Armoring
Elsworth Baker, M.D.
Excerpted from Man in the Trap
The American College of Orgonomy
Therapeutic Principles
Elicit the gag reflex and reduce spasms of the sterno mastoids and deep muscles of the neck. Also elicit screaming and yelling. Remember the neck is very vulnerable, and one must proceed with great caution as there are many important nerves, vessels, and the larynx-all of which can be easily injured. I had one patient who suffered a severe bradycardia from pressure on the vagus due to armoring.
The Thoracic Segment
General Description
Although the chest segment can be divided into upper and lower parts, it can best be considered as a whole. It consists of the intercostal muscles, pectorals, deltoids, muscles of the scapula, spinal muscles, the chest cage and its contents, and the hands and arms. It is the most important segment because it contains the most vital structures, the heart and the lungs. It is the first segment to be blocked, by holding in inspiration to reduce anxiety. Thus expiration is never complete. Blocking places pressure on the solar plexus and reduces sympathetic excitation. In schizophrenia, the eyes have been damaged as well as the chest in the first ten days of life.
A chronic attitude of inspiration is the most important means of suppressing any emotion. In the majority of cases, this armoring should be reduced first in order to build up energy in breathing, and to put more inner pressure on blocks. If the chest moves freely one has increased functioning even though further progress is impossible. in depressives the chest must be mobilized quickly to I build up energy (Footnote 36) and reverse the dying process. In patients w with a high charge, however, mobilization of the chest may be dangerous so that an outlet for energy must be provided first (such as the lower limbs).
Asthma is a special condition occurring in chest armoring in which there is a parasympathetic over-excitation to overcome sympathetic contraction. The patient assumes a calm and brave facade to cover up his deep anxiety. In other words, he refuses to be anxious. Deep rage is behind this facade, a rage caused by an inability to show anxiety; behind the rage is a deeper layer of anxiety. Thus, we have a calm facade, superficial anxiety, rage, deep anxiety. To overcome the condition one must make the patient anxious or make him imitate anxiety; in a sense, one must cause him to back away from the block. If the attack is slight, it can be relieved by having the patient vocalize- ahhhhhhhhhhhh. (According to Reich every asthmatic has a fantasized penis in his throat.)
In coronary or other heart conditions one must proceed with great caution or heart failure may occur. In coronary cases, the chest is very rigid and great caution is necessary in mobilization. If pain or pallor occurs one must stop, and one should always have cardiac stimulants handy. Once the chest is mobilized, however, a great strain is removed from the heart.
In the average patient the chest is usually rigid and does not move in respiration. It is held high in the inspiratory position and eventually gives rise to emphysema. If the chest does move, it may be high or low, rigid or soft, but with small excursion. In schizophrenia the chest is soft but movement barely perceptible.
The shoulders are held either back or forward but do not respond to breathing, and the head, instead of falling gently backward in expiration, usually comes forward or is jerked back forcibly. The spinal muscles may be acutely contracted. These are important regions of holding back and may prevent the chest from moving. They contain spite, a frozen anger. The intercoastals are sensitive and painful and the patient may be very ticklish.
The emotions held in the chest arc heartbreak, bitter sobbing, rage (stronger than that found in the oral segment), reaching, and longing. These are deep emotions which when expressed afford much relief. ("A weight has been lifted from my chest.") The hands may be cold, clammy, and weak from withdrawal of energy. Armoring does not interfere much with manual dexterity, but withdrawal of energy does. The latter is an indication of more emotionally charged material and of more explosive emotions.
Laughing seems to come from the chest and is the least understood of the emotional expressions. Animals do not laugh. (Footnote 37) Primarily laughter is probably an expression of joy, but it seems to be a response to any excitation above the tolerance level. Laughing and crying may be interchangeable for any other emotion or for each other in addition to their basic functions. Natural crying is a result of need; as a secondary reaction it is a socially more acceptable vehicle for emotions such as rage.
Signs and Symptoms
An armored chest basically expresses restraint and self-control and will give a feeling of being unmoved or unaffected by events. Where there is no armor, the expressive motions of chest and arms give a free buoyant feeling. Typical armor is a chronic expiatory expansion, as if one had taken a very deep breath and not let it out, and it can be accompanied by high blood pressure, palpitation, and anxiety. Continued for a long time, a disposition to tuberculosis or pneumonia may develop, or the heart may become enlarged.
For the patient with an armored chest, rage is cold, crying is unmanly and longing is too soft. Reaching out or embracing are not felt vegetatively. The hands lose their orgonotic charge and are cold, clammy, and painful (leading to Raynaud's disease). Behind the clamminess of the hands, there may be an impulse to choke which is armored off in the shoulder blades and hands.
Women who are armored in this segment have insensitive breasts and are disgusted at nursing. A knot may be felt in the chest from a spasm of the esophagus, behind which is a holding back of angry yelling. The related anxiety can be elicited by pushing on the chest and have the patient yell. The chest holding is mainly "I won't," and the ability to give and surrender depends on mobility of this segment. Early memories of disappointment and mistreatment may come out with release of the emotions of the chest, which is usually blocked very early. Memories seem bound in plasmatic immobility and are reactivated when excitation occurs.
Therapeutic Principles
Increase breathing with instructions to follow through in expiration, exert pressure on the chest during expiration or press gently on the epigastrium, and work directly on the intercostal muscles, deltoids, and spinal muscles. Elicit hitting, choking, tearing, scratching, yelling, rage, and sobbing, and finally, reaching with longing. Opening and closing the hands softly may bring out otherwise unnoticed anxiety. I saw one case of severe chronic headache produced through holding back impulses in the hands and arms. Where there is doubt between two emotions, use the more aggressive expression. For example, if a patient wants to cry he will do so after rage; but if he wants to get angry crying will inhibit his expression. The patient may continue one emotion to avoid another. When he appears to be enjoy it, it is time to stop it.
The Diaphragmatic Segment
General Description
The diaphragm separates the body into upper and lower parts and may be compared to a height of land. Above the diaphragm, expression is upward to the eyes, mouth, and arms. Below, the expression is through the pelvis. The stomach contents may be expelled in either direction.
The fifth segment includes the diaphragm and organs under it and does not depend on the mobility of the chest for functioning. The diaphragm may remain immobile even though the chest moves, and Nice versa. It comprises a contraction ring over the epigastrium, and lower end of the sternum, and goes along the inner ribs to the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth thoracic vertebrae. It contains the diaphragm, stomach, solar plexus, pancreas, liver, gall bladder, duodenum, kidneys, and two muscle bundles along the lower thoracic vertebrae. Armoring is expressed by lordosis of the spine (hollow under the patient's back). Breathing out is with effort and the abdomen balloons. The first four segments must be free before it can be loosened. For this, repeatedly eliciting the gag reflex without interrupting expiration is effective. When this is free, wave like movements occur in the upper part of the body with a feeling of giving; that is, the torso tends to fold up with each expiration. This segment holds severe murderous rage.
Signs and Symptoms
Symptoms are nervous stomach disorders, more or less constant nausea with an inability to vomit, peptic ulcer, gall bladder disease, liver conditions, and diabetes. The major abdominal organs are at the diaphragm, and blocking causes many psychosomatic diseases.
Therapeutic Principles
Relieve the block by gagging and respiration. When the segment is opening, vomiting occurs.
The Abdominal Segment
This is the sixth armor ring. It includes the large abdominal muscles, the rectus, transversis abdominus, and muscles of the back (latissimus dorsi and sacro spinalis). The muscles at the flanks are especially important because in them one first finds tension from stasis (Footnote 38) in an unarmored person. Armored flanks produce ticklishness and hold spite. Stasis can be relieved by freeing tension in these muscles. Fear of attack is found in tension in the lumbar muscles, and is similar to tension in the neck from a desire to duck. Therapy is simple if the higher segments are open. Masses in the abdomen may appear and disappear during treatment of this segment.
The Pelvic Segment
General Description
The seventh and last segment contains all the muscles of the pelvis and lower limbs. The pelvis is usually pulled back. The muscles above the symphysis are tense and painful and so are the superficial and deep adductors of the thighs. The anal sphincter is contracted and pulled up, as is the whole pelvic floor. The gluteal muscles are contracted and sensitive. The pelvis usually is rigid, immobile, and sexual. Sensations and excitations are absent.
Signs and Symptoms
Symptoms from pelvis armoring are constipation, lumbago, growth in the rectum, ovarian cysts, polyps of the uterus, benign and malignant tumors, vaginal conditions, irritability of the bladder, irritation of the urethra, and vaginal and penis anesthesia. In the male, low energy), in the pelvis (anorgonia) leads to erective impotence or premature ejaculation, and in the female to anesthesia or vaginismus. The feet and legs may be cold and swollen, with numbness, tingling sensations, and varicosities.
This segment contains anxiety and rage. The latter is of two types: anal or crushing, and phallic or piercing. (Examples: anal-kicking; phallic-striking with the pelvis.) Pleasure in the pelvis area is impossible until the anger is released. Also present man- be contempt of the sex act and of all the pelvis structures.
Therapeutic Principles
The various spasms must be freed by mobilizing the pelvis and eliciting anxiety: and rage. This man be followed by having the patient repeatedly contract and relax the pelvic floor. "When this is accomplished the pelvis moves forward spontaneously at the end of each complete expiration, giving the orgasm reflex. It is then capable of reaching out and taking over during the orgasm with the complete surrender of the organism as a whole. This capacity gradually, develops into reality during the year or two following therapy. The patient's health must be structuralized.
The Layering of the Armor
There are three basic layers in every armored individual:
1. The superficial veneer or social facade.
2. The secondary or great middle layer where the sum of all the repressions has built up, resulting in destructive forces such as rage, spite, hate, contempt, etc. There are usually many subsidiary layers here.
3. The healthy core, the rational Self-regulating protoplasmic movement and excitation, which expresses itself when all blocking has been removed. Here lies the simple, decent individual below all irrational training and environmental influences.
Presumably the infant is born with a healthy emotional structure and without chronic armor. It has a basic energy charge and a natural aggressiveness depending on its freedom of growth in the uterus. The more spastic its developmental environment, the more its aggression is restricted. The higher the energy charge, the more the erect of the spastic environment is counteracted. Right after birth occurs, however, the organism is subjected to repeated restrictions of its natural and even secondary functioning. Each prohibition or inhibition becomes part of the character, through contraction due to anxiety (fear of punishment or rejection). Contraction causes an increase in inner tension and the outward push of all repressed material under more pressure increases. This ever-increasing pressure produces harshness which expresses itself as hate. Hate must again be repressed, so only modified expressions such as contempt or disgust are allowed to come out.
Each emotion or urge is originally repressed by prohibition (fear) from the environment, which eventually is incorporated in the organism as the superego. The energy behind the repressed feeling is utilized in the repressing by maintaining contraction of the muscles. The feeling is, as it were, split in two; part of the energy is used to hold back the other part, and thus immobility is established.
If the repressing force is not equal to the push outward, then an alteration of the drive to a more acceptable, but less fulfilling, one is attempted. This is called reaction formation. Since the original feeling remains unexpressed and is still there, a constant pressure must be maintained to keep up the altered outward expression of the drive. The original drive itself absorbs energy, (libido) and becomes stronger, so that the reaction formation gradually must spread to substitute for more feeling.
To relieve the situation this equilibrium must be disturbed, either by reducing the holding of energy (breaking the muscle spasm) or by increasing the inner push (breathing) or both. The second or great middle layer is usually very complex; many sublayers pile one on another until a social adjustment has been reached which is presented as the social facade or personality. The personality is, then, the end result of all the social and educational restrictions placed upon the original healthy core. This may be a comparatively stable or unstable facade, depending on the effectiveness of the defenses in the middle layer and the degree of satisfaction the organism can still attain.
The social facade contains one (sometimes more) basic character trait as its means of meeting the environment. This trait carries throughout therapy and causes the patient to react consistently in the same way to each problem he meets. It becomes the main character defense. Reich calls this trait the red thread and it must be recognized to understand and evaluate the individual. The basic character trait is never dissolved but remains always an integral part of the personality, although it my may be modified. It may be socially acceptable - kindness, modesty, reserve, shyness, correctness, righteousness; or socially unacceptable dishonesty, cunning, or cheating.
Therapeutic Principles
The three layers are dealt with in each segment as it is mobilized and its armor dissolved until the final core of unitary vegetative functioning is reached. The most important thing is to mobilize and allow expression of hate. Each segment of the armor may contain a great number of subsidiary layers within the secondary layer. When a subsidiary layer yields, it is called a breakthrough. This may or may not be a dramatic event, but it is felt as a temporary relief. Sometimes a layer involving one segment cannot be removed or even discovered until other segments are freed. For example, some crying may come out with loosening of the first two segments, but deep sobbing comes only after freeing of the first four segments. In unlayering, one works from the outside in and from the head down to the pelvis. Even this cannot be held to rigidly. One must watch the needs of the organism.
© 2008 The American College of Orgonomy. All rights reserved.
