Wilhelm Reich

Author profile

born

March 24, 1897 in Dobrzanica, Galicia, Austria

died

November 03, 1957

gender

male

genre

Science, Health, Mind & Body, Sexuality

influences

Sigmund Freud

About this author

edit data

Jewish Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

Reich was a respected analyst for much of his life, focusing on character structure, rather than on individual neurotic symptoms. He promoted adolescent sexuality, the availability of contraceptives and abortion, and the importance for women of economic independence. Synthesizing material from psychoanalysis, cultural anthropology, economics, sociology, and ethics, his work influenced writers such as Alexander Lowen, Fritz Perls, Paul Goodman, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, A. S. Neill, and William Burroughs.

He was also a controversial figure, who came to be viewed by the psychoanalytic establishment as having gone astray or as having succumbed to mental illness. His work on the link betw...more Jewish Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

Reich was a respected analyst for much of his life, focusing on character structure, rather than on individual neurotic symptoms. He promoted adolescent sexuality, the availability of contraceptives and abortion, and the importance for women of economic independence. Synthesizing material from psychoanalysis, cultural anthropology, economics, sociology, and ethics, his work influenced writers such as Alexander Lowen, Fritz Perls, Paul Goodman, Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, A. S. Neill, and William Burroughs.

He was also a controversial figure, who came to be viewed by the psychoanalytic establishment as having gone astray or as having succumbed to mental illness. His work on the link between human sexuality and neuroses emphasized "orgastic potency" as the foremost criterion for psycho-physical health. He said he had discovered a form of energy, which he called "orgone," that permeated the atmosphere and all living matter, and he built "orgone accumulators," which his patients sat inside to harness the energy for its reputed health benefits. It was this work, in particular, that cemented the rift between Reich and the psychoanalytic establishment.

Reich, of Jewish descent and a communist, was living in Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power. He fled to Scandinavia in 1933 and subsequently to the United States in 1939. In 1947, following a series of critical articles about orgone and his political views in The New Republic and Harper's, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation into his claims, winning an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators. Charged with contempt of court for violating the injunction, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved sending the judge all his books to read, and arguing that a court was no place to decide matters of science. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and in August 1956, several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA. He died of heart failure in jail just over a year later, days before he was due to apply for parole.
(less)

combine editions
Books by Wilhelm Reich

Average rating: 4.00 · 949 ratings · 88 reviews · 39 distinct works

	Listen, Little Man! by Wilhelm Reich, William Steig (Illustrator), Ralph Manheim (Translator) 3.98 avg rating — 346 ratings — published 1948 — 15 editions	My rating:
	The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich, Vincent Carfagno (Translation) 4.17 avg rating — 204 ratings — published 1933 — 11 editions	My rating:
	The Function of the Orgasm (Discovery of the Orgone 1) by Wilhelm Reich, Vincent R. Carfagno (Translator) 3.83 avg rating — 107 ratings — published 1942 — 12 editions	My rating:
	Character Analysis by Wilhelm Reich, Vincent R. Carfagno (Translator), Vincent Carfagno (Translation) 3.83 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 1933 — 12 editions	My rating:
	The Sexual Revolution: Toward a Self-governing Character Structure 4.00 avg rating — 50 ratings — published 1936 — 9 editions	My rating:
	The Murder of Christ 4.03 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 1953 — 4 editions	My rating:
	An Introduction to Orgonomy by Wilhelm Reich, Mary Boyd Higgins (Foreword by) 3.90 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 1961 — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Invasion of Compulsory Sex-Morality 4.40 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 1932 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Ether, God and Devil/Cosmic Superimposition 4.06 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 1951 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Children of the Future: On the Prevention of Sexual Pathology by Wilhelm Reich, Chester M. Raphael (Editor), Mary Higgins (Editor) 4.00 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 1983 — 2 editions	My rating:

More books by Wilhelm Reich…

Quotes by Wilhelm Reich

“Man's right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word "freedom" should ever be more than an empty political slogan.”
― Wilhelm Reich

tags: education , freedom , rights

41 people liked it

“The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary. ”
― Wilhelm Reich

tags: bubonic-plague , church , ideologies , love , orgasm , politics , psychoanalysis , psychology , psychotherapy , wilhelm-reich

40 people liked it

“Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness.”
― Wilhelm Reich

tags: love , orgasm , psychoanalysis , psychology , psychotherapy , wilhelm-reich

38 people liked it

See all Wilhelm Reich's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Dark Fiction: * What Are You Currently Reading?	1095	816	May 04, 2012 08:03am
Supernatural Fict...: * What (in the supernatural genre) are you reading right now?	765	475	May 18, 2012 11:27am
Literary Horror: * What are you reading?	927	694	6 hours, 12 min ago
Horror Aficionados : * What Are You Currently Reading?	14836	2710	4 hours, 4 min ago

More…

Wilhelm's Fans (28)

Wilhelm Reich

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Wilhelm Reich

Quotes by Wilhelm Reich

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by Wilhelm Reich