sexual disturbances. No matter how I tried to get away from it, the fact remained:
Cancer is living putrefaction of the tissues due to the pleasure starvation of the organism.That
this extremely simple fact had hitherto been overlooked was not alone due to inad-
equate research methods or the traditional errors of biology. I had hit upon it only
because I had to be consistent as a sex-economist and had to follow the results of
the sexual disturbances no matter where the search was going to lead. What has
really prevented this discovery from being made long ago is the prevailing concept
of life, the moralism, the sexual crippling of our children and adolescents, the
moralistic prejudices in medicine and education.... We have outlawed the most
important life function, have given it the stamp of sin and crime and have denied
it any social protection.... We have lost confidence in the natural laws of life and
now we have to pay the price for it^25.Reich saw the key to the prevention of cancer in mastering the sexual biopathies in
children and adolescents, that is, in eliminating the unhealthy processes that lead not only to
cancer but to any kind of biopathy. But in the case of cancer he had a more limited, simpler
apprach: the widespread use of the accumulator as a preventive measure. “The orgone accu-
mulator promises to become an important or even indispensable weapon in the fight for
public health. It effects an orgonotic charging of the blood which increases the resistance
to disease The orgone accumulator thus will be an indispensable weapon in the fight against
diseases which consist in decreased defense functions of the organism.”^26
It is a mark of Reich’s unbounded confidence that he could propose, for research
purposes, a plan whereby ten thousand people would regularly use the accumulator. The
incidence of cancer in the “accumulator group” would then be compared with a matched
sample that had not used the accumulator. Within five years, such studies would yield defi-
nite indications as to general cancer prevention.
The plan was the more surprising at a time when,aside from a few score students
and followers, Reich’s accumulator and his orgone energy aroused no interest whatsoever.
But that did not stop him. On April 13, 1945, he founded the Orgone Institute Research
Laboratories,which served as the distributing organization for accumulators. Until that time,
Reich had refrained from letting patients have the devices in their homes, partly from med-
ical considerations, since he wanted to keep a close watch in the initial period of experimen-
tation.
The one exception was Herman Templeton, the Maine guide who had sold Reich
his cabin near Rangeley back in 1940. Reich and Templeton became good friends. In late
1941, Templeton contracted cancer and was given a year to live at most. During the summer
of 1942, Reich saw his friend near death and persuaded the independent Templeton to build
his own accumulator and use it in his home. Templeton did so and improved markedly; in
fact, he took on the job of constructing accumulators in Maine. From his workshop they
were then distributed to persons for whom Reich had prescribed them. When he died in
1944, his daughter took over the enterprise.
22 : The Medical Effects of the Accumulator: 1940-1948 287