The Voice of the Body: The Role of the Body in Psychotherapy

For many of us living most of the time in our minds, thinking we have a body rather than is a body, Lowen's exercises are great in helping us to reconnect, to become whole. If nothing else takes your fancy, his exercises alone are worth 5 stars in this fractured world.

This is, in my opinion, the most realistic understanding of the relations between mind and body, especialy in its description of depression. A must read for any medical student, even more so in times of extreme materialism and big pharma domination of the understanding of human emotions.

stellar....he is the best ever at describing how the body and mind work together. Have enjoyed everything he has written

I decided to read this book after hearing about the benefits of using a bioenergetic stool for helping to improve posture and weightlifting mechanics. Lowen makes some very intriguing points about the link between physical and mental health, and while I think many of his propositions are only loosely based on science (a fact which the author acknowledges in this book), I don't think there is any denying that you can apply his techniques to improve your quality of life. It's become increasingly apparent to me that many of us have lost touch with our bodies and therefore have no real concept of what it means to feel 'good' anymore. Personally, I had no idea that my breathing had become so restricted as a result of my inactive lifestyle, but after just a few sessions of breathing deeply while leaning backward on a stool with a foam roller strapped to the top, I was amazed to experience a level of physical relaxation and mental clarity that I hadn't felt in years. My recommendation with this book is to take the 'scientific' explanations with several grains of salt, but try to apply some of the prescriptions for a couple of weeks and see how much better you feel.

Classic Lowen this kind of work transcends the usual.

In his long career, Lowen had written, besides many powerful books, several 'monographs' on shorter topics. These monographs were not as readily available to the larger public as his other writings, so this volume was published to fill the need. The writing in this book tends to be directed at an audience that was sympathetic to Lowen's view, but also an audience that needed the background in 'human science' to fully understand the ideas. For this reason, the writing is some of the most informative, and certainly not repetitious.

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His weakest book. He has an (what I assume is an unconscious) bias for men that leads him give him only illustrations of being mean and not men throughout the book. He also seems to want to prove that all male weaknesses are due to mothers He is ok with hitting women. He thinks homosexuality as an attitude is a neurosis.! I liked this guy before , now rethinking somewhat