ings had not dealt with social issues, with the exception of his criticism of conventional sex-
ual standards. Like most analysts, Reich emphasized the patient’s inner difficulties in coping
with reality. But the Vienna demonstrations made Reich more aware of the way destructive
social factors interfered with the treatment of emotional disturbances as well as the way they
contributed to their development.
Finally, what about our own reactions to Reich’s account of the events of July 15?
How contemporary it all sounds! Just as Reich’s case histories in Character Analysismake us
feel that we know these people, that they are not merely relics from the 1920s, so his descrip-
tion of July 15 reminds us of what the United States experienced in the 1960s and early
1970s. Reich’s method of social investigation, his deep immersion in the day-by-day happen-
ings, and his method of reporting—including his own feelings and reactions—all remind us
of the “new journalism.” He was not the cold, objective historian; he was the man, he was
there, he suffered.
As the political situation steadily deteriorated from the viewpoint of the left, Reich
worked with both the radical left of the Social Democrats and the Communist Party. On one
level, he was involved in immediate political issues, the tactics and strategy of social strug-
gle.On another,he was asking deeper questions about the psychological receptivity of the
average individual to one or another political outlook. He termed this focus “mass psychol-
ogy.” In 1927 his insights were only dimly formulated, if at all; but over the next ten years
they would far exceed in significance his immediate concern with political tactics.
From this perspective, Reich gradually came to realize that the main problem lay in
the character structure of the masses themselves, especially their fear of freedom and
responsibility^7. However, in 1927, as I have suggested, this view did not dominate his think-
ing. Reich began to take part in demonstrations of the unemployed. He shared the commu-
nist illusion that the working class would soon overthrow the yoke of capitalism and build
a new socialist order^8.
He was to experience keenly the futility of such demonstrations. The police coop-
erated to the extent of permitting small gatherings. If the meeting looked as though it might
become troublesome,they would quietly disperse the “illegal” demonstrators. Even more
significantly, workers with jobs did not take part in the demonstrations for fear of losing
their employment. Nor did marches of the unemployed impress the onlookers. Reich’s hope
that the unemployed would move the people on the street into action did not materialize.
Occasionally, the marchers would shout “Down with Capitalism!” or “Freedom and bread!”,
but the people on the sidewalk were soon used to that and hardly paid any attention.
Dismal as these demonstrations were, Reich continued to take part in them, first
because of his concern for the unemployed and his political conviction at that time that
somehow, some way, radical change could develop, but also because he learned so much
from the demonstrations. Once again we can note Reich’s love of the concrete and the prac-
tical.He immersed himself in these first sociological endeavors much as he had earlier
thrown himself into psychoanalytic practice—with some guiding theoretical formulations,
124 Myron SharafFury On Earth