anticipated the PAP cervical smear test by at least fifteen years. The discovery that cancer
cells could be detected in the sputum of cancer patients before tumors developed was not
made by classical cancer pathology until 1955.
Reich himself quoted the research of a number of cancer specialists who observed
amoeboid forms in the tissues of cancer patients and paid no attention to them, believing
they were amoeboid parasites stemming from infection outside. Then in 1950, Enterline and
Coman published a paper in which they concluded that the amoeboid cells were not para-
sites but were endogenous (arising from within) or derivatives of the cancer itself^9.
There is considerable conceptual overlap between Reich’s approach and current
immunological research on cancer. Both focus on what goes wrong with the natural defens-
es of the organism, or the individual’s “resistance to illness,” rather than on the toxic agent.
The differences between the two approaches are also striking. Immunology stresses the fail-
ure of the white blood cell system to combat “foreign bodies” properly; Reich emphasized
the struggle between energetically weakened red blood cells and T-bacilli, with the resulting
disintegration of the cells into PA-bions and especially into further T-bacilli.
The Bio-emotional Disposition to CancerBetween 1941 and 1943, Reich saw fifteen cases of cancer diagnosed at hospitals
and previously treated with X-rays. All were in advanced stages of the disease. Reich was not
initially drawn to the idea of seeing these patients psychiatrically. When he became immersed
in the biology of the cancer cell, he confessed to a secret relief that he had gotten away from
the “cursed sex problem” and could concentrate on organic pathology^10. Yet when he
came to study the lifestyles of his patients, Reich found that he was again confronted, albeit
on a much deeper level, with the problem of sexuality.
In his cancer patients, Reich early noted that the cancer tumor was no more than
one symptom of the disease.Indeed,the Reich blood tests had indicated that a cancer
process was at work well before the appearance of the tumor. Reich coined the term “can-
cer biopathy” to convey the underlying process of cancer. And he used this term “biopathy”
to cover a series ofillnesses such as cancer, heart disease, and schizophrenia. He felt that the
basic cause ofsuch degenerative diseases was a chronic malfunction of the organism’s bio-
logical energy. These diseases were to be distinguished from infectious or bacterially caused
illnesses, for the development of biopathies was largely dependent upon the patient’s emo-
tional make-up. Whereas modern medicine has been extremely successful in comprehend-
ing and preventing infectious disease, it has been unsuccessful in dealing with the biopathies
in any basic way.
In Reich’s work with cancer patients we see once more his powers of acute obser-
vation. He paid the same strict attention to the way their bodies and characters expressed or
concealed emotions as he had in his long study of neurotics. Here is Reich’s description of
one case that ofa woman whose hospital diagnosis was carcinoma of the left breast with
bone metastases, pronounced hopeless:
22 : The Medical Effects of the Accumulator: 1940-1948 279