ABSTRACT
In Reichian body psychotherapy modalities, body reading could be a formal skill: the client stands naked or minimally dressed while the therapist examines him, gathering anatomic information and analysing the somatic and emotional contexts. Character structure analysis through body reading may provide accurate and important information about the client, his beliefs and fears, pains, and defence mechanisms. Body reading can provide the therapist and client with invaluable information about the client, the foreseen difficulties, and the prospect of therapeutic work—sometimes much more than words. Wilhelm Reich's biographer, Myron Sharaf, drew similar parallels between the psychoanalytic free association technique and Reichian observation of breathing patterns. In psychoanalysis, the patient was asked to say whatever is on her mind, while the analyst pointed to resistances in the free flowing nature of association. The psychotherapeutic work with Eileen liberated blocked and life-threatening body-mind patterns and allowed for bodily, emotionally, and relational reorganisation.
