awareness of unconscious factors and did not result in insight, which meant that there may be symptom substitution which could lead to no real cure. Wilhelm Reich and the Therapeutic Approach Over time, psychiatrists abandoned hypnosis and the cathartic cure and adopted the therapeutic approach as the accepted practice. The therapeutic approach emphasized the expression of emotion, as a by-product of the goal to make the unconscious conscious. rather than as the main event. Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian-American psychiatrist who worked with Sigmund Freud. Reich focused on the body, trying to make body-mind duality a seamless concept. He believed that the body was the unconscious and that the psychologist must break through the body's armor to reach the subconscious. He called the body's defenses armoring. W. Edward Mann called attention to the body's visible displays of character armor such as muscular tension and stated that armoring was the character structure in its physical form. He explained that if one could break down the armoring one would be able to change the neurotic character structure. Researchers now understand these displays as physical defenses; the body reacts in certain ways to defend the person against the expression of undesirable emotion. Mann explains the build-up of armoring as the build-up of armoring as the body's physical response to create blocks for natural biological movements such as curiosity, play, sex, exploration, or defiance of authority. Reich's writings imply that there are no benefits in armoring, a belief that most modern-day experts do not accept. Essentially, the technique meant that to properly treat the problem, the therapist must break down the body's defenses to allow repressed emotion to come out. Contemporary Practice Modern uses of emotional flooding include: Gestalt Therapy, developed by Frederick S. Perls Immersion Therapy Sensory Hypnoanalysis, used by Milton Kline Citations References Psychotherapies