ABSTRACT
A theme running throughout Sigmund Freud’s writings was the interface between the psychical and the somatic. One aspect of this interface is the unconscious mind. A second aspect of this interface is Freud’s libido theory, the body-energy dimension. It is a central feature of Freud’s work that seems largely forgotten or ignored by many contemporary analysts, who appear to view psychoanalysis as essentially a theory of internalised personal relationships. Part of Freud’s reason for his emphasis upon the sexual energy of libido as the key to psychoneuroses was because sexuality so clearly involves both the mind and the body. Since Freud’s original work on the actual neuroses, which he never repudiated, most psychoanalysts have ignored this aspect of psycho-somatic life. Wilhelm Reich concluded that psychic conflict and somatic stasis reinforce each other. The psychic conflict blocks the flow of sexual energy, forcing it back into earlier paths, thereby energising infantile sexual desires and intensifying the conflict and inhibition.
