A few years back, I wrote a couple of articles about how Reichian Character Structure relates not just to individuals but also to whole cultures - how the typical childhoods of different countries create whole peoples with similar issues. And how certain races and cultures have historically utilised childhood trauma to their advantage.
A good example might be the British. Back around the 17th century, the specific characteristics of the British childhood, as experienced by members of the ruling and middle classes, left certain psychological marks upon those entering adulthood. It created people who lived very much “in their heads,” coming to relate to the world through layers of abstraction, rather than through the intensity of direct emotion. In Reichian psychology, such people would these days be known as being of the Leaving Pattern, or Leaving Type.
Whilst, in many ways, such childhoods might be considered suboptimal and traumatic, nevertheless it endowed the British with certain adaptive advantages which, combined with their geolocation, as an island race on the Atlantic coast, led them to create the largest global empire yet seen.
Spending large periods of the day in abstract thinking allowed the British to slowly develop rational ideas about how the world functioned. They created sciences, like physics and chemistry. And, concurrent with these intellectual understandings, they also became capable of creating both industrial society and of vastly multiplying the level of force that they could assert over their environment. Understanding science allowed them to develop both weapons and vehicles, specifically ships, through which they could forge their empire. In addition, their capacity to rationally observe situations, not lost in overwhelming emotion, afforded them the ability to create tactical strategies.
Armed with these tools, the British slowly began to project power globally, taking over and controlling lands vastly larger and more populous than their own. In considering their achievements, if one should be an anglophile, it would be easy to wax lyrical about the amazing qualities of the British. But actually, it’s all down to their culture affording certain types of trauma to its young. If the middle and upper classes of 17th and 18th century Britain hadn’t spent so much time in their heads, it would never have happened.
One might ask why Britain lost its empire and has been slowly fading away throughout this last century. There are two answers to this, one easy and obvious, the other more complex and psychological.
Firstly, of course, other cultures and nations got to play catch-up. Britain could not keep all that it had learned secret from the rest of the world and so, inevitably, the adaptive advantage that they had once enjoyed progressively slipped away,
Secondly, however, whilst it was useful for a while to be massively in your head, in the long run this did not lead to a race of libidinally vital individuals. Your head might be alive with all sorts of exciting theories but your body, and your sense of it, would be locked off from you, and all of its vitality inaccessible. The thinking classes of Britain directed their working classes to fight and to engage in industrial output. The two class groups thus worked together, the one contributing ideas, the other energy. It was successful but nevertheless vulnerable to any culture which might create people with that capacity for abstract thought, yet still possessing libidinal vitality.
From where might such a race of supermen and superwomen emerge? You have likely worked out what came next. But before I get to America, let’s pick up mainland Europe.
That continent is often split into North and South.
Southern Europe - the Mediterranean bowl - has one distinct culture. Northern Europe - Germany, Holland, Poland and Austria - have quite another. Many find it hard to reconcile the two.
Whilst, at first glance, Mediterranean cultures often seem to be male-dominated and patriarchal, anyone who has lived in the region knows well that this is merely surface appearance. The institutional patriarchs of the region, with their brilliantined dark hair and moustaches, are merely a front, one that conceals the most powerful matriarchal culture on the planet. You might look like a romantic and vital man on the surface, projecting power from a movie billboard or a political poster. But, underneath that, one thing is clear. No matter how powerful you might seem, you won’t be leaving your mama. Because, nobody in this region leaves their mama.
Woven into the very fabric of Mediterranean culture are myriad manipulative strategies and devices to ensure that mother stays well and truly in control of her offspring. You might leave home. You might even relocate to the other side of the earth. It matters not. Mama will be there with you every step of the way, if not physically beside you, then nevertheless there in the background of your mind, admonishing you should your behaviour ever stray from her moral codex.
Now, up in northern Europe, things are quite different. In many countries there, it is normal, especially amongst the middle classes, for young adults to leave home before the end of their teenage years. The mothers there somehow accept that this is an element of north European life. They have to let go.
Yet, all is not psychologically well in these countries either. Whether it be the classic, Slavic “endurer,” grinding away at his task; the hopeless “oral” dreamer, ever longing for his soulmate; or, as we’ve mentioned, the abstracted housewife, living in daydreams - things are not well. The three classic “pre-egoic” character types - Leaving, Oral and Enduring - dominate northern Europe, from Belfast all the way to Moskva. The reason for this seems to be that ruling classes of this region desire to retain control. Keep the people grinding away for you, or lost in fantasies, and you can maintain your grip on the reins of power. Pretty much nobody in Europe gets to really manifest their potential, because such a person might threaten the existing power structure.
And so to America.
Whilst it is hardly the case that the majority of Americans lead fulfilled, powerful lives - hundreds of millions of them do not - nevertheless the level of early childhood trauma that the average American is subjected to is sufficiently lower than that of other cultures to give them a strategic edge.
Less Oral, less Leaving and less Enduring translates to a more libidinally vital people, one who will not easily accept unearned top-down control. The Reichian Character Types that dominate the psychological landscape of North America are Rigid and Aggressive. Whilst not perfect, they do allow the culture to boldly go where others don’t and, importantly, to keep going in the face of resistance. America’s vast achievements in the post-war era, come down to all those Rigids and Aggressives taking a position and not letting go of the baton.
In short, Americans have drive. And, despite what the European ruling classes would like you to believe, drive is vitally important to development. In fact, back in the early days of psychology, of Sigmund Freud in turn-of-the-century Vienna, the notion of drive, whether it be considered “will-to-power,” libido, Eros or Orgone, was the greater part of psychology. Over the years, the abstract thinkers took over and psychology became less about vital energy and more about how your mind worked. But that’s another story.
What I hope you can take from this piece is that if you wish to be successful in life, however that might look to you right now, then you need to remove the blocks to your natural energy; you need to find a way to not be dominated by Leaving, Oral or Enduring traits and that, most of all, you need to leave your mother. If your mother is always there in the back of your mind, controlling your behaviour, your individuality is not going to happen.
This is not to be mean to your mother. You don’t need to rage at her. You can still be loving towards her. But you need her, and more importantly yourself, to understand that you’re an adult now and that you take your own decisions. Uproot your mother from your mind and be free.
Outstanding article.
I really liked this, great take