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Alexander Lowen

Alexander Lowen Quotes

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Famous Alexander Lowen Quotes

“As adults, we have many inhibitions against crying. We feel it is an expression of weakness, or femininity or of childishness. The person who is afraid to cry is afraid of pleasure. This is because the person who is afraid to cry holds himself together rigidly so that he won't cry; that is, the rigid person is as afraid of pleasure as he is afraid to cry. In a situation of pleasure he will become anxious. As his tensions relax he will begin to tremble and shake, and he will attempt to control this trembling so as not to break down in tears. His anxiety is nothing more than the conflict between his desire to let go and his fear of letting go. This conflict will arise whenever the pleasure is strong enough to threaten his rigidity. Since rigidity develops as a means to block out painful sensations, the release of rigidity or the restoration of the natural motility of the body will bring these painful sensations to the fore. Somewhere in his unconscious the neurotic individual is aware that pleasure can evoke the repressed ghosts of the past. It could be that such a situation is responsible for the adage "No pleasure without pain.”

FeelingsPsychologyLetting GoEmotionsCryingPsychoanalysisBioenergetics
Book:The Voice of the Body
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“Unfortunately, most people do not stop to feel their tiredness. Faced with the pressures of life, they believe that it is a matter of survival to go on as they have been. Feeling tired raises a deep fear that they may not be able to continue the struggle. Many find it difficult to say, ‘I can’t.’ As children, they were taught that where there’s a will, there’s a way. To say, ‘I can’t,’ is to admit failure, which is seen as evidence that they are unworthy of love.”

PeopleWayFeelsBelieveMayChildrenHas BeensI CanMatterFeelingsAbleDifficultStruggleTaughtGoes OnSurvivalEvidencePressureRaisesTiredUnworthyTiredness
Author:Alexander Lowen
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“While the repression of a memory is a psychological process, the suppression of feeling is accomplished by deadening a part of the body or reducing its motility so that feeling is diminished. The repression of the memory is dependent upon and related to the suppression of feeling, for as long as the feeling persists, the memory remains vivid. Suppression entails the development of chronic muscular tension in those areas of the body where the feeling would be experienced. In the case of sexual feeling, this tension is found in and about the abdomen and pelvis”

LongFeelingsBodyWould BeFoundProcessMemoriesCasesDevelopmentAreasRemainsPsychologicalRelatedTensionAccomplishedDependentPersistVividReducingRepressionSuppressionParts Of The BodyAbdomen
Author:Alexander Lowen
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“It is a grave injustice to a child or adult to insist that they stop crying. One can comfort a person who is crying which enables him to relax and makes further crying unnecessary; but to humiliate a crying child is to increase his pain, and augment his rigidity. We stop other people from crying because we cannot stand the sounds and movements of their bodies. It threatens our own rigidity. It induces similar feelings in ourselves which we dare not express and it evokes a resonance in our own bodies which we resist.”

PeopleChildrenPersonsFeelingsBodyPainSoundCryMovementTearsComfortAdultsIncreaseInjusticeDareGravesRelaxUnnecessaryEvokeResonanceRigidityHumiliateCrying Child
Author:Alexander Lowen
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“Are we not witnessing a situation where children are conciously rejecting their parents' value despite love and devotion given to them? The present situation has arisen because parents have failed to transmit a sustaining faith to their children. The basic reason for this failure is that the parents themselves lacked faith. Without faith, their love was an image not a reality, a statement of words not an expression of feelings”

LoveChildrenReasonFeelingsRealityValuesFaithGivenParentSituationExpressionDevotionStatementsDespiteTransmitRejectingSustainingPresent SituationExpression Of Feeling
Author:Alexander Lowen
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“The person senses what it feels like to be free from inhibitions. At the same time he feels connected and integrated – with his body and, through his body, with his environment. He has a sense of well-being and inner peace. He gains the knowledge that the life of the body resides in its involuntary aspect. […] Unfortunately these beautiful feelings do not always hold up under the stress of daily living in our modern culture. The pace, the pressure and the philosophy of our times are antithetical to life.”

FeelsWellsPersonsPhilosophyFeelingsBodyBeautifulCultureEnvironmentModernGainsAspectStressPressureConnectedInner PeaceSensesWell BeingOur TimePaceIntegratedInhibitionsInvoluntaryDaily LivingModern Culture
Author:Alexander Lowen
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“Faith is a quality of being: of being in touch with oneself, with life, and with the universe. It is a sense of belonging to one's community, to one's country and to the earth. Above all it is a feeling of being grounded in one's body, in one's humanity, and in one's animal nature. It can be all of these things because it is a manifestation of life, an expression of the living force that unites all beings. It is a biological phenomenon and not a psychic creation.”

CountryFeelingsBodyEarthFaithHumanityUniverseForceCommunityAnimalQualityCreationExpressionOneselfManifestationBelongingPhenomenonPsychicsGrounded
Author:Alexander Lowen
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