Pulsation. From Wilhelm Reich to Neurodynamic Psychotherapy by Sean Haldane

by Seán Haldane

Wilhelm Reich identified pulsation as the basic life function, experienced most intensely in orgasm, and his therapy worked to dissolve emotional and physical blocks to full pulsation, through ‘character analysis’ and a focus on the breathing. He also believed pulsation was a function of a ‘universal life energy’ which he called ‘orgone.’ This book examines Reich’s work in the light of neuroscience and proposes that although pulsation is definitive of life, the concept of a specific ‘life energy’ is unnecessary and mistaken. However the term ‘orgone’, though not as ‘life energy’, may add to a valid description of the ‘cosmic ocean’ of equal-phase pulse waves within which the unequal-phase pulsation of life occurs. This book also proposes a ‘neurodynamic psychotherapy’ (Alexander Luria’s term) in which Reichian pulsation therapy can be integrated with neuroscience

Paperback

Published January 1, 1876

About the author

Seán Haldane can hold three passports: British(he was born in Sussex, in 1943), Irish (through his father, and he grew up mainly in Northern Ireland), and Canadian (through a long period of residence , 1967-94, in Québec, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia). By ancestry he is something of a human compass: a quarter each English, German, Scottish and Irish.

He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, University College, Oxford (B.A., First Class Hons. in English) and Saybrook Institute, San Francisco (Ph.D.in Psychology). When he first found himself writing poetry he resolved never to make a living from it or by teaching it, and that any incidental earnings from poems would go towards publishing poetry by himself and others. He has worked as a lecturer, part time farmer, small press publisher, psychotherapist, consultant clinical neuropsychologist in the NHS and Canadian health services, and as an expert witness in criminal and civil cases. He lives in London where he has a part time practice in neuropsychology and psychotherapy supervision (See neuropsychology.sh) and does occasional neuropsychology supervision in the NHS. Since 2013 he has been publisher at Rún Press, Cork, Ireland, www.runepress.ie.

He is a competitive field archer.