information. Probably under Reich’s influence, Annie kept a diary of Eva’s sex education.
The parents seem to have shared a concern about finding ways to enlighten their children
without being “seductive.”
It should not be construed that the children’s sexual education occurred in a cold,
intellectual atmosphere. On the contrary, Reich was sometimes criticized for being overly
affectionate with Eva. (Eva seems always to have been his favorite. Lore’s birth in 1928 took
place as the relationship between Reich and Annie was deteriorating.) Lia Laszky recalls leav-
ing her son Tony, then three or four, with the Reichs for a week or so while she took a vaca-
tion. Visiting briefly at the Reichs’ summer home, she commented to Reich that he cuddled
with Eva too much; it would prevent her from having a good relationship later with a man.
Reich became annoyed. Laszky reminded him that she was his expert on children so he
should listen to her. He replied that she wasn’t the expert on raising his children.
On a theoretical level, Reich believed in the affirmation of genital play among peers
during childhood. And he was curious as to what such play was like in the “natural” situa-
tion. Just how curious is well illustrated by a story Ottilie relates. Tony had come over to play
with Eva. At nap time, Eva and Tony undressed and lay down to rest. Ottilie reports that
Reich watched them through the keyhole. He told Ottilie that he was interested in noting
who took the initiative for sexual play—the boy or the girl. Although he invited her to
observe, Ottilie was not interested. She was amused at Reich’s disappointment when the chil-
dren just giggled and then fell asleep.
Ottilie related this story in a way which suggested that, in her opinion, Reich
behaved quite foolishly. From one viewpoint, he did. One can also read into the incident, I
think justly, an obsessive curiosity about his children’s sex lives, a theme to be repeated many
years later with his only son, Peter, born in 1944. One might see in it, too, the same voyeuris-
tic trait that had led Reich to observe his mother and tutor.
Over and beyond Reich’s psychodynamics, the incident is a nice illustration of
Reich’s commitment to the study ofgenitality, his interweaving of the personal with the sci-
entific, and his method of naturalistic “field research.” As a researcher, he preferred to
observe phenomena in vivo.If the observation of childhood genitality without altering the
phenomena required looking through a keyhole, so be it.
Whatever Ottilie’s impatience with Reich’s insistence on genitality, it did not impair
their good relationship. What did lead to its disruption had to do with money.
Ottilie left the Reich home in 1927, after completing her training as a nursery-
school teacher. She was now in a position to support herself and her child, and was also
eager to leave because she disliked Reich’s affairs, his periodic coldness toward Annie, and
his occasional cuttingly critical remarks,which could demolish Annie or any other target
around him.
In 1929, Ottilie turned to Reich for help, this time for his maternal grandmother.
Grandmother Roniger was a person Reich never liked: he considered her vain and meddle-
some^7 .However, both she and her wealthy brother Josef Blum, for whom she kept house,
had been bankrupted in the severe Depression of 1929. Josef was accepted into one of the
146 Myron SharafFury On Earth