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.