York, which he sent regularly to Reich.
I have not yet described Bill Moise. His quiet, steady, warm temperament, com-
bined with his loyalty and diligence, made him a valuable aide-de-camp to Reich. As a
painter, he was sensitive to the atmospheric nuances Reich emphasized during this period.
Bill tended to absorb equally Reich’s sound and bizarre ideas; in his case, this seemed to be
due more to naivete than a desire to curry favor. Bill provided a fine balance to his more
volatile wife, and a solid, playful source of support for young Peter, who loved him dearly.
There was some tension between those who worked closely with Reich in Maine,
such as Eva and Bill, or who followed him absolutely, such as Silvert and Steig, and the New
York physicians, led by Baker, who were often uncomfortable with certain of Reich’s posi-
tions, especially his dealings with the FDA. However, when Reich issued orders everybody
fell into line, with greater or lesser importance. Increasingly, Reich saw himself as a general
with lieutenants, sergeants, and privates in his small army. At the very least they were locked
in a life-and-death struggle against the emotional plague on earth; possibly they were at war
with space men. Like a general, Reich demanded and usually obtained total obedience from
those around him *.
A very proud member of this stalwart group was Reich’s son, Peter, eleven years
old at the time ofthe injunction.Peter has so well described his relationship with his father
in A Book of Dreamsthat to go into it here would only dilute it. Suffice it to say, they were
very close. Reich always or almost
always seems to have treated Peter with great tenderness. Peter was the only person
who could cajole Reich out of his angry moods. Peter has related the story of coming home
with his mother after a movie during the post-injunction period. While they were away, the
water pipes had burst. Reich was furious, blaming Ilse for the trouble. Peter quickly said:
“Let me take a picture of you while you are angry. You look good”—a move that defused
Reich’s rage^39.
Reich burdened Peter with his plight just as he shared his joys with his son. Peter
has recalled Reich’s showing him a 45-automatic kept in the lower cabin and saying that he
might have to use it on himselfshould he be unable to face imprisonment. Reich cried at
the time, and Peter was one of the few people who saw Reich cry in those last years. For all
his emphasis on Peter’s having his own career, freely chosen, his father undoubtedly encour-
aged Peter’s vision of himself as a member of Reich’s army, and a future worker in the field.
Just as he saw Eva at ten years old as a Communist youth leader, so he saw Peter as a cos-
mic engineer in apprenticeship. And Peter relished the role. Moreover, Reich, especially in
the last years with Ilse and after the separation, tended to treat Peter in a fashion similar to
the way the young Willy had been treated by his father after the mother’s death as his best
28 : The FDA Injunction and Reich’s Responses: 1951-1955 399
*The associations of his name to Kaiser Wilhelm and the German nation itself were —never more embodied in
his behavior than during this time. The Yugoslav film director Dusan Makaveyev, who made a film about Reich in
1971,has remarked that for a German-speaking boy to have a name like “Wilhelm Reich” at the turn of the cen-
tury is comparable to a French child of the same period bearing the name “Napoleon France.”