“The Reading of Emotional Expression”: Wilhelm Reich and the History of Embodied Analysis

Abstract

This article reviews historical roots of interest in the embodied dimensions of the analytic interaction. Starting with concepts of embodiment found in Freud's early writings, the article traces the emergence of analysis of direct emotional communication in light of Freud's discovery of the transference. The importance of analyzing the latent negative transference, as stressed by Reich, and his consequent development of resistance and character analysis is reviewed. The paper outlines the Scandinavian character analytic tradition's further development of Reich's thinking about embodied analysis. The work of Harald Schjelderup is reviewed for his early contribution to the relational turn in psychoanalysis and for drawing a principal distinction between the analysis of verbal-symbolic and embodied communications. Tage Philipson's development of a theory of embodied identification and his experimentation with imitation is reviewed and linked to recent work proposing a fundamental role for inner imitation in the unfolding of intersubjectivity.