Books by Alexander Lowen, M.D.
The Language of the Body (1958) Originally published as Physical Dynamics of Character Structure
Love and Orgasm: A Revolutionary Guide to Sexual Fulfillment (1965)
The Betrayal of the Body (1967)
Pleasure: A Creative Approach to Life (1970)
Bioenergetics: The Revolutionary Therapy That Uses the Language of the Body to Heal the Problems of the Mind (1976)
Depression and the Body: The Biological Basis of Faith and Reality (1977)
The Way to Vibrant Health: A Manual of Bioenergetic Exercises, co-author Leslie Lowen (1977)
Fear of Life (1980)
Narcissism: Denial of the True Self (1984)
Love, Sex, and Your Heart (1988)
The Spirituality of the Body: Bioenergetics for Grace and Harmony (1990)
Joy: The Surrender to the Body and to Life (1995)
Honoring the Body: The Autobiography of Alexander Lowen, M.D. (2004)
The Voice of the Body: Selected Public Lectures 1962-1982 (2005)
Fear of Life
Alexander Lowen, M.D.
The Alexander Lowen Foundation
Fear of Life
Published by The Alexander Lowen Foundation
1852 Texas Hill Rd.
Hinesburg, VT 05461 USA
Phone: 802-338-2866
Copyright © 1980 by Alexander Lowen, M.D.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Lowen, Alexander
Fear of Life
1. Neuroses. 2. Fear. 3. Life. I. Title
RC530.L68 1981 616.85'2 81-9991 AACR2
Library of Congress Control Number 2003111107
ISBN 978-1-938485-02-2 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-938485-03-9 (ebook)
First Edition by The Alexander Lowen Foundation, 2012
Printed in the United States of America
Dedicated with love to ROWFRETA L. WALKER I hitched my wagon to your star.
Contents
Being as Authenticity
Being as Sexuality
Being as Not-Doing
The Fear of Living and of Dying
The Fear of Sex
The Fear of Insanity
The Spiral of Growth
Breakthrough and Breakdown
Castration Anxiety
Regression and Progression
Despair, Death, and Rebirth
7. THE OEDIPAL CONFLICT BECOMES A FACT OF MODERN LIFE
The Rise of the Ego to Dominance
The Hierarchy of Power and Power Struggles
Progress Produces Conflict
The Riddle of the Sphinx
Reconciling the Contradictions
The Wisdom of the Sphinx
What a thing is man! Among all wonders
The wonder of the world is man himself.
Yea, wondrous is man's Sagacity:
Through this he climbeth on high
Through this also he falleth.
In the confidence of his power he stumbleth;
In