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Missing image Wilhelm_Reich_0.jpg Dr. Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897–November 3, 1957) was an Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who was trained in Vienna by Sigmund Freud. In the 1930s, Reich claimed to have discovered a physical energy, which he called "orgone," and which he said was contained in the atmosphere and in all living matter. He developed instruments — orgone accumulators — to detect and harness the energy, which he said could be used to treat illnesses like cancer. His views were not accepted by the mainstream scientific community. Reich's Mass Psychology of Fascism, published in 1933, was banned by the Nazis. Realizing he was in danger, he moved to the United States in 1939, where he continued his orgone research. In 1947, following a series of articles about orgone in the New Republic and Harpers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation into orgone therapy as a medical treatment, and later won an injunction against its promotion. Charged with contempt of court for violating the injunction, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved sending the judge all his books to read. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. In August 1956, several tons of Reich's publications were burned by the FDA. Reich died of heart failure in jail just over a year later, one day before he was due to apply for parole.
Reich's early career and his theory of orgoneReich was born in Galicia, now part of Ukraine but then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He attributed his later interest in the study of sex and the biological basis of the emotions to his upbringing on his father's farm where, as he later put it, the "natural life functions" were never hidden from him. He was taught at home until he was 13, when his mother committed suicide after being discovered having an affair with one of his tutors. [1] (http://www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org/biography.html) His father died of tuberculosis four years later. Missing image
WilhelmReich2.jpg Reich had to flee his home shortly after his father's death in 1914, when the Russian army invaded. In his Passion of Youth, he wrote: "I never saw either my homeland or my possessions again. Of a well-to-do past, nothing was left." He joined the Austrian Army, serving from 1915-18, for the last two years as a lieutenant. In 1918, when the war ended, he entered the medical school at the University of Vienna. As an undergraduate, he was drawn to the work of Sigmund Freud, who became aware of Reich's work in 1919, when Reich organized a seminar on sexology. Reich was accepted for membership of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Assocation in October 1920 at the age of 23. According to the Wilhelm Reich Museum's biography of Reich, he was allowed to complete his six-year medical degree in four years because he was a war veteran and received his M.D. in July 1922. [2] (http://www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org/biography.html) He worked in Internal Medicine at University Hospital, Vienna; and studied neuropsychiatry from 1922-24 at the Neurological and Psychiatric Clinic under Professor Wagner-Jauregg, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1927. In 1922, he set up a private practice as a psychoanalyst, and became First Clinical Assistant, and later vice-director, at Freud's Polyanalytic Polyclinic. He joined the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Institute in Vienna in 1924, and conducted research into the social causes of neurosis. It was at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association that Reich met Annie Pink, a fellow analyst-in-training, whom he started to court and later married. They had their first daughter, Eva, in 1924, and a second daughter in 1928, but Reich was unable to control his interest in other women; the marriage was not a happy one, and did not last. Reich developed a theory that the ability to feel sexual love depended on a physical ability to make love with what he called "orgastic potency." He attempted to "measure" the male orgasm, noting that four distinct phases occurred physiologically: first, the psychosexual build-up or tension; second. the tumescence of the penis, with an accompanying "charge," which Reich measured electrically; third, an electrical discharge at the moment of orgasm, and fourth, the relaxation of the penis. He believed the force that he measured was a distinct type of energy present in all life forms. He called it "orgone." [[3] (http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/Wilhelm%20Reich%20Scientific%20Genius%20or%20Medical%20Madman.html) Reich was a prolific writer for psychoanalytic journals in Europe, and his book Character Analysis brought forth a small revolution in the practice of psychoanalysis itself, and is still used today as a textbook for analytically-oriented classes in medical schools. The book introduced Reich's theory of "body armoring." He argued that unreleased psychosexual energy could produce actual physical blocks within muscles and organs, and that these act as a "body armor," preventing the release of the energy. An orgasm was one way to break through the armor. These ideas developed into a general theory of the importance of a healthy sex life to overall well-being, a theory compatible with Freud's views. Reich agreed with Freud that sexual development was the origin of mental disorder. They both believed that most psychological states were dictated by unconscious processes; that infant sexuality develops early but is repressed, and that this has important consequences for mental health. They were both atheists, believing that morality is a repression of the sexuality of individuals imposed on them as they move from childhood to maturity. At that time a Marxist, Reich argued that the source of sexual repression was bourgeois morality and the socio-economic stuctures that produced it. As sexual repression was the cause of the neuroses, the best cure would be to have an active, guilt-free sex life. He argued that such a liberation could come about only through a morality not imposed by a repressive economic structure. [4] (http://www.marxist.com/scienceandtech/psychoanalysis_reich.htm) In 1928, Reich joined the Austrian Communist Party. He founded the Socialist Association for Sexual Counselling and Research, which organized counselling centers for workers — in contrast to Freud, who was perceived as treating only the bourgeoisie. Reich employed an unusual therapeutic method. He used touch to accompany the talking cure, taking an active role in sessions, feeling his patients' chests to check their breathing, repositioning their bodies, and sometimes requiring them to remove their clothes, so that men were treated wearing shorts and women in bra and panties. These methods caused a split between Reich and the rest of the psychoanalytic community. [5] (http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/Wilhelm%20Reich%20Scientific%20Genius%20or%20Medical%20Madman.html) In 1930, Reich moved his practice to Berlin and joined the Communist Party of Germany, becoming its spokesman. His best-known book, The Sexual Revolution, was published at this time in Vienna. Advocating free contraceptives and abortion on demand, he again set up clinics in working-class areas and taught sex education, but eventually became too outspoken even for the communists, and he was expelled from the party in 1933. In the same year, The Mass Psychology of Fascism was published, in which Reich categorized fascism as a symptom of sexual repression. The book was banned by the Nazis when they came to power. Reich was expelled from the International Psychological Association in 1934 for political militancy. German newspapers started attacking him as a womanizer, a communist, and a Jew who advocated free love. He realized he was in danger and hurriedly left Germany disguised as a tourist on a ski trip to Austria. He spent some years in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, before leaving for the U.S. in 1939. The bion experimentsFrom 1934-37, based for most of the period in Oslo, Reich conducted experiments seeking the origin of life. He examined protozoa, single-celled creatures with nuclei that, like animals, display mobility and heterotrophy, meaning they require organic matter to obtain carbon for growth. He grew cultered vesicles using grass, beach sand, iron, and animal tissue, boiling them, adding potassium and gelatin. Having heated the materials to incandescence with a heat-torch, he noted bright-glowing blue-ish vesicles, which, he claimed, could be cultured, and which gave off a sensible and observable radiant energy — "orgone". He called the vesicles "bions" and believed they were a rudimentary form of life, or halfway between life and non-life. When he poured the cooled mixture onto growth media, bacteria were born. Reich dismissed the idea that the bacteria were already present in the air or in the sand and other materials he used. Reich's The Bion Experiments on the Origin of Life was published in Oslo in 1938. He was attacked by the press as a "Jew pornographer" who was daring to meddle with the origins of life. [6] (http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/Wilhelm%20Reich%20Scientific%20Genius%20or%20Medical%20Madman.html) T-bacilliIn 1936, in Beyond Psychology, Reich wrote that:
This idea led Reich to believe he had found the cause of cancer. He called the life-destroying organisms "T-bacilli", with the T standing for Tod, German for death. He described in The Cancer Biopathy how he had found them in a culture of rotting cancerous tissue obtained from a local hospital. He wrote that T-bacilli were formed by the disintegration of protein. He claimed they were 0.2-0.5 microns in length, shaped like lancets, and when injected into mice, they caused inflammation and cancer. He concluded that when orgone energy diminishes in cells, through ageing or injury, the cells undergo "bionous degeneration" or death. At some point, the deadly T-bacilli start to form in the cells. Death from cancer, he believed, was caused by an overwhelming growth of the T-bacilli. Orgone accumulators, cloudbusters, and the FDAMissing image WilhelmReichcloudbuster.gif Reich with a "cloudbuster" In August 1938, Hitler annexed Austria. Reich's wife and daughters had already left for the U.S., and in August 1939, Reich sailed out of Norway on the last boat to leave before the war began. He settled in Forest Hills, Long Island, and in 1946, he married Ilse Ollendorf, with whom he had his son, Peter. It was during this period that, some researchers have argued, Reich appeared to suffer a breakdown. He became paranoid, and rewrote many of his earlier works, in some cases only revising them, in others changing their focus entirely; and in particular, removing any traces of Marxist, materialist thought. [7] (http://www.marxist.com/scienceandtech/psychoanalysis_reich.htm) In 1940, Reich built boxes — orgone accumulators — to concentrate orgone energy in the atmosphere, some for lab animals, and some large enough for a human being to sit inside. He now believed orgone was a type of primordial cosmic energy, blue in color, which he claimed to be omnipresent and responsible for such things as weather, the color of the sky, gravity, the formation of galaxies, and the biological expressions of emotion and sexuality. Composed of alternating layers of ferrous metals and insulators with a high-dielectrical constant, his orgone accumulators had the appearance of a large hollow "capacitor". He believed that sitting inside the box might provide a treatment for cancer and other illnesses. It was the construction of these boxes that caught the attention of the press, and wild rumors spread that they were "sex boxes" which caused uncontrolled erections. [8] (http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/Wilhelm%20Reich%20Scientific%20Genius%20or%20Medical%20Madman.html) Reich also designed a "cloudbuster" with which he said he could manipulate streams of orgone energy in the atmosphere to induce rain by forcing clouds to form and disperse. Based on experiments with the orgone accumulator, he argued that orgone energy was a negatively-entropic force in nature which was responsible for concentrating and organizing matter. During one drought-relief expedition to Arizona, he claimed to have observed UFOs, and speculated that orgone might be used for the propulsion of UFOs. According to his theory, illness was primarily caused by depletion or blockages of the orgone energy within the body. He conducted clinical tests of the orgone accumulator on people suffering from a variety of illnesses. The patient would sit within the accumulator and absorb the "concentrated orgone energy". He built smaller, more portable accumulator-blankets of the same layered construction, for application to parts of the body to promote healing. The effects observed were claimed to boost the immune system, even to the point of destroying certain types of tumors, though Reich was hesitant to claim this constituted a "cure". The orgone accumulator was also tested on mice with cancer, and on plant-growth, the results convincing Reich that the benefits of orgone therapy could not be attributed to a placebo effect. He had, he believed, developed a grand unified theory of physical and mental health. [9] (http://www.mdpsych.org/SU01_gKlee.htm) Missing image WilhelmReich-Peter.jpg Reich with his second wife and their son Peter, who wrote A Book of Dreams about his close relationship with his father, how they would go cloudbusting together, and his bewilderment when Reich died in prison when Peter was 11 years old. In 1947, Reich was attacked in the New Republic and Harpers in a series of articles by Mildred Brady, a freelance writer. These articles triggered an investigation of Reich by the FDA, who believed he was peddling a quack cancer cure. Reich had already been investigated by the FBI because he was an immigrant with a communist background. According to an FBI press release dated February 25, 2000:
Though cleared of suspicion of subversive activities, the FDA investigation continued. On February 10, 1954, they filed a complaint seeking a permanent injunction under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prevent interstate shipment of orgone-therapy equipment and literature. [11] (http://www.orgone.org/wr-vs-usa/wr40210a.htm) Reich refused to appear in court, apparently believing that no court was in a position to evaluate his work. On February 25, he wrote to Judge Clifford:
Because of Reich's failure to appear, Judge Clifford granted the injunction on March 19, 1954. [13] (http://www.orgone.org/wr-vs-usa/wr40319d.htm) The ruling stated that all written material, including books, papers and pamphlets, that mentioned "orgone energy" had to be destroyed, and that further copies of Reich's books could not be published, including his revised classics like The Mass Psychology of Fascism, unless the words "orgone energy" were deleted. Imprisonment and deathIn May 1956, Reich was arrested for technical violation of the injunction when an associate moved some orgone-therapy equipment across a state line, and Reich was charged with contempt of court. Once again, he refused to arrange a proper legal defense. He was brought in chains to the courthouse in Portland, Maine, where he defended himself instead of hiring an attorney. He admitted to having violated the injunction, and arranged for the judge to be sent copies of his books as his defense. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. Dr. Morton Herskowitz, a fellow psychiatrist and friend of Reich's wrote of the trial:
On June 5, 1956, FDA officials traveled to Orgonon, Reich's 200-acre estate near Rangeley, Maine, and destroyed the accumulators, and on June 26, they burned many of his books. On August 25 1956 and again on March 17, 1960, [15] (http://www.orgone.org/wr-vs-usa/wr40319d.htm) the remaining six tons of his books, journals and papers were burned in the 25th Street public incinerator in New York's lower east side. In March 1957, he was sent to Danbury Federal Prison, where a psychiatrist examined him, recording: "Paranoia manifested by delusions of grandiosity and persecution and ideas of reference." [16] (http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/Wilhelm%20Reich%20Scientific%20Genius%20or%20Medical%20Madman.html) Reich died in his sleep of heart failure on November 3, 1957 in the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, one day before he was due to apply for parole. He was buried in Orgonon. At his own instruction, his granite headstone said simply: Wilhelm Reich
Born March 24, 1987 Died Not one psychiatric or established scientific journal carried an obituary. Time Magazine noted:
Status of Reich's workMissing image Cloudbusting.gif From Kate Bush's song, Cloudbusting, based on Peter Reich's book Nearly all of Reich's publications have been reprinted, save for his research journals which are available only as photocopies via the Wilhelm Reich Museum. [17] (http://www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org) In the late 1960s, the publishing house of Farrar, Straus & Giroux republished Reich's major works. Reich's earlier books, particularly The Mass Psychology of Fascism, are regarded as historically valuable. William Steig, Norman Mailer, William S. Burroughs and Orson Bean have all undergone Reich's orgone therapy. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Reich's ideas on social and sexual freedom enjoyed a revival and most of his books were reprinted and widely read, including by the loosely defined "New Left" and students' movements in Europe and the U.S., though often with considerable distortion of his ideas. As of 2005, the scientific community pays little attention to Reich's work. Missing image Orgoneaccumulator.jpg An orgone accumulator Reich's influence is strongly felt in psychotherapy. He was a forerunner of body-orientated, emotions-based psychotherapies, influencing Fritz Perls' Gestalt therapy and Arthur Janov's primal therapy. His pupil Alexander Lowen, the founder of bioenergetic analysis, Charles Kelley, the founder of Radix Therapy, and James DeMeo of the Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory [18] (http://www.orgonelab.org) ensure that his research receives widespread attention. Many practising psychoanalysts give credence to his theory of character and his book "Character Analysis" is still used as a textbook. The American College of Orgonomy [19] (http://www.orgonomy.org) led by Dr. Elsworth Baker and the Institute for Orgonomic Science [20] (http://www.orgonomicscience.org) led by Dr. Morton Herskowitz still use Reich's original therapeutic methods. Reich's life and work continue to influence popular culture, with references to orgone and cloudbusting found in songs by Hawkwind, Pop Will Eat Itself, and Patti Smith. Kate Bush's song, "Cloudbusting," [21] (http://children.ofthenight.org/cloudbusting/cloudbusting.html) describes Reich's arrest and incarceration through the eyes of Reich's son, Peter, who wrote his father's story in A Book of Dreams, published in 1973.
BibliographyMissing image BookofDreams.jpg Books by Wilhelm Reich
English-language books by Reich:
About Reich and his findings, by various authors
External links
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