ABSTRACT
In retroflection the contact boundary increases in rigidity through an armouring process. One form of retroflection is turning an impulse back in upon myself, it is high energy and the process is captured by the existential novelist Franz Kafka. Muscles are mobilised but are held still with a balance of tension between the muscles that move towards and those providing a counter-force to the action – retroflection requires energy. If the tension held is enduring this can result in chronic soreness and joint problems as muscle groups push and pull against each other. Retroflection definitely has its place individually, in couples, groups of all kinds, communities and between nations. In unhealthy, situation-incongruent retroflection the therapeutic task is to engage the person’s capacity for interested excitement in a dialogic relationship.
