The Reich Orgasm

The orgasm is apparently the key to happiness. It is the one thing in life that lets you let go of all of your inhibitions. However, we are all repressed by society which controls our behaviour. This was the belief Wilhelm Reich, before he went completely mad.

Reich was a follower of Freud, however they fell out when Reich disagreed with Freud's theory that at the very core of a person is a sexual charged beast trying to escape, and it is these sexual urges that repress us. Reich believed the complete opposite and asserted that people are essentially good and it is society that makes them bad.

According to Reich, a person is essentially made up of three layers, similar to Fraud's Id, Ego and Super Ego idea. For Reich, the Id is the 'good' core of a person. The top layer is fundamentally 'etiquette'; the polite side of the person. The layer underneath that is the cruel evil part, the layer which is created imposed on us by
society. To become truly happy, it is crucial to break down this layer and the orgasm is the only thing which allows us to do this. However, apparently only a heterosexual orgasm qualifies - it seems that Reich wasn't a fan of homosexuals.

In terms of treatment, Freud thought thought that we could escape our repression through the mind by talking about our dreams, which is known as psychoanalysis. However, Reich thought that Freud had ignored the body and that it was only through sexual expression that repression could be fought. Reich's philosophy is responsible for the type of therapy were people are encouraged to scream, or take their aggression out on a pillow, a practice which has become quite popular.

Reich also discovered that we are surrounded by this cosmic energy called 'orgone' which we breathe in. This substance is responsible for a build up of sexual repression within a person, and if this orgone is not removed by the orgasm we are not able to be happy. To battle the orgone Reich built orgone energy accumulators, which he claimed could cure cancer. After making these ridiculous claims, he was sentenced to two years in prison, where he unfortunately died. After his death, all of his books were burnt. This has lead to a conspiracy theory of whether Wilhelm Reich had actually been onto something that the government didn't want released or if he was simply barking mad.

He also had a belief that every single person has the potential to become a fascist. The Nazi's encapsulate the idea of the second layer of a person, the cruel sadistic layer. The Nazi's focussed on the lower middle class because these were a group of people most vulnerable to fascism. Someone from the lower middle class has a strong paternal sense and also likes the idea of rebellion, which is why an authoritarian such as that of Nazi Germany would appeal to them.

Wings of Desire

Today's screening was of Wings of Desire. This film was shot from the point of view of angels who know nothing of the human world. The angels' longing is to understand the life of a human. They can hear the thoughts of every person and can understand the mind. However, they are lacking the experiences of taste, touch, and smell. For the angels, their existence is pointless. There is no beginning or end, no history, no goal to work towards - illustrating the existential idea of nothingness. The scene in the library depicts the angels' want to learn about life in the human world, however the closest they can get is the information in people's thoughts.

WINOL 03/03/10

Unfortunately last week I wasn't able to come forth with a package because I was off ill all week. However this week I feel like my contribution was a lot more promising. I found a great story about how the Conservatives are proposing to send the army in schools across the UK to regain discipline and authority, if they are to win the next election. I chose the story because not only is it education related, which would be of interest to academics, it addresses the forth coming election.

My initial plan was to interview the local tory MP, Steve Brine, which I did and also a lecturer from the education department at the University. However, the education department turn out to be the most unresponsive group of people I've dealt with so far. Plan B came into action this morning, which was to interview some trainee teachers, however turned out they were in lectures all day. Plan C was then pulled out of the bag. With only an hour until deadline and no transport facilities, I was inclined to phone up the Lib Dem office in Winchester to get a quote from the group leader. Kelie Learney was more than co-operable and gave me a great quote. The only thing lacking was the fact that she wasn't on camera.

After putting together the interview, GV's and quote sequence together me and the news editor, Tom, discussed what was going to happen with the story. What I have in terms of interviews doesn't do the story justice. What I have is a good start, so we decided to spike the story until next week. This allows us to try and get an interview from someone in the Army, GV's of students in schools, and hopefully a stronger angle. Angus has just given the go ahead for this plan of action...and I have got straight on the case of arranging to get into a school sometime during the rest of this week.