Wilhelm Reich

From The SpiritWiki

Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897-November 3, 1957) is best known for discovering orgone energy, which he contended to be the most powerful biological energy of all life form. He went as far to provide physical and chemical properties of orgone in order to prove its existence. Reich designed orgone energy accumulators to quantify the innate phenomena that he observed. Unfortunately, much of his life work was destroyed because of the severe censorship placed on him in the 1950s.

Early Childhood

Wilhelm was the second born yet oldest surviving child to Leon and Egleia Reich. From an early age, Reich became passionate to learn and study sexuality which was strongly influenced by interactions of animals and other people at his parents’ farm. Throughout his life, Reich was faced with tragedy and hardships. He feels that the best years of his life were up to the age of 10, whereas from age 10 to age 18 he endured much turmoil. Reich’s only playmate until age 12 was his little brother as the siblings were not allowed to have any sort of interaction with children of servant, peasant, or Jewish families, and Reich was homeschooled. His mother was constantly absent because of severe depression and his father showed no affection which left Reich in the care of maids and other workers at the farm. At the age of 12, his life struck a major catastrophe that would destroy his youth and family life. Egleia committed suicide after Leon found out she was having an affair with the coachman. She died with her family at her side while reconciling with her husband. Years later, after it seemed Leon was finally re-cooperating from his wife’s death, he was struck with tuberculosis and died. It was rumored that Leon’s death was a suicide as his sons did not receive his life insurance. Shortly after his father’s death, in 1914 Wilhelm and his brother fled from Germany to Austria at the wake of the war never to see his parents’ graves or any of his belongings.

Childhood Sexuality

Reich’s theories are fired by his own saturated experiences of sexuality that he remembered and described very vividly. One of his first sexual experiences occurred at age four where he was involved in watching the coachman and maid have sexual intercourse. As stated by Reich, he would attempt to engage in intercourse with the maid during nap time but she would only allow him to fondle her genitals. He recalls being particularly aroused by her genital hair. Reich in his early childhood was also aroused by men especially by the hair on their legs. He also claimed to watch his neighbor’s son who would lay fully exposed and masturbate all day. He believed this incident influenced his years of enjoying masturbation quite excessively. By age ten, his pursuance of having intercourse with the maid was failing and he felt that he was suffering from “sexual hyperesthesia” (Reich, 1990, p.21). He would begin to project his sexual urges to the animals he was surrounded. He recalls being mesmerized by the enormous size of a stallion’s penis and had great pleasure in watching the animals urinate. Merely by just observing the genitals of the animals Reich achieved an erection. At one point he inserted a whip into the vagina of a mare and thrusted as he felt that she was enjoying it. He continued to do this act for two months experimenting with other mares until all of a sudden he felt a sense of disgust and stopped immediately. At age eleven he lost his virginity to a cook and engaged in sexual intercourse with her which continued for years.

Reich and Psychoanalysis

In 1918 Wilhelm started at the University of Vienna and earned his PhD in medicine in 1922. During the 1920s, Wilhelm began contributing to psychoanalysis and was highly influenced by Sigmund Freud until their fall out in the early 1930s. In 1920, Reich became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, and from 1924 to 1930 Wilhelm led the Vienna Seminar for Psychoanalytic Therapy (which he was a founding member of as well). In this seminar, Wilhelm began to flourish and demonstrate his expertise at his young age. He flourished his ideas on the orgasm, personality, and other ideas. In his book Funcktion des Orgasmus, the theory of the orgasm was thoroughly presented. Along with Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm attempted to provide the best explanation for psychological dysfunctions which were explained by the function of the orgasm; specifically, not achieving a fulfilling orgasm and also conflicting psyche structures resulted in psychopathology (Reich, p. 17). According to Reich, however, the proper release of an orgasm would detangle any neurotic or physical ailments. At the publication of Funcktion des Orgasmus, Wilhelm claimed that the goal of psychoanalytic therapy was establishing “orgastic potency” (Robinson, 1969, p. 19). This claim paved way for the break between Wilhelm and psychoanalysis in Vienna. Reich’s eccentric ideas and claims about psychoanalysis and radical political views made him a threat to the reputation of the psychoanalytic movement. In 1934, Reich was expelled from the International Psychoanalytic Association and in 1933 from the German Psychoanalytic Society. In 1934, Reich assumed a position at the University of Oslo in Norway to teach character analysis and had access to labs where he could begin conducting biophysical experiments. In 1939, Reich moved to the United States to elaborate on bio-energetic theories, which would become the foundation of his legacy.

Orgonon

To Reich, orgone energy was élan vital, the life force. He considered orgone energy to be quantitative with physical properties. The measurements of the energies force were taken by an orgone energy field meter (also with a Geiger counter and electroscope) as collected in the orgone energy accumulator. The client under treatment would sit in the accumulator box and be exposed to a concentrate of energy. The power of the energy would heal all psychological and physical ailments.

Once Reich arrived in America, he became an Associate Professor of Psychology and began a private practice in New York. However it was in 1942 where he opened an institute called Orgonon where he conducted his own research in a laboratory that covered over 200 acres in Rangeley, Maine. Although raised atheist, coming to the west brought a new perspective of religion to Reich. He revised his theory to situate Orgonomy as a logical connection between science and religion. He believed humans are intuitive and actualizing organisms who are capable of becoming aware of the orgone spirit as long as barriers such as “rationality” and “self-consciousness” are put aside (Robinson, p. 71).

Reich and Personality Character Analysis

Reich’s conclusion regarding the cause of personality disorders was believed to be resistance (or fake genuineness) on part of the client to the therapy process. Resisting therapy resulted in “character neurosis” (Reich, p. 21). According to Reich, character was not created from personality traits but simply from malfunctioning behavior. Contrary to his peers, Reich’s method of treating problems of the personality was to deal with patients in a hostile manner in order to lower their guard. Along the process, the character of the client may produce aggression as a defense mechanism to resist therapy. He viewed a neurotic character as an armor that had to be broken down in order to be fixed.

Character itself was a functional justification in blocking or suppressing natural energy instincts within the body. Character essentially led to neurosis because it blocked the release of a healthy orgasm. The development of the character was nourished by using the psychic energy of the unreleased orgasm. As a result, character therapy for Reich involved orgone energy accumulators which would allow the healthy release of an orgasm. Ultimately, however, the goal of therapy is love (Robinson, p. 28).

End of Career and Death

In 1953 the Federal Food and Drug Administration investigated the efficacy of the therapeutic effects of the orgone energy accumulator. The FDA filed a complaint in Federal Court to prohibit the practice of using the accumulators and printing all literature regarding orgone accumulators. Soon enough, all books and accumulators were destroyed-one of the most significant propaganda bans ever in history in order to protect paranoia against mystical and spiritual development. Reich was sentenced to two years in federal prison on May 7, 1956. Wilhelm Reich died November 3, 1957 while serving his sentence in a Pennsylvania Federal penitentiary.