Dr. Alexander Lowen, M.D.

The principles of Bioenergetics. Click on image to view.

Dr. Alexander Lowen, M.D. was a highly acclaimed psychiatrist whose talents were recognised around the world. In this video he explains his mother and his father never got along. His mother was a thinking type. His father was more physical. Dr. Lowen developed both traits himself and felt he was split. He says a person who is ruled by their head, their ego, loses contact with their feelings. As feelings are located in the body. They become a disenchanted spirit. Going nowhere. So he had to find a way to unite his head and his body. He found Willhelm Reich, the founder of somatic psychology. Between 1942 and 1954 Lowen underwent therapy with Wilhelm Reich, and he became Reich’s student.  said he learned everything that to was important him from Reich. He then went on to develop the concepts Reich had established.

Dr. Lowen founded the  Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis in New York.

“Millions of Americans have become victims of their tension-producing environment. They  have lost sensibility and sensuality in their struggle for survival. They have betrayed their bodies – and their bodies are betraying them.”

Dr. Alexander Lowen, M.D., The Language of the Body.

Dr. Lowen believed the body mirrors the character. And can give clues about emotional disturbances. And give clues about how to heal these disturbances.

He developed a number of character types, including oral, masochistic, hysterical, phallic-narcissistic and schizoid.

Dr. Lowen explains the defensive patterns these character types use. And how they provide clues to healing the mind body split. Combined with physical exercises to help ground the spirit in the body Dr. Lowen’s techniques provide a guide to physical and psychic joy.