published; moreover, although The Function of the Orgasmsurveyed his work in detail until
1940, the definition of and evidence for “orgone energy” was only briefly indicated. No
matter. If “the function of the orgasm” was the retroactive red thread running through his
work,“orgone energy” was a prospective red thread, as we shall discover. What was new was
Reich’s conviction that he now was able to study this energy practically and to measure it
inside and outside the organism.
These qualifications aside,The Function of the Orgasmis not a difficult book and it
does keep the reader in mind. Stylistically, Reich was in a felicitous phase. He had broken
away from his earlier, more academic, Germanic style without getting into the angry out-
bursts that disfigure some of his later publications. The book presents a fine mixture of per-
sonal and scientific work, beginning with Reich’s medical school days and his interests of
that time; it follows him through the early devoted discipleship to Freud, the development
of character analysis, the controversies with Freud and the other analysts over orgastic
potency, and his sex-political endeavors (he downplayed here his earlier commitment to
communism). It finishes with his bio-electrical experiments, the development of vegetother-
apy, and a few preliminary remarks about orgone energy.
According to one source, the original German manuscript contained material about
Reich’s early life, including the childhood tragedy involving his mother and tutor. However,
Wolfe persuaded him that so autobiographical a section would not be appropriate for Reich’s
first American publication^10. Perhaps Wolfe was right in his advice, but for biographers the
decision was unfortunate.
Reich wrote most ofThe Function of the Orgasmin 1940, in his native German. It is
remarkable that he could have written so clear, well-organized, and comprehensive a work
under the many stresses of his first year in America. Extremely disciplined about writing,
Reich would work a few hours on writing every day save Sunday. (He practiced—and urged
others to follow—the policy of taking one day a week completely off from work.) Sigurd
Hoel once ruefully compared himself to Reich: “He was very disciplined, he wrote every day.
I took the days as they came”.^11
The book was revised, translated into English, and sent to the printer in 1941. It
appeared early in 1942.To publish it, Reich and Wolfe had to set up their own publishing
house, the Orgone Institute Press, for no existing publishing house would have accepted The
Function of the Orgasmin those days.
As director of the Press, Wolfe with an assistant supervised all technical aspects of
publication and distribution. A meticulous man, Wolfe took considerable pride in the excel-
lence ofhis work—not only the translations themselves but the format of the publications.
Around the time The Functionwas published, Reich and Wolfe also established a quarterly
periodical, the International Journal for Sex-Economy and Orgone-Research, with Wolfe as editor
and Reich as director of the Institute for which the Journal was the official organ. The new
Journal represented a continuation of Reich’s Norwegian periodical, the Journal for Political
Psychology and Sex-economy.
Neither the Functionnor the Journalbecame best-sellers. Sales figures from the early
250 Myron SharafFury On Earth