He could also demonstrate the negative sides of the human therapist—the sides the analysts
so rightly warn against. For all his theoretical commitment to the patient’s “overcoming any
fear of criticizing me,” he could become extremely angry at patients both in Norway and
later in America. This was particularly likely to occur when he was being criticized indirect-
ly.
Thus Reich sometimes violated the good part of the analyst’s neutrality, his basic
accepting and nonjudgmental stance, his refusal to repeat old sadomasochistic struggles with
the patient. In therapy, as in most of his other endeavors, Reich was a man of extremes. At
his best, he played in a league all his own. At his worst, he made mistakes a first-year psychi-
atric resident (or physicist or biologist) wouldn’t make.
What are the connections between Reich’s psychiatric treatment and his experimen-
tal work—in this period, his bio-electrical and bion research?
I have already suggested some mutual interaction. Thus around 1933 Reich had
noted “dead spots” in the organism, for example, penis anesthesia. The bio-electric experi-
ments in 1935 objectively confirmed for Reich the lack of flow or charge when pleasure was
not experienced. Conversely, the experiments heightened his confidence that he was observ-
ing a flow of measurable energy in his patients.
The study ofmicroorganisms, particularly cell division, renewed Reich’s conviction
during this period that in the case of orgasm reflex and orgastic potency, he was dealing with
basic life processes, processes that transcended purely psychological phenomena. He began
to look at the patient not—or not only—in terms of his or her various conflicts and partic-
ular life experiences, but, in words he once used, as “a sack of fluids and energy.”^13 The
issue was what prevented that “sack” from pulsating freely and from discharging excess
energy through the orgasm. The softening in the laboratory of the rigid structure of matter
leading to pulsating bions became analogous to the softening of the patient’s armor, which
led to the eliciting of strong, involuntary emotions.
Reich was getting a largely negative response from the world for his experimental
work,and no more than lukewarm tolerance from his friends, as we have seen. But he was
able to derive positive “feedback” indirectly. His students and patients were enormously
enthusiastic about his therapeutic work. The gratitude they expressed when their rigidities
softened,when energy flowed freely, could not help but give him greater confidence in the
validity of the “pulsations” he observed.
For a time Reich considered calling his treatment “orgasmotherapy,” but decided
that this frank nomenclature would be too overwhelming for his students^14. His treatment
was not a “direct sex therapy” in the current sense of that term. Rather, he contended that
blocks in the function of the orgasm were connected with blocks in the total character and
musculature. These had to be worked through before the total orgastic convulsions—not
simply local genital release such as Masters and Jonson would later describe—could occur.
The person who could not cry deeply or express his or her rage freely could also not, accord-
ing to Reich,convulse orgastically. His treatment thus concerned the whole organism, not
just the patient’s sexuality.
230 Myron SharafFury On Earth