it later, his strongest political sympathies in the late 1920s lay with the Communist Party’s
ideology. One must bear in mind that being a Communist in Vienna at that time did not sig-
nify a commitment to violent revolution, as communism had in czarist Russia in 1917. On
the other hand, Reich and the Communists believed in principle that violence from the right
should be met with equal force.
We have seen Reich’s impressions of July 15. Now the significance of that day as
he experienced it at the time and from his later insights should be dealt with.
The reader ofPeople in Trouble, written nearly ten years after the event, cannot but
be impressed simply by how important that day was for Reich. Throughout his life there
were benchmark experiences in which the broodings of earlier days, months, and years coa-
lesced and sharpened. These crucial happenings in turn led to new experiences, to new “life
structures” (in Daniel J. Levinson’s phrase), and to the selection of still different experiences.
The events surrounding his mother’s death were one such set of experiences; his meeting
with Freud another.
Now he had partaken in an experience not just crucial to himself but to an entire
nation, for the events of July 15 seared the Austrian consciousness. The Vienna uprising pre-
saged many later political events of the 19303 in Europe: initial sporadic violence by extreme
right-wing individuals or groups,supported by the silent sympathy and protection of a con-
servative government or party; hesitancy and striving to avoid civil war by the Socialist gov-
ernment or party; the growing strength of increasingly repressive right-wing forces; dissen-
sion on the left (especially between Socialists and Communists); and the final victory of a
reactionary regime.
The events of July 15 drastically increased Reich’s sense of political urgency. He
sought a way to stem the conservative tide, a tide he felt the Social Democrats should have
vigorously and courageously opposed.
Just as character analysis could free the individual from inner oppression and
release the flow of natural energies, so—Reich hoped—radical Socialists and Communists
would rescue the masses from external oppression and release a natural social harmony, a
“classless”society.Put somewhat differently, Reich’s desire for strong action on the political
left paralleled his clinical search for measures that would bring about rapid individual change.
Thus,genital breakthroughs might liberate the patient, in spite of unresolved psychic con-
flicts and without prolonged analysis. Social revolution led by decisive leaders might lead to
social breakthroughs in spite of all the fears and contradictions among the citizens. Reich’s
attempt to integrate his clinical and social hopes would form the crux of his endeavors
between 1927 and 1934.
The next point concerns the interaction between his more established clinical work
and his embryonic social endeavors. In his clinical work, Reich had been increasingly
impressed by “character armor”—the automaton-like quality of patients, their lack of spon-
taneous feeling. Undoubtedly, his clinical observations alerted Reich to the same kind of
armored,affect-lame behavior on the public scene. At the same time, his immersion in the
political arena broadened his approach to his patients. Prior to 1927, Reich’s analytic writ-
10 : July 15, 1927, and Its Aftermath: 1927-1928 123