What is Orgonomy
Orgonomy is the name of a particular theory and therapy developed by Wilhelm Reich, M.D. Reich was a psychoanalyst and a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Reich was the founder of what is known today as somatic therapy. Soma means body and Reich’s brilliant and scientific understanding of life energy made it clear to him that in order for psychotherapy to be effective it needed to include the understanding of how functionally integrated and inseparable mind and body are. This means that mind and body reflect each other’s conditions. Both must be addressed for lasting healing and true satisfaction.
Biophysical interventions work directly on the body so suppressed emotions can be released. The suppressed emotions are felt and lived as physical blocks to the authentic self and creative vitality. With bodywork, a patient can function in healthier ways as well as feel relief, calm, and more open-hearted to life.
What this looks like in a therapy session is a talk therapy called character analysis. Character analysis addresses lifelong maladaptive patterns of expression. These are defenses, protective mechanisms: how one lives, as well as belief systems that block one from their authentic self.
Orgonomy is a systematic and methodical approach. It is relational as the therapist is in deep contact with the patient, their life, and their history. It is a way of understanding character or personality expressions in a very defined way. As such the Method gives a roadmap of how to work with a patient to help in loosening the lifelong defenses and modes of behavior that cause distress.
Reich’s scientific research led him to discover the reality of energy contained in all organisms. Reich gave the name “orgone” to this life energy he observed as shared by all living beings. Reich’s extraordinary contribution to psychotherapy and the understanding of the connection between every aspect of our biology and psychology was developed over his decades of research and as a practicing analyst. He also came to learn that the function of orgasm is a way of balancing our vital life energy so that which we build up in the course of life can be released in a natural way. Otherwise it becomes rigidified in the body creating distortions in our natural behavior resulting in unhealthy modes of functioning and relating in our lives. So the name Orgonomy comes from Reich’s deep understanding of both organism and orgasm.
