Broken and Veiled in Shame

Revealed by the Body’s Implicit Light

Authors

  • Robert Lewis

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30820/0743-4804-2011-21-83

Keywords:

Mysterium, fragmentiert, genitale Umarmung, Pulsation

Abstract

This paper was a keynote presentation at the 2009 IIBA Conference on the Poetry of the Body in Buzios Brazil. It is proposed that we bioenergetic therapists are artisans whose craft is both an art form and a clinical science. In support of this thesis, the following questions are explored: Is it possible to both celebrate the poetry and ineffable mystery of our work, and yet to remain true to and to honor our Reichian and Lowenian roots? Can we be grounded in the mystery of life, without slipping into the «mystification” against which Reich warned us? Has the ‘grace of self’ that we seek to ‘unveil’, actually evolved from the core pulsation which our founders strove to liberate from our character armor?

Author Biography

Robert Lewis

Robert Lewis, M.D., in private practice in New York, is a senior trainer on the IIBA faculty, and a member of the clinical faculty of the NYU/Mount Sinai Medical Center. He has published extensively on the integration of early developmental and relational issues into the basic bioenergetic approach. Bob has long been interested in the sensory-motor story which trauma engraves in our bodies. He coined the term “cephalic shock” to capture the psychosomatic experience of what Winnicott called the mind as the locus of the false self. His elucidation of Cephalic Shock and way of working with the head, voice, and diaphragmatic connections to the pelvis, are beyond words. He has found the Attachment paradigm deeply confirming of the centrality of relationship in his clinical approach. Bob aims for and is touched by the moments of encounter in which implicit mystery becomes almost palpable. He leads workshops in Europe and the Americas, and residential intensives on Long Island, New York.
083-103 36113

Downloads

How to Cite

Lewis, R. (2022). Broken and Veiled in Shame: Revealed by the Body’s Implicit Light. Bioenergetic Analysis, 21(1), 83–103. https://doi.org/10.30820/0743-4804-2011-21-83

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 1 (2011)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows private use and unmodified distribution, but prohibits editing and commercial use (further information can be found at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). The terms of the Creative Commons licence only apply to the original material. The reuse of material from other sources (marked with a reference) such as charts, illustrations, photos and text extracts may require further permission for use from the respective copyrights holder.