prevalence of masturbation rendered suspect one psychoanalytic argument against ado-
lescent intercourse, namely, that intercourse would decrease the cultural achievements of
youth by weakening “sublimation.”^11 Why should one assume that sexual intercourse
interferes with achievement while masturbation does not?
Reich was initially optimistic about the number of adolescents who could be
helped if they were exposed to sexual enlightenment, given some counseling, and pro-
vided with contraceptive aids. As he put it, “The younger the boy or girl concerned was,
the more quickly and more fully they swung around after listening to only a few clarify-
ing sentences.”^12
This implies a change in functioning as well as intellectual orientation. Yet Reich
was also aware that deep-rooted adolescent problems would not be altered simply by
intellectual change. Some years later, reporting on a successfill, brief consultation with an
adolescent couple, Reich noted that such successes of simple counseling were unusual,
due to the depth of the neuroses in most of the young people who came to the clinics.
The truth probably lies somewhere between the two quotations. Edith Jacobson,
a prominent psychoanalyst when I interviewed her in the 1970s, worked with Reich in a
sex-political clinic in the early 1930s. 1 asked how much such counseling could accom-
plish with adolescents. She replied succinctly: “Surprisingly much.”^13
Two further central interests in sex-political work developed for Reich in this
period: the issue of childhood sexuality and the problem of marriage.
The depth and extent of sexual problems in adults and adolescents led Reich to
stress prevention rather than treatment. By 1929, he was referring to sexual disturbances
as an epidemic among the masses,and counseling as being only ofvery limited value.
In 1930,in a speech before the World League for Sexual Reform (WLSR), Reich
reported that over a period of eighteen months his centers for sexual counseling had
seen seven hundred cases^14 .Ofthose seeking help, approximately 30 percent could be
successfully advised, while the remaining 70 percent had problems of such severity that
they could not be treated by short-term counseling. Nor were there other available
resources to help them. Most existing public health programs either totally ignored neu-
roses or prescribed bromides. While a few public programs offered psychotherapeutic
treatment, the permitted length of treatment was entirely inadequate.
Such figures strengthened Reich’s conviction that the neuroses could only be
attacked prophylactically. In his WLSR speech he vehemently insisted on certain social
measures: adequate housing and nourishment; availability of contraceptives and abor-
tion;social support for the care and education of children; and a change in the marriage
and divorce laws. These changes could only be implemented, Reich believed, in a social-
ist economy.But even if they were realized, a large number of adults and adolescents
would still remain sexually crippled because of irreversible pathology generated during
childhood irreversible, that is, without long-term individual treatment.
The logic ofthis reasoning led to an exploration of childhood factors that con-
11 : The Application of Sex-economic Concepts on the Social Scene The Sex-pol: 1927-1930 133