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

May 3rd 2024

Brown-Séquard’s syndrome

a condition resulting from damage along one side of the spinal cord. It is characterized by a set of symptoms that include loss of the sense of pain and temperature along the opposite side of the body as well as spastic paralysis and loss of vibratory, joint, and tendon sensations on the same side as the lesion. [Charles Brown-Séquard (1817–1894), French neurophysiologist]