Author Archive

Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian physician and psychoanalyst whose works, including Character Analysis and The Function of the Orgasm, developed the concept of character armor and linked psychological health to sexual and bodily liberation. In The Mass Psychology of Fascism he attempted to merge psychoanalysis with social critique, while his later theory of orgone energy became highly controversial and was rejected by mainstream science. His ideas influenced later body-oriented psychotherapy and countercultural movements, though his scientific claims remain disputed.

24 summaries in the archive

Biology Bion Experiments on the Origins of Life – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich's 1936–37 laboratory record of microscopic experiments testing whether living organization can arise from nonliving material.

5 min read

Critical Theory Early Writings – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

The volume, translated by Philip Schmitz, gathers a series of separate essays and clinical studies that Reich wrote…

3 min read

History Of Science Children of the Future – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Children of the Future is a collection of Wilhelm Reich's writings on infancy, childhood, adolescence, and sexuality's role…

6 min read

Biology The Bion Experiments – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich's 1939 laboratory record argues that the boundary between living and non-living matter is porous.

10 min read

History Of Science Hernia obturatoria – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

A rare 1923 Greifswald medical dissertation by Wilhelm Reich examining the anatomy, causes, diagnosis, and treatment of obturator…

6 min read

Design Where’s the Truth? – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Reich's final autobiographical volume documents his clash with U.S. authorities over orgone research and the burning of his…

3 min read

Biography Reich speaks of Freud – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich's dialogues with Freud's legacy, presented through a controversial thinker's own words.

9 min read

Philosophy Was ist Klassenbewusstsein? – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich's short polemical essay asks why millions of workers failed to turn revolutionary as fascism rose, and…

8 min read

Cultural History The function of the orgasm – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Robert Anton Wilson's 1961 review-essay reopens the suppression of Wilhelm Reich's ideas after U.S. authorities burned his books…

7 min read

Biography Record of a friendship – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

A collection of letters between psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich and school reformer A. S. Neill, tracing a transatlantic friendship…

4 min read

Critical Theory Geschlechtsreife, Enthaltsamkeit, Ehemoral – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich critiques bourgeois sexual reform, arguing that enforced abstinence and marriage morality produce neurosis and distort instinctual…

5 min read

History Of Science International Journal of Sex-Economy and orgone-research – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

A 1940s journal of Reich's orgone biophysics, sex-economy, and social criticism, opening with his dialogue 'Orgonotic Pulsation.'

21 min read

History Of Science The cancer biopathy – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich's The Cancer Biopathy explores his theory of orgone energy and its role in disease, a work…

8 min read

Cultural History The Freudian left – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Robinson's intellectual history examines how Reich, Róheim, and Marcuse built radical politics on Freud's theory of sexuality.

4 min read

Psychology Sex-Pol – Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich

Sex-Pol gathers Wilhelm Reich's 1929–1934 essays uniting psychoanalysis with Marxist politics around sexual repression.

9 min read