the proletarian fantasy gave waytothe individual credo of self-maximization.
Evidence of the process of adaptation to American conditions,the German
wordKenntnis,which denotes both consciousness and cognition, is reducedto
the more limited“knowledge”in the English translation of the passagecited
above.Phrases like“the power of the oppressors”stillretain the sound of com-
munist agitation. However,referencesto“satisfaction”or“inhibitions and anxi-
eties”alreadyannounce Reich’sconceptual shift from collective to individual
liberation.
Confirmingsuch readings,the subtitle“On the Sexual EconomyofPolitical
Reaction and on Proletarian SexualPolitics”was deleted from the first English
translation ofTheMassPsychology ofFascism(1946) distributed by the Orgone
Institute Press.Together with the subtitle, allreferencesto proletarian culture
and the Sex-Pol movement were likewise expungedto make room for what
Reich in the new introduction calls the more inclusive model of work-democracy.
He even explains his self-editing:“There are no class distinctions when it comes
to character.For thatreason, the purelyeconomic concepts of‘bourgeoisie’and
‘proletariat’werereplaced by the concepts‘reactionary’and‘revolutionary’or
‘free-minded,’ which relatetoman’scharacter and not to his social class.
These changes wereforced upon us by the fascist plague.”²⁷By declaring the
project of proletarian revolutionavictim of fascism,the late Reich was able to
salvage the project of sexualrevolution for contemporary appropriations. How-
ever,this meantsacrificing the proletariat,thatgroup of men and women who
in the early1920s inspired hisradical theories about sexualityand class and
who provided the collective bodyrecognizedinhis provocative calls for sexual
and politicalrevolution.
As this chapter has shown,Wilhelm Reich playedakey role in the discovery
of Freudo-Marxismbythe student movement and wasvenerated as an intellec-
tual forefather of various New Left movementsand countercultural groups dur-
ing the 1970s. Another famousWeimar contemporary,John Heartfield, was also
rediscovered duringthatturbulent time, namelyasthe originator of political
photomontage and an aesthetic habitus ofrage perfected in the fight against fas-
cism.It is unclear whether Reich and Heartfield crossed pathsduring theiryears
in Berlin, but it is fairlyeasy to seehow their intellectual (or artistic) biographies
playedakey role in their politicalradicalization and whythey at times succum-
bed to the attractions of communist orthodoxy and heteronormative masculinity.
Moreover,based on earlier discussions of therepresentation of collective bodies
by the Cologne Progressivesand the performance of embodied ideologyincom-
Reich,TheMassPsychology ofFascism,xxiv.
WilhelmReich and the Politics of Proletarian Sexuality 299