bioenergetics

n. a form of alternative psychotherapy that combines work with the body and the mind in treating emotional problems. Bioenergetics proposes that body and mind are functionally identical: What happens in the mind reflects what is happening in the body, and vice versa. It uses exercises and postural changes in an attempt to relieve chronic muscular tensions and rigidity attributed to emotional stress and unresolved emotional conflicts. The approach was developed by U.S. physician Alexander Lowen (1910–2008) and is based on the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957).

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Psychology term of the day

January 13th 2025

discontinuity hypothesis

in Gestalt psychology, the viewpoint that emphasizes the role of sudden insight and perceptual reorganization in successful discrimination learning and problem solving. According to this view, a correct answer is only recognized when its relation to the issue as a whole is discovered. Also called discontinuity theory. Compare continuity hypothesis. See also aha experience; all-or-none learning; eureka task.