti-ecological social norms. And for this «nor-mality» to be maintained, the armor is necessary, which facilitates the submission of the majority and the ostentation of power and the mechanisms of exploitation of a minority. In both cases there is an absence of ecological consciousness, of contact with our human nature. It is what Wilhelm Reich described as a «trap» of the human being.
We are trapped at a crossroads that is leading us to the destruction of our planet and, therefore, of our species.
To get out of this trap, to neutralize the effects of the shell, we must try to change our attitudes and habits. Dedicate ourselves to:
– Pamper our senses through music, art, silence, contact with nature and sexuality.
-Taking care of our organism avoiding toxic agents, following balanced diets and consuming organic food.
– Cultivate affection, solidarity and co-communication, both with our partners, friends and loved ones, as well as in our social and work relationships.
– Assuming the temporality of our life, allowing us to build a scale of more qualitative values, appreciating the warmth of the beautiful and the human as opposed to the coldness of objects.
– Relieve tension and eliminate the effects of stress and external pressures through activities according to the motivation and possibilities of each person: sports, meditation, dance, body expression.
- To reduce emotional suffering, to face crises creatively and to soften the armor with character-analytic psychotherapies, psychocorporal, that take into account these concepts, and with preventive interventions in early childhood: massages, games, different relationships in the couple and the family… And finally, to protect, care for and educate through respectful and ecological upbringing from the beginning of life in order to facilitate healthy human structures that know how to face the challenges of this century, without fear of freedom and with the capacity to love and live. All this will contribute to make our armor more flexible, allowing us to be in greater contact with our emotions, but it will also help us to open up to our environment and act to achieve the political, social, economic and ecological changes that are essential for a more just and humane coexistence.
