es were involved in the flow of sexual pleasure. As we have noted, he had been impressed
with Kraus’s bio-electrical model of the organism. Secondly, he noted the popular idea of a
kind of “electricity” between a man and a woman who are attracted to each other. (Reich
tended to take quite seriously everyday expressions for energetic or emotional processes
within or between people.) Third, he had commented that moisture, a conductor of electric-
ity, played an important role in sexuality: “There is an almost irresistible urge for complete
contact between the two organ surfaces when the erect male organ touches the moist
mucous membrane of the vagina... .”^6
Reich now returned to two old observations, but from a new angle: slow, gentle fric-
tional movements during intercourse produced much stronger sensations than harsh, rapid
movements; and after orgasm, the genital became refractory to any further excitations. From
these observations, Reich hypothesized that the orgasm represented a form of electrical dis-
charge. Then he went on to make one of his bold leaps: he described a four-part process
which, in his view, characterized not only the orgasm but also cell division (mitosis). This
process, which he termed the “orgasm formula” or the “life formula,” consisted of four
steps:
(1) Mechanical tension(filling of the organs with fluid; tumescence, with
increased turgor of tissues generally).
(2) The mechanical tension associated with an increase of bio-electrical
charge.
(3) Dischargeof the accumulated bio-electrical charge through spontaneous
muscular contractions.
(4) Flowing back of the body fluids: detumescence (mechanical relaxation).I have intentionally lingered on Reich’s preparations for experimentation, for sev-
eral reasons. First, this period around 1934 is a nice example of the gradual evolution of his
work,an evolution that is in contrast to the popular image of his sudden leap from psycho-
analysis and libido theory into grandiose notions about orgone energy. On the contrary,
between libido theory and his orgone energy concepts lay six years when his thought and
experimentation were based on an electrical model of sexual functioning.
Second, the period I have discussed illustrates well the synthesizing qualities of
Reich’s mind and his particular attraction to the convergence of independent work from dif-
ferent fields for his own goals. He was now drawing on the work of Freud and other
researchers for his own ends, just as in the early 1920s he had used the work of Freud,
Ferenczi,and Abraham to develop character analysis. In reviewing the work of others, Reich
did not provide a critique, unless circumstances compelled him to do so as in the case of
Freud. He was, for example, impatient with the controversies surrounding Kraus’s concepts,
so much so that he does not tell us what they were. What Maxim Gorki wrote of Tolstoy
was also true ofReich: “When you speak to Tolstoy of things which he can put to no use,
he listens with indifference and incredulity.... Like a collector of valuable curios, he only col-
16 : The Bio-electrical Experiments: 1934-1935 199