Soma is a group therapy where people come together for about 18 months to do physical exercises and engage in personal and political discussion. It combines ideas from Austrian Jewish psychologist Wilhelm Reich, capoeira Angola, and anarchism. And unlike traditional psychotherapy, Soma rejects the authority of the therapist: during a session, a therapist is present, but he or she participates equally with the other members of the group and does not draw conclusions or make analysis. There is an emphasis on pleasure and physical release. The documentary shows Soma groups deep in physical play, doing theater and movement exercises. Participants call the work difficult but “delicious.”
Now decades later, Soma has spread across the world and is still liberating modern-day revolutionaries — young people, artists and students — who are fighting against the bourgeois and seeking liberation.
See also: Soma: An Anarchist Therapy documentary.
(Thanks Surrealestate!)
August 28, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Surreal Estates was the name of my second zine in the early 1980s.
The above sounds like Mu Ryu.
September 7, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Wow, good Synchronicity, Trevor!
While $16 ain’t much for a good mind-expanding documentary, I do want to mention that I have a copy of this, and have watched a bit of it (not all). Very cool stuff.
If you’re local to the PDXO crowd (for anyone else reading this), let me know, we may be able to arrange a viewing.