year, taking a residency in pediatrics in New York City. She also had some therapeutic ses-
sions with Baker.
The Oranur period coincided with a major reorganization of Reich’s life, as so
often happened after a new scientific development. The discovery of orgone energy in 1940
had launched a period of quiet scientific work, undistracted by the intense emotional
involvements with people that had characterized the Oslo stay. But in the process, Reich had
made certain renunciations he was no longer prepared to endure. The high-pitched excite-
ment of the Oranur experiment escalated his own emotional needs for a more intense per-
sonal life.
Ilse’s uterine operation took place in early May 1951. She was away from Orgonon
for about six weeks. Reich used her absence from work to insist that she initiate divorce pro-
ceedings^3. He wanted to try to maintain their relationship, but believed it had a better
chance of surviving without a marriage license. He had never felt happy with the legaliza-
tion of their relationship, which had been dictated by outside factors.
Upset by her illness and her conflicts with Reich, Ilse had some therapeutic sessions
with Baker, who was becoming the family physician; she also stayed at Baker’s home during
the convalescent period in May. In early June, she submitted to Reich’s plan and went to
Arkansas to initiate the proceedings. The divorce became final on September 13, 1951. With
Reich’s consent, Baker as a witness submitted an affidavit, testifying to Reich’s neglect of
Ilse, and citing his unwillingness to go out socially to parties or to entertain Ilse’s relatives
and friends in the Reich home. These complaints are a good example of how Reich found
behaviors acceptable to the court as grounds for divorce that did not impugn his character.
Indeed, he took pride in his commitment to basic natural-scientific research, which prevent-
ed his participation in normal social life.
Ilse, who had submitted to the divorce in the hope of saving the relationship,
deeply resented its timing in connection with an operation that had left her feeling vulnera-
ble and depressed. It was one of the major grievances that, along with Reich’s insistence on
her abortion in the early 1940s and his sexual double standard, she continued to hold against
him long after their separation^4.
In the spring of1951,Reich began a sexual relationship with Lois Wyvell, then in
charge of the business aspects of the Orgone Institute Press. Wyvell had worked for the
Press for five years and was one of Reich’s most devoted assistants. Thirty-eight and
divorced, she had moved to Orgonon in 1950 when the work became concentrated there,
even though it presented a lonely life for a single person.
For many years Reich had been a lonely man, but he was especially so after the
Oranur experiment. Ilse’s emotional inaccessibility was particularly painful to him now. And
with Oranur he felt intellectually isolated as well, since Ilse did not bring the same enthusi-
asm to this phase that she had brought to earlier research. On her part, she felt badgered by
his insistence that she respond to this or that phenomenon and withdrew even more, there-
by closing the vicious circle. With Lois Wyvell, as with Lia Laszky in the late 1920s and Gerd
Bergersen in the late 1930s, Reich found a port in the storm, a haven from the domestic war-
27 : Personal Life and Other Developments: 1950-1954 357