Somatic Psychology

Somatic psychology is an interdisciplinary field involving the study of the body, somatic experience, and the embodied self, including therapeutic and holistic approaches to body. The word somatic comes from the ancient Greek somat (body). The word psychology comes from the ancient Greek psyche (breath, soul hence mind) and logia (study). Body Psychotherapy is a general branch of this subject, whilst Somatherapy, Eco-somatics and Dance therapy, for example, are specific branches of the subject. Somatic psychology is a field of study that bridges the Mind-body dichotomy.

Whilst Pierre Janet can perhaps be considered the first Somatic Psychologist due to his extensive psychotherapeutic studies and writings with significant reference to the body (some of which pre-date Freud), it was actually Wilhelm Reich who was the first person to bring body awareness systematically into psychoanalysis, and also the first psychotherapist to touch clients physically, working with their bodies.^[1] Reich was a significant influence in the founding of Body Psychotherapy (or Somatic Psychology as it is often known in the USA & Australia) - though he called his early work "Character Analysis"^[2] and "Character-Analytic Vegetotherapy"). Several types of body-oriented psychotherapies trace their origins back to Reich, though there have been many subsequent developments and other influences (ref: entry on Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology is of particular interest in trauma work.^[3][4]

There is increasing use of body-oriented therapeutic techniques within mainstream psychology (like EMDR) and Mindfulness practice) and psychoanalysis has recognized the use of somatic resonance, embodied trauma, and similar concepts, for many years.

Historically, there are early practitioners, for example, the Persian physician Avicenna (980 to 1037 CE) who performed psychotherapy only by observing the movement of the patient's pulse as he listened to their anguish^[5]. This is reminiscent of both traditional Tibetan medicine and current energy therapies that employ tapping points on a meridian. As a contrast to the Western separation of body/mind, some writers describe the "body as a slow mind" ^[6] and this re-examination of the fundamental mind-body dichotomy has coincided with research into neuroscience, embodiment and consciousness, and an unconscious mind that 'speaks' through the language of body.

Dance therapy or (Dance Movement Psychotherapy) also reflect something of this approach and are considered a study and practice within the field of somatic psychology.^{[7][8] [9][10]}

Principles

The primary relationship addressed in somatic psychology is the person's relation to and empathy with their own felt body.^[11] It is based on a belief, grounded in ancient principles of vitalism, that energy will bring healing to the affected parts if sufficient awareness is directed there

Applications

A wide variety of techniques are used in somatic psychotherapy including sound, touch, mirroring, movement and breath. An individual records life experience during a pre- and nonverbal periods differently than during a verbalized and personal narrative period. Working with the client's implicit knowing^[12][13] of these early experiences, somatic psychology includes the non-verbal qualities that mark most human communication, especially in the first years of life. This understanding of consciousness, communication and mind-body language challenges some traditional applications of the talking cure.^[14]

Practitioners in this field believe psychological, social, cultural and political forces support the splitting and fragmentation of the mind-body unity. These pressures affect an individual’s mental, biological, and relational health. For example, the writer Alice Miller in her recent book 'The Body Never Lies'^[15] says, Ultimately the body will rebel. Even if it can be temporarily pacified with the help of drugs, cigarettes or medicine, it usually has the last word because it is quicker to see through self-deception than the mind. We may ignore or deride the messages of the body, but is rebellion demands to be heeded because its language is the authentic expression of our true selves and of the strength of our vitality.

Somatic psychologists tend to bring body, body processes, and body experience into the foreground of psychotherapy practice.

Critique

The level of evidence required in psychology and pharmacology for an efficacious treatment is a fraction of that required in physical sciences. 'What criterion', of evidence Stenger asks, 'should be applied to those studies that claim to show some therapy works, when that therapy violates well established scientific principles, such as the conventional laws of physics?'.^[16]

The concept of body is socially constructed. What has been considered the limits of body has changed significantly throughout the history of medicine and likely will continue to change as mechanisitic principles underlying mind and body are disclosed by the scientific method.

The flaws of a theory of vitalism, which gives rise to models of bioenergy in many culture for example, qi and prana, are well argued as a form of Neurotheology.

Wilhlem Reich's pre-eminence as founder of the modern field is open to question. His teacher and the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud explored the role of body in neurosis as well as undertaking research on the therapeutic effects of cocaine (beginning on April 24, 1884 when he ordered his first gram of cocaine from the local apothecary).^[17][18] Freud also showed an interest in the Emma Eckstein|nasal reflex neurosis and in vital periodicity, explored during a significant relationship with Wilhelm Fliess between 1887 and 1902.^[19] Wilhelm Fliess believed that the nose was the centre of all human illness through its structural deviations to the passage of breath.^[20][21]

In addition the early history of clinical psychology points to somatic psychotherapy first practiced in Persia around 930 CE.

References