The notion of armor in the work of Wilhelm Reich: publications from 1920 to 1933

Abstract

This essay investigates the notion of armor in the first 13 years - from 1920 to 1933 - of the work of the analyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), a period in which the author was connected to the International Psychoanalytical Association. The leading question was: what is (are) the meaning(s) of armor in Reich's thought? As to method, we have made a research in the writings of the then psychoanalyst according to the chronological sequence of his publications. Results: a) the armor is mentioned for the first time in 1922, in the essay "Two Narcissistic Types", in indication to a defense associated with character neurosis; b) at first, the armor was conceived in relation to the psychic field, but then slowly began to be addressed as part of the somatic field as well; c) aimed at having a protective function, the armor is something natural and inevitable, but as a structure it may end up harming the contact with the inside and the outside, besides affecting the subject's libidinal regulation.