Fury on Earth: a Biography of Wilhelm Reich
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Myron Sahraf A BIOGRAPHY OF WILHELM REICH FURY ON EARTH les atomes de l’âme 2011 2 Myron Sharaf Fury On Earth éditions les atomes de l’âme 3 Fury on Earth éditions les atomes de l’âme 4 Myron Sharaf Fury On Earth 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 Leaf by 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 Biography by 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. New design by Christian Isidore Angelliaume © octobre 2011, éditions les atomes de l’âme. Ce livre a été entièrement reconditionné — c’est-à-dire : remises à la ligne (environ 20 000), spécification des italiques, des —, détection des coquilles, reformatage des renvois de note, composition et mise en page, etc. —, à titre privé et pour son usage strictement personnel, par Christian Isidore Angelliaume à partir de l’archive au format .txt : http://www.archive.org/stream/furyonearthabiog007465mbp/furyonearthabiog007465mbp_djvu.txt 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 éditions les atomes de l’âme to my son Paul 5 TO MY SON PAUL éditions les atomes de l’âme 6 Myron Sharaf Fury On Earth CONTENTS Acknowledgments 8 Part I The Viewpoint of the Observer 1. Introduction 14 2. My Relationship with Reich 25 Part II. The Development of the Mission: 1897-1920 3. Reich’s Childhood and Youth: 1897-1917 43 4. Becoming a Psychoanalyst: 1918-1920 58 Part III. Reich as Insider Building a Career and Marriage: 1920-1926 5. Reich’s Work on the Impulsive Character: 1922-1924 70 6. Reich’s Early Work on Character Analysis: 1920-1926 75 7. Reich’s Work on Orgastic Potency: 1922-1926 88 8. Personal Life: 1920-1926 106 Part IV. The Radicalization of Reich: 1926-1930 9. Reich’s Illness and Sanatarium Stay in Davos, Switzerland: Winter 1927 114 10. July 15, 1927, and Its Aftermath: 1927-1928 120 11. The Application of Sexeconomic Concepts on the Social Scene The Sexpol: 1927-1930 127 12. Personal Life and Relations with Colleagues: 1927-1930 142 Part V. Liberation and Rejection Reich’s Breaks with the Communist Party and the Psychoanalytic Association: 1930-1934 13. The Sex-political Furor: 1930-1934 155 14. The Psychoanalytic Furor and Reich’s Break with the Psychoanalytic Asso ciation: 1930-1934 169 15. Personal Life: 1930-1934 184 Part VI. First Steps on the Road to Life Reich’s Experimental Work in Scandinavia: 1934-1939 16. The Bio-electrical Experiments: 1934-1935 196 17. The Bions: 1936-1939 206 18. Psychiatric Developments: 1934-1939 222 19. Personal Life and Relations with Colleagues: 1934-1939 232 Part VII. On His Own in America Total Immersion in Studies of “Life Energy” (Orgone Energy): 1940-1950 20. Getting Settled in America: 1939-1941 246 21. The Discovery of Orgone Energy: 1940 259 22. The Medical Effects of the Accumulator: 1940-1948 275 23. Psychiatric, Sociological, and Educational Developments: 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. The American Campaign Against Orgonomy The Beginnings: 1947-1948 335 26. The Oranur Experiment: 1950-1953 344 éditions les atomes de l’âme contents 7 27. Personal Life and Other Developments: 1950-1954 356 28. The FDA Injunction and Reich’s Responses: 1951-1955 381 29. Background to the Trial for Contempt of Injunction: 1955-1956 404 30. The Trial: 1956 414 31. The Destruction of Orgone Energy Accumulators and Burning of Reich’s Publications: 1956-1957 424 32. Prison and Death: 1957 434 Epilogue 443 Notes 447 Bibliography 490 Index This edition is without photogrphs. éditions les atomes de l’âme 8 Myron Sharaf Fury On Earth 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 éditions les atomes de l’âme aknowledments 9 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.