Characteranalytical Vegetotherapy

The term characteranalytical vegetotherapy was coined by Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) in 1935 in Oslo, Norway, and describes his method for the practice of psychoanalysis. He introduced significant modifications to both the concept of setting and the clinical tools used. These would subsequently form the basis for the so-called body- oriented psychotherapies.

Characteranalytical vegetotherapy is based on psychodynamic theory and introduces the corporeity of the patient as a third element in the psychotherapeutic setting. The patient’s body, however, takes on diagnostic value, with information obtained from the “language of the body” (the word character means etymologically “incised mark,” incised marks from the object relations in the seven corresponding bodily areas, or “levels”), and it represents a therapeutic guideline. The sense organs give access to the psychic functions ...