Introduction to Reichian Character Structure (updated)
I’m currently preparing for my 7-day in-person retreat on Reichian Character Structure next week. I’ve rewritten my earlier introduction to this fascinating topic and am posting it below.
Introduction
Back in the 1930s, an Austrian-born student of Sigmund Freud, by the name of Wilhelm Reich, announced to the world his idea of Character Structure in his 1933 book - Character Analysis.
The basic idea was that people, over time, develop a certain posture, a way of moving and a personality, based on their childhood conditioning. It was one of the first attempts to tie mind and body together in psychology.
For example, people with a strong, skinny and somewhat angular physique might be characterised, under Reich’s system, as Schizoid (nowadays Leaving Pattern or Type). This would infer that, at the level of their personality, they would tend to live in a rather cerebral, abstract, or spiritual world. This could be seen as relating to a feeling of not being safe in their womb environment and in the world generally.
Another type Reich designated was the Masochist (now Endurer). This character type was usually heavy-set and slow to move or respond. At a personality level, they would tend to live life grudgingly, frequently blaming and complaining but rarely taking positive action to change their life. This pattern was believed to have its origin in being overwhelmed by a parent during the beginning of ego development, aged around 2 years.
The main psychological concept that developed here was how unprocessed aspects of our childhood become represented as non-typical development in our body fascia and musculature. The basic idea was that you could tie together:
how someone’s body both looked and moved, with
how their character or personality was, with
the dominant conditionings of their childhood
Reich originally identified 4 personality types:
Schizoid
Oral
Masochist
Rigid
A few years down the line, another was added, the scary-sounding Psychopath (Aggressive), making a total of 5. Subsequent researchers and therapists sometimes sub-divided the Rigid Character into 4 or 5 sub-types.
Less pathologising labels have now been applied to three of the Types. Meaning that a modern-day list of the five Character Types would typically look like this.
Leaving (formerly Schizoid)
Oral (sometimes Merging)
Enduring (formerly Masochist)
Rigid (unchanged)
Aggressive (formerly Psychopath)
These above I have placed in the order that they typically emerge as strategies during infancy and early childhood.
Therapists who came in Reich’s wake, such as Alexander Lowen, Philip Curcuruto, Morton Herskowitz and John Pierrakos utilised and developed Reich’s system to diagnose and treat clients.
The basic approach was to have the client walk around and perhaps engage in some light exercise, such that the therapist could pick up from their posture and the way that they moved which Character Type they might be. Next, the therapist would ask the client to talk about his or her childhood, to gain further insights into their Type and to confirm the diagnosis.
Once the primary and secondary Character Types were identified, the therapist would get the client to perform certain Reichian exercises, Bioenergetic postures or emotional expression exercises, with the intention of integrating those aspects of their personality that were creating the distinct Character Type.
Over many sessions, bit by bit, integration would take place and the client would feel both more psychologically whole, as well as having more energy and better posture.
Although it was by no means a rapid solution, Reichian Therapy and its offshoots (such as Bioenergetic Analysis) slowly developed some degree of popularity and credibility in the world of psychology.
The Reasons Why this type of Therapy never went Mainstream
Let’s look at some of the reasons why this type of therapy never really became popular or a part of the psychological mainstream.
With the emergence of the technological age, Western culture became increasingly “thought-based.” Human emotions and the sensation of the body increasingly became perceived as less important, whilst our thoughts, ideals and beliefs became more important. In the realm of therapy, this manifested as the emergence of more thought-based therapies, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Therapists and their clients were fascinated by the possibility of changing their lives by understanding and altering their thinking. In all the excitement that surrounded CBT and similar approaches, body-based therapies found themselves increasingly marginalised.
Body-based therapy is generally less comfortable to get involved in than more mind-based approaches.
The labels that Reich gave to each Character Type were most definitely pathologizing. As our culture underwent major shifts in the 60s and 70s, people wanted therapy to become more user friendly in how it both perceived and treated clients. People didn't want to be diagnosed as a “psychopath” or a “masochist” by some guy in a tweed jacket.
Some of the beliefs that prominent exponents of Character Structure had became very unfashionable. Reich himself was involved in a wide variety of fields, several of which either were or became controversial.
Over the years, many therapists working in this field “softened” their approach to treating Character Structure. Some preferred to use visualisations. Some came to rely on understanding the Structure to help overcome it.
Survival Strategies
Perhaps a good way of considering Character Structure in the 21st century is to think about it in terms of survival strategies. This fits well, I think, with where humanistic psychology is landing these days.
Our nervous system will protect us from extreme events during our infancy and early childhood. It represses the emotions that are triggered back into unconsciousness and we learn to work around certain areas of our psyche.
For example, where anger was repressed, we may learn to “please” and to overthink situations that could result in confrontation. Where emotional pain was repressed, we may learn to avoid any situation where we might feel vulnerable and tend to always seek control.
As infants and small children, we have very limited resources for self-protection. We don't have physical strength to hit back or discourage physical abuse. We don't have smart, street-wise moves to avoid being overly disciplined.
However, what we do have is control over where we put our attention.
We can choose to simply evacuate our body - to not feel what is happening
We can project our attention onto someone or something else
We can send our attention deep down inside, where no one can reach us
In addition to these three “pre-egoic” strategies, at least a couple of others develop a little later in childhood.
We can harden our attitude to the world and seek control
We can learn to be seductive and charismatic to achieve control
These 5 survival strategies correspond broadly to the 5 Character Structures.
Egoic and Pre-egoic Structures
I used the term “pre-egoic” above. In traditional, Freudian psychology, our ego is our sense of personal selfhood that typically develops from around the age of two. It has identity and drive - a sense of “who I am” and the energy to move any agenda I might have out into the world.
The first three Character Structures - Leaving, Oral & Enduring - typically form before our ego properly develops. This means that someone who is high in one of these Types will struggle to have much drive or sense of identity. In short, these are typically the people who come to therapy, because at some point they begin to realise that they’re not getting what they need from life and may feel socially dysfunctional.
The last two Character Structures - Rigid & Aggressive - typically develop after the ego has formed. Thus, someone higher in these will likely have more sense of identity and drive. People higher in these Types are way less likely to come to therapy.
Something interesting to note about this is that, when an early Character Structure has been significantly dissolved, the person may find themselves taking on a later one. For example, it is quite common for Leaving, Oral or Enduring Types to become Aggressive for a while in therapy.
Mechanism of Action
One aspect of Character Type or Structure that I find especially interesting relates to the agency through which that Type comes into being. Not all of the Types appear to form in response to trauma, for example. Or perhaps trauma may not be the only driving factor. Let’s list the five types in terms of how they typically form. Remember please that none of this should be considered “hard science,” merely how things appear to be working.
Leaving - nervous system mediated defensive action in response to some sense of unsafety. Takes awareness away from the body into the thinking mind.
Oral - traumatic response to inadequate experienced physical or emotional bond with the mother in the first year of life.
Enduring - nervous system mediated defensive action to bury, or lock off, access to anger and other forms of outgoing self-expression.
Rigid - conditioned response to childhood and/or societal pressure to be functional in the world.
Aggressive - traumatic response to sense of betrayal by a parent or significant adult in childhood or adolescence.
When considering treatment, it can be very useful to understand the differences in how these Types are forged. If a Type is initially nervous system mediated, and it is being mediated by the nervous system, a more gentle approach will be needed. However, for some people it is clear that a Type initially mediated by the nervous system is now merely a conditioned response, that’s to say that it has become a habituated behaviour in the body and mind. This may be treated more directly.
Body Type is no longer Valid!
The core concept of Reich’s Character Structure was that each of the five Types were directly associated with a specific type of posture or way of moving. The whole idea was rooted in how our body was.
I no longer agree that this applies. I treat clients all the time who bear no physical resemblance whatsoever to how their Character Structure is “supposed to be,” according to Reich’s descriptions and the old pictures one can find on the net.
This is tricky! Most people in the field feel that getting rid of body-type is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Reich’s whole original concept was based around body-type.
But what to do? I see heaps of clients who are incredibly Oral and yet who look nothing like the classic Oral - rounded belly, flattened chest, neck craning forwards. I see heaps of clients who are super-Endurers and yet who bear no resemblance to the classic Endurer - heavy-set and with a short neck. The same applies to the other Types.
Of course, the classic personality traits are there. But the body-shape is just way less consistent, in my experience.
One reason for the apparent divergence may be the way that the child-rearing techniques and access to technology has shifted since Reich was working, nearly a century ago.
Am I One Character Type?
This to me is another contentious area of the traditional way of working with Character Structure. Always we looked for the primary and secondary Types.
However, my experience of working with clients has made it clear to me that often people make use of more than two strategies to varying degrees. And we sometimes use different strategies in different types of social situations. Perhaps with a lover we behave as the Oral Type. Dealing with conflicts at work we might be the Endurer Type. Whilst around friends, perhaps we are more inclined to be the Rigid Type.
This said, it is nevertheless the case that most of the clients I see do display one or two Character Structures over the others. And these are the ones that we work with first. As a general rule, it’s good to work on pre-egoic structures before egoic.
However, when using Character Structure for self-help, a better strategy, in my opinion, is to spend at least a fortnight working on each of the Character Types in sequence. This seems to be remarkably useful, in my experience.
Using Character Structure in Body-based Therapy
When working one-to-one, after appropriate discussion and some form-filling, I will usually give clients one 20-30 minute workout to be done daily. This is generally stand-up type Bioenergetics, based around their Character Structure. It’s a series of postures, some static, some dynamic, done along to a ding track. There will usually be foundational postures, such as the Bow and Arch, interspersed with postures specific for their Type and where they’re currently at. In addition, I give them a breathwork workout to be done once or twice weekly. This is usually aimed at starting to get some energy moving at the level of the belly.
In subsequent sessions, we discuss how things are going. Are they managing to keep to the agreed workouts? Are they digging up too much emotion and in need of turning things down a little? Are they not digging up enough and in need of turning things up? Generally my approach is similar to that of a pharmacist. I start clients on a level of body-based medication, so to speak, that I think will work and then adjust the dose to fit.
It helps if clients have clear social goals that they wish to move towards. Examples of such goals might include:
holding better boundaries at work
feeling confident to allow more vulnerability around friends
achieving more general resilience in life, with less tendency to “collapse”
less need to be “in control” of a partner
But you don’t need to have a clear goal in order to work in this way.
The Order in which Characters Emerge
As survival strategies, these five Character Structures do appear to be related to specific phases of infancy and early childhood. However, research into this whole field is minimal so nothing is set in stone.
To me, it currently looks like:
Leaving - 2nd trimester to aged 2
Oral - birth to aged 1
Enduring - aged 2-4
Rigid - aged 4-7
Aggressive - aged 7-16
Whilst the above might represent the ages at which the Character Types emerge, how they manifest within us will be more complex. Generally, the pre-egoic patterns are especially psychologically debilitating. If the level of those is significant, they will block the formation of Rigid or Aggressive patterns, as well as leaving the individual low in drive and with a diminished sense of their individuality.
All in all, to sum up, this is actually stuff that many people find fascinating. Whenever I present about Character Structure, people often see the personal relevance, either to themselves or to people they know, very quickly. Character Structure might be a century old, and with little written about it by persons who aren’t academics, yet it still possesses a real capacity to engage when properly presented.
Want to stop being so needy? Want to have more emotional resilience? Want to stop hijacking your life? Character Structure is the stuff you need to know.
Reichian Character Online Personality Quiz 1 (newer) - https://bioenergetics.org.uk/reich-test/
Reichian Character Online Personality Quiz 2 (older) - https://bioenergetics.org.uk/quizzes/reich-test2/
Book a one-to-one session with me, or find out about the individual Character Types and more of this work on my website here - https://bioenergetics.org.uk
Find my book on Reichian Character Structure here on Amazon - https://a.co/d/bWIcvch