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Selected Writings: An Introduction to Orgonomy
Selected An Introduction to Wilhelm Selected An Introduction to Farrar Straus & FIRST First Edition Thus, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1973. Octavo. Paperback. Book is very good with previous owner name inside front cover and small white-out mark on back cover. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.Seller 324451 Philosophy & Psychology We Buy Books! Collections - Libraries - Estates - Individual Titles. Message us if you have books to sell!
- GenresPsychology
560 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
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About the author
Wilhelm Reich
163 books721 followersWilhelm 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 1, 2015
Wilhelm Reich, a former student of Sigmund Freud, had plenty of insights that were super...interesting. He departed from Freud at a point where he thought Freud departed from his own sex teaching. Reich's approach to therapy deviates from traditional psychoanalysis in three respects: 1) mind cannot be separated from the body, 2) instead of just listening, the analyst adopts a more proactive role, and 3) the transference that the patient may feel for the analyst is more negative because the analyst has to break through the "armor" that the patient and his environment have spent years or decades in erecting. The treatment also seems to be considerably shorter than in psychoanalysis. Reich measured it in months, judging by the examples he uses, while psychoanalysis measures it in years.
However, when Reich starts studying what effect his discovery of orgone may have on weather - the (in)famous cloudbusting - one starts to wonder. Was he a maniac or were his insights really that brilliant? Fortunately, as soon as Reich put the attacks on his theories and him personally in context and analyzed them as an expression of the "armor" that he had discovered decades before, one starts to wonder again. Maybe he was not crazy after all. In fact, he admitted his opponents had called him psychotic, which according to him told him more about them than it told them about him. And even if he was crazy, would that mean he could not be...right?
Thoroughly captivating reading! The constant ambiguity about his sanity only adds to the fascination I have for this man and his thinking. Much of the vitriol against him is indeed based on misrepresentations and misunderstandings. For instance, he was not a sex maniac in the perverse sense. Although he theorized about sex and orgasm, which was the pinnacle of his insight into the pulsating nature of all living beings, he constantly referred to pornography as unnatural and to the actual "genital embrace" as natural. Of course, it is important to make those distinctions and keep them in mind when making up one's mind about Reich's significance. We might just be at the cusp of some sea change. But then again, we might not.
However, when Reich starts studying what effect his discovery of orgone may have on weather - the (in)famous cloudbusting - one starts to wonder. Was he a maniac or were his insights really that brilliant? Fortunately, as soon as Reich put the attacks on his theories and him personally in context and analyzed them as an expression of the "armor" that he had discovered decades before, one starts to wonder again. Maybe he was not crazy after all. In fact, he admitted his opponents had called him psychotic, which according to him told him more about them than it told them about him. And even if he was crazy, would that mean he could not be...right?
Thoroughly captivating reading! The constant ambiguity about his sanity only adds to the fascination I have for this man and his thinking. Much of the vitriol against him is indeed based on misrepresentations and misunderstandings. For instance, he was not a sex maniac in the perverse sense. Although he theorized about sex and orgasm, which was the pinnacle of his insight into the pulsating nature of all living beings, he constantly referred to pornography as unnatural and to the actual "genital embrace" as natural. Of course, it is important to make those distinctions and keep them in mind when making up one's mind about Reich's significance. We might just be at the cusp of some sea change. But then again, we might not.
May 29, 2012
An excellent follow up to Freudian theory. Totally recommend!
April 11, 2016
A good read, noteworthy, but I'll stick to Freud.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews