A public vote of thanks to Ted Morgan, Marty Jezer and Paula for their thoughtful comments and insights. Incidentally I've checked in the OED and it seems that 'hang-up' has Elizabethan origins in its meaning of trouble or difficulty, but the earliest citing for 'letting it all hang out' is 1970 from the Afro-American Slang Dictionary. I wonder if it's a crossover from black slang like 'rock and roll'.... I've checked too on Reich but got the impression he was more active in the 1950s with orgone and UFOs, not to mention fighting the FBI, but the humanist psychologist lead looks promising. I have a thesis that awareness of psychiatry and emotional repression became more widespread in the 1950s and early 1960s (rather than earlier in the century) because of the rise of affluence and the greater number of people able to afford psychiatric help and take an interest in their leisure time and reading. Just a hunch on my part so if anyone has evidence either way on this, or suggestions as to where I could enquire further (is there a psycho-list?) I'd be grateful. Meanwhile, thanks and have a good weekend JD Kyoto
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