Books / Trauma, body & expressive
Character Analysis
Wilhelm Reich’s Character Analysis presents his psychoanalytic account of character and resistance. Later editions also discuss his proposed relationship between psychological defences and muscular tension.
Book details
Author of listed edition: Wilhelm Reich
Edition: Third enlarged English edition (1972)
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Edition year: 1972
First published: 1933
Original title: Charakteranalyse: Technik und Grundlagen für studierende und praktizierende Analytiker
Language and origin: English translation by Vincent R. Carfagno
Form and genre: Clinical & Theoretical Monograph
Level: Advanced
Historical era: 1920–1939 · Ego Psychology & Early Child Analysis
Covers: Reich’s approach to character and resistance in psychoanalytic work; His discussion of character formation and different character forms; Later material on bodily expression and his proposed muscular armour
APA 7th reference: Reich, W. (1972). Character analysis (V. R. Carfagno, Trans.; 3rd enlarged ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Original work published 1933)
What it is
Originally published in German in 1933, Character Analysis presents Reich’s account of psychoanalytic technique and character. This catalogue record describes Vincent Carfagno’s English translation, published in a third enlarged edition in 1972.
What it covers
Reich proposed attending to recurring ways a person behaves and relates, as well as to the content of what they say. He called some of these patterns character resistance. His proposed technique is a historical clinical approach, not a rule shown to apply in every therapy.
Bodily expression and later work
The enlarged English edition also includes Reich’s later writing on bodily expression and his proposed connection between muscular tension and psychological defence. These are his theoretical claims. Tension or posture alone cannot establish a person’s history, emotions or psychological defences.
Evidence and reading level
This is an advanced historical and theoretical text. A 2021 systematic review examined trials of different body psychotherapy approaches; it did not establish Reich’s muscular armour model or a single treatment sequence as universally effective. The present entry draws on publication records and research summaries; the full book was not reviewed.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: Problems of Psychoanalytic Technique (Otto Fenichel, 1941)
Reference: Fenichel, O. (1941). Problems of psychoanalytic technique (D. Brunswick, Trans.). Psychoanalytic Quarterly.
A 1941 book on psychoanalytic technique by Otto Fenichel. The linked catalogue identifies its publication; the full text was not reviewed for this entry.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: Reich argued that analysts should attend to recurring patterns of character and resistance in psychoanalytic work. (The publisher describes the English edition. The full text was not reviewed for this entry; the proposed order of intervention is not a universal clinical rule.) [Source 1: Reich, W. (1972). Character analysis (V. R. Carfagno, Trans.; 3rd enlarged ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Original work published 1933).]
Claim 2: Reich proposed a connection between psychological defences and muscular tension. (This is a theoretical account, not proof that tension reveals a particular experience or defence.) [Source 1: Reich, W. (1972). Character analysis (V. R. Carfagno, Trans.; 3rd enlarged ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Original work published 1933).]
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: Publisher record lists a paperback with ISBN 9780374509804 on sale in 1980, identifies the author and translator, and describes Reich’s approach; the 1972 edition was not reviewed in full.
WorldCat. Character analysis: Third, enlarged edition.
Supports: Library catalogue identifies the 1972 third enlarged English edition, translator, publisher and contents.
Google Books. Character Analysis: catalogue record.
Supports: Catalogue lists the Carfagno translation as 1972 with ISBN 9780374509804; publisher lists the paperback on sale in 1980, so this entry does not assert that ISBN for the 1972 edition.
Supports: Catalogue record for the 1941 book and translator; the full text was not reviewed.
Supports: Theoretical discussion of Reich’s character analysis; not evidence of a universal clinical mechanism.
Supports: Review of different body psychotherapy interventions in adults; it does not establish Reich’s muscular armour model.