Abstract
The psychology of Wilhelm Reich suggests a hermeneutic that can illuminate the somato-psychic concepts of Hokhmah or Holy Wisdom as presented in the Hebrew of Proverbs 8-9. Reich’s psychology departs from his mentor Freud in its presentation of a living system that includes “mind,” “psyche” and “body.” Reich proposed to proceed beyond psychoanalysis to a “biogenesis” that included both individual and societal somatic therapy and education (Reich 1948,1949). In this sense, Reich’s work in “character analysis” provides a suitable lens through which to view Hebrew concepts such as nephesh, hayah and ruach, which cut across Greek language-based psycho-physical boundaries. Reich’s theories and practice also provide a suitable parallel to the Hebrew functional idea of “flesh” (basar), which differs from the Western formal notion of “body” (a distinction noted by Boman, 1970). In Proverbs 8-9, the function of Hokhmah can be seen to emulate that of the Reich’s “orgnotic sixth sense,” which organizes an awareness of self or “I-ness” from a multiplicity of sense impressions and “voices.” Breakdown in this orgonotic (or energy-based) sense leads to a splitting of the self in various forms of schizophrenic symptoms. Understanding arrives when various aspects of the self are reunited in a healthy approach to love, work and knowledge. The indeterminacy of certain aspects of this interpretation (that is, whether the psychology applies to the individual or the social arena) also suggests a bridge to the Hebrew interpretive tradition of midrash, which allows for a diversity of interpretations that can only be fixed for a certain situation and reader/hearer.