The hearing was scheduled for the afternoon, in Portland, Maine. During the morn-
ing, Reich met for a conference with a small group of associates Drs. Baker, Raphael, Duvall,
Handelman, Sobey, and Anderson; Michael Silvert, James Willie, Eva, William Steig, the
lawyers Haydon and Fisher, and me. I was present because in the late spring of 1955 I had
begun working for Reich again, now on a part-time basis from Boston. My main task con-
sisted of preparing material for publication and keeping historical records.
Using notes I made at the time, let me summarize some of the points Reich made.
He wanted his lawyers to help him get through to the factualissues: the fact of the conspir-
acy behind the injunction, the fact of orgone energy, the fact that the emotional plague
enmeshed everyone. He said that as long as they stuck to legal, procedural issues, they would
never get through. Furthermore, the emotional plague was infinitely better at this kind of
maneuvering.
Reich emphasized several times that the doctors should be aware that they were the
first physiciansof the emotional plague, that this was an awesome responsibility, that the
plague was an epidemic and more devastating than any disease in the history of mankind.
What they would have to learn was to bring the plague out into the open, to bring charac-
ter analysis from “the little therapy office” onto the public scene, and to practice “social psy-
chiatry.”He was grateful for the rich experiences he had had in fighting the plague, grateful
that decades ago he had broken away from a narrow private practice. Now he felt that he
was returning actively to the public fight for these issues, as he had done during his sex-eco-
nomic period.
One physician raised the question: Given the fact that his opponents were in des-
perate need of social psychiatry, but were “reluctant patients,” how did one get through to
them? Reich saw it as a question of hitting through their armor, of “drawing out the human
being in them.” Whether to do this all at once, or slowly, depended on what transpired. It
was a question of knowing how to operate, like a skilled surgeon, and for this operation “no
knife has been invented yet.”
I am impressed still by Reich’s lucidity and depth. With the major exception of his
continued assertion ofa Red Fascist conspiracy, his remarks and under this kind of pressure
stand the test oftime. Unfortunately, there was no way these particular insights could be
raised in court or be effective there.
At the hearing, Reich, Silvert, and Moise (representing the Wilhelm Reich
Foundation) were the defendants. About twenty of Reich’s supporters were present in the
courtroom.Joseph Maguire and Peter Mills represented the government. Maguire was a tall,
pale, dour man, though not the vicious-looking creature one might have expected from
Reich’s delineation ofthe FDA. It was strange to see Mills—short, bland, and smiling—rep-
resenting the government after his participation as lawyer for the Foundation in many can-
did discussions with Reich. Judge Clifford was white-haired, gaunt but kindly-looking.
Haydon presented his arguments first. He also opposed, on constitutional grounds,
the FDA’s right to subpoena Reich’s files. Maguire spoke next simply and fairly factually. He
wanted to get rid of the accumulators, as the injunction had decreed. Reich wouldn’t let him,
406 Myron SharafFury On Earth