An Introduction to Orgonomy

by Wilhelm Reich

, xxv, 560 pages, leaflet for the Orgone Research Group inserted, bibliography at rear

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy

576 pages, cloth

First published December 1, 1961

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

[LC Dodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the first 200 or so pages, the reader is led along an interesting deviation from classic, Freudian psychoanalysis towards some really radical, even liberatory paths. As the first Freudo-Marxist, I think Character Analysis, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, and the Function of the Orgasm are essential reading if you want to understand why it is that people these days don't *want* to change their material conditions. And no, Reich is smart enough to not reduce it all to comfort and commodity consumption.

That being said, however, I wish I could say the same for the rest of the book. From orgone 'biophysics' to bizarre essays on 'protoplasmic' energies, Reich straddles a thin line between utter madness and genuine, scientific discovery. But even if his forays into strange materialist vitalism amounts to pseudoscience, it's nice to see a man like Reich so passionate about the psyche, the body, and the life sciences to the point where it drove him into utter insanity. There's a sincerity, patience, and compassion to his thought that is seldom seen today, not to mention a real spirit of inquiry. In the end I care more about that then whether or not he's right about anything (which, after 1940, he pretty much isn't.)

[Peter]

Thanks for supporting my love of psuedoscience Jared!