Why\nwere the Nazi\u2019s, the 1950s American government, and two Catholic Popes so\nafraid of Wilhelm Reich? I must admit, he looks a bit crazy, an intense stare in\nhis eyes and wild hair like Albert Einstein, but even Einstein rejected his\ninventions, the \u201corgone accumulator\u201d (for harnessing orgone energy) and his \u201ccloudbuster\u201d\n(for seeding clouds), as ludicrous. Reich had a nervous breakdown and\neventually died in 1957 in an American prison. Twenty years after the Nazi\u2019s\nburned his books, Reich\u2019s books and equipment were burned and destroyed on\ninstruction of the United States Food Administration. Why were they so afraid?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nshort, he claimed that better orgasms could cure many ills of society. Okay, it\nsounds silly, but then it also speaks of bodies, or more accurately \u2013 desiring\nbodies. Reich, also called the \u201cJewish pornographer\u201d by the Nazi\u2019s dedicated\nhis life \u201cto exploring the nature of the orgasm and taking a radical \u2018hands-on\u2019\napproach to psychoanalysis to treat both mind and body\u2026 Ten years after his\ndeath, the slogan of the 1960s counter-culture \u2018Make Love Not War\u2019<\/em> summed up his philosophy in just four words\u201d\n(David Bramwell). He wanted nothing less than a sexual revolution, one which\ncould liberate us from the uptight, aggressive authoritarianism of politics and\nstate. Reich was baptised “the\ngodfather of the sexual revolution<\/em>“. He coined the phrase in the 1930s\nin order to illustrate his belief that a true political revolution would be\npossible only once sexual repression was overthrown. In 1936 he published his\nbook, \u201cDie Sexualit\u00e4t im Kulturkampf<\/em>\u201d\n( later published in English as \u201cThe Sexual Revolution\u201d), with a subtitle\n“for the socialist restructuring of humans”, <\/p>\n\n\n\n He\nwas born in Austria, studied medicine, raised through the psychoanalytical\nranks, became a star pupil of Sigmund Freud and then fell out with Freud \u2013 over\norgasms. For Freud the libido was an unruly beast. Reich believed the opposite,\nperceiving the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s as a direct\nresult of repressed sexual desire, sublimated into hatred and war (Christopher\nTurner). For Reich the body language adopted by those in the military says all\nwe need to know about sexual, psychological and emotional repression \u2013 stiff controlled\nbody movements, tight pelvis, rigid jaw, unquestioning obedience and stifled\nemotions. Reich saw fascism as the \u2018frenzy of sexual cripples\u2019. To him bigotry,\nviolence and hatred all stem from a longing for love (Bramwell). What matters is\nhow much we can let ourselves go during sex to achieve full-body orgasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\nrejected the \u2018talking cure\u2019. For Reich, treatment had to transcend words. He\nbroke the golden rule of psychoanalysis \u2013 never touch a patient \u2013 and developed\nphysical manipulation techniques to enable emotional release. These techniques\nstemmed from his belief that unresolved conflict leaves a remnant of muscular\ntension; and as muscles attach to tendons, which attach to bones, the growing\nskeletal system of a child is fenced in by the patterns of tension from unresolved\nconflict. Thus, the psychological history of a person is present not just in\nthe mind, as Freud and Jung believed, but in the body too (Bramwell).<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\nfled Nazi Germany for Norway under a false name, then to Sweden and eventually\nto America. In 1947, Harper’s magazine introduced Reich to mainstream Americans\nas the leader of “a new cult of sex and anarchy” that was blooming\nalong the west coast where bohemians lived in shacks. The Food and Drug\nAdministration began investigating Reich for making fraudulent claims and spent\nnearly $2m investigating and prosecuting Reich. He became the scapegoat for the\nnew morality, was imprisoned and died 8 months into his sentencing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n