The history & origin of dearmouring

1. The Reich Era — The Birth of Body-Mind Therapy

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) sits at a weird crossroads of psychology, politics, and somatic exploration. Whatever one thinks of him, his impact on somatic therapy is massive.

Here’s the wider context:

Early Freud Period (1910s–1920s)

Reich starts as a rising star in Freud's psychoanalytic movement.

  • He’s fascinated by sexuality, repression, and emotional inhibition.

  • He works with patients who intellectually “understand” their issues but still feel stuck.

  • This makes him suspicious of pure talk therapy.

Reich begins noticing a pattern:

Patients’ emotional defenses show up physically — in posture, breath, tension, and movement.

This slowly evolves into the idea of armouring.

2. Reich’s “Body Armour” Concept

Reich believed:

  • We develop chronic muscular tensions to protect ourselves from pain, fear, anger, and vulnerability.

  • These tensions become structural — shaping posture, breath, and personality.

  • Emotional expression, sexuality, spontaneity, and vitality get locked away.

He thought of armour in two forms:

1. Muscular Armour

Physical contractions, tightness, holding, fixed posture.

2. Character Armour

Psychological defenses—denial, rigid morality, sarcasm, people-pleasing, withdrawal, etc.

For Reich, these two were inseparable.

A tense jaw = suppressed aggression.
Collapsed chest = shut-down grief.
Rigid pelvis = inhibited sexual expression.

This was revolutionary at the time.

3. The Bigger Historical Backdrop

Reich’s work unfolds during:

Post-WWI Europe

Trauma, authoritarianism, poverty, and sexual repression are everywhere.

Rebellion Against Victorian Morality

Reich sees rigid sexual morality as the root of neurotic suffering.
He pushes for:

  • sex education

  • access to contraception

  • open discussion of desire

Very taboo then.

Political Radicalism

Reich mixes psychology with Marxist ideas:

  • emotional repression creates obedient citizens

  • freeing the body = freeing the mind = resisting authoritarian systems

This eventually gets him expelled from both the psychoanalytic movement and communist circles.

Late Life / Controversial Phase

In the U.S., he develops ideas about “orgone energy,” cloud-busting machines, and energetic flow — more mystical.
This period is heavily disputed, but it influenced many later body-energy systems.

4. Reich’s Character / Body Types

These are not diagnoses; they’re patterns — ways people shape their bodies and personality around early emotional wounds.

Reich didn’t finalize them into one list, but his student Alexander Lowen (and the Bioenergetics lineage) clarified them.

Here’s the classic five-character-armour types:

1. The Schizoid Type

Core wound: fear of annihilation or non-belonging (very early developmental trauma)
Emotional theme: “The world is unsafe; I must disappear.”

Body shape:

  • Tension in neck/head

  • Cold or undercharged limbs

  • Disconnected segments of the body

  • Difficulty staying fully embodied

Psychological traits:

  • Withdrawn, in the mind

  • Highly sensitive, creative, spiritual

  • Difficulty trusting contact and closeness

2. The Oral Type

Core wound: unmet early needs — nourishment, holding, affection
Emotional theme: “I need… but I fear I won’t get.”

Body shape:

  • Underdeveloped musculature in limbs

  • Slouched chest

  • Weak jaw

  • Energetic emptiness or longing

Psychological traits:

  • Dependency patterns

  • People-pleasing

  • Fear of abandonment

  • Deep empathy and softness

3. The Psychopathic Type

(Note: different from DSM-5 psychopathy; this is a Reichian term.)
Core wound: betrayal or dominance from caregivers
Emotional theme: “I must stay on top to stay safe.”

Body shape:

  • Inflated chest

  • Strong upper body / weaker lower body

  • Holding tension at the top; empty below

Psychological traits:

  • Charismatic, strategic

  • Distrust of vulnerability

  • Control dynamics

  • Fear of being dominated

4. The Masochistic Type

Core wound: shame, repression, humiliation in childhood
Emotional theme: “If I stay small, I stay safe.”

Body shape:

  • Compressed belly and pelvis

  • Tension wrapping around the body (as if “held in”)

  • Strong musculature but compressed stance

Psychological traits:

  • Over-responsible

  • Self-sacrificing

  • Suppressed anger

  • Deep loyalty and resilience

5. The Rigid Type

Core wound: conditional love + performance pressure
Emotional theme: “I must be perfect and composed to be loved.”

Body shape:

  • Straight, upright posture

  • Tension in thighs, pelvis, and chest

  • Elegant but tight

Psychological traits:

  • Controlled emotions

  • High-functioning, disciplined

  • Avoidance of messiness or vulnerability

  • Strong sense of beauty and order

5. Influence & Legacy

Reich’s ideas seeded entire fields:

  • Bioenergetic Analysis (Lowen)

  • Somatic Experiencing (Levine)

  • Radix, Core Energetics, Neo-Reichian work

  • Trauma-informed somatics

  • Modern tantra & dearmouring communities

The very notion that: “the body keeps the score” starts here, decades before Bessel van der Kolk popularized it.

Even if Reich himself was polarizing, the body-mind unity he proposed is foundational to today’s somatic landscape.