show the Briehls and Rosetta Hurwitz the new orgone energy phenomena which so engaged
his interest and enthusiasm. Walter wasn’t able to see certain things (orgone energy in the
dark room); Rosetta could, which convinced Reich of her greater aliveness and Briehl of her
greater suggestibility.
There was still another issue between Briehl and Reich. Briehl had urged Reich to
take the examinations for his medical license in New York. As he had recently taken them
himself, he offered to help Reich study for them. Reich was indignant at Briehl’s repeated
admonitions, believing that on the basis of his contributions to psychiatry, he should be
granted the license without taking exams. According to Briehl, Reich became “paranoid” and
began telling Briehl that he didn’t appreciate who Reich was. Hearing Briehl’s account some
thirty years later, it was easy to see how Reich had felt patronized and Briehl felt
rejected for his concern.
Whatever the motivations on Briehl’s—side Reich’s fee, Briehl’s dissatisfaction with
therapy, Reich’s headlong plunge into research on orgone energy, or his refusal to get a
license—Briehl decided to break off treatment. After his last session, he folded up his sheet
(Reich would ask patients to bring their own sheet, which was kept in a separate bag), shook
hands, and said goodbye, never to see Reich again. One final issue remained, a familiar one
when people ended their relationship with Reich: money. Briehl wanted back the difference
between the money he had advanced Reich and the cost of his sessions. Reich suggested that
the New School pay the difference. Eventually, Briehl received the money but only after
Alvin Johnson, then director of the New School, put pressure on Reich.
None of the efforts to resume earlier relationships resulted in much better out-
comes than the one with Briehl. Characteristically, Reich himself took the initiative with a
woman,Edith Jacobson, the German-born psychoanalyst whom he had deeply respected
during the Berlin years. After fighting against Hitler in the underground, she had been arrest-
ed and spent two years in prison, where she became sick with diabetes and a hormonal dis-
turbance that had not been successfully diagnosed. Through the efforts of the International
Psychoanalytic Association she was released from prison, went to Prague, and then came to
the United States in 1938.
Not long after Reich arrived in the States he heard of Edith’s continuing illness,
which involved some difficulty in breathing. He visited her in her New York apartment and,
after a talk,said that he believed his new therapeutic techniques might help her. So without
really getting her permission, he tried to mobilize her respiration by pressing on her chest.
Edith didn’t want his therapeutic aid.She told him it was impossible for him to help
without her cooperation. Feeling hurt and offended, he left, though she thanked him for his
good intentions^23.
There is real poignancy to this meeting. Reich thought he had a chance to help
Edith and to show her firsthand the efficacy of his therapeutic developments. She permit-
ted neither.Indeed, for all her respect for Reich’s characteranalytic and mass-psychological
work, Edith thought he had gone too far in his research on the bions and orgone energy.
She believed that Reich’s latest scientific work was delusional and that she should say so
252 Myron SharafFury On Earth