Character Analysis

Reich's classic work on the development and treatment of human character disorders, first published in 1933. As a young clinician in the 1920s, Wihelm Reich expanded psychoanalytic resistance into the more inclusive technique of character analysis, in which the sum total of typical character attitudes developed by an individual as a blocking against emotional excitations became the object of treatment. These encrusted attitudes functioned as an "armor," which Reich later found to exist simultaneously in chronic muscular spasms. Thus mind and body came together and character analysis opened the way to a biophysical approach to disease and the prevention of it. Wilhelm Reich, a native of Austria, was born in 1897. His many other works includeListen, Little Man!;The Function of the Orgasm; andThe Mass Psychology of Fascism. He died in 1957. As a young clinician in the 1920s, Wihelm Reich expanded psychoanalytic resistance into the more inclusive technique of character analysis, in which the sum total of typical character attitudes developed by an individual as a blocking against emotional excitations became the object of treatment. These encrusted attitudes functioned as an "armor," which Reich later found to exist simultaneously in chronic muscular spasms. Thus mind and body came together and character analysis opened the way to a biophysical approach to disease and the prevention of it. This is Reich's classic work on the development and treatment of human character disorders, originally published in 1933.

Wilhelm Reich, a native of Austria, was born in 1897. His many other works include Listen, Little Man!, Function of the Orgasm, and The Mass Psychology of Fascism. He died in 1957.

"It is clear that a prophylaxis of neuroses is out of the question unless it is prepared theoretically; in short, that the study of the dynamic and economic conditions of human structures is its most important prerequisite."--Wilhelm Reich