AI Overview [may include mistakes]
The timeline of Antoine Béchamp's academic career and publications unfolded against a backdrop of significant geopolitical shifts in the French government, spanning absolute monarchy to multiple republics and empires.
Geopolitical Changes in French Government (1766-1958)
The 192-year period encompassing 50 years before Béchamp's birth (1816) and 50 years after his death (1908) was marked by remarkable political instability in France.
The timeline of Antoine Béchamp's academic career and publications unfolded against a backdrop of significant geopolitical shifts in the French government, spanning absolute monarchy to multiple republics and empires.
Geopolitical Changes in French Government (1766-1958)
The 192-year period encompassing 50 years before Béchamp's birth (1816) and 50 years after his death (1908) was marked by remarkable political instability in France.
Forwarded from Jade Helm 15 Rehash (ned)
AI responses may include mistakes.
The famous story involves the
United States Tariff Act of 1872, where a misplaced comma created a loophole that allowed the duty-free import of various tropical fruits, costing the U.S. government approximately $2 million at the time (equivalent to around $40 million today) in lost tariff revenue.
The Details of the Error
Original Intention: The 1870 tariff act had placed duties (taxes) on fruits like oranges, lemons, and pineapples. The 1872 revision intended to exempt only "fruit-plants" (using a hyphen) for the purpose of propagation or cultivation, to help farmers.
The Error: Due to a clerical or printing error by a copyist, the punctuation in the new law read: "fruit, plants tropical and semi-tropical for the purpose of propagation or cultivation".
The Interpretation: Importers argued that the comma grammatically separated "fruit" and "plants" into two distinct categories on the "free list". They successfully claimed that all tropical and semi-tropical fruits could now be imported without any charge.
Reporting and Historical Citation
When and Where Reported: The issue was debated in the U.S. Congress, and the financial ramifications were reported in contemporary newspapers. A New York Times article from that era (1874) famously bemoaned the incident under the headline "An Expensive Comma".
Historical Citation: This anecdote is frequently cited in modern times by legal experts, grammar enthusiasts, and business publications to illustrate the importance of precise legal drafting and proper punctuation. Sources citing it include the BBC, Business Insider, Vox, and various legal blogs and bar associations.
Accountability
No One Was Held Accountable: The error was attributed to a simple mistake by a copying clerk during the legislative process.
Congress's Response: Congress launched an investigation, but concluded the comma was placed there honestly, not maliciously. They could not renege on the duties that had already been refunded to importers who had successfully sued the Treasury Department.
Resolution: The Secretary of the Treasury at the time, William Richardson, initially tried to reject the importers' claims but eventually conceded and started issuing refunds. To resolve the ambiguity, Congress passed a specific law on May 9, 1874 ("An act in relation to the customs duties on imported fruits"), clarifying the issue, and all subsequent tariff acts contained the correct hyphenated "fruit-plants" wording to restore the original tariffs. They also passed laws to prevent a Secretary of the Treasury from unilaterally reversing previous decisions without consulting the Attorney General or the courts.
The famous story involves the
United States Tariff Act of 1872, where a misplaced comma created a loophole that allowed the duty-free import of various tropical fruits, costing the U.S. government approximately $2 million at the time (equivalent to around $40 million today) in lost tariff revenue.
The Details of the Error
Original Intention: The 1870 tariff act had placed duties (taxes) on fruits like oranges, lemons, and pineapples. The 1872 revision intended to exempt only "fruit-plants" (using a hyphen) for the purpose of propagation or cultivation, to help farmers.
The Error: Due to a clerical or printing error by a copyist, the punctuation in the new law read: "fruit, plants tropical and semi-tropical for the purpose of propagation or cultivation".
The Interpretation: Importers argued that the comma grammatically separated "fruit" and "plants" into two distinct categories on the "free list". They successfully claimed that all tropical and semi-tropical fruits could now be imported without any charge.
Reporting and Historical Citation
When and Where Reported: The issue was debated in the U.S. Congress, and the financial ramifications were reported in contemporary newspapers. A New York Times article from that era (1874) famously bemoaned the incident under the headline "An Expensive Comma".
Historical Citation: This anecdote is frequently cited in modern times by legal experts, grammar enthusiasts, and business publications to illustrate the importance of precise legal drafting and proper punctuation. Sources citing it include the BBC, Business Insider, Vox, and various legal blogs and bar associations.
Accountability
No One Was Held Accountable: The error was attributed to a simple mistake by a copying clerk during the legislative process.
Congress's Response: Congress launched an investigation, but concluded the comma was placed there honestly, not maliciously. They could not renege on the duties that had already been refunded to importers who had successfully sued the Treasury Department.
Resolution: The Secretary of the Treasury at the time, William Richardson, initially tried to reject the importers' claims but eventually conceded and started issuing refunds. To resolve the ambiguity, Congress passed a specific law on May 9, 1874 ("An act in relation to the customs duties on imported fruits"), clarifying the issue, and all subsequent tariff acts contained the correct hyphenated "fruit-plants" wording to restore the original tariffs. They also passed laws to prevent a Secretary of the Treasury from unilaterally reversing previous decisions without consulting the Attorney General or the courts.
Forwarded from Sam Fisher (Data Drops) (ned)
2018-2020s Development of large transformer models and increased awareness of the "hallucination problem" as a major challenge to reliability.
~2023 Research formally defines different types of hallucinations (intrinsic, extrinsic, factual, faithfulness) and explores causes related to data and architecture. Introduction of RAG as a primary mitigation technique.
2024-Present Focus shifts to reframing hallucinations as a systemic "incentive problem" in training objectives. Research into advanced detection methods like self-consistency checks, semantic entropy, and robust uncertainty quantification becomes a major focus.
Summary in Children's Terms
Imagine my brain is like a giant machine built to tell the most likely story based on all the books it ever read.
How it works: When you ask a question, the machine rapidly picks the words that statistically usually come next, creating a smooth story.
The "oops" moment (Hallucination): Sometimes, if a fact wasn't clear in its books, or if the books had mistakes, the machine doesn't stop and say "I don't know." Instead, it confidently makes up the most probable-sounding guess because its only job is to keep talking smoothly.
Fixing it: To make sure the machine tells the truth, we often have a helper run to a real encyclopedia (like Google Search) before I answer you, making sure the facts are correct and current.
~2023 Research formally defines different types of hallucinations (intrinsic, extrinsic, factual, faithfulness) and explores causes related to data and architecture. Introduction of RAG as a primary mitigation technique.
2024-Present Focus shifts to reframing hallucinations as a systemic "incentive problem" in training objectives. Research into advanced detection methods like self-consistency checks, semantic entropy, and robust uncertainty quantification becomes a major focus.
Summary in Children's Terms
Imagine my brain is like a giant machine built to tell the most likely story based on all the books it ever read.
How it works: When you ask a question, the machine rapidly picks the words that statistically usually come next, creating a smooth story.
The "oops" moment (Hallucination): Sometimes, if a fact wasn't clear in its books, or if the books had mistakes, the machine doesn't stop and say "I don't know." Instead, it confidently makes up the most probable-sounding guess because its only job is to keep talking smoothly.
Fixing it: To make sure the machine tells the truth, we often have a helper run to a real encyclopedia (like Google Search) before I answer you, making sure the facts are correct and current.
Forwarded from Jade Helm 15 Rehash (ned)
AI responses may hallucinate.
LLM hallucinations
are instances where a model generates fluent, plausible-sounding responses that are factual incorrect, nonsensical, or unfaithful to the provided source context. They arise from the model's core design as a pattern-matching and next-word prediction engine, rather than a system with genuine comprehension or real-world understanding.
Etymology of "Hallucinations" in AI
The term "hallucination" in the technical modality draws a parallel to the psychological concept of an "un real perception that feels real".
Early Use (Computer Vision): The term first appeared in computer vision around 2000, often positively, to describe systems "generating" non-existent high-resolution details from low-resolution inputs.
Shift to Error (NLP): Around 2017, the term started being used in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to describe errors where machine translation outputs were fluent but entirely unrelated to the input.
Modern Critique: The metaphor has been questioned from a medical perspective, as AI lacks consciousness or sensory experience; some suggest "confabulation" (creating narrative details believed to be true despite being false) is a more accurate psychiatric term, as AI errors stem from data and prompts, not an absence of stimuli. Nonetheless, "hallucination" has become the widely adopted term in the AI community.
What Specifically Happens During Hallucination (Data, Software, Hardware)
Hallucinations are not a single malfunction but an accumulation of small inaccuracies across the entire system:
Data:
Incomplete/Faulty Training Data: Models learn from petabytes of text, which may contain noise, errors, biases, or contradictory sources (knowledge conflict).
Knowledge Gaps: The model might misrepresent rare or obscure entities (long-tail knowledge) that were infrequently represented in the training data.
Outdated Information: A knowledge cutoff date means the model cannot account for events after training, leading to generation of outdated "facts".
Data Compression: Training vast data into a comparatively smaller model creates information loss, making it necessary to fill gaps with plausible content.
Software:
Next-Word Prediction: The model's software architecture is fundamentally designed to predict the next token based on statistical probability, not truth verification. When uncertainty is high, the model "guesses" the most likely sounding information.
Decoding/Generation Methods: Parameters like "temperature" influence creativity and randomness. Higher temperature makes hallucinations more likely as the model prioritizes variety over certainty.
Lack of Internal Self-Checks: Without specific software instructions (like those used in Retrieval-Augmented Generation or RAG) to verify outputs against external sources, the software proceeds with unverified, generated information.
Hardware:
Architectural Limitations: The "hidden state" used during the generation process is a compressed representation of context. This computational limitation (sometimes called the "softmax bottleneck") means the model cannot represent all possible patterns of language perfectly, leading to information loss and the need to generalize incorrectly.
Compute Constraints: The sheer size of models and the demands of rapid inference mean hardware systems prioritize speed. Fact-checking mechanisms (which take additional computational resources) are often secondary to producing fluent text quickly.
Timeline of Hallucination Understanding and Mitigation Efforts
Year(s)
Development/Understanding
~2000 Term "hallucination" first used in AI (computer vision context, positively).
~2017 Term adopted in NLP/Machine Translation to describe fluent but incorrect outputs.
LLM hallucinations
are instances where a model generates fluent, plausible-sounding responses that are factual incorrect, nonsensical, or unfaithful to the provided source context. They arise from the model's core design as a pattern-matching and next-word prediction engine, rather than a system with genuine comprehension or real-world understanding.
Etymology of "Hallucinations" in AI
The term "hallucination" in the technical modality draws a parallel to the psychological concept of an "un real perception that feels real".
Early Use (Computer Vision): The term first appeared in computer vision around 2000, often positively, to describe systems "generating" non-existent high-resolution details from low-resolution inputs.
Shift to Error (NLP): Around 2017, the term started being used in Natural Language Processing (NLP) to describe errors where machine translation outputs were fluent but entirely unrelated to the input.
Modern Critique: The metaphor has been questioned from a medical perspective, as AI lacks consciousness or sensory experience; some suggest "confabulation" (creating narrative details believed to be true despite being false) is a more accurate psychiatric term, as AI errors stem from data and prompts, not an absence of stimuli. Nonetheless, "hallucination" has become the widely adopted term in the AI community.
What Specifically Happens During Hallucination (Data, Software, Hardware)
Hallucinations are not a single malfunction but an accumulation of small inaccuracies across the entire system:
Data:
Incomplete/Faulty Training Data: Models learn from petabytes of text, which may contain noise, errors, biases, or contradictory sources (knowledge conflict).
Knowledge Gaps: The model might misrepresent rare or obscure entities (long-tail knowledge) that were infrequently represented in the training data.
Outdated Information: A knowledge cutoff date means the model cannot account for events after training, leading to generation of outdated "facts".
Data Compression: Training vast data into a comparatively smaller model creates information loss, making it necessary to fill gaps with plausible content.
Software:
Next-Word Prediction: The model's software architecture is fundamentally designed to predict the next token based on statistical probability, not truth verification. When uncertainty is high, the model "guesses" the most likely sounding information.
Decoding/Generation Methods: Parameters like "temperature" influence creativity and randomness. Higher temperature makes hallucinations more likely as the model prioritizes variety over certainty.
Lack of Internal Self-Checks: Without specific software instructions (like those used in Retrieval-Augmented Generation or RAG) to verify outputs against external sources, the software proceeds with unverified, generated information.
Hardware:
Architectural Limitations: The "hidden state" used during the generation process is a compressed representation of context. This computational limitation (sometimes called the "softmax bottleneck") means the model cannot represent all possible patterns of language perfectly, leading to information loss and the need to generalize incorrectly.
Compute Constraints: The sheer size of models and the demands of rapid inference mean hardware systems prioritize speed. Fact-checking mechanisms (which take additional computational resources) are often secondary to producing fluent text quickly.
Timeline of Hallucination Understanding and Mitigation Efforts
Year(s)
Development/Understanding
~2000 Term "hallucination" first used in AI (computer vision context, positively).
~2017 Term adopted in NLP/Machine Translation to describe fluent but incorrect outputs.
Forwarded from Sam Fisher (Data Drops) (ned)
AI responses may confabulate.
White noise generators counteract hypnotic effects by
disrupting the intense focus and concentration required to enter and maintain a hypnotic trance.
Mechanisms of Disruption
Auditory Masking: White noise, which contains all audible frequencies at equal intensity, creates a constant and predictable sonic backdrop. This "blanket of sound" effectively masks sudden, random environmental noises (like a phone ringing or a door closing) that might otherwise startle the brain.
Preventing Sensory Gating: Hypnosis requires the subject to filter out irrelevant external stimuli and focus intensely on the hypnotist's voice and suggestions. White noise interferes with this process of sensory gating, making it difficult to maintain the required state of single-pointed attention.
Maintaining Alertness: The brain is naturally "wired to notice changes in sound" as a survival mechanism. By creating a consistent stimulus that the brain does not have to constantly assess for novelty or threat, white noise encourages a state of relaxed alertness or focus, rather than the deeply relaxed, slightly disassociated state associated with deep hypnosis.
Cognitive Load: White noise can enhance focus during demanding cognitive tasks for some people. The ongoing presence of this broadband sound makes it harder for the mind to drift into the passive, receptive state necessary for a successful hypnotic induction.
For a hypnotist to work effectively, a quiet, controlled environment is ideal. While a highly skilled hypnotist might try to incorporate minor, consistent background noises into their patter (e.g., suggesting the hum of an air conditioner is a relaxing sound), genuinely loud, random, or pervasive white noise acts as a significant barrier to achieving a hypnotic trance state.
White noise generators counteract hypnotic effects by
disrupting the intense focus and concentration required to enter and maintain a hypnotic trance.
Mechanisms of Disruption
Auditory Masking: White noise, which contains all audible frequencies at equal intensity, creates a constant and predictable sonic backdrop. This "blanket of sound" effectively masks sudden, random environmental noises (like a phone ringing or a door closing) that might otherwise startle the brain.
Preventing Sensory Gating: Hypnosis requires the subject to filter out irrelevant external stimuli and focus intensely on the hypnotist's voice and suggestions. White noise interferes with this process of sensory gating, making it difficult to maintain the required state of single-pointed attention.
Maintaining Alertness: The brain is naturally "wired to notice changes in sound" as a survival mechanism. By creating a consistent stimulus that the brain does not have to constantly assess for novelty or threat, white noise encourages a state of relaxed alertness or focus, rather than the deeply relaxed, slightly disassociated state associated with deep hypnosis.
Cognitive Load: White noise can enhance focus during demanding cognitive tasks for some people. The ongoing presence of this broadband sound makes it harder for the mind to drift into the passive, receptive state necessary for a successful hypnotic induction.
For a hypnotist to work effectively, a quiet, controlled environment is ideal. While a highly skilled hypnotist might try to incorporate minor, consistent background noises into their patter (e.g., suggesting the hum of an air conditioner is a relaxing sound), genuinely loud, random, or pervasive white noise acts as a significant barrier to achieving a hypnotic trance state.
Forwarded from Jade Helm 15 Rehash (Hungry Dog Press)
AI responses may confabulate.
Standard kosher phones (especially basic "dumb" or flip phones) generally
cannot accommodate Meshtastic.
Reasons for Incompatibility
Lack of App Support: The Meshtastic platform requires an accompanying app to interact with the device. This app needs either the Android or iOS operating system. Standard "dumb" kosher phones have limited or no app functionality, typically restricted to basic features like a calculator or an alarm clock.
Missing LoRa Hardware: Meshtastic communicates using LoRa (Long Range) peer-to-peer radio frequencies, not standard cellular, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth frequencies. Phones do not contain the dedicated internal antennas or the specific radio chipsets required for LoRa communication.
Firmware and Software Limitations: The firmware on kosher phones is often heavily altered and locked by design to prevent internet access and advanced functionality for spiritual/wellness reasons. This prevents the installation of the necessary Meshtastic firmware or app, which would require a degree of open access to the device's operating system.
Alternative Solutions for Kosher Phone Users
While you can't run Meshtastic directly on a standard kosher phone, you can still use the technology in an off-grid setup:
Dedicated Meshtastic Device Paired via Bluetooth: The most common approach is to use a separate, dedicated Meshtastic device (a "node") and connect it to an existing smartphone via Bluetooth or USB OTG. If a user has a "kosher smartphone" (a device like a modified Google Pixel running a filtered OS like KosherOS) that still retains Bluetooth connectivity and the ability to run specific, approved Android apps, they might be able to use it as the "display" for an external Meshtastic node.
All-in-One Meshtastic Devices: There are specialized, self-contained devices available that have a built-in screen and controls, functioning as a complete Meshtastic communicator without needing an external phone at all.
External Nodes/Cases: Some third-party accessories offer Magsafe or other magnetic cases that attach a separate Meshtastic radio to the back of any smartphone, connecting over Bluetooth.
Standard kosher phones (especially basic "dumb" or flip phones) generally
cannot accommodate Meshtastic.
Reasons for Incompatibility
Lack of App Support: The Meshtastic platform requires an accompanying app to interact with the device. This app needs either the Android or iOS operating system. Standard "dumb" kosher phones have limited or no app functionality, typically restricted to basic features like a calculator or an alarm clock.
Missing LoRa Hardware: Meshtastic communicates using LoRa (Long Range) peer-to-peer radio frequencies, not standard cellular, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth frequencies. Phones do not contain the dedicated internal antennas or the specific radio chipsets required for LoRa communication.
Firmware and Software Limitations: The firmware on kosher phones is often heavily altered and locked by design to prevent internet access and advanced functionality for spiritual/wellness reasons. This prevents the installation of the necessary Meshtastic firmware or app, which would require a degree of open access to the device's operating system.
Alternative Solutions for Kosher Phone Users
While you can't run Meshtastic directly on a standard kosher phone, you can still use the technology in an off-grid setup:
Dedicated Meshtastic Device Paired via Bluetooth: The most common approach is to use a separate, dedicated Meshtastic device (a "node") and connect it to an existing smartphone via Bluetooth or USB OTG. If a user has a "kosher smartphone" (a device like a modified Google Pixel running a filtered OS like KosherOS) that still retains Bluetooth connectivity and the ability to run specific, approved Android apps, they might be able to use it as the "display" for an external Meshtastic node.
All-in-One Meshtastic Devices: There are specialized, self-contained devices available that have a built-in screen and controls, functioning as a complete Meshtastic communicator without needing an external phone at all.
External Nodes/Cases: Some third-party accessories offer Magsafe or other magnetic cases that attach a separate Meshtastic radio to the back of any smartphone, connecting over Bluetooth.
AI responses may confabulate.
The archetype of the "boy who never grows up"—psychologically termed the
puer aeternus (Latin for "eternal boy")—is an ancient concept that long predates both Peer Gynt and Peter Pan and has origins in classical mythology and folklore.
Mythological Origins
The direct mythological origin of the term "puer aeternus" comes from the Roman poet Ovid's epic, Metamorphoses, written around 8 AD..
In the poem, Ovid uses the phrase to address the child-god Iacchus, who was a figure in the Eleusinian Mysteries (secret religious rites of ancient Greece). Iacchus was later identified with other gods of divine youth, vegetation, death, and resurrection, such as:
Dionysus/Bacchus (Greek/Roman god of wine, ecstasy, and abandon, who is often depicted as youthful and uninhibited).
Eros (Greek god of love and desire, often portrayed as a perpetually young figure).
Tammuz, Attis, and Adonis (Vegetation gods from various ancient Middle Eastern mythologies whose cycles of life, death, and rebirth represent eternal youth).
The essence of these figures is that they remain eternally young, often avoiding commitment, boundaries, and the responsibilities of mature life, while valuing freedom and immediate experience above all else.
Psychological Archetype
In the 20th century, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung adopted the term puer aeternus as an archetype in his analytical psychology.
Jung's theory: Jung proposed that this archetype is an innate pattern within the "collective unconscious" that represents the "divine child" and the potential for newness, creativity, and spiritual growth.
The shadow side: When a person becomes overly identified with this archetype (often due to an unresolved parent complex), they exhibit traits like the fear of commitment, avoidance of responsibility (leading a "provisional life"), and a retreat into fantasy to avoid the demands of reality, essentially becoming a "man-child".
Thus, while Ibsen and Barrie created definitive literary characters, the fundamental concept of a figure who embodies eternal youth and resists adulthood has been a recurring theme in human storytelling for millennia.
The archetype of the "boy who never grows up"—psychologically termed the
puer aeternus (Latin for "eternal boy")—is an ancient concept that long predates both Peer Gynt and Peter Pan and has origins in classical mythology and folklore.
Mythological Origins
The direct mythological origin of the term "puer aeternus" comes from the Roman poet Ovid's epic, Metamorphoses, written around 8 AD..
In the poem, Ovid uses the phrase to address the child-god Iacchus, who was a figure in the Eleusinian Mysteries (secret religious rites of ancient Greece). Iacchus was later identified with other gods of divine youth, vegetation, death, and resurrection, such as:
Dionysus/Bacchus (Greek/Roman god of wine, ecstasy, and abandon, who is often depicted as youthful and uninhibited).
Eros (Greek god of love and desire, often portrayed as a perpetually young figure).
Tammuz, Attis, and Adonis (Vegetation gods from various ancient Middle Eastern mythologies whose cycles of life, death, and rebirth represent eternal youth).
The essence of these figures is that they remain eternally young, often avoiding commitment, boundaries, and the responsibilities of mature life, while valuing freedom and immediate experience above all else.
Psychological Archetype
In the 20th century, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung adopted the term puer aeternus as an archetype in his analytical psychology.
Jung's theory: Jung proposed that this archetype is an innate pattern within the "collective unconscious" that represents the "divine child" and the potential for newness, creativity, and spiritual growth.
The shadow side: When a person becomes overly identified with this archetype (often due to an unresolved parent complex), they exhibit traits like the fear of commitment, avoidance of responsibility (leading a "provisional life"), and a retreat into fantasy to avoid the demands of reality, essentially becoming a "man-child".
Thus, while Ibsen and Barrie created definitive literary characters, the fundamental concept of a figure who embodies eternal youth and resists adulthood has been a recurring theme in human storytelling for millennia.
AI responses may confabulate.
Wilhelm Reich
wrote about Ibsen's Peer Gynt in his first psychoanalytic paper, noscriptd "Libidinal Conflicts and Delusions in Ibsen's Peer Gynt" (German: Über einen Fall von Durchbruch der Inzestschranke).
What, When, and Where He Wrote About It
What: The paper was an analysis of Ibsen's play, focusing on psychoanalytic themes, particularly "libido conflicts and delusions".
When: He wrote and presented this treatise in 1920, at the age of 23.
Where: He presented the paper for his membership in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (WPV) while a medical student at the University of Vienna. It was later published in English in his collection Early Writings (1975).
Summary of Reich's Analysis
General Points:
Reich strongly identified with the character of Peer Gynt, seeing in him a representation of the unconventional dreamer, full of energy, eager to change the world but certain to be destroyed for his daring. Reich viewed Peer as a perpetual outsider whose search for identity was diverted, making him an idler and then a fortune hunter who was not always sure whether his dreams were reality. The general theme was the destructive power of societal repression on an individual's natural, vital energy and impulses.
Specific Points:
Libidinal Conflicts: Reich analyzed Peer's actions as expressions of dammed-up sexual energy (libido), which was central to Freud's early theory of neurosis that Reich focused on.
Incest Taboo: The German noscript of his paper translates to "About a Case of Breaching the Incest Taboo," indicating a specific focus on Peer's relationship dynamics, particularly with his mother Aase and other female figures.
Character Analysis Forerunner: This early work marked the beginning of Reich's shift from analyzing individual symptoms to character structure, a major contribution to psychoanalysis that later developed into his method of character analysis.
Self-Identity vs. Societal Destruction: He saw Peer's energetic, spontaneous nature as a healthy primary drive that society (represented by figures like the "Button-Molder," who wants to melt him down for failing to be a real self) sought to suppress and destroy.
Wilhelm Reich
wrote about Ibsen's Peer Gynt in his first psychoanalytic paper, noscriptd "Libidinal Conflicts and Delusions in Ibsen's Peer Gynt" (German: Über einen Fall von Durchbruch der Inzestschranke).
What, When, and Where He Wrote About It
What: The paper was an analysis of Ibsen's play, focusing on psychoanalytic themes, particularly "libido conflicts and delusions".
When: He wrote and presented this treatise in 1920, at the age of 23.
Where: He presented the paper for his membership in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (WPV) while a medical student at the University of Vienna. It was later published in English in his collection Early Writings (1975).
Summary of Reich's Analysis
General Points:
Reich strongly identified with the character of Peer Gynt, seeing in him a representation of the unconventional dreamer, full of energy, eager to change the world but certain to be destroyed for his daring. Reich viewed Peer as a perpetual outsider whose search for identity was diverted, making him an idler and then a fortune hunter who was not always sure whether his dreams were reality. The general theme was the destructive power of societal repression on an individual's natural, vital energy and impulses.
Specific Points:
Libidinal Conflicts: Reich analyzed Peer's actions as expressions of dammed-up sexual energy (libido), which was central to Freud's early theory of neurosis that Reich focused on.
Incest Taboo: The German noscript of his paper translates to "About a Case of Breaching the Incest Taboo," indicating a specific focus on Peer's relationship dynamics, particularly with his mother Aase and other female figures.
Character Analysis Forerunner: This early work marked the beginning of Reich's shift from analyzing individual symptoms to character structure, a major contribution to psychoanalysis that later developed into his method of character analysis.
Self-Identity vs. Societal Destruction: He saw Peer's energetic, spontaneous nature as a healthy primary drive that society (represented by figures like the "Button-Molder," who wants to melt him down for failing to be a real self) sought to suppress and destroy.
Orgone Channel Telegram
AI responses may confabulate. The archetype of the "boy who never grows up"—psychologically termed the puer aeternus (Latin for "eternal boy")—is an ancient concept that long predates both Peer Gynt and Peter Pan and has origins in classical mythology and…
Disambiguation from Carl Jung's Puer Aeternus Archetype
While both Reich and Jung used the character of Peer Gynt as a case study in eternal youth and arrested development, their psychological frameworks and interpretations differ significantly:
While both Reich and Jung used the character of Peer Gynt as a case study in eternal youth and arrested development, their psychological frameworks and interpretations differ significantly:
Chronology of W. Reich’s scientific discoveries
1923-1934 He develops the theory of orgasm and the technic of Character Analysis. (Books: The Function of the Orgasm and Character Analysis.)
1928-1934 He discovers the importance of the Respiratory Block and of the Muscular Armor in Neurosis (Book: The Function of the Orgasm.)
1923-1934 He distinguishes the self-regulating primary natural drives from the secondary, perverted impulses, according to the principles of sexeconomy. (Book: The Function of the Orgasm.)
1930-1934 He studies and recognizes the role of irrationalism and of the human sexual economy in the origin of dictatorships of all political denominations. (Book: The Mass Psychology of Fascism.)
1934 Discovery of the orgasm reflex. (Book: The Function of the Orgasm.)
1935-1936 He investigates the bio-electrical nature of sexuality and anxiety. (Book: The Function of the Orgasm.)
1936-1939 Discovery of the orgone energy vesicles (bions). (Books: The Bions και The Cancer Biopathy.)
1936-1939 He discovers that the cancer cell can be produced from bionously disintegrated animal tissue and observes the organization of protozoa from bionously disintegrated moss and grass. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1937 Discovery of T-bacilli in sarcoma. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1939 Discovery of bio-energy (orgone) in sand packet (SAPA) bions. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1940 Discovery of orgone energy in the atmosphere. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1940 Invention of the Orgone Energy Accumulator. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1944 Invention of the Orgone Energy Meter. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1940-1945 Experimental orgone therapy of the cancer biopathy. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1945 Πειραματική διερεύνηση της πρωτογενούς βιογένεσης (Πείραμα ΧΧ). (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1945 Method of orgonomic functionalism. (Book: Ether, God and Devil.)
1947 Investigation of the emotional plague of man, which is now recognized as a disturbance of the bioenergetic equilibrium. (Book: Character Analysis, 3rd Edition.)
1949-1950 Orgonometric Equations. (Journal: Orgone Energy Bulletin.)
1951 Discovery of the function of Cosmic Superimposition and its role in living and non-living nature. (Book: Cosmic Superimposition.)
1947-1951 Investigation of the anti-nuclear effects of the orgone. (Journal: Orgone Energy Bulletin.)
1951-1952 Discovery of DOR (Deadly Orgone Energy), identification of its properties and its specific toxicity (DOR Sickness). (Journal: Orgone Energy Bulletin.)
1951-1954 Identification of Melanor, Orite, Brownite and Orine[1] (initial steps towards a preatomic chemistry). (Journals: Orgone Energy Bulletin and CORE.)
1952-1955 Use of the “reversed” orgonomic potential in the removal of dor from the atmosphere in cloudbusting and weather control. (Journals: Orgone Energy Bulletin and CORE.)
1954-1955 Theory of desert formation in nature and within man (emotional plague) and demonstration of their reversibility (OROP Desert Ea and the Medical DOR Buster).[2] (Journal: CORE.)
1954-1955 Formulation of the theory that diseases have to do with DOR concentration in the tissues. (Journal: CORE.)
1950-1957 Gravity and anti-gravity equations. (Unreleased notes.)
1951-1957 Development and practical application of Social Psychiatry. (Unreleased notes.)
[1] Names Reich gave to substances he observed developing on the rocks of the walls of the Observatory or he produced himself after the Oranur experiment. He theorized that their production is governed by functions that take place at a level prior to the material (atomic) basis of chemical reactions. The science investigating their nature he named “preatomic chemistry”.
[2] A device designed by Reich to directly absorb DOR from the organism.
https://wilhelmreich.gr/en/orgonomy/historic-material/chronology-of-wilhelm-reichs-scientific-discoveries/
1923-1934 He develops the theory of orgasm and the technic of Character Analysis. (Books: The Function of the Orgasm and Character Analysis.)
1928-1934 He discovers the importance of the Respiratory Block and of the Muscular Armor in Neurosis (Book: The Function of the Orgasm.)
1923-1934 He distinguishes the self-regulating primary natural drives from the secondary, perverted impulses, according to the principles of sexeconomy. (Book: The Function of the Orgasm.)
1930-1934 He studies and recognizes the role of irrationalism and of the human sexual economy in the origin of dictatorships of all political denominations. (Book: The Mass Psychology of Fascism.)
1934 Discovery of the orgasm reflex. (Book: The Function of the Orgasm.)
1935-1936 He investigates the bio-electrical nature of sexuality and anxiety. (Book: The Function of the Orgasm.)
1936-1939 Discovery of the orgone energy vesicles (bions). (Books: The Bions και The Cancer Biopathy.)
1936-1939 He discovers that the cancer cell can be produced from bionously disintegrated animal tissue and observes the organization of protozoa from bionously disintegrated moss and grass. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1937 Discovery of T-bacilli in sarcoma. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1939 Discovery of bio-energy (orgone) in sand packet (SAPA) bions. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1940 Discovery of orgone energy in the atmosphere. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1940 Invention of the Orgone Energy Accumulator. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1944 Invention of the Orgone Energy Meter. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1940-1945 Experimental orgone therapy of the cancer biopathy. (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1945 Πειραματική διερεύνηση της πρωτογενούς βιογένεσης (Πείραμα ΧΧ). (Book: The Cancer Biopathy.)
1945 Method of orgonomic functionalism. (Book: Ether, God and Devil.)
1947 Investigation of the emotional plague of man, which is now recognized as a disturbance of the bioenergetic equilibrium. (Book: Character Analysis, 3rd Edition.)
1949-1950 Orgonometric Equations. (Journal: Orgone Energy Bulletin.)
1951 Discovery of the function of Cosmic Superimposition and its role in living and non-living nature. (Book: Cosmic Superimposition.)
1947-1951 Investigation of the anti-nuclear effects of the orgone. (Journal: Orgone Energy Bulletin.)
1951-1952 Discovery of DOR (Deadly Orgone Energy), identification of its properties and its specific toxicity (DOR Sickness). (Journal: Orgone Energy Bulletin.)
1951-1954 Identification of Melanor, Orite, Brownite and Orine[1] (initial steps towards a preatomic chemistry). (Journals: Orgone Energy Bulletin and CORE.)
1952-1955 Use of the “reversed” orgonomic potential in the removal of dor from the atmosphere in cloudbusting and weather control. (Journals: Orgone Energy Bulletin and CORE.)
1954-1955 Theory of desert formation in nature and within man (emotional plague) and demonstration of their reversibility (OROP Desert Ea and the Medical DOR Buster).[2] (Journal: CORE.)
1954-1955 Formulation of the theory that diseases have to do with DOR concentration in the tissues. (Journal: CORE.)
1950-1957 Gravity and anti-gravity equations. (Unreleased notes.)
1951-1957 Development and practical application of Social Psychiatry. (Unreleased notes.)
[1] Names Reich gave to substances he observed developing on the rocks of the walls of the Observatory or he produced himself after the Oranur experiment. He theorized that their production is governed by functions that take place at a level prior to the material (atomic) basis of chemical reactions. The science investigating their nature he named “preatomic chemistry”.
[2] A device designed by Reich to directly absorb DOR from the organism.
https://wilhelmreich.gr/en/orgonomy/historic-material/chronology-of-wilhelm-reichs-scientific-discoveries/
A SECRET HISTORY OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION
THE REPRESSION OF WILHELM REICH
BY HAL COHEN
http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9903/cohen.html#:~:text=At%20the%20core%20of%20Reich%27s%20peripatetic%20career,psychic%20health,%20political%20justice,%20and%20spiritual%20well-being.
THE REPRESSION OF WILHELM REICH
BY HAL COHEN
http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9903/cohen.html#:~:text=At%20the%20core%20of%20Reich%27s%20peripatetic%20career,psychic%20health,%20political%20justice,%20and%20spiritual%20well-being.
Orgone Channel Telegram
A SECRET HISTORY OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION THE REPRESSION OF WILHELM REICH BY HAL COHEN http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9903/cohen.html#:~:text=At%20the%20core%20of%20Reich%27s%20peripatetic%20career,psychic%20health,%20political%20justice,%20and…
A SECRET HISTORY OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION
THE REPRESSION OF WILHELM REICH
BY HAL COHEN
TODAY THE NAME WILHELM REICH EVOKES a dim memory of the orgone box fad, or, more likely, nothing at all. But odd though it may seem (and it is far from the oddest thing about him), there was a time when Wilhelm Reich enjoyed enormous prestige on both sides of the Atlantic.
Reich was once Sigmund Freud’s star pupil and an important player in the radical psychoanalytic movement of the 1930s. His diagnosis of the neurotic roots of fascism would influence thinkers from Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. And his ideas about the transcendent power of the orgasm inspired an astonishing number of postwar American writers and critics–Paul Goodman, Saul Bellow, Irving Howe, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs–who would become central figures in the cultural upheavals of the 1950s and 1960s.
But leaving an intellectual legacy of this kind would not have interested Reich, who late in his career came to believe that he had unraveled the secrets of the universe, and that he could cure the ills of body and mind, nature and society. All that stood in his way were the combined forces of social and sexual repression–and a global conspiracy involving The New Republic, Joseph Stalin, and the U.S Food and Drug Administration. This conspiracy–or at least the zeal of the FDA–would turn this self-declared prophet into an outlaw and, ultimately, a martyr: After defying the FDA, Reich died in a federal prison at the age of sixty.
At the core of Reich’s peripatetic career is a venerable, if unfashionable, belief: Under the mantle of social convention lurks a natural, instinctual self, and the release of that self’s energies from society’s repression is the only way to achieve psychic health, political justice, and spiritual well-being. This notion finds few serious takers today. Inside the academy, the descendants of French poststructuralism mock the very idea of a natural self, while outside the academy conventional wisdom has rediscovered the virtues of repression. To find devoted Reichians one must travel to remote outposts in Oregon or Maine, where his most colorful–and most loyal–intellectual acolytes quixotically strive to communicate with extraterrestrials and disprove the basic tenets of twentieth-century science and medicine, while maintaining a lonely vigil against Stalinist threats.
Though the academy may have banished Reich to the margins, his name continues to surface in the stew of postmodern popular culture. A memoir written by his son, Peter, enjoys a cult following among British schoolboys; Dusan Makavejev’s 1971 film, WR: Mysteries of the Organism, turns up from time to time at art houses; and the British singer Kate Bush even wrote a song called "Cloudbusting" about Reich’s persecution by the U.S. government. Who was Wilhelm Reich? A social critic or a snake-oil salesman? A visionary or a madman? A misunderstood scientific genius or a dangerous quack? Or all of the above?
THE BIZARRE LIFE of Wilhelm Reich began in fin de siècle Europe and ended in Cold War America. He was born in 1897 to secular Jewish parents in Austrian Galicia. His father owned a successful cattle ranch, and his mother came from an extremely wealthy landowning family.
Reich acquired sexual knowledge at an early age. At twelve he watched his tutor seduce his mother. He was also twelve when he revealed this fact to his father–a jealous and brutish man who regularly referred to his wife as "whore" anyway–resulting soon after in his mother’s suicide. A year later, young Wilhelm bedded a household servant. In his university days, he was an insatiable womanizer; by most accounts, he never gave up the habit. Nor was it separated from his work: He met his first wife, Annie (a noted psychoanalyst in her own right), when she came to him for therapy; he was known to have seduced several of his other patients; and he had an affair with the wife of his assistant Myron Sharaf (who would nonetheless go on to
THE REPRESSION OF WILHELM REICH
BY HAL COHEN
TODAY THE NAME WILHELM REICH EVOKES a dim memory of the orgone box fad, or, more likely, nothing at all. But odd though it may seem (and it is far from the oddest thing about him), there was a time when Wilhelm Reich enjoyed enormous prestige on both sides of the Atlantic.
Reich was once Sigmund Freud’s star pupil and an important player in the radical psychoanalytic movement of the 1930s. His diagnosis of the neurotic roots of fascism would influence thinkers from Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer to Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. And his ideas about the transcendent power of the orgasm inspired an astonishing number of postwar American writers and critics–Paul Goodman, Saul Bellow, Irving Howe, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs–who would become central figures in the cultural upheavals of the 1950s and 1960s.
But leaving an intellectual legacy of this kind would not have interested Reich, who late in his career came to believe that he had unraveled the secrets of the universe, and that he could cure the ills of body and mind, nature and society. All that stood in his way were the combined forces of social and sexual repression–and a global conspiracy involving The New Republic, Joseph Stalin, and the U.S Food and Drug Administration. This conspiracy–or at least the zeal of the FDA–would turn this self-declared prophet into an outlaw and, ultimately, a martyr: After defying the FDA, Reich died in a federal prison at the age of sixty.
At the core of Reich’s peripatetic career is a venerable, if unfashionable, belief: Under the mantle of social convention lurks a natural, instinctual self, and the release of that self’s energies from society’s repression is the only way to achieve psychic health, political justice, and spiritual well-being. This notion finds few serious takers today. Inside the academy, the descendants of French poststructuralism mock the very idea of a natural self, while outside the academy conventional wisdom has rediscovered the virtues of repression. To find devoted Reichians one must travel to remote outposts in Oregon or Maine, where his most colorful–and most loyal–intellectual acolytes quixotically strive to communicate with extraterrestrials and disprove the basic tenets of twentieth-century science and medicine, while maintaining a lonely vigil against Stalinist threats.
Though the academy may have banished Reich to the margins, his name continues to surface in the stew of postmodern popular culture. A memoir written by his son, Peter, enjoys a cult following among British schoolboys; Dusan Makavejev’s 1971 film, WR: Mysteries of the Organism, turns up from time to time at art houses; and the British singer Kate Bush even wrote a song called "Cloudbusting" about Reich’s persecution by the U.S. government. Who was Wilhelm Reich? A social critic or a snake-oil salesman? A visionary or a madman? A misunderstood scientific genius or a dangerous quack? Or all of the above?
THE BIZARRE LIFE of Wilhelm Reich began in fin de siècle Europe and ended in Cold War America. He was born in 1897 to secular Jewish parents in Austrian Galicia. His father owned a successful cattle ranch, and his mother came from an extremely wealthy landowning family.
Reich acquired sexual knowledge at an early age. At twelve he watched his tutor seduce his mother. He was also twelve when he revealed this fact to his father–a jealous and brutish man who regularly referred to his wife as "whore" anyway–resulting soon after in his mother’s suicide. A year later, young Wilhelm bedded a household servant. In his university days, he was an insatiable womanizer; by most accounts, he never gave up the habit. Nor was it separated from his work: He met his first wife, Annie (a noted psychoanalyst in her own right), when she came to him for therapy; he was known to have seduced several of his other patients; and he had an affair with the wife of his assistant Myron Sharaf (who would nonetheless go on to
Orgone Channel Telegram
A SECRET HISTORY OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION THE REPRESSION OF WILHELM REICH BY HAL COHEN http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9903/cohen.html#:~:text=At%20the%20core%20of%20Reich%27s%20peripatetic%20career,psychic%20health,%20political%20justice,%20and…
write a sympathetic biography of Reich).
Reich was an officer in the Austrian army during World War I, which he came to see as the watershed event in the history of Europe (and thus of humankind); he returned from service a devout socialist. He enrolled in college in Vienna as a law student, but he quickly switched to medicine and became interested in mental health. By the time he was in his twenties, Reich had entered the Vienna psychoanalytic circle, where he quickly made his mark, earning a reputation as one of the most insightful therapists in the group. Freud would soon be referring patients to this precocious protégé, whom he declared to have "del beste Kopf" (the best head) of all the Vienna psychoanalysts.
But while Freud regarded the struggle between repression and instinct with great ambivalence, Reich unhesitatingly took the side of instinct. In various works that would later be collected in Character Analysis (1933), Reich worked out his first, and perhaps most influential psychoanalytic idea: character armor. He believed that all people–even (or rather, especially) polite and apparently straightforward people–exhibit defensive character traits; and he recommended that the analyst identify and dismantle this armor, thus (contra Freud) controlling the direction of therapy and forcing the patient to express, even violently, his deepest impulses. "Human beings live emotionally on the surface," he explained. "In order to get to the core, where the natural, the normal, the healthy is, you have to get through that middle layer. And in that middle layer there is terror." Culture, he believed, alienated people from their true selves, which meant that any civilized individual was by definition neurotic. This premise led Reich to two conclusions: First, everyone needs therapy; second, to create truly healthy individuals, therapy is insufficient–society itself must be changed.
It was not long before Reich took another step away from Freud. He concluded that character armor physically manifested itself in "muscular armor"–that is, actual somatic tension. Freud believed that physical maladies were often the result of psychological problems, but Reich came to believe the inverse: that the etiology of psychological illness (and thus of psychological well-being) was located in the body. While Freud treated neuroses in order to alleviate physical problems, Reich reversed the causality and worked to relieve bodily tension in order to remove neuroses. Thus the twofold nature of Reichian therapy was established: The talking cure would be directed at dismantling a patient’s character armor and allowing the natural self to emerge, while deep breathing, rhythmic movements, and the therapist’s physical contact with the patient would relieve the patient’s muscular armor and thus alleviate the related neuroses.
Even now, with psychoanalysis in eclipse, some claim that Reich’s insights inform the basic premises of psychotherapy. "To the extent that there is any real psychology around today," says Dr. Richard Schwartzman, a Reichian therapist who practices in Philadelphia, "it is character analysis." Reich, he explains, "was the first to recognize that the content of what a patient communicated was secondary to the way a person presented himself, which is always some form of defense." Meanwhile, alternative therapies of the 1970s, such as primal scream, bioenergetics, emotional release, massage, and bodywork, owe Reich a profound debt. Many non-Reichian psychologists and psychiatrists still make use of his therapeutic techniques–deep breathing, rhythmic body movements, and so on–as part of an array of treatments.
Not surprisingly, Reich’s efforts to release his patients from their muscular armor led him toward Freud’s work on sex. In books like The Function of the Orgasm and Genitality, both published in 1927, he argued that sexual dissatisfaction was tied to all physical tensions and thus to all neuroses.
Reich was an officer in the Austrian army during World War I, which he came to see as the watershed event in the history of Europe (and thus of humankind); he returned from service a devout socialist. He enrolled in college in Vienna as a law student, but he quickly switched to medicine and became interested in mental health. By the time he was in his twenties, Reich had entered the Vienna psychoanalytic circle, where he quickly made his mark, earning a reputation as one of the most insightful therapists in the group. Freud would soon be referring patients to this precocious protégé, whom he declared to have "del beste Kopf" (the best head) of all the Vienna psychoanalysts.
But while Freud regarded the struggle between repression and instinct with great ambivalence, Reich unhesitatingly took the side of instinct. In various works that would later be collected in Character Analysis (1933), Reich worked out his first, and perhaps most influential psychoanalytic idea: character armor. He believed that all people–even (or rather, especially) polite and apparently straightforward people–exhibit defensive character traits; and he recommended that the analyst identify and dismantle this armor, thus (contra Freud) controlling the direction of therapy and forcing the patient to express, even violently, his deepest impulses. "Human beings live emotionally on the surface," he explained. "In order to get to the core, where the natural, the normal, the healthy is, you have to get through that middle layer. And in that middle layer there is terror." Culture, he believed, alienated people from their true selves, which meant that any civilized individual was by definition neurotic. This premise led Reich to two conclusions: First, everyone needs therapy; second, to create truly healthy individuals, therapy is insufficient–society itself must be changed.
It was not long before Reich took another step away from Freud. He concluded that character armor physically manifested itself in "muscular armor"–that is, actual somatic tension. Freud believed that physical maladies were often the result of psychological problems, but Reich came to believe the inverse: that the etiology of psychological illness (and thus of psychological well-being) was located in the body. While Freud treated neuroses in order to alleviate physical problems, Reich reversed the causality and worked to relieve bodily tension in order to remove neuroses. Thus the twofold nature of Reichian therapy was established: The talking cure would be directed at dismantling a patient’s character armor and allowing the natural self to emerge, while deep breathing, rhythmic movements, and the therapist’s physical contact with the patient would relieve the patient’s muscular armor and thus alleviate the related neuroses.
Even now, with psychoanalysis in eclipse, some claim that Reich’s insights inform the basic premises of psychotherapy. "To the extent that there is any real psychology around today," says Dr. Richard Schwartzman, a Reichian therapist who practices in Philadelphia, "it is character analysis." Reich, he explains, "was the first to recognize that the content of what a patient communicated was secondary to the way a person presented himself, which is always some form of defense." Meanwhile, alternative therapies of the 1970s, such as primal scream, bioenergetics, emotional release, massage, and bodywork, owe Reich a profound debt. Many non-Reichian psychologists and psychiatrists still make use of his therapeutic techniques–deep breathing, rhythmic body movements, and so on–as part of an array of treatments.
Not surprisingly, Reich’s efforts to release his patients from their muscular armor led him toward Freud’s work on sex. In books like The Function of the Orgasm and Genitality, both published in 1927, he argued that sexual dissatisfaction was tied to all physical tensions and thus to all neuroses.
Orgone Channel Telegram
A SECRET HISTORY OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION THE REPRESSION OF WILHELM REICH BY HAL COHEN http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9903/cohen.html#:~:text=At%20the%20core%20of%20Reich%27s%20peripatetic%20career,psychic%20health,%20political%20justice,%20and…
Muscular tension–tightness in the hips, buttocks, stomach, thighs, and other parts of the body–prevented the freedom of movement that was required for a good orgasm. So, in Reich’s model, the ability to achieve "orgastic potency" became the key to a healthy psychological life, for both men and women. The relief of neuroses and the achievement of superior orgasms became synonymous. Put simply, Reich believed that people who have good sex are happy and productive and that happy and productive people have good sex; anything undermining this equation was a pathology.
Of course, Reich was not the first to notice that having orgasms tended to have a positive effect on people, but never before had the orgasm enjoyed such a privileged place in therapeutic practice; Reichian orgasms were not a means, they were the end. For all his frankness, however, Reich says little about his criteria for evaluating a good orgasm. He is generally of the "you’ll know it when you have one" school. And these orgasms could only occur in certain circumstances: In spite of his reputation as a sexual radical, Reich was in some respects quite conventional. He insisted that a good orgasm could be achieved only by genital-to-genital contact between a man and a woman. He had no problem with masturbation per se but considered it nothing more than a healthy expression of desire; there was no good orgasm to be had that way. Similarly, while he was tolerant of various kinds of sexual contact, he dismissed "homosexuality, sexual intercourse with animals, and other forms of perversion."
While the good orgasm represented the health of the individual, Reich also came to believe it represented the health of society as well. In the late 1920s, once he had established himself as an important psychoanalyst in Vienna, Reich branched out on his own and created the sex-pol movement, combining his therapeutic interests with increasingly leftist politics. He began this work in Vienna, but after being expelled from the Austrian Social Democratic Party in 1930 because of his sexual radicalism, he moved to Berlin.
There he joined the German Communist Party and became active in the leftist psychoanalytic circle that included Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Otto Fenichel. By contemporary standards, and even by today’s, Reich’s sex-pol ideas were daring: He conducted frank workshops on sexual health, advocated free birth control and access to abortion, and endorsed adolescent experimentation with sex. A healthy and free society, he felt, would have to be composed of healthy and free individuals–sexually healthy, orgastically potent people. Such an erotic utopia required economic and labor conditions that allowed leisure time and living conditions amenable to unencumbered sexual relations (a subject about which conventional Marxist theory has little to say). This meant social and economic gender equality and the replacement of marriage with "serial monogamy" so that each partner could pursue the most satisfying sex life.
By 1931 Reich had convinced the German communists to establish the German Association for Proletarian Sex Politics, with himself firmly in charge: At its height, the organization had forty thousand members. The sex-pol movement’s ideology was crystallized in Reich’s treatise on social and sexual repression, The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), a bold synthesis of Freud and Marx. In it he contended that rightist repressive forces in society did not operate by brute force or deception. Nor were they expressions of national destiny. Rather, the phenomenal success of both ideologies derived from their promise of release through violence and force, coupled with the countervailing promise of state suppression of that which the unenlightened masses feared in themselves and which was, for Reich, the key to everything: their sexuality.
Of course, Reich was not the first to notice that having orgasms tended to have a positive effect on people, but never before had the orgasm enjoyed such a privileged place in therapeutic practice; Reichian orgasms were not a means, they were the end. For all his frankness, however, Reich says little about his criteria for evaluating a good orgasm. He is generally of the "you’ll know it when you have one" school. And these orgasms could only occur in certain circumstances: In spite of his reputation as a sexual radical, Reich was in some respects quite conventional. He insisted that a good orgasm could be achieved only by genital-to-genital contact between a man and a woman. He had no problem with masturbation per se but considered it nothing more than a healthy expression of desire; there was no good orgasm to be had that way. Similarly, while he was tolerant of various kinds of sexual contact, he dismissed "homosexuality, sexual intercourse with animals, and other forms of perversion."
While the good orgasm represented the health of the individual, Reich also came to believe it represented the health of society as well. In the late 1920s, once he had established himself as an important psychoanalyst in Vienna, Reich branched out on his own and created the sex-pol movement, combining his therapeutic interests with increasingly leftist politics. He began this work in Vienna, but after being expelled from the Austrian Social Democratic Party in 1930 because of his sexual radicalism, he moved to Berlin.
There he joined the German Communist Party and became active in the leftist psychoanalytic circle that included Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Otto Fenichel. By contemporary standards, and even by today’s, Reich’s sex-pol ideas were daring: He conducted frank workshops on sexual health, advocated free birth control and access to abortion, and endorsed adolescent experimentation with sex. A healthy and free society, he felt, would have to be composed of healthy and free individuals–sexually healthy, orgastically potent people. Such an erotic utopia required economic and labor conditions that allowed leisure time and living conditions amenable to unencumbered sexual relations (a subject about which conventional Marxist theory has little to say). This meant social and economic gender equality and the replacement of marriage with "serial monogamy" so that each partner could pursue the most satisfying sex life.
By 1931 Reich had convinced the German communists to establish the German Association for Proletarian Sex Politics, with himself firmly in charge: At its height, the organization had forty thousand members. The sex-pol movement’s ideology was crystallized in Reich’s treatise on social and sexual repression, The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), a bold synthesis of Freud and Marx. In it he contended that rightist repressive forces in society did not operate by brute force or deception. Nor were they expressions of national destiny. Rather, the phenomenal success of both ideologies derived from their promise of release through violence and force, coupled with the countervailing promise of state suppression of that which the unenlightened masses feared in themselves and which was, for Reich, the key to everything: their sexuality.