The Betrayal of the Body. Dr. Alexander Lowen M.D.
and sanity. In this struggle all mental faculties are engaged in the fight for survival. Survival depends upon the absolute control and mastery of the body by the mind. If the mind should relax its vigilance, catastrophe would occur. In the normal individual, in whom no terror lurks, the body is not immobilized by the struggle for survival and is free to pursue its natural desire for pleasure.
One of my patients repeatedly saw in a Rorschach test the image of a person hanging on to the edge of a cliff. This vision was a projection of his unconscious awareness that he hovered over an abyss, and that to save life and reason, he must hang on with all his might. It also indicated the magnitude of the terror against which he struggled. The physical effort to hang on, literally, consumed all his energy. His improvement was ushered in by a feeling of exhaustion and a need to sleep. This indicated that his state of jeopardy had passed and that he was able to relax for the first time. In therapy, exhaustion is one of the first signs that the patient is coming into contact with his body in a meaningful way.
The immobilization of the schizoid body results in a lack of aliveness and responsiveness. The schizoid individual perceives this unresponsiveness as an “emptiness” in his body. If the condition becomes aggravated, that is, if there is further loss of feeling, he feels “removed.” His mind, as Jack said, feels detached from his body. He feels outside of himself, watching himself.
The mind and body of a normal individual function as complementary systems to further the well-being and pleasurable feelings of the individual. When an impulse arises in the body, the mind determines its meaning, adapts it to reality, and regulates its release. In all higher animals where the mind-body duality exists, the mind functions to control and coordinate movement in the interest of reality, while the body provides the impetus, the energy, and the mechanism for motion. Behavior which has this integrated aspect has an emotional quality. It starts from an impulse, which then gives rise to feeling, thought, and appropriate action. This kind of body-mind relationship is operative in emotional responses motivated by the desire for pleasure.
In the schizoid individual, whose impulses are rigidly controlled because of the underlying terror, there is an absence of feeling upon which the mind can act. In place of feeling, the mind substitutes logical thought as the motivation for action. The body becomes an instrument of the will, obeying the commands of the mind. I explain this difference to my patients as follows. Normally, one eats when one is hungry, but in the schizoid state, one has lunch because it is twelve o'clock. Although many people who are not schizoid are constrained to eat at fixed hours, it nevertheless illustrates the principle to my patients. The schizoid individual engages in sports or does exercises to improve his control over his body and not for the pleasure of the activity or the movement. Lacking the binding power of pleasure, the unity of his personality is threatened. He compensates for this lack by an increase in the direct control over the body by the mind acting through the will. By such a mechanism, schizoid individuals frequently become outstanding dancers, actors, or athletes.
In the normal individual, in addition to regulating and controlling the action of impulses, the mind can also, at times, command the body to act contrary to its natural instincts. Ordinarily, actions are motivated by the desire for the pleasure and satisfaction to be derived from the achievement of a goal. If the activity leading to the achievement of a goal is a pleasurable experience, the behavior of the organism is spontaneous, coordinated, and seemingly effortless. But situations arise where the attainment of a goal excludes the experience of pleasure. Action in the face of danger, such as that of a soldier on a battlefield, is motivated by considerations other than pleasure. The average schoolboy does his homework out of necessity rather than as a pleasure. Many situations require a conscious effort to mobilize the body, that is, an effort of will in which the mind commands the body to act in ways contrary to its spontaneous desires or feelings. The spontaneous desire of a soldier is to avoid the danger. He forces himself to meet the danger by the exercise of will. The schoolboy would rather play than study, but he is taught to submit to the discipline of the mind.
The world has long known the unique quality of the human will. Such expressions as “will power,” “the will to live,” and “where there's a will there's a way” give some indication of the nature of the will. The will functions as a biological shortcut mechanism of an emergency nature when all other means have failed. The will can achieve a goal which has appeared impossible. The incredible power of the human will resides in its ability to circumvent the natural desire for pleasure or safety and to accomplish the seemingly unnatural. The will acts through the ego's control over the voluntary musculature of the body. Paul used his will to pull himself together in opposition to the tendency of his body to succumb to its paralysis. Because the will can prevail against the feelings of the body, it is of crucial importance in the life of the schizoid individual.
Normally, the will occupies a secondary or accessory position in the psychic economy. Yet, the fact is that many people in our culture are forced to use their will in routine activities. How often one hears the remark, “I had to use all my will power to get to work this morning.” If this sounds like a schizoid statement, it should be realized that the conditions of work in modern culture alienate the individual from the creative process and deny him the pleasure and satisfaction of his productive effort. One works under these conditions because of compelling necessity, not desire. To regiment oneself to the mechanization and standardization of a mass production system requires an effort of will. When the will becomes the primary mechanism of action, displacing the normal motivating force of pleasure, the individual is functioning in a schizoid manner.
The schizoid individual is intensely willful. He is willful in the sense of being obstinate and defiant, but he is also willful in that every action is forced and determined. Sometimes he is successful, but more often not. Generally, each effort of will collapses into despair and hopelessness. As one of my patients remarked, “I am always turning over a new leaf, only to find that it becomes brown before I accomplish anything.” What is lacking in the schizoid structure is a reliance upon the natural and spontaneous functioning of the body. Another schizoid patient told me, “I can't understand how my body keeps working by itself. I think it will stop at any time. I'm surprised that it keeps going on. I'm always afraid that it's going to get out of control.”
THE SCHIZOID BARRICADE
Without a basis for his identity in the normal functioning of his body, the schizoid individual depends on his will to maintain the unity of his personality. To do this job the will must be constantly active. As a result, the musculature is in a continual state of contraction. The spasticity of the muscles explains the characteristic rigidity of the schizoid body, which then serves as a barricade against terror. Loss of control is a threat to the schizoid individual because it may engender a disruption of his personality, a literal falling apart of this barricade. In contrast to the schizoid, the normal individual maintains his unity and identity through the strength of his impulses and feelings. The difference in the two conditions can be contrasted diagrammatically in terms of impulse formation and muscular activity. Figure 6 shows the normal condition; Figure 7, the schizoid condition.
In the normal condition (Figure 6), the impulses that originate at the center of the body and flow to the periphery act like spokes in a wheel to maintain the fullness and integrity of the organism. The constant stream of impulses seeking pleasure through the satisfaction of needs in the external world, charges the periphery of the body, so that it is in a state of emotional readiness to respond. In the alive body the charge at the periphery is manifested in the tone and color of the skin, in the brightness of the eyes, in the spontaneity of gesture and in the relaxed state of the body musculature.
In the schizoid condition (Figure 7), impulse formation is weak and sporadic and does not reach the periphery of the body, which is therefore relatively undercharged. Since the impulses do not reach the surface of the body with sufficient strength to maintain its integrity, a contraction of the voluntary musculature occurs to hold the body together like a rigid container and to prevent the collapse threatened by the inner emptiness. The reduced charge