Wilhelm Reich

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Wilhelm Reich in his mid 20s

Wilhelm Reich (* 24. March 1897 in Dobzau , Galicia , Austria-Hungary , † 3. November 1957 in Lewisburg , Pennsylvania , USA ) was an Austria isch- American physician , psychiatrist , psychoanalyst , sexologist and sociologist . Reich found connections between psychological and muscular armor and developed the therapeutic method of psychoanalysis for character analysis and this for vegetotherapy . The latter is considered the basis for various body psychotherapies that were established later .

His microbiological research (“ Bione ”), carried out in parallel, led him to the “discovery of the orgons ”, a “primordial” energy, the existence of which is not recognized outside of Reich's circle of students.

Life

Wilhelm Reich was born in 1897 as the first of two sons to the landowner Léon Reich and his wife Cecilia. Reich's birthplace Dobzau , also Dobrzanica, is in the then Austrian Galicia , the place Jujinetz (today in the Rajon Kizman ), where Reich spent most of his childhood, in Bukowina . Reich's parents were of Jewish origin, but had broken away from the Jewish faith, which is why Reich received no religious education. He was taught at home by private tutors until he went to the German grammar school in Czernowitz . Reich's mother had an intimate relationship with one of these private tutors. When this was discovered by about eleven year old Wilhelm and told his father that he produced unintentionally a marriage crisis as a consequence of empire mother of suicide committed and ill his father depressed and 1,914 died. The seventeen-year-old Reich had to deal with these tragedies as an orphan and at the same time take over the management of the estate. Shortly after the beginning of the World War , Reich was forced to give up the property and flee because of the invading Russian troops. He joined the Austro- Hungarian Army and remained in military service until the end of the war in 1918.

Education

Wilhelm Reich then went to Vienna with his younger brother Robert and, after a semester of law , studied medicine . He became aware of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis through a seminar on sexuality that his fellow student Otto Fenichel had organized outside the university . As a student he was accepted into the Vienna Psychoanalytical Association in 1920, after his lecture “Libido Conflicts and Delusions in Ibsen's 'Peer Gynt'” - a major exception . In 1922 he received his doctorate in medicine.

Vienna Psychoanalytical Outpatient Clinic, official photo from 1922. Sitting richly 5th from left. His future wife Annie seated 1st from the right.

Therapist and researcher

Wilhelm Reich worked at the Julius Wagner-Jaureggs Psychiatric Clinic under Paul Schilder . After two aborted analyzes, with Isidor Sadger and Paul Federn , Reich practiced as a psychoanalyst with Freud's approval. From 1922 to 1930 he worked at the “Vienna Psychoanalytical Outpatient Clinic”. From 1924 to 1930 he also headed the Vienna Seminar for Psychoanalytic Therapy, where practical treatment problems were systematically researched. From the discussions there and from a consistent further development of Freud's libido theory to orgasm theory (1927), Reich's innovations in therapy emerged: from resistance analysis ( 1927) to character analysis ( 1933), then to body-oriented vegetotherapy (1935) and in the 1940s to orgone therapy .

Conflict with Freud

From his clinical experience, Reich came to the conclusion that every mental illness is accompanied by a disruption of the ability to experience sexual experience, something that had hardly been researched in the context of psychoanalysis until then. With the orgasm theory he introduced a criterion for mental health and thus also as a therapy goal : the orgasmic potency . At the same time, he emphasized that this goal can only be achieved with difficulty and that neurosis as a mass phenomenon cannot be eliminated through individual therapies, but only through prophylaxis . Both because of his conception of mental health and because of the political consequences implied in the prophylaxis requirement, Reich got into a simmering conflict with Freud as early as 1926, which finally led to Reich's expulsion from the International Psychoanalytic Association in August 1934 (without any factual argument) ( IPA) .

Vegetotherapy

Reich continued to work outside the psychoanalytic organizations in Scandinavian exile. In the 1930s he had taken over the concept of the "vegetative flow" from Friedrich Kraus, who was one of the leading physiologists at the time , and developed his character analysis further into vegetotherapy . He saw his own work converge with that of other specialist colleagues such as Ludwig Robert Müller ( Die Lebensnerven ) and Max Hartmann : “When different disciplines are independent of one another, without any idea of ​​the consequences of their research, without any intention of ever meeting one another, more and more towards a certain point seem to converge ... then we do not doubt that these theories, and not the heuristically worthless isolated ones, have the greater likelihood of themselves. "

Bion experiments

In Oslo , where he had lived in exile since 1935, Reich maintained a laboratory well-equipped with equipment and personnel in order to be able to carry out his own empirical research on the basis of this theoretical synthesis. In doing so, he claimed to have come across "structures of transition from the inorganic, unmoved to the organic, moving and cultivable", which he was unable to identify with what was already known and therefore referred to it with the new term bione . A detailed study of the history of science was published in 2015 on the problem of "Bione".

Political activities

Under the impression of the events of the Vienna Justice Palace fire on July 15, 1927, Reich had radicalized himself politically and joined the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), secretly, because he remained openly a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP). From this he was excluded in January 1930 because of splitting activities in favor of the KPÖ. At this time, Reich and Marie Frischauf and other communist or social democratic doctors founded sex advice centers in various parts of Vienna.

Since mid-1927, in parallel to his work in psychoanalysis, Reich had also attempted a synthesis of Marxism and psychoanalysis (see: Freudomarxism ) on both a theoretical and a practical level. In 1930 he went from Vienna to Berlin, where he joined the KPD and in 1931 founded the German Reich Association for Proletarian Sexual Policy, in short: the Sexpol . This work, too, was so fraught with conflict that he was expelled from the party in 1933, mainly because of his book Mass Psychology of Fascism . Reich's book Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf (1936) contains a sharp criticism of the retrograde development in the Soviet Union under Stalin.

Mass Psychology of Fascism

With his work on the mass psychology of fascism, Reich applied his clinical ideas of the human character structure to the socio-political area. It is his first major examination of fascism and national socialism, written from a psychoanalytical and socially critical point of view . In it he analyzes the fundamental connections between authoritarian drive suppression and fascist ideology and what role the authoritarian family and the church play in this. Reich took the view that organized fascist movements were brought about by irrational character structures of the modern average person, whose primary biological needs and drives had been suppressed for generations: The patriarchal ( forced ) family as the nucleus of the state creates the characters that support the repressive order Submit, despite hardship and humiliation. He denies the view that fascism arises from the ideology or the actions of individual individuals or any political or ethnic groups. Reich saw the concept of authoritarian character later developed by Erich Fromm as a diluting plagiarism of his theory.

In 2020, Reich's original text of "Massenpsychologie des Faschismus", published in 1933, was reissued as a book by Andreas Peglau for the first time.

Emigration to Scandinavia in 1933

Memorial plaque for Wilhelm and Annie Reich in Schlangenbader Strasse 87 in Berlin, from the series Mit Freud in Berlin

Reich had married a former patient in Vienna in 1921, the medical student Annie Pink , who later also became a psychoanalyst. The marriage, which lasted until 1932, had two daughters: Eva in 1924 and Lore in 1928 .
On March 2, 1933, the Völkischer Beobachter published an inflammatory article against Reich's book "The Sexual Struggle of Youth". The next day, Reich emigrated with his wife Annie first to Vienna and then to Copenhagen.
In the book burning planned and staged by the Nazi regime on May 10, 1933 , his books were burned . In 1934 he lost his residence permit for Denmark , so he emigrated to Norway and settled in Oslo. In 1933, after separating from his wife Annie, the ballet dancer Elsa Lindenberg (1906–1990), whom Reich had met in Berlin, became his partner in Scandinavian exile; she stayed in Norway when Reich emigrated to New York in 1939. In the USA, Reich married Ilse Ollendorff (1909–2008), also an émigré from Germany. This marriage, from which the son Peter emerged in 1944, was divorced in 1954.

Emigration to the USA in 1939

Reichs Laboratory, now the Wilhelm Reich Museum, Rangeley, Maine
Main building of the museum, 2013

In August 1939, shortly before the beginning of the war , Reich and his laboratory moved to New York, which was only possible because he had received a teaching position at the New School for Social Research .

Orgone research

Reich had only tried to get the teaching assignment to get a visa for the USA. He only did it for a year. At the same time and afterwards he concentrated on his orgone research based on bionic research. Working with the bions, known to him since his time in Oslo, led him to postulate a “specifically biological” energy, which he called orgone. According to Reich, this can be concentrated in orgone accumulators constructed by him and is the biophysical basis of his therapy. Through the spread of his books and the training of students in the basics of his orgone research, the circle of doctors who also used his orgone accumulator grew larger and larger. Well published magazines and there was a conference every year in Rangeley where the latest results were presented to those interested. At the same time, critical articles appeared in the press from the mid-1940s, and the American health authority (FDA) became aware of orgone treatment. Under the impression of the Korean War , in which the use of atomic bombs was also considered, Reich began the "Oranur Experiment" in January 1951, with which he wanted to research whether radioactivity could be neutralized with orgone energy. After experimental mice unexpectedly died and several employees became seriously ill, Reich evacuated his laboratory building to prevent further damage. Reich interpreted the process to mean that “deadly orgone energy” (DOR) had formed in the Oranur experiment. He tried to “pull” these off the contaminated people by using a system of pipes connected to water (“DOR buster”). A further development of this device was the "Cloudbuster", with which he, this time, also extracted DOR from the atmosphere and thus claimed to be able to trigger rain. Local newspapers in Maine reported successful use of the device. Since Reich was impressed by the UFO media hype that had been triggered by the Roswell incident in 1947, he set the "Cloudbuster" tentatively at a blinking light in the sky. Since this phenomenon then disappeared, Reich assumed that he had been dealing with a UFO which, according to his thesis, used orgone energy as a drive.

FDA photo of the orgone accumulator

Litigation

A judicial ban on the use of these orgone accumulators, ordered in 1955, as well as the order to destroy these devices and all of his books, was not accepted by Reich, as it was a scientific question that could not be resolved by a court. After an employee of Reich violated the judicial ban on transporting orgone accumulators across the borders of the US states, Reich was sentenced in 1956 to a two-year prison term for "disregard of the court". His friend, the educationalist AS Neill , wrote to him: "Reich, I love you. I can't stand the thought of you being punished with insane imprisonment. You couldn't take it, and you know it." Neill turned out to be right. Reich began serving on March 12, 1957 and died while in custody on November 3, 1957. The cause of death was given as heart failure.

Reich's books were declared to be promotional materials for the "orgone accumulator" and burned under the supervision of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); they insisted on the burning of all of Reich's works if they contained the word orgone, or, if not, if they could be assumed to have had preliminary theoretical work for orgonomy, so that almost all of Reich's published writings were affected. McCarthy-era anti-communism contributed to allegations of "charlatanism" in the campaign against the psychoanalyst.

In his will, Reich decreed that his estate would not be made available to the public until fifty years after his death; the documents were accordingly released for scientific study in November 2007 by the library of Harvard University Medical School .

plant

Reich left an interdisciplinary work that goes far beyond the boundaries of psychology or psychoanalysis: on the macro level, his work extends into political sociology ; at the micro level, they range from biology, microbiology to paraphysics . One can regard his occupation as a logical and immediate consequence of the previously produced results from research work that begins with the question of the understanding and therapy of psychological impairments. The overall overview of his life's work that is possible today clearly shows that a common thread runs through his work. Reich begins as a psychoanalyst, describes in great detail the existence of the various defensive patterns in humans (character armor, first psychological, then somatic) and the possibilities of their dissolution. His consistent pursuit of the energetic basis (what Freud called the libido economy, but did not pursue it further) led him to the question of what actually is living, to the development of the sex economy and finally to the "discovery of the orgone". He paid particular attention to research into cancer , in his opinion a disease of the entire organism, which is based on a disturbed pulsation of the organs in the body, which in turn is rooted in the inability of the organism to give itself completely to the vegetative twitches in orgasm. This inability, the orgasmic impotence of the person or its remedy, is a key point of his work.

In practice, he deserves the credit that he was one of the first to demand and actually carry out practical advice on sexual issues. In addition, even under difficult external conditions, he did the "clinical-therapeutic work with lower-class clients". In this context his sex-educational work in the proletarian youth movement must also be mentioned (“The sexual struggle of youth”).

The sexual revolution of the 1970s was so named because of the title of a book by Reich , but rarely - and when it was, mostly in misjudgment of his conception of sexuality - referred to Reich. What is special about his work is the discovery of the holistic view of the human being. a. culminated in the assumption that "memories are always accompanied by corresponding physical effects, (...) emotions manifest themselves in the form of a muscle armor in the body".

reception

science

Reich's orgonomy was commonly ignored as parasccientific . Nevertheless, because of its connection with his earlier work, it provoked violent reactions from scientists, e. B. by the psychologist Peter R. Hofstätter and the medical historian Erwin Ackerknecht . Although Reich referred to contemporary scientific research in his writings, connections to the questions and terminology of today's natural sciences or medicine are in many cases difficult to establish and patient comprehension for systematic and historical reasons. His work polarized and polarized very strongly today. The early contributions in the context of psychoanalysis, including its further development in character analysis, met with broad approval, but even his postulate of orgastic potency as a therapy goal met with skepticism and, especially with Freud, with rejection. The further development of character analysis to vegetotherapy, i.e. the foundation of body psychotherapy , was viewed by the majority of his psychotherapeutic colleagues as a wrong path.

Albert Einstein , who privately checked Reich's measurements on an orgone accumulator in 1941, could not confirm Reich's postulate of an as yet unexplored type of energy. He gave Reich a conventional interpretation of the observed phenomena and wrote to him: "I hope that this will develop your skepticism, that you will not be deceived by an understandable illusion."

After his death in 1957, Reich was quickly forgotten. A decade later he was rediscovered by the student movement . Around 1964 Monika Seifert brought the news of Reich's plant from England. At first, Reich was read only as a Freudo-Marxist and a herald of a sexual revolution . The relevant pirated prints - in particular on the function of orgasm, mass psychology of fascism and character analysis - were sold by hawkers in large numbers on the campuses of many German universities at low prices and became bestsellers. A few years later, Reich was discovered as the founder of body-oriented psychotherapy and soon afterwards, with the emergence of the esoteric New Age movements , as the discoverer of a “primordial life energy orgone ” which he postulated in his later years . Independent of this broader reception, the American College of Orgonomy has been established in the USA since 1967 .

When Reich came to Berlin at the end of 1930, Fritz Perls , who had already attended Reich's "Technical Seminar" in Vienna in 1927, began a training analysis with him. It was ended by the emigration of Reich in spring 1933. However, Reich's influence was decisive for Perls' later development of Gestalt therapy .

Because of a lecture by Reich in 1940 at the New York School for Social Research , his listener Alexander Lowen (1910-2008) went to him for therapy from 1942 to 1945. Since Lowen had no medical training, he completed in order to be able to become a therapist , 1946-1951 to study medicine at the University of Geneva , returned to the USA and founded the Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis in New York in 1956 , where he worked with a modification of the Reich's therapy, called bioenergetic analysis , became one of the most famous body psychotherapists in the following years .

Other body-oriented psychotherapy methods are based on Reich's ideas, but were so widely varied and modified by successors such as David Boadella , later Gerda Boyesen that Reich's original concepts, especially his therapy goal and health criterion, orgasmic potency , hardly play a role in them.

Reich's (potential) importance for the history of ideas of the 20th century was first attempted to make clear by the philosopher Paul Edwards in a detailed article on Reich in the eight-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy that he edited . Edwards, who largely abstains from a judgment on Reich's theory of organs, particularly emphasizes Reich's importance as a critic of religion , who, in his character theory, explored the psychological (and somatic) anchoring of religious feeling in the individual more thoroughly than Freud and others. Edwards also emphasizes the importance of Reich's theories for the mind -body problem in the philosophy of mind .

Bernd A. Laska , who published the magazine wilhelm-reich-blätter from 1975 to 1982 , tried with a "paraphilosophical" project that began in 1985 to derive Reich's rank as an enlightener from his opposition to Freud (as the most influential enlightener in the 20th century), whereby he considers it irrelevant what scientific status not only Reich's later organ theory, but also Freud's and Reich's psychological theories currently have. In Laska's opinion, Reich is one of three “key figures” whose fates in the history of the modern Enlightenment show astonishing similarities despite the most diverse contexts and can be traced back to basically the same positions in terms of content: Alongside Reich, who was “ousted” by Freud (cf. . Web link below), La Mettrie , whose ideas in the 18th century by Voltaire, Rousseau et al. a. Like the Stirners in the 19th century, Marx and Nietzsche eliminated them .

The pioneer of a modern natural birth , Michel Odent , invokes “the groundbreaking work of Wilhelm Reich” and wants to put “the basic ideas of [Reich's work] The function of orgasm in a new scientific context”.

On the 100th birthday (1997) and the 50th anniversary of Reich's death (2007), congresses and symposia about his ideas took place around the world, most of which were organized by supporters, but in some cases also by neutral institutions.

Music videos

In 1985 Kate Bush published a video for her single Cloudbusting , in which the Canadian actor Donald Sutherland portrays Wilhelm Reich and Kate Bush portrays his son Peter. The video is based on a story about Reich's 1953 commission by farmers in Maine to produce rain. Despite a different weather forecast, it rained within 24 hours, and Reich received a sum agreed with the farmers in case of success.

The author Andreas Ammer and the musician Console produced the radio play video Have You Ever Heard Of Wilhelm Reich? For BR Radio Play and Media Art in 2009 . As a podcast / download in the BR radio play pool. Radio play (CD) and video (5.1 DVD) were published in the intermedium records series .

Movies

Director Svoboda and leading actor Brandauer at the premiere of The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich (Vienna 2012)

In 1987, the German documentary filmmaker Digne Meller Marcovicz published a collage of film excerpts, interviews and images under the title of Listen, little man! derivative title Viva, little man!

In 2009 the Austrian filmmaker Antonin Svoboda produced the TV documentary Who is Afraid of Wilhelm Reich? and in 2012 presented the feature film Der Fall Wilhelm Reich about the last years of Reich's life in exile in the United States, in which Klaus Maria Brandauer can be seen in the role of Reich.

Fonts (selection)

  • The instinctual character. (1925). In: Early writings I. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1977.
  • The function of orgasm (1927). Revised version: Genitality in the theory and therapy of neurosis / early writings II. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-596-26752-8
  • Dialectical materialism and psychoanalysis. 1929.
  • The sexual struggle of youth. (PDF). Verlag für Sexualpolitik, 1932, DNB 1027879519 .
  • The collapse of sexual morality. 1932. (Expanded and revised, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1972)
  • The mass psychology of fascism. Verlag für Sexualpolitik , Copenhagen 1933. (Erw. And rev .: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1971)
  • Character analysis. 1933. (Extended version: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1970)
  • What is class consciousness? 1934. (pseudonym "Ernst Parell")
  • Sexuality in the Kulturkampf. 1936. (rev. New edition: The Sexual Revolution. European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1966)
  • The Bione . 1938.
  • The Function of Orgasm. 1942. (German original: The function of orgasm (completely different from the book with the same title 1927), Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1969)
  • The Cancer Biopathy. 1948. (German original: Der Krebs , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1974)
  • Listen, little man! 1948. (German original: Speech to the little man , Fischer paperback, Frankfurt am Main 1984)
  • Ether, God, and Devil. 1949. (German original: Äther, Gott und Teufel , Nexus, Frankfurt am Main 1983)
  • Cosmic superimposition. 1951.
  • The ORANUR Experiment - First Report. 1951.
  • People in Trouble. 1953. (German original: Menschen im Staat. Nexus, Frankfurt am Main 1982; improved edition: Stroemfeld, Frankfurt am Main 1995)
  • The Murder of Christ. 1953. (Translated by Bernd A. Laska as Christ Murder. Walter, Olten / Freiburg 1978)
  • Contact with Space, The ORANUR Experiment - Second Report. 1957.

In the publishing and distribution Zweitausendeins appeared 1995-1997 Empire "Late writings" in German translation in six volumes: 1) The Bionexperimente ; 2) Orop desert (collection of articles) , 3) The ORANUR experiment - first report ; 4) The ORANUR Experiment - Second Report ; 5) The Cosmic Overlay ; 6) Christ murder

Posthumously also published several books with (auto) biographical material:

  • Reich speaks of Freud. New York 1967. (Excerpts from German ( pirated print ) as Wilhelm Reich about Sigmund Freud , o. O./o. J. (Dätzingen Castle 1976))
  • Beverley A. Placzek (Ed.): Record of a Friendship. (Correspondence Wilhelm Reich / Alexander S. Neill), New York 1981. (German as evidence of a friendship. The correspondence between Wilhelm Reich and AS Neill 1936–1957. Ed. And introduced by Beverley R. Placzek. Translated from the English by Bernd A . Laska, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1986)
  • Passion of youth. An autobiography 1897–1922. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1994. (early works and autobiographical manuscripts)
  • Beyond Psychology (Letters and Journals 1934-1939). New York 1994. (German as Beyond Psychology. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1996)
  • An American Odyssey (Letters and Journals 1940-1947). Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 1999.
  • Where's the Truth? Letters and Journals 1948-1957. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2012.

Journal articles (selection)

  • Editing and many articles in the 'Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie und Sexualökonomie', several volumes of which are available on archive.org.

In: The Socialist Doctor .

  • Experiences and problems of the sex counseling centers for workers and employees in Vienna. Volume V, Issue 3, September 1929, pp. 98-102. (Digitized version)
  • Mental illness as a social problem (part 1). Volume VII, Issue 4, April 1931, pp. 111-115. (Digitized version)
    • Also the article by B. (Totis-Budapest). Freudism and Socialism. Volume VII, Issue 4, April 1931, pp. 115-120. (Digitized version)
  • Mental illness as a social problem (part 2). Volume VII, Issue 5-6, May-June 1931, pp. 161-165. Digitized

literature

  • Charles Rycroft: Wilhelm Reich. dtv, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-423-00847-4 (English orig. 1971).
  • Ilse Ollendorff-Reich: Wilhelm Reich. The life of the great psychoanalyst and researcher, recorded by his wife and collaborator. Kindler, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-463-00606-5 (Orig. 1969).
  • Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel , Béla Grunberger: Freud or Reich? Psychoanalysis and Illusion. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1979, ISBN 3-548-03583-3 (French orig. 1976).
  • Colin Wilson : The Quest for Wilhelm Reich. Granada, London 1981, ISBN 0-246-11093-7 .
  • Karl Fallend: Wilhelm Reich in Vienna. Psychoanalysis and politics. Geyer Edition, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-85090-129-7 .
  • Martin Konitzer: Wilhelm Reich for an introduction. Junius, Hamburg 1989. (2nd edition 1992, ISBN 3-88506-879-6 )
  • Myron Sharaf: Wilhelm Reich. The holy wrath of the living. The biography. Simon & Leutner, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-922389-60-0 (Orig. 1983).
  • Stefan Müschenich: The concept of health in the work of the doctor Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957). Görich and Weiershäuser, Marburg 1995, ISBN 3-922906-54-0 ( dissertation at the University of Marburg ).
  • Jerome Greenfield: USA against Wilhelm Reich. Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-86150-107-4 (English orig. 1974).
  • Josef Rattner : Wilhelm Reich. In: Classics of Psychoanalysis. 2nd Edition. Beltz / Psychologie Verlags Union, Weinheim 1995, ISBN 3-621-27285-2 , pp. 269-306. (First edition 1990 and T. Classics of Depth Psychology )
  • Peter Reich: The dream father. My memories of Wilhelm Reich. Bertelsmann, Munich / Gütersloh / Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-570-02251-X . (Simon & Leutner, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-922389-79-1 ) (Orig. 1973).
  • Ralf Bröer: With his orgone therapy, Wilhelm Reich remained an exotic species of his profession, on Wilhelm Reich's 100th birthday. In: Doctors newspaper. 16, 55, 1997, p. 22.
  • Harry Mulisch : The sexual bulwark. Sense and madness from Wilhelm Reich. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-446-18947-5 (Dutch orig. 1973).
  • Fritz Erik Hoevels : Wilhelm Reich's contribution to psychoanalysis. Ahriman, Freiburg im Breisgau 2001, ISBN 3-89484-813-8 .
  • Karl Fallend, Bernd Nitzschke (Ed.): The "Fall" Wilhelm Reich. Contributions to the relationship between psychoanalysis and politics. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-518-28885-7 . (Revised new edition with a current foreword: Psychosozial-Verlag, Gießen 2002, ISBN 3-89806-147-7 ; foreword to the new edition ).
  • Bernd Senf : The rediscovery of the living: Research into life energy by Reich, Schauberger, Lakhovsky u. a. Omega, Aachen 2003, ISBN 3-930243-28-8 .
  • Bernd A. Laska:  Reich, Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 290 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • David Boadella : Wilhelm Reich. The life and work of the man who recognized the problem of modern society in sexuality and showed new ways for psychology. Scherz, Bern / Munich 1981 DNB 810461420 . (Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-26760-9 ; revised new edition: Wilhelm Reich. Pioneer of New Thought. A biography. Scherz, Bern 1996, ISBN 3-502-13052-3 ; Schirner, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-89767-602-2 )
  • Birgit Johler (Ed.): Wilhelm Reich Revisited. Turia + Kant, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-85132-501-0 .
  • Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : Reich, Wilhelm . In: German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .
  • Bernd A. Laska : Wilhelm Reich in self-testimonies and photo documents. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1981. (updated 6th edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-499-50298-9 ) ( table of contents and excerpts ).
  • Bernd Nitzschke: Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957). In: Volkmar Sigusch , Günter Grau (Hrsg.): Personal Lexicon of Sexual Research . Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2009, ISBN 978-3-593-39049-9 , pp. 578-585.
  • Christopher Turner: Adventures in the Orgasmatron. How the Sexual Revolution Came to America. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-374-10094-0 .
  • Andreas Peglau : Non-political science? Wilhelm Reich and Psychoanalysis in National Socialism. Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8379-2097-0 .
  • James E. Strick: Wilhelm Reich, Biologist. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2015, ISBN 978-0-674-73609-2 .
  • Andreas Peglau: Shift to the right in the 21st century. Wilhelm Reich's mass psychology of fascism. NORA-Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-86557-428-2 .
  • Wilhelm Burian: Psychoanalysis and Marxism. An intellectual biography of Wilhelm Reich. Makol, Frankfurt 1972. (New edition: Sexuality, Nature, Society. A psycho-political biography of Wilhelm Reichs. Ça-Ira, Freiburg im Breisgau 1985, ISBN 3-924627-04-5 ; unaltered reprint 2017, ISBN 978-3-86259 -143-5 ).
  • Roland Kaufhold: One against all. Wilhelm Reich's “Mass Psychology of Fascism” from 1933 is available again, Jüdische Allgemeine, July 2, 2010.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Reich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Wilhelm Reich  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reich died there in the maximum security prison United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg
  2. ↑ Under this heading ( Discovery of the Orgone ) Reich published two volumes in 1942 and 1948 in which he described his work (see under Writings ).
  3. ^ A b c d e Elke Mühlleitner with the collaboration of Johannes Reichmayr : Biographical Lexicon of Psychoanalysis. The members of the Psychological Wednesday Society and the Vienna Psychoanalytical Association 1902–1938. Edition Diskord, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-89295-557-3 , Wilhelm Reich pp. 257-259.
  4. ↑ Bernd A. Laska : Wilhelm Reich in self-testimonies and image documents. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1981.
  5. ^ Volker Roelcke : Wilhelm Reich ,. In: Wolfgang U. Eckart , Christoph Gradmann (Hrsg.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the present. 3. Edition. Springer, Heidelberg 2006, p. 272. katalog.ub.uni-heidelberg.de , doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
  6. ↑ Because his “resignation” was only briefly reported in the journals of psychoanalysts, Reich published a report in 1935 on Wilhelm Reich's exclusion from the IPA ; for a more recent presentation of the involved conflict see: Bernd Nitzschke: “I have to defend myself against being sidelined.” Conditions, circumstances and consequences of Wilhelm Reich's exclusion from the DGP / IPV in 1933/34. In: Karl Fallend, Bernd Nitzschke (Ed.): The "Fall" Wilhelm Reich. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, pp. 68-130.
  7. ↑ Wilhelm Reich: The vegetative archetype of the libido-fear contrast. In: Journal for Political Psychology and Sexual Economics . Volume 1, (1934), p. 211; quoted n. Bernd A. Laska: Wilhelm Reich . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1981, p. 90.
  8. ↑ Description in his book Die Bione (1938), reprinted as Die Bionexperimente. Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1995, p. 78.
  9. ↑ James E. Strick: Wilhelm Reich, Biologist. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA (USA) 2015.
  10. ^ Wilhelm Reich: People in the State. (1937/1953), Stroemfeld, Frankfurt am Main 1995, p. 42.
  11. ↑ Cf. the documentation on this In: Wilhelm-Reich-Blätter. No. 1/82, pp. 13-48. (lsr-projekt.de)
  12. ^ Wilhelm Reich: Experiences and problems of the sexual counseling centers for workers and employees in Vienna. In: The Socialist Doctor. 5, 1929, pp. 98-102.
  13. ↑ It should be noted that the version of the mass psychology of fascism that has been on the market since 1971 (publishers k & w, Fischer-TB) has greatly changed the terminology of Reich (conversion of Marxist terms) and expanded it to include some chapters written later between 1935 and 1945 is.
  14. ^ New publication 1966 ff. Under the title Die Sexuelle Revolution
  15. ↑ See also the critical report on the Moscow trials in Reichs Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie und Sexualökonomie .
  16. ^ Zvi Lothane : Wilhelm Reich revisited: The role of ideology in the character analysis of the individual versus in the character analysis of the masses. In: Ulrike Kadi, August Ruhs, Karl Stockreiter, Gerhard Zenaty (eds.): Texts. psychoanalysis. aesthetics. cultural criticism. 35th year, issue 03, Passagen Verlag Vienna 2015, pp. 8–29.
  17. ↑ For a summary of the criticism of Fromm from Reich's point of view with detailed quotations from several reviews see Bernd A. Laska: About Erich Fromm.
  18. ^ Wilhelm Reich: Mass Psychology of Fascism. The original text from 1933 . Ed .: Andreas Peglau. Psychosozial Verlag, Giessen 2020.
  19. ^ Roland Kaufhold: One against all. Wilhelm Reich's "Mass Psychology of Fascism" from 1933 is accessible again . In: Jüdische Allgemeine, July 2nd, 2020 . 2nd July 2020.
  20. ↑ tagesspiegel.de October 28, 2007: Theory and orgasm
  21. ↑ See the detailed study on Reich and psychoanalysis at the time of National Socialism: Andreas Peglau: Unpolitische Wissenschaft? Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2013 (3rd expanded edition 2017, complete list of sources and literature [here (pdf)]).
  22. ↑ see also History of Psychoanalysis # 1933–1939: Time of National Socialism
  23. ↑ Ilse Ollendorff (English CV)
  24. ^ David Boadella: Wilhelm Reich. The life and work of the man who recognized the problem of modern society in sexuality and showed new ways for psychology. Scherz, Bern / Munich 1981, p. 253 ff.
  25. ^ David Boadella: Wilhelm Reich. P. 277.
  26. ↑ Quoted in David Boadella; Wilhelm Reich. The life and work of the man who recognized the problem of modern society in sexuality and showed new ways for psychology. Scherz, Bern / Munich 1981, p. 279 ff.
  27. ^ David Boadella: Wilhelm Reich. P. 290 ff.
  28. ↑ Quoted from: Beverley R. Placzek: Introduction. In: Testimonies of friendship. The correspondence between Wilhelm Reich and AS Neill 1936–1957. Edited and introduced by Beverley R. Placzek. Translated from the English by Bernd A. Laska, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1986, p. 24.
  29. ↑ In detail: Jerome Greenfield: USA against Wilhelm Reich. Two thousand and one, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-86150-107-4 .
  30. ↑ Wolfgang U. Eckart : History, theory and ethics of medicine. 8th, revised edition. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2017, pp. 292–294. doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-662-54660-4
  31. ↑ Archives of the Orgone Institute
  32. ↑ Karl-Heinz Ignatz Kerscher, Taini Kerscher: Wilhelm Reich - the theoretical foundations of sex education . Grin, Munich a. a. 2008, p. 36 ff.
  33. ↑ Helmut Johach: From Freud to humanistic psychology. Therapeutic-biographical profiles: Sigmund Freud, Lou Andreas-Salome, Sándor Ferenczi, Georg Groddeck, Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm, Fritz and Laura Perls, Ruth C. Cohn . Transcript, Bielefeld 2009, p. 189.
  34. ↑ Friedrich Koch : Sexuality and System Changes? On the importance of Wilhelm Reich for sex education. In: Hans-Jochen Gamm , Friedrich Koch (Ed.): Balance of Sexual Education. Frankfurt am Main / New York 1977, p. 39 ff. Friedrich Koch : Sex education and political education. Munich 1975.
  35. ↑ Walter Leitmeier: Promoting skills: Gestalt therapy teacher training for religious teachers . Lit Verlag, Berlin / Münster 2010, p. 157.
  36. ↑ Gustl Marlock: Handbook of body psychotherapy . Schattauer, Stuttgart / New York 2006, p. 898.
  37. ^ Bernd A. Laska : On the current reception of Wilhelm Reich . In: wilhelm-reich-sheets. Issue 2/81, pp. 96-100.
  38. ↑ Christian Rudolph: About Wilhelm Reich's Oranur Experiment (II). Two thousand and one, 1997, p. 6.
  39. ↑ Documented in the brochure The Einstein Affair. Orgone Institute Press, Rangeley 1953.
  40. ^ Albrecht Götz von Olenhusen, Christa Gnirss: Handbuch der Raubdrucke 2. Verlag Documentation, Pullach near Munich 1973, pp. 335–353.
  41. ↑ The American College of Orgonomy
  42. ↑ Bernd Bocian: Fritz Perls in Berlin. Peter Hammer, Wuppertal 2007, pp. 200 ff., 248 ff.
  43. ^ Paul Edwards : Wilhelm Reich. In: Encyclopedia of Philosophy . MacMillan, New York 1968. (2nd edition ibid. 2006)
  44. ↑ LSR project , there also pages from the former wilhelm-reich-papers
  45. ↑ Michel Odent: The Nature of Orgasm. C. H. Beck, Munich 2010, p. 9.
  46. ↑ Conference on New Research in Orgonomy 2007 (PDF; 441 kB) Abstract of Papers
    1st Wilhelm Reich Symposium Mainz of the “Wilhelm Reich Working     Group ” (Univ. Mainz)
    Congress “Sexuality and Life Energy” of the German Wilhelm Reich
    Jewish Society Museum Vienna, Exhibition Wilhelm Reich 2007
    Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna, Symposium 50 Years after Wilhelm Reich, 2007
  47. ↑ Biography at the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust (English)
  48. ↑ BR radio play Pool - Ammer / Console, Have You Ever Heard Of Wilhelm Reich?
  49. ↑ Have You Ever Heard of Wilhelm Reich? Erding 2009, ISBN 978-3-939444-70-1 .
  50. ↑ In addition the printed documentation Digne Meller Marcovicz: About Wilhelm Reich - Viva, little man: the book about the film. Nexus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main [1987]
  51. ^ Viennale 2012: The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich - Antonin Svoboda (A 2012)
  52. ↑ Reich 1933 (mass psychology). Stock in DNB
  53. ^ Roland Kaufhold: One against all. In: Jüdische Allgemeine. July 2, 2020, accessed July 3, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Reich, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roner, Walter; Parell, Ernst (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, sex researcher and sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Dobzau
DATE OF DEATH 3rd November 1957
Place of death Lewisburg