ABSTRACT

In this article we introduce readers to the Bodymap, a precise diagnostic tool developed as a part of Bodynamic Analysis. The Bodymap is a concise visual format for displaying and analyzing psychological information stored in the muscles. The ability to measure muscle responses and access the historical information they contain makes a developmental analysis in terms of psychological character structures more concrete and less metaphorical. We also introduce ten "Ego Functions" (e.g. grounding and reality testing, centering, cognitive abilities, self expression, etc.) that are used to understand human functioning. The Bodymap can also be read for the presence or absence of resources corresponding to these ego functions..

INTRODUCTION

• Part I. THE UNFOLDING OF MOTOR DEVELOPMENT
• Part II. MUSCLE RESPONSE AND FUNCTION
• Part III. THE BODYMAP
• Part IV. ANALYSIS OF A BODYMAP
• Part V. THE SEVEN DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES
• Part VI. THE TEN EGO FUNCTIONS
• Part VII. BODYNAMIC ANALYSIS AND THE BODYMAP
• Part VIII. A SESSION - USING THE MAP
• Part IX. AN ANALOGY
• REFERENCES

APPENDIX 1. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF MUSCLE RESPONSIVENESS.

APPENDIX 2. Figure 2 A BODYMAP,

Figure 3 THE WILL STRUCTURE,

Figure 4 THE EGO FUNCTION "CENTERING"

APPENDIX 3. THE BODYNAMIC CHARACTER STRUCTURES (chart)

APPENDIX 4. THE TEN EGO FUNCTIONS

INTRODUCTION

Danish psychotherapist Lisbeth Marcher and her colleagues have been contributing to a new language for body psychotherapy based on a more detailed psychodynamic knowledge of the body than either Reich (1) or Lowen (2) had available. A step towards a new language was taken by Marcher and her colleagues when they created a detailed, articulated, structured theory based on twenty five years of clinical experience and research into child development and adult functioning. The resulting theory and methodology, Bodynamic Analysis, integrates psychomotor theory, depth psychological theories, and Reichian and Lowenian character structures, with original, detailed, empirical research into the psychological content and developmental timing associated with individual muscles. While body psychotherapies often work directly with emotional and energetic processes in the body (1,2) Bodynamic Analysis starts with a detailed analysis of a person's measured muscle responsiveness, and goes on to work primarily with his character structure, shock trauma, and ego functions as they affect the client’s life.

This article continues our presentation (3, 4) of how a modern knowledge of human functioning is contributing to the development of a new language for psychotherapy. An important part of this language becomes available when the body is included as part of psychotherapy. Understanding how historical information is encoded in the body, particularly in the voluntary musculature, offers a more direct access to a person’s understanding and experience of himself. A knowledge of anatomy, of the muscles and their psychomotor functions, allows one to "speak the language" of the body, allows one "to dialogue with" the body at a primary process level. In contrast, most verbal psychotherapies are based on a person's secondary process, their own verbal descriptions of themselves.

These contributions to a new language also reflect how the body and the psyche interface during childhood development. While the traditional language of psychotherapy often reflects a negative view of people's resource or survival systems (Freud, Reich, etc.) newer approaches attempt to mirror the experience of a child relating to the world (5). This newer language is focused on the body, on interpersonal interaction, and on the development of a healthy, capable, flexible personality.

In our experience, including the body in psychotherapy greatly facilitates the process of uncovering subjective experience. The body, specifically through access to the muscle imprints, can link theory and practice, the abstract and concrete, the verbal and nonverbal or preverbal, clinical insight and client behavior. Therapeutic approaches that do not attend to the body, that are verbal only, are often using words and emotional resonance to evoke states, memories, and experiences that were pre-verbal or have a large non-verbal component (6).

Central to Bodynamic Analysis’ understanding of human behavior is its hypothesis about the central motivation in human development. Noting that a child is imbued through the course of development with immense resources for living, it is postulated that the central motivation is expressed through an innate desire to establish rich, complex and passionate relationships with self, parents, peers, community, animals, nature, the larger world, and the spiritual world (7). Marcher has called this innate drive to relate "mutual connection" (8). Mutual connection is expressed through the resources of the body: through the sensory-motor system, through emotion, and through thought.

A newborn child is dominated by motor reflexes, and voluntary control of muscles largely does not yet exist. As the child ages, specific muscles begin to come under voluntary control. The newly learned abilities of lifting and turning the head, sucking, rolling, creeping, crawling, and grasping each require control of new muscles. The child’s increasingly complex and subtle activities - motoric, social, psychological, cognitive, and verbal - are expressed through her increased motor control. The child learns to hug, and also to push away things she doesn't like. She learns to balance herself using small muscle movements while standing or walking. Her hand grip continues to develop until around six or seven when true writing becomes possible.

Marcher and her colleagues asked the question: "At what age does each muscle come into play developmentally?" By this is meant the age or age range in which a particular muscle comes under voluntary control, as evidenced by a particular developmental movement or ability. This knowledge is available both from direct observation of children, and in a broad way from a large body of research on childhood perceptual and motor development, notably by Britta Holle and several other Scandinavian researchers (9). Through detailed observation and research, Marcher and her colleagues linked specific movements to specific muscles.

Marcher et al also investigated the nature of each muscle's "psychological content". This was accomplished by palpating or otherwise activating a specific muscle and observing which psychological issues arose. Alternatively, they observed which muscles became activated when clients talked about specific issues. Numbers of people were tested to see if the issues connected to each muscle proved to be universal. In the formation of the theory over 10,000 sessions were analyzed through the reports of both client and therapist. This research correlated the muscle to the issue and age level evoked. It also related the elasticity or responsiveness of the muscle with patterns of resource, resignation. and holding on to old behavior.

As an example of what this research entailed, we will discuss one particular intervention. In an appropriate and relevant clinical situation, a client may be asked to push with their arm against resistance given to their hand (use of the triceps muscle). When a large number of people push in this way and are asked to describe their experience, many will speak about issues of how close or far away they want people, of how secure they feel in protecting themselves, and of what they don't and do want. While each person's individual experience is unique, there is a commonality in the theme. The themes here relate to having boundaries and saying "STOP", or "NO". The action of pushing, with its use of the triceps muscle, elicits and elucidates the nature of each client’s subjective (and historical) experience of saying "NO", and what this brings forth for them.

A central hypothesis in Bodynamic Analysis concerns the time period in which individual muscles come under voluntary control. There is observed to be a critical time period in which they acquire an imprint. This imprint is not simply about physical strength or kinesthetic ability. It concerns the psychological content or issue associated with the activity or function of this muscle. Thus the muscle encodes or "remembers" what happened in the emotional/ psychological environment in the time period in which it came under conscious control. A brief history of the development of the concept of muscle responsiveness is given in Appendix 1.

Building Resources

At the time when a muscle is first coming under conscious control, and is being used in its psychomotor function, a child is very responsive to the way the environment receives and responds to this particular action. A number of different imprints are possible, depending upon the child’s experience of responses to its actions and its need to be connected. It is our conclusion that as a muscle comes under conscious control developmentally, a neutral responsiveness will develop when its expressive use by the child is met with enough appropriate acceptance. This flexible, resilient, "ideal" muscle is one whose impulse is readily sensed, and whose motion is easily mobilized under appropriate circumstances. Equally, the muscle is relaxed when it is not required or is not functional. There is a choice to respond or not, to act or not act, as the situation dictates. In the language of Bodynamic Analysis, we call this a muscle that has resource. The psychological ego function that it enacts is integrated into consciousness. For example, when the postural muscles in the legs are resourced, the subjective feeling is of being able to stand on one’s own. Concurrently, the impulses and issues related to these muscles are easily available to conscious thought, as opposed to being either pre-conscious or unconscious. In physical terms we describe this muscle as having a neutral elasticity, or a neutral responsiveness.

It is important to distinguish between responsivity and tone. The tone of a muscle is conditioned through use, through life style or exercise. A muscle may be well toned or strong, but still be hypo-responsive and resigned in it's psychological function. While we often recommend exercise to clients as a way to build body awareness and anchor new resources, exercise alone does not change responsiveness, it only changes muscle tone. To produce a lasting change in responsiveness, and a lasting behavioral change, the experience of using the muscle must be linked with verbal sharing and a conscious understanding of the related issues.

Hypo-responsiveness

If a child is repeatedly or severely frustrated early in the time period when a particular psychomotor action is coming under voluntary control, the muscle can become weakened in its responsiveness. This weakened response can also be created when the child has been confronted with an overwhelming task or was taxed too early in this aspect of development, before having the strength and solidity to tolerate this particular stress. We call this tendency the hypo-response. As an adult, the person literally does not sense much impulse in the muscle and therefore the psychological function is not so available. Use of this muscle will be accompanied by varying degrees of resignation, slowness, or loss of impulse. When a hypo-responsive muscle is activated the person may feel tired, the movement may feel too difficult or painful, and he may be easily distracted or want to give up. At times despair, sadness, and helplessness might arise. These feelings mirror those that took place during the time of the muscle’s imprinting.

Hyper-responsiveness

If a child is not frustrated early or severely, but only somewhat later in the imprinting time period, then he will have already mastered some of the physical and psychological abilities related to this muscle and its action. Now, in varying degrees he has to hold back, rigidify, or fight for his right to express himself. A different imprint will be developed, one we call a hyper-response. This hyper-response is actually what people are broadly referring to when they speak about body armor, a concept originated by Reich and recognized by most contemporary psychotherapists. In the adult the impulse in the hyper- muscle will tend to be restrained or strongly held back, or may be compulsively and repetitively activated. When a hyper-responsive muscle is activated a person may feel varying degrees of control, hardness, intensity, rigidity, and/or an overdoing. With high degrees of over control, a person feels cut off from others and from their own energy, and lacks flexibility and resiliency. He loses his resourcefulness. Interestingly, in a stressful culture such as ours, some degree of hyper-responsiveness in certain postural and boundary muscles is usually needed to be able to tolerate the stresses of the world. A person without these is vulnerable to being overwhelmed.

Fascia and tendon

The experience of Bodynamic Analysts is that psychological imprinting also applies to other tissues in the body. We believe that most if not all soft tissue may have a neutral, hypo-, or hyper-responsive dynamic. In particular, we also record certain fascia and tendon responses on the Bodymap. The fascia is a system of fibers that surround nearly all the soft tissues of the body (organs, muscles, etc.), serving to wrap, hold together, link up, and support these structures. We test fascia the same way we test muscle, though the location will be different. Often we have to distinguish between fascia and muscle tissue as they are intertwined. Psychologically speaking, fascia is a more primitive, less differentiated structure than is voluntary musculature, and it functions more along with the reflex system than the voluntary system. Thus it is more dominant very early in life, before the voluntary has had a chance to take hold, and it is also more involved in shock trauma situations where again, the voluntary has been overwhelmed by the involuntary. For example, we examine fascia points to detect the presence of unresolved birth issues.

While exploring this newly delineated wealth of historical developmental information held in the body, Marcher and her colleagues struggled for a long time with the question of how they could make it more accessible to themselves, and ultimately available to other clinicians. Equally, they wanted to find the most effective way to use their knowledge to help clients. They needed both a format for presenting the muscle responsiveness information, and a framework, a psychotherapy system that would potentiate their findings, their knowledge, and their abilities.

The solution to the question of a suitable format was the Bodymap. ("Danish" for body map!). The Bodymap is a mapping made for each client. It is a visual representation of each muscle's responsiveness or elasticity. As shown in Appendix 2, Figure 2 A BODYMAP, each mark represents a particular muscle or part of a muscle. Each muscle response is recorded on the Bodymap form, which is an outline of a human body. Differences in responsiveness are recorded as different colors (see below). Several ligaments and fascial points are also mapped.

How a map is made.

The Bodymapping process is done with the client laying on a mat, fully clothed. The mapping takes between 3 and 4 hours, on average. The responsiveness of each muscle is measured by palpating it in a particular way . Each muscle is tested while it is in a relaxed state. Some muscles are tested in more than one place, and a few are tested at both a superficial and profound depth. This is done whenever different parts of the particular muscle come under voluntary control at different ages (e.g. triceps), or when the muscle has several functions. For example, all muscles that pass over more than one joint are tested in more than one place.

To measure the responsiveness of a muscle, the therapist first pushes into the muscle to a certain depth. Then, staying at this depth, he moves across or along the muscle fibers, stretching them. The responsiveness of the muscle is gauged as the tester withdraws across or along the fibers, relaxing the stretch while still staying at the same depth. The tester senses how rapidly or slowly the muscle returns after it has been stretched and is being released. If the muscle lags behind or returns more slowly than it is being released, it is hypo-responsive to some degree. If the muscle pushes or wants to return faster than it is being released, then it is hyper-responsive. If it returns at the same rate as it is released, then it is said to have a neutral response, denoting resource or flexibility.

On the first stretch of a muscle the tester usually determines whether the muscle is pushing his fingers back as he releases the stretch, indicating a neutral to hyper-responsivity; or whether the muscle is lagging behind the release, indicating a neutral to hypo-responsivity. On the second stretch the tester can focus on the degree of hyper- or hypo-responsiveness. Additional information is obtained from other properties of the muscle. Muscles that have higher degrees of hyper-responsiveness are limited in the amount they can be stretched, and this can be sensed. Muscles that have higher degrees of hypo-responsiveness do not fully follow the testers fingers all the way back to the point from which the stretching started. This can be both sensed and seen.

How the responsiveness is depicted.

Through continued research it was found that one could repeatedly and reproducibly distinguish four degrees of both hypo- and hyper-responsiveness, and one degree of neutral responsiveness. To display this visually different degrees of responsiveness are represented by different colors. Muscles having a neutral response are colored green on the map. Increasing levels of hyper-responsiveness (named A1 --> A4) are represented by deeper shades of the color red. Increasing levels of hypo-responsiveness ( named B1 --> B4) are represented by deeper shades of the color blue. This is outlined in Figure 1.

The resulting Bodymap solved the problem of how to represent the wealth of information in a usable form. To the trained eye the densely packed information can be retrieved quickly. The Bodymap was also shown to be reproducible with 95% accuracy between different map makers (10). The specificity of the Bodymap grew over time into its present form, which continues to be refined to this day (Often to the dismay of students!). Several ways in which the data are analyzed are presented below. These are a partial answer to the quest for a suitable framework that could best put this new psychological information to use.