Biodynamic Psychology – INTEGRA CPD

The Vasomotoric Cycle 2 (1990, 2005)

Michael - Handouts — Sun, 04 Mar 1990 00:00:00 +0000

This handout extends in more detail Gerda Boyesen's (Biodynamic Psychology) concept of the 'Vasomotoric Cycle', and how an impulse evolves and goes through a cycle. Although slightly oversimplifying, it is based on the idea that emotions and feelings emerge from the unconscious depths of the body and then become conscious as thoughts and expressed in relation to others. Thus the cycle implies a flow of experience through all levels of the bodymind, involving all systems of the body, appropriate to each stage in the cycle. More detailed versions of the diagram exist, dividing the cycle in to 7, 10 or 12 stages, which are related also to the cycle of inbreath and outbreath, as well as the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system (revised 2005).

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The Vasomotoric Cycle 1 (1990, 2005)

Michael - Handouts — Sat, 03 Mar 1990 00:00:00 +0000

This handout illustrates the basic principle of Gerda Boyesen's (Biodynamic Psychology) concept of the 'Vasomotoric Cycle'. The assumption is (similar to the Gestalt cycle - see other handout), that human experience goes through continuous cycles, which can be complete or incomplete. The idea of the 'Vasomotoric Cycle' is rooted in Wilhelm Reich's much earlier formulation (late 1920's) of the tension-charge-discharge-relaxation cycle, which is essentially a holistic idea, following the cycle of experience throughout all bodymind levels, thus knitting together body, mind and psyche in the idea of an unfolding continuous process. Incomplete and interrupted cycles therefore are seen to have (negative) consequences on all levels, from the somatic to the emotional to the mental. A chronically interrupted cycle is equivalent with character formation (revised 2005).

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The Vasomotoric Cycle (1990, old version)

Michael - Handouts — Wed, 03 Jan 1990 00:00:00 +0000

This is the oldest version of this handout, basically copied across from how the notion of the Vasomotoric Cycle was developed, understood and taught already at the Boyesen Centre since the 1970s. It was taken for granted that this was a detailed elaboration of Reich's 'charge-discharge' formula and that it corresponds to the Gestalt cycle. It is one of the most basic ideas of a body-oriented perspective, based upon Reich's idea of pulsation of the living, as the cycle involves all bodymind levels. As an impulse (whether emerging from within or triggered by an external stimulus) moves through the various bodymind levels, it ties them together in a complete expression that makes body and mind indivisible. It is a very practical and immediately observable application of Reich's holistic vision (which he himself called 'functionalism'): full, uninterrupted pulsation and completed cycles are an expression of vibrant emotional health; chronically interrupted cycles are a manifestation of character formation (or 'character armour' as Reich called it).

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