HPD notes from a very radical analyst that worked with Freud

Original Source

• Wilhelm Reich 1897–1957
• Worked with Freud, focused on character structure (personality) vs. neurosis
• A key pioneer of body psychotherapy
• Became a megalomaniac and likely went totally insane before death
• Expelled from the International Psychoanalytical Association
• Be forewarned, this material may be considered controversial and fringe.

Before Reich died he asked Elsworth Baker to carry forward his work. In 1968 Baker [likely funded by Reich's estate] formed The American College of Orgonomy. In 2000 Baker then wrote a book Man in the Trap based on Reich’s theories. He also authored an excerpt from that book, specifically on HPD, published on the web and reproduced below.

It’s very interesting, follows Freud’s concepts of hysteria quite closely with several extensions.

First, a few terms used in Orgonomy, Reich's controversial contribution to psychotherapy.

Terms in Orgonomy wrote:CHARACTER ARMOR. The sum total of typical character attitudes, which an individual develops as a blocking against his emotional excitations, resulting in rigidity of the body, lack of emotional contact, "deadness." Functionally identical with the muscular armor.

MUSCULAR ARMOR. The sum total of the muscular attitudes (chronic muscular spasms) which an individual develops as a block against the breakthrough of emotions and organ sensations, in particular anxiety, rage, and sexual excitation.

STASIS. The damming-up of Life Energy in the organism, thus the source of energy for biopathy and irrationalism.

Source: (with more available) http://www.orgone.org/articles/ax9wr-glossary.htm

Next a quick review of Reich's development stages / various erogenous zones and what happens when there is arrest at each.

Characteristic that results from blockage at each erogenous zone wrote:Stage | Repressed | Unsatisfied
Ocular --- confusion | voyeurism
Oral --- depression |overindulgence
Anal --- restraint | submission
Phallic --- righteous | Don Juan behavior
Genital --- flight (or freezing) | nymphomania (or frantic behavior)

Source: Elsworth 2000 - Man in the Trap

On to the article.

The Hysterical Character (Genitality with Anxiety)
Elsworth Baker, M.D.
Excerpted from his book Man in the Trap

The Hysterical Character (Genitality with Anxiety) Hysteria has been known since ancient times and was the first emotional disorder to be recognized as having a sexual connotation. It has been pandemic at certain periods in history, especially during the Middle Ages. It was extremely common at the turn of the last century. It is still common but the marked manifestations earlier writers described, such as fugues, fits, and paralyses, are comparatively rare today. A few decades ago only the severe cases sought therapy. Today we see earlier cases and also milder cases because of the widespread acceptance of therapy. However, except that symptoms are less marked, hysteria possesses the same characteristics it has always had, and Reich's description is as accurate today as it was thirty years ago.

Characteristics and Symptoms

The hysterical character, usually female, has reached the genital level but with anxiety. Thus there is genitality, but genitality which cannot be accepted. There is a constant push toward genital contact with a simultaneous flight from it, so that one finds a constant approaching and running, even during the sexual act. Complete sexual satisfaction is not possible, so there is never a complete discharge of energy. This leads to stasis, which only increases the turmoil and results in an organism which is alive, but restless and flighty.

Sexual energy floods the whole organism. The body movements are not compulsively hard nor phallicly self-confident, but soft, provocative, rolling, accompanied by a specific sort of agility of a definitely sexual flavor. The total impression given by walk and attitude and body shape is very sexual. Flirtatiousness is notable in female hysterics, either plain or covert, in the way of glancing, speaking, moving. Male hysterics will add a feminine facial habit to feminine behavior, seeming too polite and too soft in a masculine context. Both male and female are apprehensive, most particularly when their provocativeness produces the normally expected response. When the sexual goal seems close to attainment, they turn passive or withdraw. In actual intercourse, they will frequently increase activity to overcome anxiety, but feeling will not increase with the increased activity.

They have a tendency to be strongly suggestible and to alter their behavior in unplanned and unexpected ways, together with strong disappointment reactions. They swing from compliance to quick deprecation and groundless disparagement. Suggestibility predisposes to flights of imagination as well as hypnosis and pathological lying.

Pregenital zones in which there are fixations, such as the mouth and anus, are genitalized. A fearful need to protect the self against the desire to commit genital incest creates the armor [the ultimate block against oral, anal and other erogonious zones from all “uniting” in the genitals, the desire becoming overwhelming and she to have genital sex with her father]; [in parallel] the sexual behavior [erotic sensations unite and show] increases as the hysteric becomes more fearful and apprehensive. The sexual attitude is an illusion, however, because the female hysteric is cut off from sex and cannot accept it. The sexual provocation is actually a testing out of danger, and at the first sign of sexual aggression toward her she runs. It is true that she desires sex, but simultaneously she has an anti-sexual attitude.

Armor is present but is always soft and light and shifting. The body has a good general tone. Symptoms occur when there is an overflow of energy which can neither be bound by the armor nor expressed. The hysteric has little capacity to bind energy by armor and is therefore prone to the development of symptoms. Symptoms other than genital mechanisms are due to pregenital fixations, such as depression from an oral block. There is little direction toward accomplishment in intellectual or cultural areas or toward sublimation. Reaction formations do not appear as often as they do in other character types. In the hysteric, sex energies are neither discharged sexually to relieve stasis nor are they anchored in character armoring. Instead these energies are largely discharged in apprehensiveness and somatic innervations.

Fully developed genital excitations lend themselves only to direct gratification. Where there are no pregenital blocks the hysteric has available as defense only contactlessness and flight. This may manifest itself in two ways: (1) Frantic behavior, in the unsatisfied blocking, such as hysterical fits, laughing, crying, running about, and delirium (from going away in the eyes); or frantic sexual behavior, including nymphomania; or tics (partial frantic behavior); or plain flight to or away from the threat. (2) Calm behavior, in the repressed block, such as paralysis and withdrawal. This may be partial as in hysterical paralysis and anesthesia, or total as in amnesia and fugue states or in passivity (freezing). Any ocular, oral, and anal blocks give symptoms of these stages.

Overt homosexual activity may be found in some hysterics. This is not true homosexuality, which involves identification with the opposite sex, but is due to a deep fear of the opposite sex and to suggestibility, which allows the hysteric to comply with homosexual advances. Also the Oedipus situation is avoided. Genital sensations reactivate the Oedipus complex and the threat of the competing mother. The hysteric thus must run from the man and, as if to prove further her lack of interest in the father, may take a woman. The hysteric can accept a man either if she has no feeling or is forced. The latter relieves the sense of guilt. Also what is frequently overlooked -- it reaffirms her need to fear men as dangerous and not to be trusted.

Genesis

The hysteric has grown up essentially healthy and looks healthy until the sexual push at puberty. The father and mother are accepting in early childhood and the child identifies with the parent of the same sex. She could not reach genitality unless the parents were reasonably accepting of the pregenital phases. The hysteric, usually a girl, finds her mother (the boy, his father) moralistic and represses her sexual drive through identification.* The problem is a prime Oedipus situation and the child's rejection of sex revolves around the incest barrier, and every man becomes a symbol of her father. Any genital excitation leads to a reaction of "no" in the organism because it awakens the incest prohibition. The Oedipus complex occurs when the natural attraction of the child to the parent of the opposite sex is stopped by the moralistic attitude of the parent of the same sex.


*Introjection, sometimes called identification, involves taking into your own personality characteristics of someone else, because doing so solves some emotional difficulty. For example, a child who is left alone frequently, may in some way try to become "mom" in order to lessen his or her fears. You can sometimes catch them telling their dolls or animals not to be afraid. And we find the older child or teenager imitating his or her favorite star, musician, or sports hero in an effort to establish an identity.
Source: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/genpsyfreud.html

Therapy

The hysteric does not know that she uses her genital strivings to feel [seek?] out danger, nor does she know she is sexually provocative. She must be unmasked and the infantile anxiety dissolved for effective therapeutic results. The hysteric must be cornered and prevented from running. Some milder cases of hysteria may recover spontaneously through marriage with an understanding partner.

Common Types of Hysteria

1. The pure hysteric. She has no pregenital blocks. This is the typical, curvaceous, sexually attractive, doll-like creature with normally developed breasts and pelvis prominently displayed.

2. The hysteric with an ocular block. She is usually tall and slender but with proportionately well-developed thighs and breasts. Where there is severe ocular blocking, the ego is weak and she has poor integration. These are difficult cases and there is frequently much actual running from therapy. They may be difficult to differentiate from schizophrenics.

3. The hysteric with an oral repressed block. The pelvis and thighs are well developed but the upper part of the body is slender with small breasts. This type is more serious in attitude and shows varying degrees of depression.

4. The hysteric with an oral unsatisfied block. She is usually short and heavily built with broad shoulders, well-developed breasts, heavy shoulder muscles, and an overeating problem from a need to fill the feeling of emptiness in her stomach, behind which is a fellatio fantasy. Fat is built up to absorb the excess energy. Dieting produces acute anxiety. One such patient who had a very persistent overeating problem and could not tolerate the anxiety produced by dieting brought the following dream: She was in a session with a former therapist. She remarked that she was hungry. The therapist left the room and brought her some food. She reported that she woke from the dream feeling anxious. At this point she told me that she presently had a peculiar feeling in her stomach. It was not hunger but she had an overpowering urge to eat. I told her the feeling was a displacement from some other part of her body and asked what sensations she had in her mouth. She replied that she had an urge to suck. I encouraged her to give in to the sensations; she was very embarrassed at first but soon gave in to sucking movements. Shortly this urge ceased and she reported that she had developed genital sensations. The peculiar feeling in her stomach with the urge to eat had disappeared.

5. The hysteric with an anal block. Compulsive symptoms, and sexual fantasies of an anal type are present.

All of these types seem attractive to men. Their pelvis and thighs are sexually provocative, the mons pubis is prominent, and the genitalia are well developed.

source: http://www.orgonomy.org/Second_Publications_Articles_Author.html#baker

This is amazing stuff and I've added it to my permanent bookmarks. Sheds a lot more insights on the various counterphobic aspects related to HPDs. I found this fascinating:

Fully developed genital excitations lend themselves only to direct gratification. Where there are no pregenital blocks the hysteric has available as defense only contactlessness and flight. This may manifest itself in two ways: (1) Frantic behavior, in the unsatisfied blocking, such as hysterical fits, laughing, crying, running about, and delirium (from going away in the eyes); or frantic sexual behavior, including nymphomania; or tics (partial frantic behavior); or plain flight to or away from the threat.

Again, fascinating stuff, thanks for posting.

Thanks Wisdom. Counter phobia - what internal conflict. My empathic river, overrunning over its banks.

After reading the material Wisdom posted I found myself translating it into this visual analogy; hope it helps someone

The basic atomic model:

(1) ELECTRA, the high speed, flighty orbital electron, and in psychoanalytic theory a girl who has fallen in love with her father and who sees her mother as a rival - the quintessential HPD woman (the HPD male introduces complications and variables I don’t understand, so for simplicity not considering him here).

(2) PROTON, Electra’s father, who is her first order love interest. He is the core of the atom. His opposite charge predicts her deep attraction and yearning to come to rest with him, but her biological and learned instincts against incest overwhelm her attractions and so back she goes, achieving psychological equilibrium at her safe orbital distance.

(3) THE NEUTRONS – all the other males in Electra’s life history, including
(a) second order significant other males (the husbands, ‘caretakers,’
‘guardians’, and the ‘bad boys’), and finally
(b) third order males, who are, at most, the males she might have had
one night stands with, but more likely, they’re just narcissistic supply –
male members in the fan club.

The father, Proton, and all the lesser order Neutron males are compacted together within the spherical volume of the atom. Due to time and random processes different men periodically appear on the surface on the atom.

But Electra can’t distinguish them as individuals - in some essential way they all look like her father, whom she will always be deeply attracted to. So she rapidly descends from her orbit to join one of the neutrons. For a while it appears that she will finally achieve rest with the one she has chosen. But the original incest prohibition is still strong, producing intolerance, even cryptic disgust, and so the devaluation begins. She flees back to her position of orbital equilibrium.

One thing I couldn't visualize: where would the other females fit in; i.e., Mom, and girlfriend members of the fan club

This is good stuff, Orion. One of theories kicked around this forum about how HPD forms is the one regarding the female child having a "cold" mother who rejects the girls father. The father feeling lonely and emasculated, turns to his daughter and lavishes her with attention and affection. But when the girl reaches puberty, the father backs off, or decreases the level of affection, because of perceived inappropriateness of such a relationship with her sexually developing daughter.

Now from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electra_complex

According to Freud, a girl, like a boy, is originally attached to the mother figure. However, during the phallic stage, when she discovers that she lacks a penis, she becomes libidinally attached to the father figure, and imagines that she will become pregnant by him, all the while becoming more hostile toward her mother. Freud attributes the character of this developmental stage in girls to the idea of "penis envy", where a girl is envious of the male penis. According to the theory, this penis envy leads to resentment towards the mother figure, who is believed to have caused the girl's "castration." The hostility towards the mother is then later revoked for fear of losing the mother's love, and the mother becomes internalized, much the same as the Oedipus complex.

So perhaps HPD forms maybe because the girl neither cares for, or no longer has, the mother's love (perhaps due to divorce and the father gets custody, or the mother's death) and she does not "internalize" her "cold mother" and reamins in that state of push/pull dynamic attraction with her father, which reflects in the HPDs choice of partners, who all ultimately remind her of daddy. Just a theory. I've read that it could be exactly opposite as well, that what the HPD craves is the mother's love, and the "wish for reunion" with her.