ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the mainstream of body psychotherapy, which clearly and distinctly identifies itself as body psychotherapy and has developed alongside (and been saturated with influences from) psychoanalysis. It reviews the pre-Freudian sources of somatic therapeutic intervention and then focuses on the theoretical and clinical stances of Sandor Ferenczi and Wilhelm Reich. The Sandor Ferenczi was at certain stages a close member of the prestigious Viennese inner circle, intimately sponsored and endorsed by Freud, and was particularly known for his work with difficult patients. Over the years, Ferenczi was extremely critical of the therapeutic passivity which was commonplace in traditional psychoanalysis. One of Freud's most brilliant disciples and certainly a most colourful figure in the history of psychoanalysis was the eccentric psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich. Reich early life was full of tragedies. The son of a strict and cold father, Willy was allowed to play neither with his peasant peers nor with the Yiddish speaking Jewish children.
