Customer Reviews

Fear of Life

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Have you ever met someone who is afraid to be who she or he is?
This could be the person who won't open their heart up, reach out and take up a cause.

I love to read books like this book, because in reading such a book, one is free to ask questions, and demand the best of the author.

Alexander Lowen gives you so much information in this book on the beginnings of frustrations, limitations, rejections and anger, in a way that makes you say, "Yeah! That is how it really is."

This book, like Lowen's other books, are not light reading, but instead insists that you look deeply into your heart and claim your feelings.

This book is also not a trendy "self-help" book, but instead a book replete with clinical and real life examples that you will find yourself growing, as you read this book.

This is an author who I would love to meet, and just be fully in the moment with, without much dialogue - just to share a thank you for writing information that helps us all to explore the human condition.

I recommend this book to anybody interesting in learning how muscular tensions, in an unconsious way, can severely affect the quality of life. It contains lots of information about how muscles hold back emotions.

Thorughly loved this book. I got a much greater understanding of the oedipal problem and how important the understanding is to regaining emotional health. It's the tip of the whole rotten enchilada of neurosis! It's like an iceberg! 95 percent of our oedipal issues are submerged in or subconscious, waiting to be resolved. Then a person we want to be intimate with comes along just like the Titanic and slams into the frozen mass below the surface and we realize, hopefully, just how big and solid that iceberg really was. I also really liked the parts about the nature of fate. It seems like a strange subject to be in a psychology book but Dr. Lowen has bravely approached how we end up manifesting our subconscious drives over and over again for better or worse, and how we can use the awareness for better instead of worse. It's that pesky repitition compulsion again!
Small case studies are integrated into the book and it progresses on explaing the nature and depth of the oedipal problem. It is never boring and not so technical that it is difficult to read. On the contrary, it is warm and conversational, but fully reveals the gravity and seriousness of resolving these issues so the we may experience love, pleasure and pain with the full response of our bodies and cooperation of the ego. Let's not live in our heads anymore people! Strongly reccomend this book. It is also nicely bound and printed.

This is a useful text and I would very much like to see it back in print. It particularly discusses the key role of sexuality in life and the importance of the acceptance of our sexuality in health and healthy relationships.

Our culture is driven by a fear of death--other writers have said as much. But to my knowledge, only Lowen has identified where such a strong fear of death comes from--The Fear of Life!

Lowen and Bioenergetics has changed my life. The message is not easy but it is hopeful: change your body and you can change your feelings and your life.

The book explores how the need or drive for children to exceed their parents leads to suffering both within families and within our culture. It does indeed strongly endorse and make vivid Freud's idea of the Oedipal Complex, but it is much more than just a reworking of Freud. Lowen brought enormous powers of observation and decades of clinical experience to the task of defining what happens in human development that leads to emotional limitations and suffering.

For non-therapists, Joy: The Surrender to the Body and to Life (Compass) might be a better book to start with (fewer psychoanalytic concepts), but this is Lowen's most powerful book.

I highly recommend this book. Gives much to delve into as far as hidden factors that control our character and happiness. Stuff that is very hard to see clearly on our own bec. of major resistances.

I enjoy Lowen's writing style. Fear of Life was my first Lowen; since then I have read many more of his books.

Ordered as a gift so not read by me. Book in good shape and received in a timely manner.

Back cover of 2003 reprint says - Alexander Lowen, M.D., world famous psychiatrist and creator of Bioenergetic Analysis shows you how to resolve your fears and allow yourself to:
-Surrender to love
-Let go rathern than control
-Be rather than do
-Flow rather than push

Bioenergetic Analysis helps you:
-Love in a new way
-Discover sexuality as authenticity
-Find the courage to truly be
-Harmonize the mind and the body
-Use Bioenergetic exercises to heal emotional conflicts

Alexander Lowen, M.D., has practiced psychotherapy for more than 55 years. He has authored 12 books on Bioenergetic Analysis, including Depression and the Body; Love, Sex, and Your Heart; Narcissism; and The Way to Vibrant Health: A Manual of Bioenergetic Exercises

I'm so glad Bioenergetics Press has reprinted this book and now it's available for everyone!