Ola Raknes (January 17, 1887 – January 28, 1975) was a Norwegian psychologist, philologist and non-fiction writer. Born in Bergen, Norway, he was internationally known as a psychoanalyst in Reichian tradition, and he has been described as someone who spent his entire life working with the conveying of ideas through many languages and between different epistemological systems of reference, science and religion (Dannevig, 1975), and for large portions of his life he was actively contributing to the public discourse in Norway. He has also been credited for his contributions to strengthening and enriching the Nynorsk language and its use in the public sphere.
Raknes was known as a thorough philologist and a controversial therapist. He was known internationally as one of Wilhelm Reich's closest students and defenders.
Ola Raknes was the son of the farmer Erik Askildson (Askjellson) Raknes (1856 – 1926) and Magdali Olsdotter (born Raknes) (1859 – 96) and grew up at the family farm of Raknes in Hamre on the island Osterøy in the Osterfjorden fjord in the Bergen archipelago in a strict pietist environment. He was married twice: in his first marriage in 1911 with Aslaug Vaa (1889 – 1965, the marriage was dissolved in 1938) they begot the children Magli (1912 – 1993), Anne (1914 – 2001), Tora (1916 – 1995), Tor, and Erik. The second marriage in 1941 with Gerten Bonde (born 1913) gave him the daughter Ada.
Ola Raknes was always searching for improvements of the therapeutic technique, and he was also dissatisfied with the traditional psychoanalytical explanatory models for man's basic drives, instincts, and aggression, and he was skeptical of the psychological dualism of Freud's theories of these contradictory basic drives, which at first moved between the instinct for self preservation and sexuality, and later between the life instinct and the death instinct. It was during his stay in Berlin that Ola Raknes heard Wilhem Reich's name for the first time, but there would still be some years before he read anything by Reich. It was after Reich had published his book Charakteranalyse in 1922 that Ola Raknes in earnest began moving toward Reich's teachings. Ola Raknes met Wilhelm Reich for the first time at the Scandinavian psychoanalysts meeting in Oslo in the Easter of 1934. Raknes was very much impressed by this strong personality, and the succinctness of his presentations and during discussions about core elements of the themes that he discussed helped Raknes attain a clearer understanding of many things.
Raknes' first choice would be to commence apprentice therapy with Reich immediately, however, he had no way of travelling to Sweden where Reich was working at that time. In any case, they met again in August that same year on the 13th psychoanalytical congress in Luzern.
Shortly after Reich had arrived in Norway, he opened a seminar in character analysis. Raknes was admitted to this despite not having undergone any such analysis himself. He tried out the techniques that he learned on a couple of his patients, with fairly good results. In the fall of 1936 he asked if Wilhelm Reich would accept him for apprentice therapy, because he thought that Reich's therapeutic approach was far more efficient than the classical Freudian technique which he had applied so far.
was in doubt and felt that Ola Raknes was a bit old and too armored, but in the end he gave his acceptance. Ola Raknes was probably one of the first patients to whom Reich consistently applied his new technique, which he labeled characteranalytic vegetotherapy. Not surprisingly, due to Raknes' advanced age, the restructuring of his character, that is the apprentice therapy, was cumbersome and lasted for almost three years, three sessions a week. The response did not fail to show itself. At times everything felt so destitute and hopeless that he doubted whether he would ever be able to do the work that he still believed he was created to do, in a way he himself would be content with – and if he couldn't manage that, there would be no reason to live even. But after a long period of time he finally began noticing that the energies started to make themselves felt; he started noticing what took place inside of his own organism, and what it would mean to be functioning freely. He was struck by the fundamental differences between characteranalytic vegetotherapy and traditional psychoanalysis. Even though he had read Reich's book on character analysis, and he had also applied the technique on his own patients, having the technique work on his own body was something altogether new. Compared to classical psychoanalysis, the technique was now extended to the interpretation of character expressions and bodily attitudes, and to the working through somatical blockings through direct manipulation. (Raknes, 1959).
The most important part of Raknes’ work was to integrate body perception – to feel what one wanted, to yield to the urge if nothing of significance gainsayed it.
Raknes pointed to Wilhelm Reich's definition of life as a continuous process consisting of rhythmical shifts between mechanical tension, bioenergetic charge, bioenergetic discharge, and mechanical relaxation.
Six times after the war Raknes traveled to the US to visit Reich, and to keep his skills and knowledge up-to-date with respect to the development of Reich's theories and methods. Then upon his return to Norway, he would replicate as much as he could of the observations and experiments that he had witnessed in Reich's laboratory, experiments which constituted the foundation for the discovery of the bions and the orgone energy in the body.
Ola Raknes had his treatment room in the basement of his home at Nordberg in Oslo, and there he also had his own "orgone closet" where his patients sat in order to be supplied life energy, a so-called orgone accumulator.
He treated a total of 800 patients, and on his last working day he received five patients.
The work of Ola Raknes as a psychotherpist is being continued by several psychologists in Norway and also branched to other countries, in particular through Gerda Boyesen, a student of Raknes, who later established institutions for education of therapists in London.
The collaboration and friendship between Ola Raknes and Wilhelm Reich would last through to Reich's death in an American prison cell in 1957.
Ola Raknes was a strong proponent of providing freedom to the child so that it could make its own experiences instead of being told by adults how to perceive things: "Children always pick their own ideals. As soon as we put up ideals for them, they will start cheating on themselves. They are the ones who should make the choice." (Gabrielsen, 1962)
Raknes elaborates on how he as a psychologist sees the child's developmental dynamics being critically dependent on being given the opportunity to learn for itself to regulate such matters as going to the bathroom, what and when to eat and when and how much it wants to sleep, through experiencing and through practicing to master, without the adults spurring the the child on.
Ola Raknes focused on the child is the center of focus in his therapy and in himself the way he was – the child in the adult and the child in itself, in center and teeming with life, the child which is devoid of sentimentality and childishness. Ola Raknes manifested this child himself in his eagerness and his joy in searching and in pride in himself the way it can be seen in children, but that has been lost in most all adults – and he combined this with an unusual degree of sober attitude.
He saw things simply and straightforwardly and gave them names that all could understand. He could easily be misjudged as being naïve, but in reality he held a broad view. Similarly was his repulsion great when it came to use of force and repression of others.
Ola Raknes once said to his friend and student Rolf Grønseth: "I too must be allowed to die at some time". He died pursuant to a brief bout of pneumonia at the end of January 1975, only a few days after his 88th birthday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ola_Raknes