Reich was bedridden for four weeks. The heart attack exacerbated his depression
and anxiety over the disruption of his work, his upheavals with Ilse, and his general sense
of things coming apart. Ilse Ollendorff has described the problems:
... Although it was suggested by those physicians who were at Orgonon at
that time that he might be better taken care of in a hospital or that he should at
least have an oxygen tent at his disposal or that he should see a heart specialist he
absolutely refused, and insisted on curing himself with orgone therapy; but he gave
up smoking for good. I took care of him in the beginning, but he became increas-
ingly suspicious of my good will and during the last two weeks of his convalescence
had his daughter Eva come back to take care of him^18.On November 12, Ilse wrote Dr. Baker:He [Reich] is so terrifically sensitive to the least irrationality that it seems
almost unavoidable that one of us here gets him upset. If it is not me, it is Tropp,
or Mickey [Sharaf ], or Grethe or Lois or Tom or Eva, or Peter or the radio, and
you cannot keep him completely isolated. ... He fluctuates very much between
wanting to die, not wanting to die and being afraid of dying, and it is impossible to
pretend anything to him or to have “bedside manners.” I think that he and Dr.
Tropp have decided that his sickness could be diagnosed in classical terms as
myocarditis which, according to Tropp, has a very hopeful prognosis, if we can just
manage to keep him quiet and resting.Reich’s refusal to see a heart specialist reflected his long-held suspicion of classical
medicine. But his giving up cigarettes was a big step. He had smoked all his adult life, at least
since the Army period. His cigarettes were as dear to him as cigars were to Freud, but clear-
ly his heavy smoking had taken its toll.During the period I knew him,he suffered from a
racking cough that at times was like a seizure; one became afraid he would pass out. In the
days following his decision to quit, someone asked him if it was hard to stop. He simply
replied: “I have considerable self-discipline when I want to exert it.”^19
The growing tension between Reich and Ilse was reflected in his decision to have
Eva visit Orgonon and care for him during the last weeks or so of his illness. In the spring
of 1951 she returned to Maine along with her lover, William Moise, a painter, teacher, and
student oforgonomy. Sometimes living in Rangeley, sometimes in Hancock, Maine (some
four hours from Orgonon), Eva and Bill were both to participate in diverse aspects of
Reich’s work and remain close to him until the end of his life.
The friction between Reich and Eva continued. Eva had many qualities in common
with her father—she was lively, open, domineering, and brilliant, with an intuitive as well as
scientific flair for orgonomy. Unlike her father, she could also be scattered, confused, and
provocative. She knew exactly how to irritate him, for example, by indulging her penchant
27 : Personal Life and Other Developments: 1950-1954 365