Children, before they are taught the
inhibitions of our society, explore their world by touch. They touch their parents
and cuddle into their arms, touch themselves, find joy in their genitals,
security in the texture of their blankets, excitement in feeling cold things,
hot things, smooth things and scratchy things. But as the child grows up, his
sense of awareness through touch is curtailed. The tactile world is narrowed. He
learns to erect body shields, becomes aware of his territorial needs in terms
of his culture, and discovers that masking may keep him from being hurt even
though it also keeps him from experiencing direct emotions. He comes to believe
that what he loses in expression, he gains in protection. Unfortunately, as the
child grows into adulthood, the masks all too often harden and tighten
and change from protective devices to crippling devices. The adult may find
that while the mask helps him to keep his privacy and prevents any unwanted
relationship, it also becomes a limiting thing and prevents the relationships
he wants as well as those he doesn't want.
Then the adult becomes mentally immobilized. But because mental qualities are easily translated into physical qualities, he becomes physically immobilized as well. The new therapy based on the experiments at the Esalen Institute at Big Sur in California, on research done among isolated groups of men living in Antarctica, and on group seminars all over the world called encounter groups, seeks to break through these physical immobilizations and work backwards to the mental immobilization. Dr William C. Schutz has written a great deal about the new technique of encounter groups, a technique for preserving man's identity in the pressure of today's society. To show how much of feeling and behaving are expressed in body language, Dr Schutz cites a number of interesting expressions that describe behaviour and emotional states in body terms. Among these are: shoulder a burden; face up; chin up; grit your teeth; a stiff upper lip; bare your teeth; catch your eye; shrug it off; and so on. The interesting thing about these is that they are all also body-language phrases. Each of them expresses an emotion, but also expresses a physical body act that signals the same emotion. When we consider these phrases we can understand Dr Schutz's suggestion that 'psychological attitudes affect body posture and functioning'. He cites Dr Ida Rolf's speculation that emotions harden the body in set patterns.
The man who is constantly unhappy develops a frown as a set part of his physical being. The aggressive man who thrusts his head forwards all the time develops a posture with head thrust forwards and he cannot change it. His emotions, according to Dr Rolf, cause his posture or expression to freeze into a given position. In turn, this position pulls the emotions into line. If you have a face frozen in a habitual smile, Dr Rolf believes it will affect your personality and cause you to smile mentally. The same is true for a frown and for deeper, less obvious body postures. Dr Alexander Lowen, in his book Physical Dynamics of Character Structure, adds to this fascinating concept by stating that all neurotic problems are shown by the structure and function of the body. ' No words are so clear as the language of body expression once one has learned to read it,' he says. He goes on to relate body function to emotion. A person with a sway back, he believes, can't have the strong ego of a man with a straight back. The straight back, on the other hand, is less flexible.
Then the adult becomes mentally immobilized. But because mental qualities are easily translated into physical qualities, he becomes physically immobilized as well. The new therapy based on the experiments at the Esalen Institute at Big Sur in California, on research done among isolated groups of men living in Antarctica, and on group seminars all over the world called encounter groups, seeks to break through these physical immobilizations and work backwards to the mental immobilization. Dr William C. Schutz has written a great deal about the new technique of encounter groups, a technique for preserving man's identity in the pressure of today's society. To show how much of feeling and behaving are expressed in body language, Dr Schutz cites a number of interesting expressions that describe behaviour and emotional states in body terms. Among these are: shoulder a burden; face up; chin up; grit your teeth; a stiff upper lip; bare your teeth; catch your eye; shrug it off; and so on. The interesting thing about these is that they are all also body-language phrases. Each of them expresses an emotion, but also expresses a physical body act that signals the same emotion. When we consider these phrases we can understand Dr Schutz's suggestion that 'psychological attitudes affect body posture and functioning'. He cites Dr Ida Rolf's speculation that emotions harden the body in set patterns.
The man who is constantly unhappy develops a frown as a set part of his physical being. The aggressive man who thrusts his head forwards all the time develops a posture with head thrust forwards and he cannot change it. His emotions, according to Dr Rolf, cause his posture or expression to freeze into a given position. In turn, this position pulls the emotions into line. If you have a face frozen in a habitual smile, Dr Rolf believes it will affect your personality and cause you to smile mentally. The same is true for a frown and for deeper, less obvious body postures. Dr Alexander Lowen, in his book Physical Dynamics of Character Structure, adds to this fascinating concept by stating that all neurotic problems are shown by the structure and function of the body. ' No words are so clear as the language of body expression once one has learned to read it,' he says. He goes on to relate body function to emotion. A person with a sway back, he believes, can't have the strong ego of a man with a straight back. The straight back, on the other hand, is less flexible.
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