stiffness I have now is due to digging I fear. I would love to see you
again. I often wonder if we shall ever meet again in this weary world of
today. I'd like to live to see the better world that must follow this
present insane one.
- ••
Forest Hills, New York
April 28, 1940
My dear Neill!
Your letter arrived yesterday together with the offer of Mr.
Read. I shall send a copy of the lugendbuch [youth book], but I doubt
whether it would be wise to have it published at first in England. Dr.
Theodore Wolfe from Columbia [University], whom you remember, is
translating another book of mine which had not been published before. *
It deals with the fundamental problems of Sex-Economy, t presenting
them according to their development within the IPV:t beginning in 1919
up to the present. It is much more simply written than my other books,
and I think it would suit the purpose of introducing my work into
English countries best. It contains in the first part the controversy with
Freud, and in the second the autonomous development of my clinical
work. If you get clear whether Kegan would be interested in this book
first, I shall send you a copy as soon as it is available. After this the
lugendbuch will be accepted much more easily.
I was glad to hear from you. We had terrible days when Norway
was invaded, and are still worried in spite of a telegram from Raknes§
saying that "friends here all well." I try hard to find out how I could
manage to get Else and some others out and over here. I fear the worst.
Could you help somehow? I am afraid not. But how to get in mail
touch with them? It is dreadful. As soon as you hear further details
write please or wire.
* The Function of the Orgasm (published as Volume One of The Discovery of
the Orgone, 1942 ; republished in a new translation, 1973 ). Describes the develop
ment of Reich's work on sex-economy and his discovery of the emotional functions
of biological energy.
t Reich uses "economy" in the sense of management or regulation; hence, "sex
economy" denotes the regulation of sexual (biological) energy within the organism.
+ Internationale Psychoanalytische Vereinigung [International Psycho-Analytical
Association].
§ Ola Raknes, Norwegian psychotherapist and lifelong supporter of Reich.