Neurology Edited by Professor Emeritus Desire' Dubounet, IMUNE

That I only found when studying Wilhelm Reich's writings. He spoke of unobstructed pulsation,the meaning of sexuality, functional identity of body and mind. I became "hooked on Reich"; ona concept which saw a person within his social context, and which offered a radicalpsycho-somatic model without reducing body to psyche or vice versa.Therefore, I do not want to speak too much about body therapy itself, but rather about Reich'sconcept of health and illness, with health meaning not merely the absence of physical symptoms,but also mental well-being. I'd like to explain what orthodox medical concepts Reich's model isbased on, and especially elaborate on the function of the autonomic nervous system. I will thenelucidate Reich's understanding of health as unobstructed pulsation, as well as the term"biopathy". With regard to individual diseases, I will then describe impairments of theautonomic nervous system, and illustrate which techniques we use in body therapy to exertinfluence upon the autonomic nervous system, the morphological basis of pulsation, in order tostimulate and support the healthy functioning of the whole human organism.2. AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM2.1. Definition of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)In context with his works on sex-economy in 1934 through 1938, Wilhelm Reich researched thebiological basis for sexuality and anxiety. Doing so, he recognized the ANS' central importanceas an interface for bodily and emotional processes: on the one hand, it is closely connected to thefunctions of internal organs; on the other hand, it serves as a messenger for emotional perceptionvia blood and plasma streams, and is linked to the cerebral areas which represent emotionthrough connections in the central nervous system. According to Reich, body therapy involvesworking with the somatic and the psychological systems simultaneously. The emotionalenergies are released from the character and muscular “armor“, as he called it.Due to the ANS' great importance, I would like to elaborate a little further now upon what itactually is, how it works, and its relevance regarding health and disease.The autonomic nervous system is part of the human central nervous system (CNS). The CNS isbasically made up of three sections, the functions of which closely interact. One part managesvoluntary movement, the muscle system's response to various stimuli from the environment; thispart is called motor nervous system. Another part processes information from the sense-organs,such as eye, nose, or sense of touch, into conscious perception; it is called sensory nervous