27 : Personal Life and Other Developments: 1950-1954The Oranur years marked a huge upheaval in Reich’s personal life. From 1940 to
1950, his existence had been much as he had described Freud’s: “He lived a very calm quiet,
decent family life.”^1 In her biography of Reich, Ilse Ollendorff was reluctant to describe
the more intimate aspects of her marriage. The outward impression remained one of a cou-
ple united by work rather than intense love. Peter was an important bond between them.
However, Reich’s main energies were clearly devoted to his work. It is my belief that someof
his pessimism about adults and his devotion to infants and children, to the unarmored,
reflected not only his accurate appraisal of adult humanity but also a dissatisfaction with his
own life.
In any case,during the Oranur experiment Reich erupted. In part this eruption was
stimulated by Oranur itself. During the spring of 1951, he was unable to stay at the
Observatory for any prolonged periods due to the effects of Oranur. He began to move
around, sometimes staying at the lower family cabin; however, even there the atmosphere
was affected by Oranur. Reich would occasionally take overnight trips to Farrnington,
Maine, about forty miles from Rangeley, to escape the Orgonon atmosphere. And he took
many more drives than he had previously, partly again for relief from the atmosphere, part-
ly to observe the nature and extent of Oranur effects.
Oranur contributed in other ways to the spirit of change and dislocation. As noted
in Chapter 26, Reich emphasized that Oranur brought out not only latent physical vulnera-
bilities in people but also hidden emotional problems.And what Oranur started, Reich tried
to complete.When he felt that people were not straightforward with him or were ambiva-
lent, his response was to be more badgering.
An especially dramatic interaction of this kind occurred with his daughter Eva
about a month after her severe Oranur reaction. On March 24 (Reich’s fifty-fourth birthday),
he gave Eva the present of a fine, expensive microscope. Eva was ambivalent about the gift,
saying that she was uncertain where she would be living and that it might be difficult for her
to care properly for the instrument. That he gave her this present on hisbirthday may have
made her feel,with some resentment, that he wanted her to be exactly like him—to share
his devotion to orgonomy and to orgonomic microscopy in particular. Reich became enor-
mously enraged, inferring in her hesitation hostility toward him and his work^2.
Both Eva’s and Reich’s behavior may have been amplified by Oranur effects, trig-
gering her old fear ofcloseness to Reich and his tendency, when disappointed, to outbursts
of excessive rage. In any case, Reich told her to leave Orgonon, which she did for about a
356 Myron SharafFury On Earth