Author Description

Wilhelm Reich died on November 3rd, 1957 in a U.S. federal penitentiary. It was a tragic, ironic ending to one of the most extraordinary scientific careers of the 20th century, and to a strange, shameful chapter in American legal history. Reich was a brilliant pupil under Sigmund Freud, until he broke away to establish his own version of psychotherapy. Today, generations of Reichian therapists carry on his work, and many of his formulations are considered basic to all schools of psychiatry. In 1938, Reich came to the U.S. to escape the political pressures of Europe, and to pursue his research into orgone energy. According to Reich, orgone is an omnipresent biophysical force, the key not only to human neurosis, but also to various physical diseases, social behavior, and even to weather patterns. His theories challenged many accepted scientific beliefs, and so the press branded him as a crackpot and a fraud. In 1947, the Food and Drug Administration moved to prevent Reich from distributing an experimental device for accumulating orgone energy. This book describes the bitter crusade waged against Reich by the FDA. Resorting to unconstitutional and unethical means, the FDA harassed Reich and led him into a legal tangle that disrupted his work and cost him his sanity. In 1955, the FDA destroyed Reich’s accumulators and all available copies of his books. His theories on orgone have never been disproven or adequately tested, least of all by the FDA, and there is today mounting evidence to suggest that he was right.