Beyond Psychology: Letters and Journals 1934-1939

by Wilhelm Reich, Derek Jordan (Translator), Mary Boyd Higgins (Editor)

In August 1934, Wilhelm Reich was suddenly expelled from the International Psychoanalytic Association. The result was the extraordinary widening of his scientific interests, scrupulously documented in these journals and letters. They record his pioneering laboratory experiments to verify the reality of the pleasure function and his discovery of a previously unsuspected form of energy that exists in all living matter.

Genres: Psychology

292 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1994

About the author

Wilhelm Reich (24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was a Jewish Austrian-American doctor of medicine, psychiatrist/psychoanalyst and a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. Author of several influential books, he became one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry.

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.

Reviews

[bedheaded · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting read, partly for its psychoanalytic perspective of the rapidly changing situation in Europe, between 1934 and 1939, and partly for its psychoanalytic value with regard to the author himself.
You witness in real time Wilhelm Reich's descent into madness as his work transitions from psychological theorizing to biochemical experiments, from mere continuation of early Freud to the work that would alienate him from everyone he knows and loves; and all without even the slightest doubt as to whether his "bions" or his "orgone energy" are scientifically valid (although he often doubts, in brief moments of lucidity, whether he should continue ruining his life in pursuit of them.) It would be a story ripe for posthumous vindication, if only Reich's work did have scientific value, and *wasn't* ultimately a pointless expenditure which brought harm to everyone involved and for which Reich refused (within this collection, at least) to apologize or make up for. It's dismal, but well-captured, and written with such vigor that you can't help but read on.

[James E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering it's nonfiction, this is a gripping read!