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The author compares the approaches and attitudes of various peoples to mental tension and relaxation. Fromm, for example, has noted that Latin Americans would rather have free time than make money. From Germany—the country that set up postural rigidity as a social ideal—comes Schultz's system of teaching physical relaxation. Jacobson evolved his 'progressive relaxation' in America, known to the world for its 'nervousness'. Techniques of relaxation originated in the Orient. They have taken root and flourished in highly competitive and industrialized civilizations because such civilizations are most productive of anxiety and tension.
The author reviews the many methods of relaxing the body, including mysticism and Yoga. He agrees with Freud that motivation and motility must both be taken into account when we study the unconscious. The human being is a unit. We can act upon his body through his mind, and upon his mind through his body. These two ways of dealing with psychogenic manifestations do not exclude each other. Psychotherapy that works upon motivation, as does psychoanalysis, is not the only possible approach. We