somatic

• somatics introduced by Thomas Hanna (1970), refers to an experiential study of the body

• “affective education” or “experiential education”, engaging the body as well as (or even rather than) the mind - Maupin (1998)

  somatic psychology

  In a book by British dance movement therapist and psychotherapist Linda Hartley defines “somatic psychology” as:

• “holistic approach to therapy and healing that embraces body, mind, and spirit within a changing social, cultural, and spiritual context”

• book review: contradictions, redundancies and confusion; style reads somewhat like a graduate thesis or dissertation; there are too many quotations, too much reliance on secondary sources; Hartley overemphasises some somatic practices (such as her own of mind-body cantering), while leaving out significant areas of other practices (she reduces dance/movement therapy to one practice known as authentic movement

• acknowledges an important dimension of psychology—the psychological body, rather than focusing on the reduction of symptoms as the outcome of therapy, somatic psychology:

  1. seeks to empower and educate people about their bodies
  2. teaches them to sense when there are problems, and how to cultivate a sense of well- being
  3. helps them understand the meaning and the unconscious messages of their symptoms, and integrate these into daily life.

• body as an object outside or subject inside

• cartesian mechanistic physics vs quantum mechanics

• somatic psychology helps people to access symbols and unconscious messages locked in the body and resolve blocks that are due to past trauma

• the early pioneers of somatic psychology: Ferenczi, Adler, Reich and Jung

  • Adler’s notion of “expressive movement” — Anspacher, E.H., and Anspacher, R. (1956). The individual psychology of Alfred Adler
  • Jourard’s “somatic disclosure and perception of the soma” — Jourard, S.M. (1994). Somatic disclosure and perception of the soma. In Lowman, M., Jourard, A., & Jourard, M. (Eds). Sidney M. Jourard: Selected writings.
  • “somatic resonance” (Reich, 1970)

• related studies supporting somatic psychology:

  • psychoneuroimmunology: Pert, C.B. (1999). Molecules of emotion. London: Pocket Books. Simon & Schuster;
  • the psychobiology of the bodymind connection: Rossi, E.L. (1986). The psychobiology of mind-body healing;
  • and visual imagery: Simonton OC., Matthews-Simonton S., Creighton, JL., (1980). Getting well again.

• work of the pioneers from psychology, physics, psychobiology and ecology include sensory awareness, Feldenkrais Method, body-mind centering and dance-movement therapy

• somatic therapy reveals the “sensory engram” (Juhan, D. (1987). Job’s body – A handbook for bodywork) that carries the template of each person’s history of learned experiences, as well as the “muscular armoring” that reveals “character type” (Lowen, A. (1976a). Bioenergetics)

• separation at birth can bring about both fear of life and fear of death (Otto Rank, in Brown, J.A.C. (1961). Freud and the post-Freudians, which is specifically addressed in therapies such as primal therapy, rebirthing, and holotropic therapy (Grof, S. (1985). Beyond the brain.)

• early experiences of attachment and separation that are critical for mature relationships (Attachment and loss, Bowlby) are stored in body memories, whereas traumatic memories are stored in state-dependent learning (Van der Kolk, B. & Van der Hart, O. (1989). Pierre Janet and the breakdown of adaptation in psychological trauma. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 253-265)

• early learned experience influence subsequent perceptions and experiences in what is called “preconceived expectations” and “pre-motor focusing” in body-mind centering (Cohen, B.B. (1993). Sensing, feeling and action. )

• energy psychologies that have developed ways to access these bodily memories include core energetics (Pierrakos, J. (1990). Core energetics.), dance/movement therapy and authentic movement (Whitehouse, 1958)

linked mentions for "somatic":

1. human capacity for self-detachment

   To detach oneself from even the worst conditions is a uniquely human capability. However, this unique capacity of man to detach himself from any

2. body as an object outside or subject inside

   behavioral psychology studies the body as an object from outside itself, somatic studies the body as a subject from inside itself, it de-emphasises

3. cartesian mechanistic physics vs quantum mechanics

   Somatics challenges traditional models of Cartesian dualism in which contemporary scientific psychology was born. Whereas Freud’s psychology was

4. feldenkrais

   Scientist, martial artist, and founder of the method that bears his name, Moshe Feldenkrais wrote several influential books on the relationship