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The-Function-Of-The-Orgasm-Wilhelm . ' . ' ,·. ( . ' THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGASM I / .-\ ,. ' . I , .. ·-? \ ' -l - .. , ·, .... ' '· 1- . ' ) � · . ,� ,·, ' )< : . \ . ' ) I. - . ) • I ) . ' l r-' ; •,· ' A ·" . , ) ) I' '' ·-'i ' . l ., - ) :. t. I· .. ' .\ ) - ' •, . �. 1· ' . .;· _. ( .._., I I " I J· ·: - ·, . 1_. f ..... · .. I ) ;..\·· ·• \' . {·'.t ) ;. ·� ,I ' ) • .. .· . I- <' ' l . ,_ ·.- .. ., : • , : · : ' - ··r ·. \ . , ) ' -. ,. ,.... •' . '· · I' .. '• • J ) - ' .. '/ - , '• l . / ... ) ' .1 ..... ·. I -I �'1 ,... I ·; _J; --- I .1" ,, . \ .• )- ., ...... ... { ) _, ' '· ' . '-.;:--- - - ' - -[-; .. I' ..� � '..:. ,� 1 � � /' .. ' \- - ,� l •, ' o � ·' . �- . , I l WILHELM REICH ) ) ) THE FUNCTION J Volume I of OF THE ORGASM ) of the Orgone ) The piscovery ) SEX-ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF BIOLOGICAL ENERGY ) ) ... ) � \ Newly translated from the German • . i' ) by J7incent R. Car/agno ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) � ) c:><:::::]> ) FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX ) NEW YORK ) ) ). Copyright © 1973 by Mary Boyd Higgins as Trustee of the Wilhelm -Love, work and knowledge are the well-springs of our life. Reich Infant Trust Fund They should also govern it. Die Entdeckung des Orgons, Erster Teil: Die Function des Orgasmus, WILHELM REICH copyright @1968 by Mary Boyd Higgins as Trustee of the Wilhelm Reich Infant }'rust Fund Earlier translation published under the title The Discovery of the Orgone, Volume 1: The Function of the Orgasm, copyright 1942, 1948 by the Orgone Institute Press, Inc. > All rights reserv'ed �·- Library of Congress catalog card number: 72-81011 Printed in the United States of America Published simultaneously in Canada by Doubleday Canada Ltd., Toronto ) ) ) ) I .. , FOREWORD ·' ) ) ) In the death of Wilhelm Reich, the emotional plague ) claimed its most formidable opponent. Throughout all of recorded history those who had been killed by the effects of ) this specifically human disease were invariably its "innocent" ) victims. Reich, however, did not become a victim innocently. ) as the first man to deliberately study and to satisfac­ He w ) torily understand the biopathological basis of this scourge which is created by the suppression of genital love life on a ) mass scale. Throughout his entire life, he sought a practical ) method of combatting it. He never failed to draw attention ) e fact that the emotional plague was the one enemy to th ) of man which, unless accurately understood and effectively ) 1 fought, would make impossible the elimination of the agony of the child, the adolescent, and of the masses of biophysi­ ) cally and emotionally sick human beings. Consequently, when ) o fell victim to this disease, it was not unexpected. He he to ) realized the risk involved, and with the courage of a true scientist he exposed himself to its destructive effects; seeking ) in the process, without compromising the scientific truth, to ) find a way out of the legalistic rigmarole in which the plague ) meshed him. had en ) Since Reich's death, there has been an insistent demand for his writings, which strongly indicates that the plague has I fallen short of its intention-the concealment of the truth. Vll > FOREWORD Vlll The slanderous assaults upon his person, designed to dis­ credit him and, thereby, to divert attention from his signifi­ cant discoveries, have lost some-unfortunately, not all­ of their impact, and it now may be possible to turn to a sober scrutiny of his work. The Function of the Orgasm was the first of Re1ch , s wnt- ings to be translated into English. It is not a textbook . It . is rather a scientific biography. "A systemattc presentatwn . PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION could not have� given the reader a picture of how .. one problem and its solution led to another; nor would it show that this work is not pure invention; and that every part of it owes its existence to the peculiar course of scientific logic. " The discovery of the orgone was the result of the con­ That WilhefrnReich, who was the instrument of this logic, sistent, clinical application of the concept of "psychic should die in a fe&-eral penitentiary is shocking. That those energy," initially in the field of psychiatry. The present vol­ who cared were helpless, and that there were many ho � ume can pe considered an extensive introduction to the newly knew and who did not care, is tragic. It is no longer possible opened field of orgone biophysics. The results of biophysical to stand aside and to say, "Forgive them for they know not and physical research since 1934 were set forth in special what they do." It is time that we all know what we do-and . treatises in the International Journal for Sex-economy and why we do it. It is time that we find a way to end thts chrome Orgone Research ( 1942-5). In the near future, they will murder of life and of the knowledge of life. This knowledge be collected and published as Volume II, under the title The exists, and with the republication of Reich's works, it is again Cancer Biopathy. It has been clearly shown that knowledge made available. We must learn to tolerate the truth: We of the emotional functions of biological energy is indispen­ must learn to understand and to respect the bioenergetic sable for the understanding of its physical and physiological function of the orgastic convulsion, and we must learn to ,functions. The biological emotions which govern the psychic know what we become and what we do when this function processes are themselves the direct expression of a strictly is thwarted and denied. physical energy, the cosmic orgone. In this book, there is knowledge; and in this knowledge, The second edition of this book appears unchanged. there is hope. W. R. Mary Higgins, Trustee New York The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund February 1947 New York, 1961 ) ) ) CONTENTS ) FOREWORD Vll t PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION _,, IX ) �.· GENERAL SURVEY 3 ) BIOLOGY AND SEXOLOGY BEFORE FREUD 20 II PEER GYNT 38 ) Ill GAPS IN PSYCHOLOGY AND IN THE THEORY OF ) SEX 51 ) IV THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORGASM THEORY 84 ) V THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHARACTER- ) ANALYTIC TECHNIQUE 117 ) VI AN ABORTIVE BIOLOGICAL REVOLUTION 190 ) VII THE BREAKTHROUGH INTO THE BIOLOGICAL REALM 250 ) VIII THE ORGASM REFLEX AND THE TECHNIQUE OF ) CHARACTER-ANA LYTIC VEGETOTHERAPY 299 ) IX FROM PSYCHOANALYSIS TO BIOGENESIS 368 ) INDEX 395 ) ) ) ) THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGASM 1 ) ) ) ) GENERAL SURVEY 1 ) ) This book comprises my medical and scientificwork on the ) living organism over the course of the past twenty years. It ) was not initially intended for publication. Thus, I had no ) hesitation in expressing what I might otherwise have left out ) owing to material considerations, good reputation in the ) general sense of the word, and some still unresolved trains of thought. ) To most people, it is a riddle that I can be active simul­ ) taneously in disciplines as different as depth psychology, ) sociology, physiology, and now even biology. Some psycho­ analysts wish that I would return to psychoanalysis; the poli­ ) ticians relegate me to natural science and the biologists to ) 1 psychology. ) The subject of "sexuality" virtually cuts through all scien­ ) tific fields of research. In the central phenomenon, the sexual orgasm, we meet with questions deriving from the field of ) psychology as well as from that of physiology, from the field ) of biology no less than from that of sociology. Natural sci­ ) ence offers hardly another field of research that is so well ) equipped to exhibit the fundamental unity of everything that lives and to guard against narrow, fragmentizing specializa­ ) tion. Sex-economy became an independent discipline, having its own methods of research and its own body of knowledge. ) It is a natural-scientific, empirically founded theory of sex- ) / 4 THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGASM GENERAL SURVEY 5 uality. Now it has become essential to describe its develop­ basic facts, to resist the manifold temptations to make com­ ment. In doing so, I am very happy to be able to take the promises and not to shy away from incisive conclusions for opportunity to clear up what I can claim as my own contribu­ the sake of intellectual complacency, peace of mind, or tion, how my work is related to other fields of research, and worldly acceptance. The temptation to deny the sexual etiol­ what is concealed behind the hollow rumors about my activ­ ogy of so many illnesses is far greater in the case of sex­ ity. economy than it was in psychoanalysis. It was only with great Sex-economy grew in the womb of Freud's psychoanalysis effort that I succeeded in establishing the term "sex­ between 19 19 and 1923. The material separation from this economy." This concept is intended to cover a new scientific matrix took place around 1928, but it was not until 1934 field: the investigation of biopsychic energy. According to ) that it was st:Yered from the International Psychoanalytic the prevailing view of life, "sexuality" is an offensive term. ) Association. It is very tempting to wipe out its importance for human life I ) The present volume is more a relation of facts and events altogether. It will no doubt require the work of many gen­ than it is a textb.ook. A systematic presentation of the ma­ erations before sexuality is taken seriously by official science terial could not have·._shown the reader how, in the course of and the laity, probably not until the social questions of life these twenty years, problems and solutions followed one and death bear in upon us the absolute necessity of compre­ upon the other. Nothing could have been contrived; every­ hending and mastering the sexual process, free of social con­ ) thing owes its existence to the remarkable course of scientific straints. logic. It is not false modesty when I say that I feel myself One such question is cancer; another is the psychic plague to be merely the instrument of this logic. which gave rise to dictatorships. The functional method of research acts like a compass in Sex-economy is a natural-scientific .discipline.
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