fare that had become enmeshed with his battles with the world. Moreover, Lois, unlike Gerd,
was keenly interested in and supportive of Reich’s work, even if she lacked the scientific
background to follow it fully. And she could respond to Reich’s human predicament.
Reich was drawn to her honesty, her vivacity, and her commitment to orgonomy.
Wyvell loved Reich’s warmth, excitement, and genius. She learned and grew through him—
intellectually, emotionally, sexually. However, according to Wyvell, Reich was not in love with
her nor she with him. He would sometimes say, “At this moment I love you,” with some
emphasis on the first phrase, so there would be no misunderstanding^5. Wyvell had similar
sentiments. Only on rare occasions would she feel Reich’s full contact with her, an experi-
ence of incredible warmth as she described it. In his words to her: “Usually my mind is part-
ly with my work.”
As with everyone else, Reich carried out a kind of informal character analysis with
Wyvell. He would tease her about her mystical attitude toward him and orgonomy. At times,
he would liken her persistent attitude to a bumblebee buzzing around him. Still, they had a
free and comradely exchange of views and feelings.
Upon her return to Orgonon on June 9, Ilse was hurt and angry about Reich’s rela-
tionship with Lois Wyvell. He justified it on the grounds of various dissatisfactions with Ilse,
but he was not prepared to end his relationship with Ilse nor she with him. For some three
years they continued a very difficult life together, sometimes far apart, sometimes closer to
one another.
Whatever Ilse’s unhappiness, Reich’s own conflicts about the situation, or the
inevitable gossip and local scandal, Reich was determined not to relinquish the relationship
with Lois Wyvell for the wrong reasons. Right around the time of this affair, Reich wrote The
Murder of Christ, which we will later discuss in detail Here it is pertinent to note the work’s
emphasis on people’s need to foist an ascetic image on their leader and then compel him to
live up to that image. According to Reich, the “new leader,” the leader who refuses to be mys-
tified, will insist upon his right to lead a healthy sexual life. In 1951, Reich insisted.
But the freedom Reich took for himselfwas not granted to others. On the contrary,
his sexual double standard, his jealous rages became worse than ever after the Oranur exper-
iment, perhaps because it exacerbated his conflicts. A particularly malignant episode was the
resurgence ofhis old suspicions about Ilse and Theo Wolfe having had an affair while Reich
was detained at Ellis Island in 1941 (see Chapter 20). Just as Reich’s jealousy toward Ilse can
be viewed as one symptom oftheir deteriorating marriage, so his suspicions of Wolfe were
rooted in the increasing distance between the two men.
Wolfe’s assiduous efforts on behalf of orgonomy during the war years began to
decline around 1947.He had become tired of his tedious tasks of translating, editing, and
publishing orgonomic literature, tasks he had carried out superbly for seven hard years.
Moreover, by that time Reich was writing in English, so the more creative side of Wolfe’s
function was no longer needed. Reich repeatedly urged him to do some scientific work, for
example,to conduct research on cancer. But Wolfe was not willing or able to undertake such
a task; besides, his chief interest lay in the therapy of neuroses. Yet Wolfe, who was a shy,
358 Myron SharafFury On Earth