The Betrayal of the Body. Dr. Alexander Lowen M.D.

go through the interview leaning his head on his hand. The probable explanation of this phenomenon is that the inclined position of the head allowed him to use one eye, the dominant one, for vision and to avoid the difficulty of convergence and accommodation required when both eyes attempt to focus on an object.

      Rigidity and tension also characterize the remainder of the schizoid body. One almost always sees a rigidity of the shoulders and neck, which seems related to an attitude of haughtiness and withdrawal. I interpret this expression as an attitude of “being above it,” the “it” meaning the body and bodily desires and feelings. This attitude becomes generalized as being above people or the bodily pleasure of life. The haughtiness is most clearly manifest in patients who have a long, thin neck which seems to detach the head from the rest of the body. In these cases the shoulders are depressed, accentuating the separation. In other cases the shoulders are elevated, as if the patient were trying to hold himself up by his shoulders. As a result of the rigidity of the shoulder girdle, the arms hang from their sockets like appendages rather than as extensions of a unified organism.

      Schizoid rigidity is not the same as the rigidity of the compulsive neurotic, which stems from a tension that contains a strong emotional charge. The neurotic is frustrated and angry; the schizoid is terrified with a suppressed rage. The body structure of the rigid neurotic individual has an essential unity which is lacking in the schizoid structure. The rigidity of the schizoid is like ice compared to the steel of the rigid neurotic. In the schizoid personality the rigidity is as brittle at it is hard, as constricting as it is containing. Kretschmer quotes Strindberg, who became schizophrenic, as saying, “I am as hard as ice yet so full of feeling that I am almost sentimental.”²⁶

      Schizoid feeling is sentimentality because it lacks a direct connection with physical sensation. It can be described as a “cool” feeling which reflects denial of need and rejection of bodily pleasure. Normal feeling is emotional rather than sentimental because it is grounded in physical sensation; emotional feelings, therefore, are warm or hot (passionate). On the other hand, the schizoid is not devoid of feeling or even passion when it is a question of defending the rights of the underprivileged or fighting for a cause. His dedication to principles reflects a selflessness that is at the core of his personal difficulties. This is not to say that the defense of justice is the exclusive domain of the schizoid. What is meant here is that the schizoid, lacking a sense of personal identity, frequently seeks a justification for living in social causes, isms, and panaceas. Schizoid sentimentality is the result of the abstraction of feeling from the self and the body. It denotes a loss of personal identity, which is compensated for through social identifications.

      Further examination of the schizoid body reveals several other characteristic disturbances. One commonly finds that the upper half of the body is relatively underdeveloped muscularly. The thorax tends to be narrow, tight, and held in a deflated condition. This thoracic constriction, which is particularly evident in the lower ribs, necessarily limits respiration. In other cases, however, where the illness is less severe, one may find a compensatory inflation of the chest, considered “manly” by some patients and developed through weight-lifting exercises. In the collapsed body, the chest is deflated, soft, and toneless. In all cases, there is a marked constriction of the body about the waist, due to a chronic contraction of the diaphragm.