Book Review
by
Mitch Hall

Emotional Anatomy: The Structure of Experience by Stanley Keleman. Center Press (Berkeley, California) 1985, $39.50


Stanley Keleman is a man with a vision created out of thirty years of independent work in a field he calls somatic process education. Emotional Anatomy articulates the details and structure of that vision. "Images are the primary teachers," writes Keleman. In fact the 120 original drawings by Vincent Perez call for careful observation, :as does the author's compact text.

Keleman's vocabulary is distinctive. He writes of tubes, pouches, layers, diaphragms, pumps, pulsations, waves, motility. One cannot automatically assume the meaning of such everyday words, but through their repeated use and their relationships to one another, they emerge as conveyors of uncommon insight.

Both the text and the drawings challenge us to look anew at self and others, as well as at basic assumptions concerning physical and psychological process.

The scientifically minded might fault Emotional Anatomy for its unverifiable assertions. Nowhere does Keleman state what methods of observation, what standards of validation inform his views. Such criticisms would miss the point of the book, which presents "a general way of looking at the somatic archetypes of each personality. "

Beginning with the development of the embryo, surveying the organism's physical organization, Keleman shows how the well-known startle reflex in response to threats results in "insults to form." Depending upon the nature, timing and severity of the threats, the startle reflex goes through stages which dramatically and demonstrably affect the shape and functioning of the human body.

Keleman posits a somatic typology of "patterns of somatic distress." He defines the four structures as rigid, dense, swollen and collapsed. No one embodies one type purely.

The entire book, in addition to being highly imaginative, displays a remarkable coherence.

An important therapeutic or educational implication of Keleman's views on somatic types is that not all somatic techniques available are appropriate for any given individual. Consequently, "each structure must be approached uniquely. Emotional misery results for many people when they attempt to become someone else's somatic ideal."

Emotional Anatomy gives only general indications about the somatic re-education for particular body types. Keleman promises a fuller account of his remedial and educational practices in a forthcoming book, Embodying Experience: Forming a Personal Life.

This review was originally published in the AHP Perspective, July 1987. San Francisco: Association for Humanistic Psychology, p. 16.