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Banned Books : Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich

Psychiatrist and writer, born in Dobrzcynica, Galicia,Austria-Hungary (part of modern Poland). He studied medicine inVienna and, becoming interested in Freud’s theories of sexuality, became associated with Freud’s Psychoanalytic Polyclinic in Vienna. Reich developed his own theory that regular orgasms were essential to mental and emotional health, a view he set forth in The Function of the Orgasm (1927; English trans 1942). He also sought to achieve a synthesis of psychoanalysis and Marxism, asserting that abolition of the bourgeois family would free people of sexual inhibitions; his stress on this led to a break with Freud by 1934. In 1939 he fled the Nazis and went to the USA, where he taught in New York City at the New School for Social Research (1939–41) before setting up his own organization, the Orgone Institute (1942). This was to promote his own theories about the ‘orgone’ energy that permeates the universe. He also invented the ‘orgone box’ (about the size of a portable toilet), which he claimed collected orgone particles and transmitted them to the person within the box to the alleged benefit of the user’s sexuality and mental health. This was declared a fraud by the federal government, and after being found guilty of violating the Food and Drug law, he was sentenced to two years in 1956. He died while still in prison. (From Credo:The Crystal Reference Encyclopedia)

Books by Wilhelm Reich @ Memorial Library

All Books by Wilhelm Reich @ Memorial Library

James Strick Presentation 9/23/2014

James Strick will present "The true story or a Governement-ordered bookburning in America: The books and journals of Research-Physician Wilhelm Reich of Rangeley". September 23: noon - 1pm, Old Main, Colloquium.

James Strick is Associate Professor in the Dept. of Earth and Environment and Chair of the Program in Science, Technology and Society, at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Originally trained in microbiology (SUNY College of Environmental Science, 1983), and later in history of science (Princeton University, 1997), Dr. Strick has published extensively on the history of ideas and experiments about the origin of life.

Professional Bibliography James Strick:

Books about Wilhelm Reich @ Memorial Library

Articles about Wilhelm Reich @ Memorial Library

  • Bennett, P. W. (2014). Wilhelm Reich's self‐censorship after his arrest as an enemy alien: The chilling effect of an illegal imprisonment. The International Journal Of Psychoanalysis, 95(2), 341-364.
  • Bennett, P. W. (2010). The persecution of Dr. Wilhelm Reich by the government of the United States. International Forum Of Psychoanalysis, 19(1), 51-65.
  • Bennett, P. W. & Peglau, A. (2014). The Nazi Denaturalization of German Emigrants: The Case of Wilhelm Reich. German Studies Review 37 (1) 41-60.
  • Rabinbach, A. G. (1974). The Politicization of Wilhelm Reich: An Introduction to 'The Sexual Misery of the Working Masses and the Difficulties of Sexual Reform.'. New German Critique, (1), 90.
  • Rubin, L. (2003). Wilhelm Reich and Anna Freud: his expulsion from psychoanalysis. International Forum Of Psychoanalysis, 12(2/3), 109. 
  • Sletvold, J. (2011). 'The Reading of Emotional Expression': Wilhelm Reich and the History of Embodied Analysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 21(4), 453-467.

Video about Wilhelm Reich @ Memorial Library