What is Alexander Lowen's Bioenergetics? The article was written after a meeting with Alexander Lowen's son, Federick Lowen, executive director of the A. Lowen Community Organization. His own experience is connected with the work of A. Lowen and the association, which has existed for many years. He himself participated in various programs and trainings on Bioenergy therapy, in his opinion, despite the fact that a lot of work has already been done on Bioenergy analysis, the value of this work has not yet been fully recognized. Bioenergetic analysis of Alexander Lowen is the promotion of life, love , health.A. Lowen was born in 1910 in New York, his parents were emigrants from Russia. He was an intelligent, bright man, he had several scientific degrees, and before becoming a doctor (A. Lowen began studying to become a doctor after 40 years), A. Lowen was a lawyer, but he never practiced law. And in 1942 he began working with Wilheim Reich, he was his student. In 1956, A. Lowen organized the “Institute of Bioenergetic Analysis,” which in 1976 became the “International Alexander Lowen Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis.” “Alexander Lowen’s bioenergetic analysis is a great contribution to body-oriented psychotherapy.” A. Lowen wrote 14 books, most of which were translated into Russian. Another book will appear very soon; there is already a contract for its publication: “The Voice of the Body.” A. Lowen’s books reflect his personal growth, and it is interesting to trace this from them. But the main context of A. Lowen’s work is bodily psychotherapy. The body and mind function together; the body reflects all the integral processes that occur in a person and in his psyche, i.e. in the whole person as a whole. First of all, it should be remembered that there is a functional unity between the body and the mind, the relationship between the body and the mind is not hierarchical, the body, psyche and soul are functionally interacting aspects of the whole person. Bioenergetics represents only the body and the bioenergetic processes that occur in body These bioenergetic processes in the body depend on what is happening in a person’s head and precisely determine what is happening in the body. If we talk about bioenergetic exercises, then the body and mind represent two polar points of the unity of personality, and all the dysfunctions that a person experiences at the somatic or mental level, are the result of a violation of this unity. Bioenergetics works very well in the relationship between mind and body, you can read about this in the book “Bioenergetic Analysis”. Now bioenergetics is becoming incredibly important in understanding human physical ailments and psychosomatic disorders. It is no longer a secret that most physical diseases are the result of psychological problems. Due to the fact that a person buries feelings in his body, this puts a lot of stress on the internal organs. For example, a person who denies sadness or anger for a long time, as a result of losing love at an early age, such a person will be susceptible to heart disease. From the point of view of A. Lowen, oncology is a disease that is closely related to the suppression of feelings. People who interact well with society, who can build relationships in the family and at work, and these people are physically absolutely healthy. And if people have problems in social interactions, they have difficulty adapting in society, then this, first of all, is reflected not only on the emotional level, but in their physical ailments, in the form of illness. This is not a completely confirmed scientific fact, but doctors already recognize that our illnesses are influenced by our emotional state. The energetic interaction of the individual and society, this interaction has the same unity as the mind and body. One polarity of this unity is individuality, the second polarity is the society in which the individual lives. And in the same way, disturbances appear in the interaction of individuality and society, as well as mind and body.Of course, society influences the individual and just the opposite, the individual influences society. Bioenergy is like psychotherapy. A little about the history of bodily psychotherapy, how wide the field is in terms of bioenergy. Let's start with Sigmund Freud and consider the work of Wilheim Reich. And Alexander Lowen, who completed and expanded the work of W. Reich, later he developed many important techniques and exercises of body therapy.Z. Freud was the one who explained what the UNCONSCIOUS is. He defined the concept of LEBIDO - as sexual energy. He worked with hysteria, on the basis of which he developed the whole of psychoanalysis, which recognizes and shows the influence of early disturbances in a person's life as the cause of problems in the future. He also began to study characterology - as a direction that studies the character of a person, but Freud worked with only two human characters. He defined the oral character and the genital one. In 1919, W. Reich became a student of Freud, and he expanded Freud's work in psychoanalysis, especially in the areas of work with sexuality and energy. He published one of the important works called "Character Analysis" in 1934, in which he described character as the bioenergetic development of a person. He studied the oral structure, but he also added a masochistic character structure. And the genital structure of character as a manifestation of a rigid character. He made his main contribution to bioenergetic work by introducing the concept of “character defense,” which he presented as the bodily expression of attitudes that manifest themselves in chronic muscle tension. As a psychoanalyst, W. Reich was a very precise researcher and observer, he developed work with sexuality, what he called the “orgasm theory.” And he also highlighted the “orgasm reflex” and drew attention to how important breathing is in a person’s life. Identified correct breathing and impaired breathing. He presented the breathing disorder as a “non-integral wave of breathing.” “Wave breathing” is about the fact that breathing starts from the feet and goes to the top of the head. It's not just air going in and out of the body, it's much more than that. W. Reich studied the nature of resistance, which is an energy phenomenon. Denial of the natural flow of energy creates those states that are comfortable for a person. Character includes the defense that is built in the body, and this defense allows a person to feel in a comfort zone with a disturbed energy flow. He further developed Freud's ideas - LIBIDO, in terms of energy, and he called this "orgone energy". He called it vegetotherapy. In addition to being a psychoanalyst, W. Reich was a scientist; the work he did was more laboratory work, which involved studying primitive life forms through a microscope. He studied the chemical structure of the disturbing effect on benign beings. He also used electrical stimulation, which he associated with emotional and sexual arousal. And in 1930, he conducted research aimed at the differences between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. He also studied the autonomic nervous system. He also studied social sciences, he was a social scientist, in the 1920s he worked in Russia, he was very inspired by the ideas of the possibility of new reforms in different countries. V. Reich as a scientist, and his works were disciplinary and touched on many areas. As part of his research, he discovered very interesting things.V. Reich discovered that the first basic basis of the essence of all life is pulsation. All bioenergetic exercises are about energy and movement. Pulsation can be observed through breathing, heartbeat, through sexual activity, but also pulsation is observed in the digestive system, in hormonal secretion and in all muscle activity. And this gives reason to say that V. Reich, first of all, studied movement in structure. In his observations through the microscope, he did not pay attention to studying the structure in detail. INUnlike most, he was not interested in the details of the structure. He was interested in the movement of a living organism, which is energy. First of all, he did not look at dead structures of the body, she observed living structures. An important aspect in the work of W. Reich is based on the fact that pulsation and movement exist at every level of development of the body. Just as the laws apply to single-celled primitive life forms, they also apply to multicellular organisms such as humans and other animals, and exactly the same laws apply to collective communities and populations. This is an example of what we call functional identity. Unity and opposing aspects of life. They come out of the understanding that life is pulsating. Pulsation is expansion and contraction. The maximum point of expansion and the maximum point of compression are two polar points of one single organism. And what is important here is not to get stuck in one polarity or between polarities. Pulsation is important for the healthy functioning of the body, and furthermore, he discovered that expansion is associated with pleasure in the body, and contraction is associated with fear. Understanding the nature of understanding conflict is also important.A. Lowen understood this as the nature of the conflict of consciousness. An example of when consciousness arises as a result of awareness of opposites. W. Reich represented the interaction between body and mind as dialectical; on the surface level they are opposite, they are in opposition. One impulse is directed against the other and works in the opposite direction. But at a deep level they are one. This suggests that personality is reflected in the body, just as it is in the mind. The body reflects how a person copes with something and how he moves. Just like in the mind, it is represented in the form of different thoughts and images. And again this is the functional identity of mental and bodily processes. And this is the primary basis of bioenergetic analysis. Pulsation is an energetic phenomenon. And Reich described energy flows, which in bioenergetic work are called vibration. And vibration appears as evidence of these same energy flows. Lack of vibration is an indicator that there are blocks in the body. Understanding the nature of pulsation is the basis of bioenergetic work.A. Lowen continued to study W. Reich's ideas about pulsation, and added to the study of character structures. And now we can say that there are four types of character, and all of them are associated with the development of a child in childhood. We have four types of character: schizoid structure, oral structure, masachistic structure and rigid structure. And all four of these character structures reflect how the energy flows in us passed, starting from the embryonic stage of development. When we are just born, our entire energy focus is concentrated around the mouth - this is the source of nutrition and the source of contact with the mother. Between one and two years of age, this focus becomes anal as we become aware of the need to defecate as we all go through the process of toilet training. When we pass through this stage by the age of three or four, the energetic focus becomes genital and we are faced with the phenomenon of the Oedipus complex, which is the source of problematic relationships with the parent of the same and opposite sex. And we see manifestations of this when we observe how young children react and behave with their parents. The study of character is based on this development. For example, a schizoid character structure that has developmental disorders at an early stage, perhaps even in the womb. The oral structure is assumed to be formed as a consequence of a disturbance during the oral stage of development. This is also associated with the development of a masochistic and rigid structure. The rigid structure includes hysterical, narcissistic and psychopathic character types. Not a single person has one pure character structure; in all of us one can find a mixture of all the structures that, at different periods of life,.