plainly.
There was another factor at work in the tension between Reich and Edith. Edith
remained close to Annie Reich, who had already emigrated to the United States with the chil-
dren. The continuing strain, indeed enmity, between Reich and Annie affected his relation-
ship in the new country with Edith and also with his sister-in-law Ottilie.
The wave of immigration from Hitler’s Europe brought yet another old friend to
America, Lia Laszky, Reich’s lover from medical school and Vienna years. She had remar-
ried, recently emigrated, and felt somewhat stranded in the United States without a job.
When she visited Reich, he was delighted to see her and “took beautiful pictures” of her.
Characteristically, he was not especially interested in her European ordeals since leaving
Germany in 1933, but full of enthusiasm for his own work, which he wanted to share with
her^24.
Reich told Lia about the bions and orgone energy. He had her put her hand over
the bions and asked her what she felt. She said she felt a hot, prickling reaction—“He could
have kissed me.” In his enthusiasm over her response, Reich said she should come and work
with him. Lia asked about her husband, but Reich replied that he would not fit in. Reich and
Lia’s husband had known each other slightly in Vienna but had taken a mutual dislike to each
other then.Nothing came ofthe idea ofLia’s working with Reich, but they remained on
friendly terms and, indeed, were to have one more important meeting.
Reich also had some social meetings with his old medical school friends Paul and
Gisela Stein. Paul was now an internist in Manhattan. Once again Reich wanted to focus the
contact around his recent discoveries, but Paul did not wish to get involved in Reich’s work
and withdrew from the relationship^25.
If Reich could not have contacts with his old European friends on the basis of his
current interests, he wanted no contact at all The same “all or nothing” aspect of his char-
acter arose with Gertrud Gaasland. Here the major differences between them seem to have
been political.Even before coming to the United States,Reich was moving away from his
more doctrinaire Socialist views. Shortly before leaving Norway, he had published an article
entitled “Die Natiirliche Organisation der Arbeit” (“The Natural Organization of Work in
Work Democracy”);significantly, instead of signing it, he described the author as a “labora-
tory worker.”^26 Perhaps he did so because the paper represented a sharp break with his
more traditional Marxist views,a break he was not yet prepared to identify with publicly.
This paper also contained his growing disillusionment with all political parties,
indeed, with politics itself. He had become more and more committed to the notion of work
determining interpersonal relationships. Only those who had factual knowledge about a par-
ticular work process should participate in making decisions about that work. Here he was
clearly influenced by his own experiences. Sometime after his discovery of the bions, he
called in various associates to discuss with them its implications.He was dismayed to find
many of them giving opinions and advice beyond their knowledge of what the bions were
all about.
20 : Getting Settled in America: 1939-1941 253