patients. Patients who had been contacted by the FDA—through Clista’s list of users—were
advised by Reich to answer questions about their use of the accumulator,but not about their
personal or sexual lives.
However, it became clear during the fall of 1947 that the FDA agents were suspi-
cious of, among other things, a sexual racket of some kind. Dr. Simeon Tropp, for example,
reported being questioned about women associated with orgonomy and “what was done
with them.”^13 When Reich became aware of these questions, he was enraged. Nothing
angered him more than the accusation that he ran some kind of “sex racket.” He had not
yet reached the point of breaking off all contact with the FDA but he was close to it.
The evidence also continued to support the idea that the FDA had prejudged the
case. Thus, Wood visited Tom Ross at Orgonon later that fall. Tom reported: “Mr. Wood ...
came in while I was working in my workshop and told me spontaneously ... that the accu-
mulator was a fake ... and that Dr. Reich was fooling the public with it. He said the case
would break soon and hinted that Dr. Reich would go to jail.”^14
The combination of the pornography accusation and the FDA’s blatant prejudg-
ment persuaded Reich to limit his cooperation forthwith. Thus, when the FDA asked for an
accumulator for the purpose of testing it, Reich refused to comply unless the FDA permit-
ted an orgonomist to take part in the testing and unless the agency made clear what it was
investigating. “I would ... rejoice ... if the testing by the administration would be made in
a rational manner,” Reich wrote. “[But] the one who in the name of the government will
undertake the testing will have to prove that he believes in our honesty.”^15
On November 19, Reich’s lawyer, Julian Culver from the Hays law office, tele-
phoned Wharton.In a memorandum ofthe conversation, Wharton denied any preconcep-
tions on the FDA’s part. They were still investigating and had not reached any conclusions.
Wharton insisted that there could be no cooperative testing, although “we would be perfect-
ly willing to listen to Dr.Reich and let him make any demonstration he cared to make with
the device.”^16
Wharton made a favorable impression on Culver. The latter advised Reich to give
the FDA an accumulator since they would get one anyway^17. Reich did not follow his
lawyer’s advice. He believed it was a mistake to cooperate in the testing of the accumulator
under conditions that made a fair test remote. One of his chief concerns was a circumstance
he had encountered often in the past: the idea of a box accumulating energy from the air
was so ridiculous that the control experiments would be sloppily executed. The insinuation
ofpornography and the evidence of prejudgment boded ill for a bona fide test.
Reich was also keenly aware, as his lawyer was not, of the depth of hatred against
orgonomy. Lawyers, as well as many of Reich’s colleagues, were often inclined to discount
the emotional significance ofirrational statements or actions by the FDA and to overem-
phasize what appeared to be reasonable behavior, as in Wharton’s phone conversation with
Culver. Reich took the opposite tack, highlighting the irrational and perceiving a conspirato-
rial explanation for the FDA’s action (the influence of the political left on the investigation).
The two orientations were bound to clash.
25 : The American Campaign Against Orgonomy The Beginnings: 1947-1948 339