The injunction decree against Reich’s books applied only to Reich, the Wilhelm
Reich Foundation, Use Ollendorff, Silvert, and persons “acting in concert” with them. The
Foundation was dissolved prior to Reich’s death. In May 1958, five months after his release
from prison, Silvert committed suicide. He was sick, his license to practice medicine had
been revoked, he was working as a bellhop captain^3. I would speculate that guilt over his
role in Reich’s last years may have been an additional motive for his action. In any case, by
1959 all the defendants in the FDA case had passed from the scene.
The Higgins trusteeship has not been without dissension. Her most controversial
decision concerns the accessibility to scholars of Reich’s unpublished papers. Higgins has
interpreted Reich’s statement in his will that his papers should be “stored” for fifty years
after his death (i.e., until 2007) to mean that no one should see them except her. This inter-
pretation has been legally opposed by Eva Reich, but so far the courts have upheld Higgins.
I, too, disagree with Higgins’ interpretation and with another manifestation of her
possessive tendency towardReich’s work her reluctance to give permission to authors to
quote extensively from Reich’s publications. A final disagreement is that I believe Reich’s
later unavailable articles deserve publishing priority over early analytic papers that have been
reissued. Yet on balance I believe that she has done a good job as trustee. Of particular value
has been her insistence on publishing Reich’s important books, regardless of the question
of their salability. Her orderly procedures are also manifest when one visits Orgonon; the
setting closely resembles that of Reich’s days.
Following Reich’s death, Elsworth Baker continued the training of physicians in
orgonomic therapy, a role he performed several years prior to Reich’s demise. Today there
are about twenty psychiatrists working with him. In 1967 the semi-annual Journal of
Orgonomy, which deals with all aspects of orgonomy, began appearing under Baker’s editor-
ship. In 1968 Baker and his associates founded the College of Orgonomy as an umbrella
organization for orgonomic research as well as educational activities. In 1981 the college
started a fund-raising campaign with a goal of $2 million to finance a building in Princeton,
New Jersey,where all the functions of the college can be centralized. As of 1982 the cam-
paign has raised $1 million,a far cry from the financial plight of orgonomy immediately after
Reich’s death.
Another activity related to the College has been a course on Reich’s work given by
Paul Mathews and John Bell since 1968 through the Division of Continuing Study at New
York University. It is the longest-running course in this particular Division. A different
approach to a wider public was started by Lois Wyvell in 1980 when she published the first
issue of Offshoots of Orgonomy. The articles are written in clear popular language and are
addressed to the interested layman, The first three issues have included valuable material on
child upbringing and two outstanding studies of the use of orgone energy to stimulate plant
growth^4.
It is true that Baker and his students have tended to devalue much of Reich’s earli-
er sociological work whenever it conflicts or appears to conflict with his later, more conser-
vative emphases. They have also angrily dismissed any contributions from Neo-Reichians
444 Myron SharafFury On Earth