Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich

494 Pages·2012·1.9 MB·English

by  Sharaf, Myron

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Fury on Earth
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Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint material from the following:
Extracts of letters from Sigmund Freud to Paul Federn, reprinted by permission of
Sigmund Freud Copyrights,Colchester,England.An extract from “At the Grave of Henry
James” from W. H. Auden’s Collected Shorter Poems 1927-1957, reprinted by permission of
Random House. An extract from “Palimpsest: A Deceitful Portrait” from Selected Poems by
Conrad Aiken, copyright 1961 by Conrad Aiken, reprinted by permission of Oxford
University Press,Inc.An extract from The Inmost Leafby Alfred Kazin,reprinted by permis-
sion of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Extracts from A Book of Dreams by Peter Reich,
Harper &Row,reprinted by permission of Peter Reich.Extracts from Wilhelm Reich: A
Personal Biographyby Use Ollendorff Reich,reprinted by permission of the author.Extracts
from Wilhelm Reich Vs. the U.S.A.by Jerome Greenfield,copyright 1974,published by W.W.
Norton,reprinted with the permission of Jerome Greenfield.Extracts from Wilhelm Reich’s
The Function of the Orgasm, Character Analysis, The Sexual Revolution, The Mass Psychology of
Fascism, Listen Little Man!, and The Cancer Biopathy, originally published by Orgone Institute
Press and translated by Theodore P. Wolfe, reprinted by permission of Peter Reich and
Gladys Meyer Wolfe.Extracts from David Boadella,Wilhelm Reich: The Evolution of His Work,
reprinted with the permission of Contemporary Books, Inc., Chicago; available in Dell
paperback; Canadian rights held by Vision Press, London. Extracts from “The Trial of
Wilhelm Reich” in The Wilhelm Reich Memorial Volume, Ritter Press, Nottingham, England,
1958,reprinted by permission of Paul Ritter.Extracts from Myron R.Sharaf,“Reich’s Early
Work on Character Analysis,” reprinted by permission of McLean Hospital Journal. Extracts
from Myron R.Sharaf,“The Great Man and Us:An Approach to the Biography of Wilhelm
Reich,”reprinted by permission of Journal of Orgonomy.
FURY ON EARTH.Copyright 1983 by Myron R.Sharaf.All rights reserved.Printed in the
United States of America.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles or reviews.
For information,address St.MartinVMarek,175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010.
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Originally published:New York:St Martin’s Press,1983.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Sharaf,Myron R.
Fury on earth.
1. Reich, Wilhelm, 1897-1957. 2. Psychiatrists—Autria_Biography. 3. Orgonomy. 4. Sex
(Psychology).1.Title.
RC339.52.R44S53 1994
Copyright © 1983 by Myron R.Sharaf
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to my son Paul 5
TOMYSONPAUL
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments 8
Part I The Viewpoint of the Observer
1.Introduction 14
2.MyRelationshipwithReich 25
Part II.The Development of the Mission: 1897-1920
3.Reich’sChildhoodandYouth:1897-1917 43
4.BecomingaPsychoanalyst:1918-1920 58
Part III.Reich as Insider Building a Career and Marriage: 1920-1926
5.Reich’sWorkontheImpulsiveCharacter:1922-1924 70
6.Reich’sEarlyWorkonCharacterAnalysis:1920-1926 75
7.Reich’sWorkonOrgasticPotency:1922-1926 88
8.PersonalLife:1920-1926 106
Part IV.The Radicalization of Reich: 1926-1930
9.Reich’sIllnessandSanatariumStayinDavos,Switzerland:Winter1927 114
10.July15,1927,andItsAftermath:1927-1928 120
11.TheApplicationofSexeconomicConceptsontheSocialScene
TheSexpol:1927-1930 127
12.PersonalLifeandRelationswithColleagues:1927-1930 142
Part V. Liberation and Rejection Reich’s Breaks with the Communist Party and the Psychoanalytic
Association: 1930-1934
13.TheSex-politicalFuror:1930-1934 155
14.The Psychoanalytic Furor and Reich’s Break with the Psychoanalytic Asso
ciation:1930-1934169
15.PersonalLife:1930-1934 184
Part VI.First Steps on the Road to Life Reich’s Experimental Work in Scandinavia: 1934-1939
16.TheBio-electricalExperiments:1934-1935 196
17.TheBions:1936-1939 206
18.PsychiatricDevelopments:1934-1939 222
19.PersonalLifeandRelationswithColleagues:1934-1939 232
Part VII. On His Own in America Total Immersion in Studies of “Life Energy” (Orgone Energy):
1940-1950
20.GettingSettledinAmerica:1939-1941 246
21.TheDiscoveryofOrgoneEnergy:1940 259
22.TheMedicalEffectsoftheAccumulator:1940-1948 275
23.Psychiatric,Sociological,andEducationalDevelopments:1940-1950 290
24.Personal Life and Relations with Colleagues:1941-1950 315
Part VIII.The Road to Death The FDA Campaign and Oranur: 1948-1957
25.TheAmericanCampaignAgainstOrgonomyTheBeginnings:1947-1948 335
26.TheOranurExperiment:1950-1953 344
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27.PersonalLifeandOtherDevelopments:1950-1954 356
28.TheFDAInjunctionandReich’sResponses:1951-1955 381
29.BackgroundtotheTrialforContemptofInjunction:1955-1956 404
30.TheTrial:1956 414
31.The Destruction of Orgone Energy Accumulators and Burning of Reich’s
Publications:1956-1957 424
32.PrisonandDeath:1957 434
Epilogue 443
Notes 447
Bibliography 490
Index
This edition is without photogrphs.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So many people helped so much in my research and writing that in retrospect the
enterprise lives for me as a cooperative venture.Its social nature was enhanced by the length
of the undertaking:formal work began eleven years ago but I have been heading toward the
goal of a Reich biography since 1946. Also, as I detail in Chapter2, this project was often
less the focused writing of a book than a painful process of self-discovery,requiring as much
help from others as did the more intellectual components of the task.
I want to thank first those I interviewed about Reich and his work: Elsworth F.
Baker,Kari Berggrav,Grete Bibring,Richard Blasband,David Boadella,Walter Briehl,Edith
Buxbaum, Lilian Bye, K. R. Eissler, Ernst Federn, Margaret Fried, George Gero, Bernard
Grad,Jerome Greenfield,Nathan Cabot Hale,Sidney Handelman,Charles Haydon,Ottilie
Heifetz,Morton Herskowitz,Sigurd Hoel,Grethe Hoff,Rosetta Hurwitz,Edith Jacobson,
Jo Jenks,Lia Laszky,Elsa Lindenberg,Alexander Lowen,Bob McCullough,Gladys Meyer,
Mitzi Mills, A. S. Neill, Use Ollendorff, Ernst Papanek, Ola Raknes, Chester M. Raphael,
Eva Reich,Peter Reich,Tom Ross,Lore Reich Ruben,Fredrick Silber,Victor Sobey,Gisela
Stein,Richard Sterba,Kenneth Tynan,Nic Waal,James A.Willie,and Lois Wyvell.
Some of these interviews were brief. Others required several sessions. The book
itself will make clear,for example,how much the vivid,detailed recollections of Lia Laszky
and Ottilie Heifetz,both now deceased,help me to understand the young Reich more fully.
However,only here can I convey what a personal pleasure it was to get to know their lively
minds and temperaments. Of those I met in the course of the research, Elsa Lindenberg
also holds a special place. Between 1957 and 1978 we met five times, for several hours on
each occasion. Her depth of perception and emotion enriched not only my work but also
my life.
My relationship with some of the interviewees antedated the research by many
years.I would like to single out a few of these old friends for special thanks.Use Ollendorff
gave me the benefit of her warm support and was always available to discuss a troublesome
point about Reich’s personality or work.Also,until I made my own biographical effort I did
not fully appreciate the value of her concise volume, Wilhelm Reich: A Personal Biography.
Whenever I had a question about the facts, I could rely on her information to be accurate
to the smallest detail.I am grateful for her permission to quote so extensively from her biog-
raphy.
When I began my research, Peter Reich was deeply engaged in setting down his
own recollections of Reich in A Book of Dreams. He generously helped me not only with
information but by sharing the peculiar pleasure and pain of trying to capture in words one’s
evolving vision of an extraordinary father and teacher.
Of all those who knew and studied with Reich, Eva Reich has perhaps the most
extensive knowledge of his work and life. I am forever thankful that over countless hours
she shared that knowledge with an unrestrained givingness.Like Use,she had no need to try
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to make sure that I painted an “authorized” portrait any more than she wanted a negative
caricature.At his best,Reich desired that an entirely honest view of his work and personal-
ity should enter the historical record; that spirit seems to have rubbed off on many who
were close to him.
I have known Gladys Meyer since 1946. She was helpful to me then and she has
remained so during the intervening years. In numerous conversations I had the benefit of
her discerning,candid mind focused on Reich and,especially,the relationship between Reich
and Theodore Wolfe.We have had our differences of opinion or emphasis,but to a remark-
able degree she embodies the true liberal spirit,which expects disagreement.Finally,I can-
not cite here her thousand acts of personal kindness on my behalf.
Elsworth F. Baker was always available to give whatever information he had that
could be of use to me.However,my thanks to him center more on his intangible contribu-
tions.From the start of the project to its conclusion,he buoyed my self-confidence through
his confidence in me.
Lois Wyvell played a key role in transforming the diffuse vapor of my biographical
ambition into workable steam in 1971 she recommended me to a publisher seeking a biog-
rapher of Reich.She also gave me her valuable recollections based on her association with
Reich over many years.
David Boadella and I have been corresponding about orgonomy since the 1950s.I
have found his book Wilhelm Reich: The Evolution of His Work a treasure trove of facts and
interpretations.
Jerome Greenfield and I met in the early 1970s when he was working on his book
Wilhelm Reich VS. the U.S.A. Since then we have exchanged considerable information. His
meticulous research on the Food and Drug Administration’s investigation of the orgone
accumulator spared me much effort.
During the 1960s Nathan Cabot Hale encouraged me to begin this biography.I am
also grateful to him for sharing precious data concerning the Norwegian newspaper cam-
paign against Reich and regarding the FDA’s activities.With David,Jerry,and Nathan,I have
felt the joy of being present at the beginning of genuine historical scholarship in orgonomy.
I would like to thank David Blasband for his generous and astute legal counsel.
Douglas Levinson helped immeasurably with the conceptualization and writing of
Chapter 16.He has also brought an informed background in orgonomy and in several aca-
demic disciplines to our long-standing dialogue about Reich’s work.
An important source of encouragement and illumination was my participation in a
group experience coextensive with the writing of this book. The group was made up of
therapists who were also friends. During hectic periods this collectivity provided a kind of
safety net for me.Most importantly,our work together facilitated my better emotional and
intellectual comprehension of themes, such as the expression of negative feeling, fusion,
and separation,issues that also pervaded my relationship with Reich.My gratitude to the fol-
lowing as members for varying periods and as steadfast friends: Sandra Fabian, Sam Fisk,
Ildri Bie Ginn, Phillip Helfaer, Barbara Miller, Bob Rosenthai, Velma Sowers, and Carter
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