Pulsation: From Wilhelm Reich to Neurodynamic Psychotherapy

Wilhelm Reich identified pulsation as the basic life function, experienced most intensely in orgasm, and his therapy worked to dissolve emotional and physical blocks to full pulsation, through ‘character analysis’ and a focus on the breathing. He also believed pulsation was a function of a ‘universal life energy’ which he called ‘orgone.’ This book examines Reich’s work in the light of neuroscience and proposes that although pulsation is definitive of life, the concept of a specific ‘life energy’ is unnecessary and mistaken. However the term ‘orgone’, though not as ‘life energy’, may add to a valid description of the ‘cosmic ocean’ of equal-phase pulse waves within which the unequal-phase pulsation of life occurs. This book also proposes a ‘neurodynamic psychotherapy’ (Alexander Luria’s term) in which Reichian pulsation therapy can be integrated with neuroscience.