“pleasure anxiety”).
Through the work of two Germans, the biologist Max Hartmann and a zoologist,
Ludwig Rhumbler, Reich was able to relate his two basic directions of energy flow—
“toward the world” in pleasure and “away from the world” in anxiety—to the movements
of the amoeba. In a series of experiments, Hartmann and Rhumbler exposed amoebae to a
variety of stimuli (chemical, mechanical, thermical, electrical, and optical). Depending upon
the quantity and quality of these stimuli, the amoebae reacted in one of two ways: either they
sought these stimuli (moved toward them), or they avoided them and assumed a spherical
shape (“played dead”).
The two researchers had also found internalmovements in the form of fluid cur-
rents within the amoeba. Plasma currents toward the surface of the amoeba were accompa-
nied by the active approach of the amoeba toward the object (corresponding to what in the
human would be called a parasympathetic response). Conversely, the movements away from
the world were accompanied by plasma currents from the surface toward the center (analo-
gously, a sympathetic response).
Finally, when the amoeba was at rest, the investigators noted pulsating movements
in the form of a rhythmic alternation of expansion and contraction. The movement of
expansion was accompanied by plasma currents from the center to the surface; those of
contraction by currents from the surface to the center.
Hartmann and Rhumbler’s research permitted Reich to add a further polarity to
those of pleasure and anxiety, parasympathetic and sympathetic innervation: the polarity of
plasma currents from the center to the surface in “outgoing” amoeba responses, from the
surface to the center in “withdrawing” reactions.
Another major influence on Reich during the same period was Friedrich Kraus. His
book Allgemeine und Spezielle Pathologic der Person(General and Special Pathology of the Person), pub-
lished in 1926, presented data showing that living substances consisted essentially of colloids
and mineral salts,both of which when dissolved in body fluids were electrolytes; this meant
that bio-electricity was present^4 ,Kraus considered the biosystem to be a relay-like switch
mechanism ofelectrical charge (storing of energy) and discharge (performance of work).
For our purposes it is sufficient to emphasize that Reich drew especially upon
Kraus’s focus on the movement of electrical charges within the organism. Reich also made
use of some studies of plant physiology, which revealed a significant connection between
fluid movements and electrical discharge processes.
The most important antecedent to Reich’s experimental work was his own study of
the function ofthe orgasm^5 .Clinically,as we have noted, he had long been impressed by
the fact that mechanical sexual processes (such as erection and ejaculation in the male) could
occur without strong sensations of pleasure. Clinically, too, he had been concerned with alle-
viation of this condition. Now he wanted to move toward laboratory investigation: What
had to move, what had to be present beyond known processes, for pleasure to be experi-
enced?
Several lines of thought influenced Reich to hypothesize that bio-electrical process-
198 Myron SharafFury On Earth