interval between the father’s detection of the affair and the mother’s suicide. In his “case his-
tory,” Reich appears to make himself about a year younger than he was when he discovered
the liaison, for we now know with some certainty that Reich was thirteen at the time of his
mother’s suicide. This is the age given by Beverly R. Placzek, the editor of the Reich-Neill
correspondence (New York:FSG, 1981). Since Mary Higgins, the executrix of the Reich
estate, cooperated with this venture and searched out “relevant material” for the editor, we
can assume that Ms. Higgins drew on Reich’s personal papers to authenticate his age.
In describing himself as around eleven and a half or twelve at the time of the affair, Reich
may well have been making himself over a year younger than he actually was. He also dates
his first sexual intercourse as taking place earlier than it did. However, again I must caution
that we do not know the length of the interval between the father’s awareness of the affair
and the mother’s suicide. I have lingered on these details because of the overwhelming sig-
nificance Reich attaches as I do to this childhood tragedy for his later work and develop-
ment.
- AI with OH, Aug. 21, 1971.
- Ibid.
- AI with EL, Aug. 27-28, 1962.
- AI with ER, Aug. 22, 1971.
19.Erikson,Gandhi’s Truth,128.
20.WR,“Background and Scientific Development of Wilhelm Reich,” 7.
- WR, “Inzest in der Pubertat.”
22.IOR,WR:BIO, 26-27.
- WR, “Background and Scientific Development,” 6-7.
- AI with ER, Aug. 2, 1971.
25.IOR,WR:BIO,26-27.
- AI with Sigurd Hoel, Aug. 25, 1957. In the late 1930s Reich told Hoel, then a distin-
guished Norwegian novelist, of his end-of-the-war feelings. Hoel’s relationship with WR will
be described later,when it will become apparent why WR confided in him.
Chapter 4:Becoming a Psychoanalyst: 1918-1920, p.581.AI with OH, Aug. 21, 1971.
2.Tel.Int. with Gisela Stein, Oct. 10, 1971.
- AI with LL, July 15, 1971.