son with whom Reich corresponded most during the early forties, was very supportive of
Reich’s educational and psychiatric work but took the position that he knew nothing of sci-
ence and hence had no opinion on “orgones” (as he and others were wont to call orgone
energy, to Reich’s considerable irritation). It took Reich quite a while to persuade Neill to
build and use an accumulator. Thus Reich had a strong desire for scientific “company.”
Finally, there was Reich’s personal need for Einstein’s understanding and support.
Since his break with Freud, Reich had not had a close relationship with an older man who
could be a source of strength and guidance. We know how difficult that rupture was. It was
not until 1946 that Reich told Raknes he was at last free of his dependency on Freud.
Reich had been defying authorities for some time—Freud, the Marxists, the elec-
trophysiologists, the bacteriologists, and now the physicists. This willingness to see things for
himself, not to take the authorities’ word for it, had some roots in his early familial conflicts.
He had disliked his father’s authoritarianism and he had also seen that the “old man” was
not so powerful or right as he seemed to be. He—and other supposed “last words”—could
be defeated where it counted, for all their seeming strength, power, even arrogance. The
truth was not necessarily as it was perceived.
In spite of his other responsibilities, Einstein must have been intrigued by the brief
description Reich gave in his letter, for a few days later he replied, asking Reich to arrange
an appointment.
Ilse OllendorfF has described Reich’s mood:
Reich was very excited and had his approach to Einstein carefully prepared
when he left for Princeton on January 13 around noontime. He returned very late
that evening, close to midnight. I had waited up for him, and he was so full of
excitement and impressions that we talked far into the early morning hours. He told
me that the conversation with Einstein had been extremely friendly and cordial, that
Einstein was easy to talk to,that their conversation lasted almost five hours.
Einstein was willing to investigate the phenomena that Reich had described to him,
and a special little accumulator had to be built and taken to him....Reich spoke of
how exciting it was to talk to someone who knew the background of these physi-
cal phenomena,who had an immediate grasp ofthe implications. He started to day-
dream ofpossibilities for working with Einstein at the Institute for Advanced
Studies, where he would be in a community of scientists on a level where he, Reich,
would not always be the giving one, with everybody else taking, as it was in his own
Institute, but where he could find a give and take on his own level. He had wanted
for a long time to be done with the world ofthe neurotic, to devote himself sole-
ly to the biophysical aspects of the discovery He spoke that night of such possibil-
ities, and hung onto this daydream for the next few weeks^12.In his own account,Reich stuck to the factual and scientific issues. In a conversa-
tion that began at 3:30 and ended at 8:30 in the evening, he explained to Einstein about the
21 : The Discovery of Orgone Energy: 1940 267