Wilhelm Reich. Orgone psychotherapy. Vegetotherapy of Reich Who is Wilhelm Reich

Vegetotherapy by W. Reich– this is the first and main direction in body-oriented psychotherapy, in which the client’s psychological problems are considered in connection with the functioning of his body and are solved through influence on the body.

Personality and biography of Wilhelm Reich

In addition to W. Reich's vegetative therapy, body-oriented therapy includes the bioenergetic approach of A. Lowen (a student of Reich) and the biosynthesis of D. Boadella.

Wilhelm Reich(1897-1957) is an outstanding personality, he lived an unusually bright life, he was not just a psychologist, but a great scientist who strives to unite all knowledge about a person in order to help him become happy.

In the 50s of the twentieth century, W. Reich created an apparatus called "orgone accumulator". This device could become panacea for all diseases In particular, Reich was able to use the device to relieve clients from cancer, epilepsy, and asthma.

For the invention of this very apparatus, a psychologist and paid with his life: was arrested and soon, at the age of sixty, died in prison from a heart attack. The US government (there was a psychologist in this country at the end of his life) did not like the “too smart scientist.”

At first, Reich simply did not receive a license to produce the device, but continued his work (although the authorities forbade him), and after the arrest of the “naughty” scientist, all the already created orgone batteries, as well as drawings for them, materials, publications, records of the scientist, even related in some way to the invention, were destroyed.

But this was at the end of the psychologist’s life. And Wilhelm was born into a Jewish family in the village. Dobryanichi (today it is the territory of Ukraine, and in 1987 of Austria-Hungary). His father raised his children in German traditions (everyone in the family spoke only German) and introduced them to Western culture.

Wilhelm adored his mother and feared his father. When he was 14 years old, he found his mother with her lover (his home teacher) and told everything to his father. The next day, the mother committed suicide, the father could not live without her for long, sought death and died a few years later. After some time, Wilhelm's brother also died.

At the age of 17, Reich was left completely alone; for the rest of his life he tried, but apparently was never able to forgive himself for the death of his beloved mother.

Afterwards he served in the army during the First World War and moved to Vienna. There Reich met his first wife, entered medical school at the University of Vienna and became interested in the then fashionable psychoanalysis. As a result, Reich became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and began psychoanalytic practice.

In Vienna in 1922, a fateful meeting took place that determined the entire creative path of W. Reich. He met and became clinical assistant Z. Freud himself!

W. Reich is a student of Freud, a neo-Freudian. Like many of Freud's associates after some time, he became isolated from his teacher, creates his own direction in psychology.

Reich disagreed with Freud in his views and understanding of the mental nature of man, and the two great scientists did not find a common language because Reich was a rebel by nature and, moreover, a zealous Marxist.

What followed were decades of hard work against the backdrop of unfolding terrible events in world history. Unlike anyone else, a revolutionary and innovator who was ahead of not only his own time, but even our present time, no one liked V. Reich.

Reich married two more times, lived in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the USA, but nowhere and from no one did he meet the necessary understanding and support. Neither the fascists nor the communists liked him, and even in America, which he represented as the freest country, he was banned.

Having destroyed the inventor and his main invention, the US authorities still failed to destroy new trend in psychology – vegetative therapy.

But even today, W. Reich’s vegetative therapy is called pseudoscience, and the scientist himself is not taken seriously. Official science criticizes Reich mainly because his theory is not confirmed by generally accepted scientific methods, and, more importantly, contradicts the known laws of physics! Naturally, it is much easier to call Reich's theory a pseudoscience than to revise the basic laws of physics.

Muscular armor

Observing Dr. Freud's patients, and then his own clients, W. Reich noticed that people with similar psychological gaps have similar personalities, and most importantly, there are physical similarities. Freud analyzed the symptoms with which patients came to him, Reich analyzed the character of a person as a whole.

This observation prompted the psychologist to the basic idea of ​​his theory - a person's character is related to the structure of his body.

Character according to W. Reich, this is not only a set of habitual attitudes, relationships, patterns of behavior, ideas and values ​​of a person, but also his habitual postures, gestures, movements and body structure.

All internal troubles and suppressed emotions are expressed and reflected in bodily manifestations, mainly in muscle tension, that is, in places DC voltage muscles.

Chronic muscle tension in different parts bodies together add up to what Reich called characterological muscular armor person.

Muscular armor– “armor” of a person from outside world, it protects, but at the same time it prevents you from being yourself and enjoying life. Where muscles are clamped, feelings, thoughts, instincts are also clamped.

Muscle clamp is a state of chronic tension of the muscle group responsible for the expression of emotions.

When suppressed emotions (and they are often suppressed, since it is often impossible to express oneself directly in a civilized society), strong nervous tension arises, constraining the muscles of the body. They become rigid and end up remaining clamped for many years.

Like Z. Freud, W. Reich attached great importance of sexuality. But, unlike Freud, he believed that society is to blame for the fact that a person is forced to suffer due to the gap between morality and instinctive impulses. Reich believed that the basis of any neurosis is sexual dissatisfaction, caused by the taboo topic of sex.

The characteristic muscular armor grows even in children. Everyone has one. Born free, ready for love and creativity, a person is tightened more and more rigidly by the belts of morality, science, and religion. A creative and inquisitive child learns to react in the same way, in a standard, typical, cultural way; most importantly, he learns to hide himself, not to stand out, to be like everyone else.

Reich highlighted three the main psychic phenomena that are taboo in society and therefore presented by consciousness:

• anger,
• fear and its derivative – anxiety,
• sexual arousal.

These natural, but “indecent” impulses are blocked not only by the mind, but also by the body. If a person constantly hides the same feeling, he develops a muscle tension, first one, and then throughout the body.

Seven segments of the muscular carapace

An adult finds himself trapped in the “cage” of his body and, worst of all, accepts this as the norm. People react to bodily problems only when they become serious diseases, and if the posture is deformed, the shoulders are constantly tense and raised, or a hump begins to form on the back, it’s okay.

In order for a person to become free and open, to regain the ability to enjoy life, he must commit psychological growth.

Psychological growth Reich understood it as a process of gradual unraveling of the seven segments of the physical shell.

Protective segments of the muscle carapace:

1. Ophthalmic. Includes the muscles of the eyes and forehead. The eyes look as if at nothing, at one point, through, the forehead is often motionless. The presence of tension in the eye muscles results in vision problems. This segment of the shell is formed when a person does not want to see everything that is happening around him, is afraid to look into the future or past. Suppressed emotion - fear.
2. Oral. Mouth, chin, throat, back of head. The jaws are constantly clenched or relaxed (the mouth is slightly open). This segment holds those emotions that provoke crying, screaming, biting, sucking, grimacing, mainly emotions anger and sexual arousal.
3. Cervical. Stiffness of the neck and tongue muscles. Suppressed anger and its expressions: screaming, screaming, crying, gag reflex. A tight cervical segment does not allow a person to speak out and express himself.
4. Chest. Shoulders, shoulder blades, chest, arms and hands. This segment is unique in that it contains all emotions. Holding your breath and breath- that's life. The vast majority of people don't even notice how often they don't breathe or breathe very shallowly. Both laughter and passion, as well as anger, fear and sadness, are blocked in the chest.
5. Diaphragmatic. Diaphragm, solar plexus, internal organs, muscles of the lower vertebrae. Held strong anger.
6. Abdominal. Abdominal and back muscles. The main suppressed emotion is fear. If the lateral muscles are tightened, anger and hostility are suppressed, hence the fear of tickling.
7. Pelvic. Muscles of the pelvis and legs. Suppressing anger and mainly sexual energy(excitement, feelings of sexual pleasure and satisfaction).

The destruction of the shell and the achievement of normal, free functioning of the body and psyche must occur from top to bottom: from the eyes to the pelvis.

As you free yourself from the shell, a mass of vital, vegetative energy is released. Reich called this energy orgone.

Orgone energy

Reich studied orgone energy in his laboratory at the Orgone Institute (New York) that he created in the 40-50s, although he came to this idea back in the 30s of the twentieth century.

Orgone energy- this is the universal energy of life, vegetative, biopsychic energy, the main component of which is sexual energy (what Fred referred to as “libido”).

Reich concluded that orgone energy circulates inside the human body from crown to heels and back, as well as along the periphery of the body. But she can move freely only when there are no muscle tensions, otherwise vital forces are blocked. Physical rigidity is a direct consequence of suppressed emotions. Tension of the body muscles is a “straitjacket” of the individual.

A sure sign that the muscular shell is holding a person down is the inability to experience orgasm with the whole body. This is exactly how, with his whole being, according to Reich, a person should experience a healing and empowering orgasm, and not just feel it in the genital area, as is usually the case.

A free person is, roughly speaking, a man without character. He does not have stereotypical movements, stereotyped ways of reacting, there are no such “highlights” of character as helplessness, desire for loneliness, shyness, anxiety, unnatural fears, fear of responsibility, need for authority, mystical aspirations, aggressiveness, impulsiveness, compliance, sexual perversions, etc. .

The most important thing that Reich discovered, and what prompted him to create the orgone accumulator, was the discovery that the energy that is the driving force of life is not only inside, but also outside. She's everywhere: in microorganisms, plants, animals, humans, atmosphere, space and vacuum! It creates electromagnetic radiation in blue spectrum colors.

In some places the concentration of orgone is particularly high. In particular, in structures of a pyramidal shape, as well as in the shape of a hemisphere and onion. It is not surprising that all religious and sacred buildings have this shape, such as Egyptian pyramids, Buddhist pagodas, Orthodox churches, Muslim mosques.

Reich wanted accumulate orgone energy from the outside and direct it inside the human body, for “recharging” and health improvement. And he did it! But the very fact of the existence of energy, which the scientist called orgone, refuted the basic laws of physics.

Reich cured people of many diseases and said that through the accumulation of orgone it was possible to significantly extend human life.

When Reich's invention became known to the public, some began to recognize him as a genius, and the orgone accumulator as the most important discovery in the history of medicine, not to use which would be a crime against humanity, while others laughed, explaining the healing abilities of the device only as a placebo effect.

Well, this story ended, as already mentioned, with the death of the scientist and the destruction of everything that was connected with the orgone accumulator.

Unfortunately, Reich died before the first man went into space and long before astronauts began returning with photographs of the Earth surrounded by an atmosphere that glows with a blue glow of orgone energy.

Reich believed that galaxies were created and set in motion by orgone. What scientists call the "dark matter of the universe" is the dark blue glowing halo of galaxies. As proof of the reality of orgone energy, Reich even developed a method for launching small aircraft with engines, working only on this omnipresent, endless, absolutely accessible and free energy of life.

Probably, the psychologist, who was at the same time a physician, a physicist, and a cosmologist, would have made a lot more discoveries, but he was not liked by those in power and, like many brilliant scientists, was apparently ahead of his time not even by years, but by centuries.

Reich has successors, but their activities are not seriously recognized by the engaged scientific community; the results of modern orgone research are not published in scientific journals, but are classified as science fiction and pseudoscience.

Vegetative therapy: how to dissolve the muscle shell

Returning to vegetative therapy, the first and most important thing that needs to be identified is its target– destruction of the muscular shell and achievement of normal functioning of the human body, as a result of which the psychological problem with which the client turned to the therapist will be resolved.

Vegetotherapy techniques:

• respiratory,
• massage,
• psychoanalytic.

A body-oriented psychotherapist notices the client’s problems without even interacting with him. Not all, but many bodily clamps are visible to the naked eye. Just by the way the client entered the office and how he sat down on the chair, you can tell a lot about him.

The therapist acts on the tight muscles: strongly squeezes, squeezes, twists, pinches, and so on, that is, makes a kind of deep massage. To work internal muscles that are not directly accessible, the client is asked to scream, utter certain sounds, cry, bite, growl, imitate vomiting, hit something, tear, choke, and so on.

Many clients do not understand or notice their clamps. In such cases, the therapist tries to bring them to the point of absurdity in order to make them noticeable. If the client nervously jerks his leg, he is asked to jerk it stronger, more intensely, and more widely. And as a result, a realization emerges: these movements are similar to kicking, which means that strong aggression and anger are hidden behind the clamp.

When the muscles can be relaxed, it happens release of orgone energy and the person begins to react emotionally, realizes a lot and very often remembers significant, but long-forgotten events in life.

Methods are important at this point psychoanalysis. The therapist talks with the client, helps him understand the feelings, desires and memories that have arisen. As segments of the muscular armor are unblocked (from the eyes to the pelvis), mainly traumatic, negative or limiting the freedom to be oneself events from childhood are remembered, and when the muscular armor is completely reset, people remember being very small and at the same time absolutely happy and feeling the depth of unity with the whole world.

Parents cannot raise or teach their children; they cannot help but say: “Quiet! Don't scream!", "Don't cry! What will people say?”, “Don’t be mad! You're disgracing me! and so on. Without this, there is no socialization, but by joining society, a person moves further and further away from himself, from his own nature and purpose.

A special technique of vegetative therapy - deep breathing. It is through breathing that a person receives orgone energy from the atmosphere. Correct breathing– an alternative to massage for working out muscle tension.

By “blowing” the body with deep breathing, you can rid it of the muscular shell and open the way for the free flow of orgone energy inside the body.

Typically, a vegetarian therapist combines all methods and techniques to achieve the best result. Naturally, a huge role is also played by the client’s desire to understand, to know, to help himself improve his health, that is independent work.

After completing a course of vegetative therapy people's lives change V better side radically:

Reich's autonomic therapy is especially effective in the treatment of neuroses, post-traumatic disorders, stress, depression, and psychosomatic diseases.

D. Fadiman, R. Freiger WILHELM REICH AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE BODY

PART 1 [Basic introductions:] [character][characteristic armor][muscular armor opening][genital character][bioenergy][orgonic energy]

[Dynamics: ][psychological growth][eyes mouth neck chest diaphragm belly pelvis]

[Obstacles to growth: ][protective shell][suppression of sexuality]

[Structure:] [body][social relationships][will emotions intelligence][self][therapist][assessment][first-hand theory]

PART 2 [Body-Centered Growth Systems:] [Bioenergetics][Structural Integration (Rolfing)][Alexander Method][Feldenkrais Method][Sensory Awareness][Awakening Sensation][Evaluation]

In this chapter we will talk about Wilhelm Reich, the founder of what might be called body-oriented psychotherapy. Wilhelm Reich was a member of the psychoanalytic inner circle in Vienna and led a training seminar for aspiring analysts. In his therapeutic work, he gradually began to emphasize the importance of paying attention to the physical aspects of an individual's character, especially the patterns of chronic muscle tightness, which he called the body armor. He also spoke about the role of society in the consciousness of prohibitions concerning the instinctual - especially sexual - life of the individual. According to one researcher, Reich "probably more consistently than anyone else worked out the critical and revolutionary implications of psychoanalytic theory."

The second part of this chapter consists of a brief overview of other important body-centered approaches to therapy and personal growth. Here we can outline three main areas: 1) Work on the structure of the body: bioenergetics, structural integration, Alexander technique, Feldenkrais method; 2) Systems aimed at improving the functioning of the body: sensory consciousness and relaxation of the senses. 3) Eastern teachings focused on the body: hatha yoga, tai chi, aikido.

BASIC VIEWS

CHARACTER

According to Reich, character consists of the patient’s habitual positions and attitudes, the constant pattern of his reactions to various situations. It includes conscious attitudes and values, behavior style (shyness, aggressiveness, etc.), physical postures, habits of holding and moving, etc. “The form of behavior, its “how” forms of communication are much more significant than what the patient says . Words may lie: the way of expression never lies." The concept of character first appeared in Freud in 1908 ("Character and Anal Eroticism"). Reich developed this concept and was the first analyst to interpret the nature and functions of character in working with patients, instead of analyzing symptoms.

CHARACTERISTIC SHELL

Reich believed that character creates a defense against anxiety, which is caused in the child by intense sexual feelings accompanied by fear of punishment. The first defense against this fear is repression, which temporarily curbs the sexual impulses. As ego defenses become permanent and automatic, they develop into characteristics or a characteristic shell. Reich's idea of ​​the characteristic armor includes all the suppressive defensive forces organized into a more or less coherent ego pattern. "The establishment of a characteristic feature... indicates the resolution of the problem of regression: it either makes the process of repression unnecessary, or transforms the repression, once established, into a relatively rigid formation accepted in the ego."

“The conflict that operated at a certain period of life always leaves its traces in character, in the form of rigidity.”

The characteristics are not neurotic symptoms. The development, according to Reich, is that neurotic symptoms (such as irrational fears and phobias) are experienced as alien to the individual, as alien elements in his soul, while neurotic characteristics (such as an exaggerated love of order or anxious shyness) are experienced as components of the personality. One may complain of shyness, but this shyness does not seem meaningless or pathological, like neurotic symptoms. Characteristic defenses are partly effective and so difficult to remove because they are well rationalized by the individual and experienced as part of his self-image.

Reich constantly tried to make patients aware of their characteristic features. He often imitated their characteristic features or postures, or asked the patients themselves to repeat or exaggerate a pattern of behavior - for example, a nervous smile. When patients stop taking their characteristic behavior for granted, their motivation to change increases.

RELEASE (LOOSENING) OF THE MUSCULAR ARMS

Reich believed that every characteristic attitude has a corresponding physical posture, and that the character of the individual is expressed in his body in the form of muscular rigidity or muscular armor. Reich began to directly work with relaxation of the muscular armor in conjunction with analytical work. He discovered that relaxation of the muscular armor released significant libidinal energy and aided the process of psychoanalysis. Reich's psychiatric work increasingly moved towards the release of emotions (pleasure, anger, excitement) through work with the body. He found that this led to a much more intense experience of the infantile material revealed in the analysis.

"Muscular rigidity is the somatic side of the process of suppression and the basis of its continued existence."

Reich began by applying the technique of characteristic analysis to physical postures. He analyzed in detail the patient's postures and physical habits to make patients aware of how they suppressed vital feelings in various parts of the body. Reich asked patients to strengthen a particular clamp in order to become more aware of it, feel it and identify the emotion that is connected to this part of the body. He saw that only after the repressed emotion finds expression can the patient completely give up chronic tension or pressure. Gradually, Reich began to directly work with the tightened muscles, kneading them with his hands to release the emotions tied up in them. "In the end I could not escape the impression that physical rigidity was in fact the most essential part of repression. Without exception, the patients said that they went through periods in their childhood when they learned to repress their hatred, anxiety or love through certain actions that influenced on vegetative functions (holding your breath, tensing your abdominal muscles, etc.) “The shell can be superficial or deep, soft like a fur coat, or hard like iron. In any case, its function is to protect against displeasure. However, the body pays for this protection with the loss of a significant part of its capacity for pleasure." ...Again and again one is amazed how the release of rigid muscles releases not only vegetative energy, but, in addition, brings memories of a situation in early childhood when this clamp was used for certain suppression." In his work on the muscle armor, Reich discovered that chronic muscle tension blocks three basic biological arousals: anxiety, anger and sexual arousal. He came to the conclusion that the physical (muscular) and psychological armor are one and the same.

"The armor of character turns out to be functionally identical with the overexertion of the muscles, the muscular armor. This functional identity means nothing more than the fact that muscle patterns and characteristics serve the same function in the mental apparatus; they can influence each other and replace each other friend. Essentially they cannot be separated; in function they are identical."

GENITAL CHARACTER

The term "genital character" meant the level of psychosexual development in Freud. In Reich's specific interpretation, this means achieving orgasmic potency. “Orgastic potency is the ability to surrender to the flow of biological energy without any suppression, the ability to completely discharge accumulated sexual arousal in involuntary, pleasurable body movements.” Reich found that as his patients dissolved their nature and developed orgastic potency, many aspects of the personality spontaneously changed.

"I say from vast clinical experience that in only a few cases in our civilization is sexual intercourse based on love. Interfering anger, hatred, sadistic emotions and competitiveness are completely inseparable from sexual life modern man".

Instead of rigid, rigid neurotic control, individuals develop the ability to self-regulate. Reich contrasted the natural self-regulation of individuals with forced morality. The natural individual acts in accordance with his own inclinations and feelings, rather than following an external set of requirements set by others.

After Reichian therapy, patients who were previously prone to neurotic promiscuity (sexual promiscuity) acquired greater sensitivity, the ability to attach and spontaneously began to strive for longer and more fulfilling relationships.

“You are not “fighting” to keep your heart beating or your legs moving, just as there is no “fighting” to find the truth. The truth is in you, it works in you the same way your heart or your eyes work - better or worse, depending on the condition of your body."

Those who were in barren, loveless marriages found that they could not engage in sexual relations out of a sense of duty alone. The genital character is not imprisoned in its shell and psychological defenses. He is able to defend himself if necessary in a hostile environment. But this protection is exercised more or less consciously and can be removed when it is no longer necessary.

Reich wrote that the genital character is a person who has worked through his Oedipus complex so that this material is not suppressed and does not have a strong charge. "The superego becomes the 'sexual affirmer' and thus acts in harmony with the id. The genital character is able to freely and fully experience the sexual orgasm, completely discharging the existing libido. The climax of sexual activity is characterized by the ability to surrender sexual experience, involuntary movements that are not blocked, in contrast to the forced, even violent movements of an individual protected by a shell.

BIOENERGY

When working with the muscle armor, Reich discovered that the release of chronically tight muscles often gives rise to special physical sensations - a feeling of warmth or cold, tingling, itching or emotional uplift. He believed that these sensations resulted from the release of vegetative or biological energy.

Reich also believed that the mobilization and discharge of bioenergy are essential stages in the process of sexual arousal and orgasm. He called this the "orgasm formula", a four-part process characteristic of all living organisms: mechanical tension - bioenergetic charge - bioenergetic discharge - mechanical relaxation.

As a result of physical contact, energy accumulates in both bodies, which is ultimately discharged in orgasm, which is essentially a phenomenon of biological discharge: 1) sexual organs fill with fluid - mechanical tension; 2) as a result, intense excitement occurs - a bioenergetic charge; 3) sexual arousal is discharged in muscle contractions - bioenergetic discharge; 4) physical relaxation occurs - mechanical relaxation.

ORGONIC ENERGY

Reich's interest in the physical functioning of patients led him to laboratory experiments in physiology and biology, and ultimately to physics research. He became convinced that bioenergy in individual organisms is only one aspect of the universal energy “present in all things.” In the term “orgone,” “organic energy,” he combined the roots “organism” and “orgasm.” “Cosmic orgonic energy functions in living organisms as specific biological energy. In this capacity, it controls the entire organism and is expressed in emotions as well as in purely biophysical movements of organs."

Reich's extensive research into orgonic energy and related topics was ignored by most critics and scientists. His discoveries contradicted many accepted theories and axioms of physics and biology; In addition, his work also has experimental weaknesses. However, his results have never been refuted or even thoroughly tested and seriously considered by any respected scientist. One of the psychologists who worked with Reich notes: “For more than twenty years since Reich announced the discovery of orgonic energy, there has not been a report of a credible repetition of a single definitive experiment that would refute Reich's results... Fact is that despite ridicule, slander and attempts by the orthodox to “bury” Reich and orgonomics (and partly thanks to them), not a single scientific publication contains a refutation of his experiments, much less a systematic refutation of the enormous scientific work confirming his positions.”

Orgonic energy has the following basic properties: 1) it is free from mass, has neither inertia nor weight; 2) it is present everywhere, although in varying concentrations, even in a vacuum; 3) it is a medium of electromagnetic and gravitational interactions, the substrate of most fundamental natural phenomena; 4) it is in constant motion and can be observed under appropriate conditions; 5) a high concentration of orgonic energy attracts orgonic energy from a less concentrated environment (which “contradicts” the law of entropy); 6) orgonic energy forms units that become centers of creative activity. These can be cells, plants and animals, as well as clouds, planets, stars, galaxies.

DYNAMICS

PSYCHOLOGICAL GROWTH

Reich defines growth as the process of resorption of the psychological and physical armor, gradually becoming a freer and more open human being, gaining the ability to enjoy a full and satisfying orgasm. Reich argued that the muscular armor is organized into seven main protective segments, consisting of muscles and organs corresponding to the functions of expression. These segments form a series of seven approximately horizontal rings at right angles to the torso and spine. The main segments of the shell are located in the areas of the eyes, mouth, neck, chest, diaphragm, abdomen and pelvis.

According to Reich, orgone energy naturally flows up and down the body parallel to the spine. Rings of the shell form at right angles to these flows and obstruct them. Reich points out that it is no coincidence that in our Western culture an affirmative movement of the head up and down, in the direction of the flow of energy through the body, was formed, while the negative movement of the head from side to side is the movement of the formation of a shell, protection, crossing the flow.

[The seven segments of Reich's armor are associated with the seven chakras of the yogi, although the correspondence is not entirely accurate. It is interesting to note that Reich moves from top to bottom; work with the patient ends with the pelvic segment, which is more important. In yoga, the movement begins from the base of the spine upward and ends with the opening of a thousand-petalled lotus. Aurobindo's Yoga also starts from the top; What's more important in this analogy is that concentrations on the chakras actually lead to certain patterns of muscle relaxation and tension. (Approx. Transl.)]

"You can get out of a trap. But to get out of a prison, you need to understand that you are in a prison. The trap is a person's emotional structure, his characteristic structure. There is little use in inventing systems of thought about the nature of the trap; the only thing needed to get out is know the trap and find a way out.”

Protection serves to limit both free flow. energy and free expression of emotions in the individual. What initially appears as a defense against overwhelming feelings of tension and agitation becomes a physical and emotional straitjacket. “In the human body, covered by a protective shell, orgone energy is bound in chronic muscle clamps. After the armor ring opens, orgone in the body does not immediately begin to flow freely... As the first armor blocks open, we discover that orgone flows and sensations, expression "pressure" and "giving" are developing more and more. However, there still remains a defense that prevents full development."

Reichian therapy consists primarily of opening the shell in each segment, starting with the eyes; and ending with the pelvis. Each segment is more or less independent and can be dealt with separately.

“Ultimately in self-awareness and in the pursuit of improved knowledge and complete integration of biological functioning, cosmic orgone energy becomes aware of itself.”

Three types of means are used to open the shell: 1) storing energy in the body through deep breathing; 2) directly addressing chronic muscle tightness (through pressure, pinching, etc.) to relax it; 3) maintaining cooperation with the patient in openly addressing the resistances and emotional limitations that are revealed.

1. Eyes. The protective armor in the eye area is manifested in the immobility of the forehead and the “empty” expression of the eyes, which seem to be looking out from behind a motionless mask. Blooming is accomplished by patients opening their eyes as wide as possible (as in fear) to mobilize the eyelids and forehead in forced emotional expression, as well as free eye movements, rolling and looking from side to side.

2. Mouth. The oral segment includes the muscles of the chin, throat and back of the head. The jaw can be either too clenched or unnaturally relaxed. This segment holds the emotional expression of crying, screaming, anger, biting, sucking, grimacing. The protective armor can be relaxed by the patient by imitating crying, making sounds that mobilize the lips, biting gag movements, and by directly working the relevant muscles.

3. Neck. This segment includes the deep muscles of the neck tongue. The protective shell mainly holds out anger, screaming and crying. A direct impact on the muscles deep in the neck is not possible, so screaming, screaming, gagging, etc. are an important means of releasing the shell.

4. Chest. The thoracic segment includes the broad muscles of the chest, muscles of the shoulders, shoulder blades, veya: the chest and arms with hands. This segment holds back laughter, sadness, and passion. Holding the breath, which is an important means of suppressing any emotion, is carried out largely in the chest. The shell can be released by working on breathing, especially by fully exhaling. The arms and hands are used to strike, to tear, to destroy, to hit, to passionately achieve something.

5. Aperture. This segment includes the diaphragm, solar plexus, various internal organs, and muscles of the lower vertebrae. The protective armor is expressed in the forward arching of the spine, so that when the patient lies between bottom There is a significant gap between the back and the couch. Exhalation turns out to be more difficult than inhalation. The shell here holds mainly strong anger. You need to largely dissolve the first four segments before moving on to dissolving the fifth through work with breathing and the gag reflex (people with strong blocks in this segment are practically incapable of vomiting).

6. Belly. The abdominal segment includes the broad abdominal muscles and the back muscles. Tension of the lumbar muscles is associated with the fear of attack. The protective shell on the sides creates a fear of tickling and is associated with the suppression of anger and hostility. The opening of the shell in this segment is relatively easy if the upper segments are already open.

7. Taz. The last segment includes all the muscles of the pelvis and lower extremities. The stronger the protective shell, the more the pelvis is stretched back, sticking out backwards. The gluteal muscles are tense and painful. The pelvis is rigid, it is “dead” and non-sexual. The pelvic shell serves to suppress arousal, anger, pleasure. Agitation (anxiety) arises from the suppression of sensations of pleasure, and it is impossible to fully experience pleasure in this area until the anger in the pelvic muscles is discharged. The armor may be loosened by mobilizing the pelvis and then kicking the legs and hitting the couch with the pelvis.

"... the main criterion of mental and vegetative health is the body's ability to act and react as a whole, from the point of view of the biological functions of tension and release... disturbances in self-perception actually disappear only after the orgasm reflex has fully developed."

Reich discovered that as patients became capable of full genital surrender, their entire being and lifestyle changed fundamentally. “When the unity of the orgasmic reflex is restored through therapy, the feeling of depth and sincerity, previously lost, returns with it. In this regard, patients recall the period early childhood, when the unity of sensation of the body had not yet been lost. Deeply moved, they tell how as small children they felt one with nature, with everything around them, how they felt “alive”, and how later this was broken into pieces and destroyed by learning.”

“The snake - a symbol of the phallus and at the same time biologically primary movement - invites Eve to tempt Adam... “Whoever eats from the tree of knowledge will know God and life, and will be punished,” they warn us. Knowledge of the law of love leads to knowledge of the law of life, and knowledge of the law of life leads to knowledge of God.”

Such people begin to feel that the rigid morality of society, which previously seemed to them to be self-evident, becomes alien and unnatural. Their attitude towards work also changes noticeably. Those who did their work mechanically begin to look for new, more lively work that meets their inner needs and desires. Those who are interested in their profession gain new energy, interest and abilities.

OBSTACLES TO GROWTH

PROTECTIVE SHEAR

The protective shell is the main obstacle to growth according to Reich. "The individual, clamped by his protective shell, is not able to release it. He is also unable to express the simplest biological emotions. He knows only the sensations of tickling, and not orgonic pleasure. He cannot let out a sigh of pleasure or imitate it. If he tries, it will be a groan, a strangled a growl or an impulse to vomit. He is unable to utter an angry cry or even pretend to punch the couch."

“I have found that people react with intense hatred to any attempt to disturb the neurotic balance maintained by their protective shell.”

Reich believed that the process of creating a protective shell created two false intellectual traditions that form the basis of civilization: mystical religion and mechanistic science. Mechanists are so well protected that they have lost the sense of their own life process and inner nature. They are struck by a deep fear of deep emotionality, vitality, spontaneity, and strive to create rigid mechanical ideas about nature, being interested mainly in the external objects of natural sciences. “The machine must be perfect. It follows that the thinking and actions of a physicist must be “perfect.” Perfectionism is an essential characteristic of mechanistic thinking. It does not admit mistakes, uncertainty, uncertainty, unclear situations are avoided... But when applied to nature, this inevitably leads to error "Nature is imprecise. Nature does not act mechanically, but functionally."

Mystics are not so completely enslaved by their defenses, they remain partially in touch with their life energy and are capable of great insights through this partial contact with their inner nature. However, Reich considered these insights distorted by the ascetic and anti-sexual tendencies of the mystics, their denial of their own physical nature and loss of contact with one's own body. They denied the origin of the life force in their own body and placed it in a hypothetical soul, which they believed to be only loosely connected with the body.

“Only mystics, distant from scientific views, have always maintained contact with the function of life. Therefore, life became the sphere of mysticism; serious natural sciences refused to deal with it.”

“The destruction of the unity of bodily feelings through the suppression of sexuality and the constant thirst for restoring contact with oneself and with the world is the subjective basis of sex-denying religions. God is the mystical idea of ​​vegetative harmony of the self with nature.”

SUPPRESSION OF SEXUALITY

Another obstacle to growth is the social and cultural repression of the natural instincts and sexuality in the individual. Reich considered it the main source of neuroses. This suppression occurs during three main phases of life: early childhood, puberty, and adulthood. Infants and young children are exposed to neurotic, authoritarian, and sex-repressive family environments. Regarding this period of his life, Reich reproduces Freud's observations regarding the negative effect of parental demands regarding toilet education, self-restraint, “control of oneself,” and “good” behavior.

During puberty, adolescents are deprived of real sex life; Masturbation is prohibited. More importantly, society as a whole prevents teenagers from finding meaningful, meaningful work. This unnatural lifestyle makes it especially difficult for teenagers to grow out of their infantile attachment to their parents.

“Destructiveness inherent in character is nothing more than anger at frustration in general and deprivation of sexual gratification in particular.”

Finally, as adults, most people find themselves trapped in a forced marriage for which they are not sexually ready due to the requirement of premarital chastity. Reich also points out that marriage in our culture contains an inevitable conflict. "Every marriage is internally destroyed as a result of the increasing conflict between sexual and economic needs. Sexual needs can be satisfied with the same partner only for a limited time. Economic dependence, moral demands and customs, on the other hand, force the continuation of the relationship. This conflict is the basis family suffering." The emerging family situation creates a neurotic atmosphere for the next generation.

Reich argues that individuals raised in an atmosphere that denies life and sex create within themselves a fear of pleasure, represented by their muscular armor. “The armor of character is the basis of loneliness, helplessness, the search for authority, fear of responsibility, mystical aspirations, sexual suffering, impotent rebellion, as well as the obedience of unnatural pathological types.” “What is alive is in itself reasonable. It becomes a caricature if it is not allowed to live.”

Reich Wilhelm (1897 - 1957) - Austrian psychologist and social thinker, founder of Freudo-Marxism. Works: “Psychology of the Masses and Fascism” (1933), “Sexual Revolution”, etc. He argued that social revolution is impossible without sexual revolution, since maintaining sexual repression forms a conservative type of character, a person prone to blind submission. This is submission carried out first traditional family, then the political and cultural system, is the basis of exploitation and necessarily determines the existence of authoritarian regimes. Reich's ideas were developed in his works T. Adorno And E. Fromm. In the 1960s The “new left” declared Reich their ideologist.

Materials used in the book: Political thought of modern times. Personalities, ideas, concepts: A brief reference / Comp. Mikhailova E.M. – Cheboksary: ​​CHKI RUK, 2010, p. 27.

Reich Wilhelm (March 24, 1897, Dobzcinica, Galicia - November 3, 1957, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, USA) - Austrian psychologist and psychoanalyst, founder of Freudo-Marxism. Since 1939 - in the USA.

Reich was greatly influenced by Freud, Marx, Nietzsche, Bergson and Adler. Based on Freud's early work, Reich developed his own concept of neurosis, according to which its cause lies in the impossibility of discharging sexual energy. The ability to relieve sexual tension and experience pleasure (“organistic potency”) are, from his point of view, the main attributes of mental health. Reich differed from Freud in his interpretation of sexuality; he refused psychological approach in favor of the somatic and naturalistic and thereby returned to the views characteristic of the previous biologizing trend in sexology. In 1927, Reich wrote the seminal work “The Function of Orgasm,” where he outlined his so-called. “the theory of orgasm”, which became the key to all his further constructions.

Reich developed Freud's idea that cultural prescriptions that restrain the sexual instinct are the root source of neuroses. He argued that the “neurotic character”—a personality formed under conditions of suppressed sexuality—is prone to blind obedience, incapable of rebellion, and favors the establishment of an authoritarian system. The process of imprinting repressive social system in human psychology is carried out in the patriarchal family, which Reich called “the factory of the structure of society.” Subsequently, the concept of “neurotic character,” which captures the connection between social order and certain typical psychological traits, was developed by E. From and T. Adorno.

The study of the social causes of neurosis led Reich to Marxism. Considering Freudianism and Marxism to be complementary, he tried to interpret, on the basis of psychoanalysis, the relationship between the economic basis and ideology. He applied this methodology to the analysis of fascism. According to Reich, fascism as a certain type public order is produced by a “neurotic character” and is rooted in the destructive layer of the personality of modern man. To eliminate the “society of neurotic characters,” it is necessary to emancipate sexuality, a sexual revolution, which, according to Reich, is a prerequisite for the proletarian revolution. Reich's teachings on the sexual revolution gained popularity in the 1960s, being adopted by the New Left movement.

IN last period creativity (1940–50s) Reich developed the doctrine of “orgone” - a unique energy characteristic not only of sexuality, but of all manifestations of life. He interpreted “orgone” as a flow of vital-psychic energy; this universal, all-pervading energy is the source of the development of galactic systems and at the same time is identical to the biological energy of living beings. These views, according to Reich himself, are consonant with Hindu ideas about the unity of Brahman and Atman.

T.P. Lifintseva

New philosophical encyclopedia. In four volumes. / Institute of Philosophy RAS. Scientific ed. advice: V.S. Stepin, A.A. Guseinov, G.Yu. Semigin. M., Mysl, 2010, vol. III, N – S, p. 410.

Reich Wilhelm (1897-1957) - Austrian. psychologist and psychoanalyst, founder of Freudo-Marxism. Since 1939 - in the USA. Reich was greatly influenced by T3. Freud, K. Marx, F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson and A. Adler. Based on the early works of Z. Freud, Reich developed his own concept of neurosis, according to which its cause lies in the impossibility of discharging sexual energy. The ability to relieve sexual tension and experience pleasure (“organistic potency”) are, from his point of view, the main attributes of mental health. Reich disagreed with 3. Freud in the interpretation of sexuality: he abandoned the psychological approach in favor of the somatic and naturalistic and thereby returned to the views characteristic of the previous biologizing trend in sexology. In 1927, Reich wrote the seminal work “The Function of Orgasm,” where he outlined his so-called. “the theory of orgasm”, which became the key to all his further constructions. Reich developed Freud's idea that cultural prescriptions that restrain the sexual instinct are the root source of neuroses. He argued that the “neurotic character” - a personality formed under conditions of suppressed sexuality - is prone to blind submission, incapable of rebellion and favors the establishment of an authoritarian system. The process of imprinting a repressive social system in people's psychology begins in the patriarchal family. Subsequently, the concept of “neurotic character,” which captures the connection between social order and certain typical psychological traits, was developed by E. Fromm and T. Adorno. The study of the social causes of neuroses led Reich to Marxism. Considering Freudianism and Marxism to be complementary teachings, he tried to interpret, on the basis of Psychoanalysis, the relationship between the economic basis and ideology. He applied this methodology to the analysis of fascism: according to Reich, fascism as a certain type of social order is rooted in the destructive structure of the modern personality. person. To eliminate the “society of neurotic characters,” it is necessary to emancipate sexuality, a sexual revolution, which, according to Reich, is a prerequisite for the proletarian revolution. R.'s teaching on the sexual revolution gained popularity in the 1960s. among the participants in the “new left” movement. In the last period of his creativity (1940-1950), R. developed the doctrine of “orgone” - an energy characteristic not only of sexuality, but also of all manifestations of life. He interpreted “orgone” as a flow of vital-psychic energy; this universal energy is the source of the development of galactic systems and at the same time is identical to the biological energy of living beings. These views, according to Reich himself, are consonant with Hindu ideas about the unity of Brahman and Atman.

Modern western philosophy. Encyclopedic Dictionary / Under. ed. O. Heffe, V.S. Malakhova, V.P. Filatov, with the participation of T.A. Dmitrieva. M., 2009, p. 319-320.

Works: Function of orgasm. SPb.-M., 1997; Psychology of the masses and fascism. SPb.-M., 1997; Selected Writings. N.Y., 1968.

Literature: Cohen I. Ideology and Unconsciousness: Reich, Freud and Marx. N.Y., 1982; Burian W. Psychoanalyse und Marasmus, Fr./M., 1972; Wilson S. The Quest for Willhelm Reich. L, 1982.

Reich Wilhelm (1897-1957) - German-American psychologist. Biography. Since 1922 - director of the Vienna Seminar on Psychoanalytic Therapy. In 1934, he broke with the International Psychoanalytic Association. Since 1939 he lived in the USA, where he was persecuted by the authorities for the development of his psychotherapeutic method of “orgone” treatment. Research. In the early 1920s. made an attempt to combine psychoanalysis with Marxism based on the idea of ​​the sexual revolution. He created his own theory of character as a protective mechanism that allows one to protect the individual from external influences and from his own suppressed drives (“characterological armor”). In contrast to Freudianism, he interpreted biological drives as a healthy principle of the body that does not need to be suppressed. Instead of the traditional psychoanalytic understanding of libido, he introduced the concept of “orgone,” which expresses cosmic vital energy. In his psychotherapeutic developments, the leading role was recognized in the relief of mental stress through the experience of orgasm.

Kondakov I.M. Psychology. Illustrated Dictionary. // THEM. Kondakov. – 2nd ed. add. and processed – St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 488.

Works: The Discovery of the Orgon. The Function of the Orgasm. Sex-economic Problem of Biological Energy. N. Y„ 1942; Character analysis. Koln, 1970; Die sexuelle revolution. Fr./M., 1971; Die Funktion des Orgasus. Fr./M., 1972; Die Massenpsychologie des Faschismus, 1972; Der Eibruch der sexuellen Zwangsmoral, 1972; Die Entdeckung des Orgons. Der Krebs, 1974; Ausgewehlte Schriften, eine Einfuehrung in die Orgonomie, 1976; Fruhe Schriften. Bd. 1-2, 1977-1982; Christusmord, 1978; Psychology of the masses and fascism. M.: Trivola, 1997; Character analysis: technique and basic principles for students and practicing analysts. M.: Republic, 1999; Me and orgone // Frager R., Fadiman J. Personality: theories, experiments, exercises. SPb.: prime-EVROZNAK, 2001; The passion of youth. Autobiography (1897-1922). M.: Nota Bene, 2002.

Literature: Leibin V. M. Psychoanalytic anthropology // Bourgeois philosophical anthropology of the 20th century / Ed. B. T. Grigoryan. M.: Nauka, 1986; V. Reich // Psychology: Biographical Bibliographic Dictionary / Ed. N. Sheehy, E. J. Chapman, W. A. ​​Conroy. St. Petersburg: Eurasia, 1999; Frager R., Fadiman J. Personality: theories, experiments, exercises. SPb.: prime-EVROZNAK, 2001.

Reich Wilhelm (March 24, 1897, Dobrzcinica, Galicia, November 3, 1957, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, USA), Austro-American physician and psychologist, representative of left-wing radical Freudism. Since 1939 he lived in the USA. At the end of the 20s, he tried to combine Freudianism with Marxism (the so-called Freudo-Marxism), preached the sexual revolution as an integral element of any social reforms, demanding the abolition of all forms of “repressive” morality, the abolition of the monogamous family. According to Reich, any authoritarian social system is ultimately based on sexual repression, which becomes the basis of character and serves as a mass source of neuroses (“Mass Psychology of Fascism,” Massenpsychologie des Faschismus, 1933). He expressed the idea of ​​the rootedness of the dominant social system in the mental structure of the individual, which was later developed in the works of Fromm, Adorno and others.

In Reich’s teaching on character, the latter is interpreted as a kind of protective formation (“shell”) that protects the individual from external influences. influences, and from his own suppressed drives. Unlike Freud, Reich sees spontaneous drives as a primary healthy basis, denying the original existence of aggressive and destructive drives; culture, according to Reich, does not need to suppress and repress instincts. Reich's departure from orthodox Freudianism culminated in his 1934 break with the International Psychoanalytic Association. Affirming the physical reality of psychic energy, Reich extremely expanded the concept of libido and, from the late 30s, developed a unique natural philosophical doctrine of universal cosmic vital energy - “orgone”.

In the 1960s, Reich's ideas were adopted in the West by the so-called New Left movement, which declared him their ideologist.

Philosophical encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983.

Works: Charakteranalyse, Köln - V., 1970"; Die sexuelle Revolution, Fr./M., 197G; Die Funktion des Orgasmus, Fr./M., 1972.

Literature: Robinson P., The Freudian left, N. Y., 1969; Mann W. E., Orgone, Reich and Eros. Wilhelm Reich's theory of life energy, N. Y., 1973.

Read further:

Annie Reich-Rubinstein (1902-1971), American psychoanalyst, wife of Wilhelm Reich.

Philosophers, lovers of wisdom (biographical index).

Historical Persons of the United States (Index of Names).

Essays:

Selected Writings. N. Υ., 1968;

Function of orgasm. SPb.–M., 1997;

Psychology of the masses and fascism. St. Petersburg–M., 1997.

Literature:

Cohen I. Ideology and Unconsciousness: Reich, Freud and Marx. N.Y., 1982;

Burian W. Psychoanalyse und Marxismus. Fr./M., 1972;

Wilson S. The Quest for Wilhelm Reich. L., 1982.

Comprehensive goal:

know

what is the essence of body-oriented psychoanalysis;

be able to

Distinguish between the concept of S. Freud and Reichian psychoanalysis;

own

Skills of body-oriented psychoanalysis.

In diligent searches, everything seems: just about

The secret accepts the familiar face, -

But the poor heart's flight ends

One powerless languor.

(Afanasy Fet)

Wilhelm Reich(1897–1957) - Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist, founder of Freudo-Marxism, founder of the so-called body-oriented psychoanalysis. Wilhelm Reich was born on March 24, 1897 in Galicia, then the German-Ukrainian part of Austria. He was the son of a middle-class Jewish peasant. His father was a small farmer and, despite his Jewish origin, a staunch German nationalist. The family only spoke German, and little Wilhelm was forbidden to communicate with children of Ukrainian or Jewish origin. When

Reich was 17 years old, his mother committed suicide, and three years later his father died. After the death of his father, Reich had to start farming while continuing his studies. In 1916 the war destroyed this family property. Wilhelm left home and enlisted in the Austrian army; there, becoming an officer, he fought in Italy. In 1918, Reich entered medical school at the University of Vienna. A year later he became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and began psychoanalytic practice. He received his medical degree in 1922.

As a student, Reich became interested in politics and became one of those psychoanalysts who sought to combine the teachings of S. Freud and K. Marx. At the university, he met his first wife, Annie Pink, who was also a medical student and later a psychoanalyst. In 1922, Freud founded a psychoanalytic clinic in Vienna. Reich was Freud's first clinical assistant; he later became vice-director of the clinic. In 1924, Reich became director of the Seminar on Psychoanalytic Therapy, the first training institute for psychoanalysis. Many aspiring analysts received personal analysis and training from him.

In 1927, a serious conflict arose between Reich and Freud. It was partly due to Freud's refusal to analyze Reich, partly to the growing theoretical differences arising both from Reich's Marxist passions and from his insistence that every neurosis was based on a lack of sexual satisfaction.

Reich took the theories of both Freud and Marx seriously; he tried to reconcile the two systems by writing several books on the subject. He argued that psychoanalysis is a "materialistic science" because it deals with real human needs and real human experiences; he also believed that psychoanalysis is based on a fundamental dialectical system of mental conflict and its resolution. Reich insisted that psychoanalysis was a revolutionary science that complemented the Marxist critique of bourgeois economics with a critique of bourgeois morality based on sexual repression.

In The Mass Psychology of Fascism, Reich provides an important analysis of the roots of ideology in individual character, believing that this theme was not sufficiently developed by Marx. Twenty years earlier, in the publication of a study on the authoritarian personality, he described the relationship of authoritarianism with characteristic moments in the upbringing of children in the family.

Reich's political interests aroused even more opposition in psychoanalytic circles than his theoretical innovations. In the tense political climate of Austria and Germany in the 1930s. his Communist Party membership and political activities were strongly disapproved of by his psychoanalytic staff. Reich was first asked to cease political activities. When he refused to do so, he was eventually expelled from the psychoanalytic association. Later, Reich came to reject communism and socialism, believing them to be ideologizations that do not take into account considerations of humanity. He began to call himself a "maverick" and began to be suspicious of politics and politicians.

At that time, Reich developed pulmonary tuberculosis, so he had to spend several months in a Swiss sanatorium. Returning to Vienna, Reich resumed his previous duties. He also became even more active in politics and joined the Communist Party. In 1929, Reich helped create the first sexual hygiene clinics for workers, providing free information about birth control, child-rearing, and sex education.

Interest in human sexuality was one of the main themes that occupied Reich throughout his life. Political activity consisted mainly of participation in the organization of communist-backed sexual hygiene clinics for workers in Austria and Germany. Reich was a member of the psychoanalytic inner circle in Vienna and led a training seminar for aspiring analysts. In his therapeutic work, he gradually began to emphasize the importance of paying attention to the physical aspects of an individual's character, especially the patterns of chronic muscle tightness, which he called the body armor. Reich also spoke about the role of society in creating prohibitions concerning the instinctual - especially sexual - life of the individual. According to one researcher, Reich "probably more consistently than anyone else worked out the critical and revolutionary implications of psychoanalytic therapy."

Reich's ideas, like his clinics, were far ahead of their time. In the 1930s (when Margaret Sanger had just gone to prison for promoting childbirth planning among married couples), the program of Reich's clinics contained points that are surprisingly modern and even cause opposition in our time:

• – free provision of contraceptives to everyone;
• – intensive education in the field of birth control;
• – complete rejection of bans on abortion;
• – rejection of the importance of the legality of marriage;
• – freedom of divorce;
• – fight against sexually transmitted diseases and sexual problems through comprehensive sexuality education;
• – training doctors and teachers in everything necessary regarding sexual hygiene;
• – treatment rather than punishment as a measure to combat sexual crimes.

Reich's radical views on sexuality often led to misunderstandings and distorted views of his work, and led to violent and unfounded attacks on his therapeutic work and research.

In 1930, Reich moved to Berlin, firstly to begin analysis with S. Rado, a leading psychoanalyst, and secondly because his political activities were not liked by many Viennese psychoanalysts. In Berlin, Reich became more deeply involved in the communist-oriented mental health movement. He traveled throughout Germany, giving lectures and organizing hygiene centers.

However, Reich's political views were unacceptable to his circle, which mostly consisted of psychoanalysts, and his party comrades did not approve of his insistence on radical sex education programs. In 1933, Reich was expelled from the German Communist Party (and former party comrades even promised to shoot him if he came to power), and in 1934 - from the International Psychoanalytic Association.

Hitler's political successes forced Reich to emigrate to Denmark in 1933. He separated from his first wife, who remained in Berlin, due to personal, professional and political differences. A year earlier, in Berlin, Reich had met Elsa Lindenberg, a ballerina and member of his party cell. She later joined Reich in Denmark and became his second wife. For his controversial theories, Reich was expelled from Denmark and Sweden. He moved with Elsa to Oslo in 1934, where he lectured and continued psychological and biological research for five years.

Thus, for his views and propaganda of the ideas of the sexual revolution, Reich was expelled from his two main socio-political and professional associations - the Communist Party and the Psychoanalytic Union, and was also expelled from three countries: Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

After three years of relatively peaceful and quiet life in Norway, Reich became the target of newspaper persecution, aimed at his claims about the sexual basis of neuroses and his laboratory experiments with bioenergetics. He became increasingly isolated; His relationship with Elsa deteriorated, and she eventually left him.

In 1939, Reich was offered a post as associate professor of medical psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York. He assembled his laboratory and moved to the United States. In New York, he met Ilse Ollendorff, a German emigrant who became his laboratory assistant and later his third wife.

In his laboratory studies, he came to the conclusion that there was a fundamental life energy inherent in all living organisms. He called it orgone and argued that this energy underlies Freud's concept of libido. Reich believed that the cause of many diseases, such as cancer, angina, epilepsy, is a violation of the free flow of orgone energy in the body. Reich founded the Orgone Institute as a base for his research into organic energy, or life energy.

In 1950, Reich began experimenting with orgone energy accumulators and other means that he believed would accumulate and concentrate this energy. Reich discovered that various diseases caused by disturbances of the "automatic apparatus" could be treated with varying degrees of success by restoring the normal flow of orgone energy in the individual. This can be done through high concentrations of orgone energy in batteries.

In 1954, he was convicted on the grounds that Reich's claims to the successful treatment of various diseases with orgone energy were unfounded; the Food and Drug Administration achieved a ban on the distribution of orgone accumulators and their use. The sale of most of Reich's books and journals was also banned. The scientist tried to protest, but, despite the fact that the results of his experiments were never scientifically refuted, all publications concerning the use and production of orgone batteries were burned (and what is most vile, a unique laboratory was destroyed and all instruments were destroyed) - savagery, unparalleled in the modern world.

Reich violated the prohibitions by continuing his research: he insisted that the court could not be competent to judge scientific facts. He was eventually charged with contempt of court and jailed for two years.

Only a careful and unbiased examination of his statements will allow us to draw conclusions about whether Reich was mistaken for the last twenty-five years of his life or stumbled upon an important discovery. But at the moment no scientist is willing to attempt such a test; Reich's statements are simply ignored. It is possible that the American government used his abilities and appropriated his achievements, and then securely isolated the scientist so that he could not disseminate his discoveries anywhere.

The Federal Food and Drug Administration filed a case against Wilhelm Reich for leasing an untested medical device - an "orgone accumulator". The amazed members of the commission discovered that this device was a wooden box, lined with iron on the inside and divided into six compartments, like telephone booths, where patients were placed to be saturated with orgone. However, no signs of orgone were found.

At the trial, Reich behaved defiantly, arguing that the court could not competently judge the results he had obtained. He was sentenced to two years in prison for deception and quackery, as well as for contempt of court. The court also decided to destroy all his medical instruments and books. Reich died on November 3, 1957 in a Pennsylvania prison from a heart attack, having spent 8 months in prison, two days short of his trial, where the issue of his early release was to be decided. There are suspicions that his death was violent.

Wilhelm Reich was born on March 24, 1897 in Galicia, at that time this region with a German-Ukrainian population was part of Austria-Hungary. His father, a wealthy Jewish farmer, was a jealous and domineering man who held his wife and children with a tight grip. He did not give any religious education to his children, and at his request only German was spoken in the house. As a result, Wilhelm did not communicate with either the children of local Ukrainian peasants or the children of Yiddish-speaking Jews. Only his brother, three years younger than himself, was his only comrade and rival.

Reich idolized his mother. When the boy was 14 years old, his mother committed suicide, probably after he told his father about her affair with her teacher. The death of his wife was a strong blow for Reich's father. He fell ill with pneumonia, which turned into tuberculosis; three years later he was gone. Reich's brother also died of tuberculosis at the age of 26. The family tragedies that followed one after another left an indelible mark on Reich’s soul.

After the death of his father, Reich took over the management of the farm, but did not leave his studies. In 1916, the war reached his native land, as a result, everything he owned was destroyed. Reich joined the ranks of the Austrian army and, having received the rank of officer, fought on the fronts of Italy. In 1918, Reich entered medical school at the University of Vienna. Less than a year had passed before he became a practicing member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In 1922, at the age of 25, he received his medical degree.

While still a student, Reich took part in political activity and subsequently tried to reconcile the theories of Marx and Freud. At the university, he met Annie Pink, also studying medicine, who became his patient and then his first wife; she later became involved in psychoanalysis herself (Reich, 1990).

In 1922, Freud founded a psychoanalytic clinic in Vienna, and Reich became his first assistant and then deputy director. In 1924, Reich directed the Seminar of Psychoanalytic Therapy, the first institute to train future psychoanalysts. Many young analysts came to him, both as patients and for training. By 1927, his interest in issues related to social change had increased, and as a result he reduced his medical practice as he became involved in social and political activities. Freud supported him in this (Mann & Hoffman, 1980).
“Where and how can a patient express his natural sexuality, when it has broken free from the depths of the subconscious? Freud not only did not say a word about this, but even, as it turned out later, he could not stand the very posing of such a question. By refusing to resolve this fundamental problem and postulating a biologically determined human desire for suffering and death, Freud ultimately erected insurmountable obstacles before himself with his own hands” (Reich, 1973, p. 152).

IN different time Reich himself underwent personal psychoanalysis sessions with various analysts, but for one reason or another broke off relations with them. In 1927, he asked Freud to conduct a course of psychoanalysis with him, but he refused to make an exception for him from his firm rule never to conduct analysis with members of the Psychoanalytic Circle. By that time, Reich's conflict with Freud had intensified. It was caused partly by Freud's refusal to subject Reich to analysis, and partly by different theoretical approaches to the doctrine. Freud did not share Reich's uncompromising conviction that the cause of all neuroses is sexual dissatisfaction. By this time, Reich's tuberculosis had worsened, and he spent several months undergoing treatment in one of the sanatoriums in Switzerland.

Returning to Vienna after illness, Reich assumed his previous responsibilities. In addition, he became extremely active in politics and joined the Communist Party in 1928. The following year, Reich helped establish the first sexual hygiene clinic for workers, which provided open information about birth control, child-rearing, and sex education.

In 1930, Reich moved to Berlin, mainly because he wanted to undergo psychoanalysis with Sándor Rado, one of the leading psychoanalysts of the time. He turned to a psychoanalyst who did not live in Vienna because dissatisfaction with his political activities was growing among Viennese scientists. In Berlin, Reich became even more interested in the ideas of the communist movement and the hygiene movement associated with these ideas. Giving lectures and helping to create hygiene centers, he traveled throughout Germany.

“The life process is a sexual process - both concepts are identical, and this is an experimentally proven fact... In everything that lives, vegetative sexual energy pulsates” (Reich, 1961, p. 55).

The result of his political activities and radical sex education program was that Reich soon found himself unpopular with both psychoanalysts and communists. In 1933 he was expelled from the German Communist Party. And after this, in 1934, he was expelled from the International Association of Psychoanalysts.

In 1933, with Hitler's rise to power, Reich emigrated to Denmark. After leaving Berlin, he simultaneously separated from his wife; the reason for this was differences in character, as well as political and professional views. A year earlier, Reich met Elsa Lindenberg, a ballerina and member of the Communist Party cell of which he was a member. She came to Reich in Denmark, and there they got married. Reich's contradictory theories led to his expulsion from Denmark and subsequently from Sweden.

So, within just six months, Reich was expelled from such major organizations as the Communist Party and the Association of Psychoanalysts, and expelled from three countries. It is not surprising that his subsequent works are polemical and, one might say, defensive in nature. In Reich's case, a certain degree of paranoia was not unfounded and had a completely rational explanation in his life situation.

In his subsequent career, Reich rejected the ideas of socialism and communism, as he felt that they ultimately sacrificed humanistic ideals to ideology. As a result, he began to consider himself an individualist and was very suspicious of politics and politicians.
In 1934, Reich and his wife Else moved to the Norwegian capital Oslo, where he lectured and taught for more than five years. research work in psychology and biology. After three years of relative peace, Reich became the target of an unbridled newspaper campaign: the press attacked him for tirelessly emphasizing the idea of ​​​​the sexual basis of all neurosis; His laboratory experiments with bioenergy were also attacked. He found himself more and more isolated, his relationship with Elsa deteriorated, and eventually she left him.

In 1939, Reich received an offer to become an associate professor of therapeutic psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York. He packed up his laboratory and moved to the United States. In New York, Reich met Ilse Ollendorff, a refugee from Germany, who became his assistant and then his wife.

Reich became the founder of the Orgone Institute, whose research goal was to study orgone energy, or life energy. As a result of laboratory experiments, he came to the conclusion that the basis of all living organisms is Vital energy and that this energy, biological in nature, underlies Freud's concept of libido. Reich began to conduct experiments with orgone energy accumulators: special boxes and other devices that, as he claimed, accumulate and concentrate orgone energy. He discovered that some diseases resulting from a disorder of the so-called "automatic apparatus" could be cured with varying degrees of success by restoring the normal flow of orgone energy in the patient. The treatment was carried out by exposure to the accumulated energy of high concentration orgone and was intended to save the patient from diseases such as cancer, tonsillitis, asthma, hypertension and epilepsy.

“You need a well-behaved genius, modest and decent, one who doesn’t have a hitch; in short, moderate and careful in everything; you don’t want rebels who don’t want to eat out of your hand” (Reich in: Mann & Hoffman, 1980, p. 19).

In 1954, the Food and Drug Administration passed a regulation against the proliferation and continued use of batteries. According to this decision, Reich's assertion that orgone energy accumulators can be successfully used for treatment was declared unfounded. The state also banned the sale of most books written by Reich and the magazines he published. However, Reich violated the ruling and continued his research, believing that the court did not have sufficient competence to make judgments regarding scientific facts. He was eventually convicted of contempt of court and sentenced to two years in prison. All of his books and other publications, many of which had nothing to do with the production and sale of batteries, were burned. Reich died in federal prison from heart disease.

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