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In this issue we are happy to be able to delegate the production and editing of the Journal to our Brazilian colleagues Dr. Esther Frankel, and Dr.
Milton Corrêa. At this time we also say goodbye to Gisela Wallbruch, who has held the position of Managing Editor for the past four issues of the English edition. We thank Gisela Wallbruch very much for
her excellent professional work in co-editing during this period and for her work in coordinating the support of the International Editorial Advisory Board.
The last English issue of Energy & Character to appear was Number 31/2 which was published during 2001. For a number of reasons, some internal
and some external, no issues were published during 2002, which became a ’sabbatical year’ for the English journal, after 33 years and 76 issues of continuous publication since January 1970.
We are back with the journal 32, the 77th English publication with a layout and presentation where we’d like to bring together science, art
and love, in other words the spirit of Biosynthesis.
Michael Heller emphasizes this spirit in his article Body Experience and Expression of the Soul: the birth of the
International Foundation for Biosynthesis in a Congress in Zurich in October 2001, where participated psychotherapists, philosophers, scientists and artists.
The healing of the human trauma is the central theme of this issue that permeates all the articles. Commenting about the International Green Cross
Jubileum in Zurich in June 2003, where Gorbachev delivered a passionate speech, David Boadella in his article Healing the earth and listening to the voice of the planet, observes
that eco-politics and therapy have deep connections – therapy tries to nurture, develop and heal the individual and eco-politics tries to preserve, sustain and heal the environment. He speaks about
compassion for human being, animals and plants and an attitude of care towards the earth, which is the source of our human nature and also about hope, the courage to move forward. This is the voice of
the planet. He finishes his article inviting us to the essential tasks, big or small which we can offer to help an ailing planet to recover and to become healthy source of nourishment for all her
inhabitants.
Knowledge, wisdom, awareness, openness and generosity are basic qualities that can be the doorways to nourishment, that we need as
human beings – this is the call of the Asta Fink essay. These qualities are our essential and necessary resources like are air and pure water for life in the world. According to her, the
path to our inner source is meditation and care in order to discover the mystery that lives in us, simply learning what is life about.
Barbara Jakel presents in this issue the second part of her article Bipolar Self
that was presented in Energy&Character Vol 31/2. In the first part she presented the topic of Interpersonal Bonding as fundamental aspect of spiritual-orientated Body Psychotherapy. Here she presents spirituality as an anchor of existential Bonding. For her being spiritual means to be rooted in the existential dimension of the True Self. Spirituality is an expression of searching sense in our own existence.
We feature this time a classical article by Robert Lewis on the relationship between external stressors and character predisposition, in
relation to human trauma. Robert Lewis has for many years been a pioneer from within the bioenergetic community in the understanding of trauma, and his article illustrates one of the key
features of trauma treatment: differentiation, the selective concentration on one issue at a time, and the disentangling of the many contributing factors which affect both trauma responses and trauma
therapeutics.
Steve King in his article Pathological Spirituality brings his clinical experience with people practicing spiritual teachings
that present strong splitting between the idea of what they should be as adults and what they really are.
The central thesis of the article of William Cornell, Entering the Gestural Field, is that psychoanalysis has failed to conceptualize
the place of the body and the symbolic in the development of the psychic structure and the evolution of self cohesion. He proposes an approach of the body as an essential aspect of the mind, with
visceral and sensori-motor processes understood as forms of knowing, organizing and comunicating.
Esther Frankel in her article brings the healing dimension of Biosynthesis working with depression. She calls it “Finding light
through darkness”. Instead of challenging the person’s obsession, we need to help him to perceive differently, to go beyond his world, that is possible to break his circular vision of
life. The therapist can do this helping the client to make contact with his own ressources.
For Kathrin Staufer in her article, Thoughts on Psychotherapy with Trauma Survivors, healing denotes the re-establishment of
function, or the establishment of a new function, as a result of a transformative process beyond trauma. This transformational healing always involves a reorganisation ot the whole organism to achieve a
higher order level of functioning: an increase in awareness of self, in personal maturity, in empathy for self and others.
Gisela Wallbruch in her article The Art of Relating presents us an overview about the 8th EABP Conference on Bodypsychotherapy
in September 2001 in Egmond aan Zee in the Nederlands, focussing on the relationships that bodypsychoterapists in general are consciously or unconsciously involved in.
This issue presents also Book reviews. The book Myth and the Body by Stanley Keleman is reviewed by David Boadella,
the book Descartes Error by Antonio Damasio is reviewed by K. Hentschel and the book The dimensions of dreams by Ole Vedfelt is reviewed by Gisela
Wallbruch.
A review of the film The Man who cried by Sally Potter is presented by David Boadella. He begins describing the scenes
and the intrigue of the film relating them to symbols and to the qualities of inner connections and contact between the characters. According to him this film is dealing with the deepest issues of life
and death, love and hate, trust and mistrust, contact and contactlessness, sucess and failure, heart and heartlessness, polarities that mirror our depths, disturbing our defences.
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