Geburtstag: 24. März 1897
Todesdatum: 3. November 1957
Wilhelm Reich war ein österreichisch-US-amerikanischer Psychiater, Psychoanalytiker, Sexualforscher und Soziologe. Reich fand Zusammenhänge zwischen psychischen und muskulären Panzerungen und entwickelte die Therapiemethode der Psychoanalyse zur Charakteranalyse und diese zur Vegetotherapie weiter. Letztere gilt als Grundlage für verschiedene später begründete Körperpsychotherapien.
Seine parallel dazu durchgeführten mikrobiologischen Forschungen führten ihn zur „Entdeckung des Orgons“, einer „primordialen“ Energie, deren Existenz außerhalb von Reichs Schülerkreis nicht anerkannt wurde.
— Wilhelm Reich
Christusmord, Übers. aus dem Englischen von Bernd A. Laska. Olten und Freiburg/Br.: Walter-Verlag 1978 (Engl. Orig., The Murder of Christ. Rangeley/Maine, USA: Orgone Institute Press 1953)
— Wilhelm Reich
November 1935) — Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf, Kopenhagen: Sexpol-Verlag 1936, Vorwort, S. XVI
— Wilhelm Reich
Rede an den kleinen Man, Fischer Taschenbuch 6777, Frankfurt/M., Juni 1984, S. 11 (Deutsche Erstausgabe; zuerst ersch. in engl. Übersetzung: Listen Little Man, New York: Orgone Institute Press 1948)
— Wilhelm Reich
Motto auf dem Vorsatzblatt der meisten deutschen Ausgaben von Reichs Büchern, die 1966 und später erschienen, zitiert in "Die Sexuelle Revolution". Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt/M 1999, 15. Auflage, ISBN 3-596-26749-8, S. 7, erstmals veröffentlicht in "Die Funktion des Orgasmus" 1927
— Wilhelm Reich
Rede an den kleinen Mann, Fischer Taschenbuch 6777, Frankfurt/M., Juni 1984, 780-ISBN 3-596-26777-3, S. 79 (Deutsche Erstausgabe; zuerst ersch. in engl. Übersetzung: "Listen Little Man", New York: Orgone Institute Press 1948 )
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: "What right do you have to tell me things?" I can see this question in your apprehensive look. I hear this question from your impertinent mouth, Little Man. You are afraid to look at yourself, you are afraid of criticism, Little Man, just as you are afraid of the power they promise you. You would not know how to use this power. You dare not think that you ever might experience your self differently: free instead of cowed; open instead of tactical; loving openly instead of like a thief in the night. You despise yourself Little Man. You say: "Who am I to have an opinion of my own, to determine my own life and to declare the world to be mine?" You are right: Who are you to make a claim to your life?
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: You beg for happiness in life, but security is more important to you, even if it costs you your spine or your life. Your life will be good and secure when aliveness will mean more to you than security; love more than money; your freedom more than party line or public opinion; when your thinking will be in harmony with your feelings; when the teachers of your children will be better paid than the politicians; when you will have more respect for the love between man and woman than for a marriage license.
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: MAN IS FUNDAMENTALLY AN ANIMAL. Animals, as distinct from man, are not machine-like, not sadistic; their societies, within the same species, are incomparably more peaceful than those of man. The basic question, then is: What has made the animal, man, degenerate into a machine?
When I say "animal," I do not mean anything bad, cruel or "base"; I am stating a biological fact. Man has developed the peculiar concept that he is not an animal at all, but, well — man; a creature which long since has shed that which is "bad," which is "animal." He demarcates himself in all possible ways from the bad animal and points, in proof of his "being better," to culture and civilization which distinguish him from the animal. He shows, in his whole behavior, his "theories of values," his moral philosophies, his "monkey trials" and such, that he does not want to be reminded of the fact that basically he is an animal, an animal, furthermore, which has much more in common with the "animal" than with that being which he asserts to be and dreams of being. The theory of the German Übermensch has this origin. Man shows by his maliciousness, his inability to live in peace with his kind, his wars, that what distinguishes him from the other animals is only his unbounded sadism and the mechanical trinity of the authoritarian concept of life, mechanistic science and the machine. If one looks at the results of civilization as they present themselves over long periods of time, one finds that these contentions of man are not only erroneous; more than that, they seem to be made expressly for the purpose of making man forget that he is an animal.
Section 3 : Work Democracy versus Politics. The Natural Social Forces for the Mastery of the Emotional Plague
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: MAN IS FUNDAMENTALLY AN ANIMAL. Animals, as distinct from man, are not machine-like, not sadistic; their societies, within the same species, are incomparably more peaceful than those of man. The basic question, then is: What has made the animal, man, degenerate into a machine?
When I say "animal," I do not mean anything bad, cruel or "base"; I am stating a biological fact. Man has developed the peculiar concept that he is not an animal at all, but, well — man; a creature which long since has shed that which is "bad," which is "animal." He demarcates himself in all possible ways from the bad animal and points, in proof of his "being better," to culture and civilization which distinguish him from the animal. He shows, in his whole behavior, his "theories of values," his moral philosophies, his "monkey trials" and such, that he does not want to be reminded of the fact that basically he is an animal, an animal, furthermore, which has much more in common with the "animal" than with that being which he asserts to be and dreams of being. The theory of the German Übermensch has this origin. Man shows by his maliciousness, his inability to live in peace with his kind, his wars, that what distinguishes him from the other animals is only his unbounded sadism and the mechanical trinity of the authoritarian concept of life, mechanistic science and the machine. If one looks at the results of civilization as they present themselves over long periods of time, one finds that these contentions of man are not only erroneous; more than that, they seem to be made expressly for the purpose of making man forget that he is an animal.
Section 3 : Work Democracy versus Politics. The Natural Social Forces for the Mastery of the Emotional Plague
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: You worship the Christ child. The Christ child was born of a mother who had no marriage certificate. What you worship in the Christ child, you poor little marriage-ridden man, is your own yearning for sexual freedom!
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: See yourself as you really are. Listen to what none of your leaders and representatives dares tell you: You are a "little, common man." Understand the double meaning of these words: "little" and "common."
Don't run. Have the courage to look at yourself!
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: You are different from the really great man in only one thing: The great man, at one time, also was a very little man, but he developed one important ability: he learned to see where he was small in his thinking, and actions. Under the pressure of some task which was dear to him he learned better and better to sense the threat that comes from his smallness and pettiness. The great man, then, knows when and in what he is a little man.
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: If, by being revolutionary, one means rational rebellion against intolerable social conditions, if, by being radical, one means "going to the root of things," the rational will to improve them, then fascism is never revolutionary. True, it may have the aspect of revolutionary emotions. But one would not call that physician revolutionary who proceeds against a disease with violent cursing but the other who quietly, courageously and conscientiously studies and fights the causes of the disease. Fascist rebelliousness always occurs where fear of the truth turns a revolutionary emotion into illusions.
Preface to the Third Edition (August 1942)
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: Only a work democracy can create the foundation of genuine freedom. Long experience in sociological disputes leads me to expect that a great many people will take offense at the disclosure of this miscalculation. It makes the highest demands on people's will to veracity; it puts a heavy burden on everyday living; it places all social responsibility on those who work, be it in the factory, in the office, on the farm, in the laboratory, or wherever.
Section 2 : The Biological Miscalculation in the Human Struggle for Freedom
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: Nature and culture, instinct and morality, sexuality and achievement become incompatible as a result of the split in the human structure. The unity and congruity of culture and nature, work and love, morality and sexuality, longed for from time immemorial, will remain a dream as long as man continues to condemn the biological demand for natural (orgastic) sexual gratification.
General Survey
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: If, by being revolutionary, one means rational rebellion against intolerable social conditions, if, by being radical, one means "going to the root of things," the rational will to improve them, then fascism is never revolutionary. True, it may have the aspect of revolutionary emotions. But one would not call that physician revolutionary who proceeds against a disease with violent cursing but the other who quietly, courageously and conscientiously studies and fights the causes of the disease. Fascist rebelliousness always occurs where fear of the truth turns a revolutionary emotion into illusions.
Preface to the Third Edition (August 1942)
