Raphael C. M. - Selected Writings: An Introduction to Orgonomy

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Contents

Love, work and knowledge are the well-springs of our life. They should also govern it.

WILHELM REICH

FOREWORD

This anthology of selected writings from the works of Wilhelm Reich was conceived as an introduction to Orgonomy, and it is presented without editorial comment or interpretation in the simple belief that those who seek knowledge must go to its source.

It has been difficult to make this selection. The vastness of Wilhelm Reichs scientific accomplishments has always created a problem of too muchness. In this instance, the problem was principally one of what to omitof how to satisfy the restrictions imposed by the limited space. It was hauntingly felt that to exclude any one piece of the material already published might deprive the reader of a rare opportunity to observe the historical development of the science of Orgonomy, and to follow this development as evidence of the consistent application of the functional method of thinking. Thus, the assumption of responsibility for making an adequate selection was not lightly undertaken. I would like to thank Chester M. Raphael, M.D. for the valuable help which he gave generously in the preparation of this volume.

Among the great wealth of excluded material is Wilhelm Reichs Last Will and Testament, signed three days before his imprisonment on March 11, 1957. The contents of this document are generally unknown, and this fact has helped to create confusion among those who wish to learn of his work, and anxiety in others who are concerned about its protection. Therefore, in order to clarify and to reassure, I wish to make public the basic tenets of this Will.

With the exception of a few specific bequests, Wilhelm Reich gave his entire estate to a Trust Fund to be held and administered under the name of the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund for the following uses and purposes.

1. To safeguard the truth about my life and work against distortion and slander after my death.

In order to enable the future student of the PRIMORDIAL COSMIC ENERGY OCEAN, THE LIFE ENERGY discovered and developed by me, to obtain a true picture of my accomplishments, mistakes, wrong assumptions, pioneering basic trends, my private life, my childhood, etc., I hereby direct that under no circumstances and under no pretext whatsoever shall any of the documents, manuscripts or diaries, found in my library among the archives or anywhere else be altered, omitted, destroyed, added to or falsified in any other imaginable way. The tendency of man, born from fear, to get along with his fellow man at any price, and to hide unpleasant matters is overpoweringly strong. To guard against this trend, disastrous to historical truth, my study including the library and archives shall be sealed right after my death by the proper legal authorities and no one shall be permitted to look into my papers until my Trustee, hereinafter named, is duly appointed and qualified and takes control and custody thereof.

These documents are of crucial importance to the future of newborn generations. There are many emotionally sick people who will try to damage my reputation regardless of what happens to infants, if only their personal lives would remain hidden in the darkness of a forsaken age of the Stalins and Hitlers.

I therefore direct my Trustee and his successors that nothing whatsoever must be changed in any of the documents and that they should be put away and stored for 50 years to secure their safety from destruction and falsification by anyone interested in the falsification and destruction of historical truth.

These directives are established by me solely for the preservation of documented truth as I lived it during my lifetime.

2. To operate and maintain the property at Orgonon under the name and style of the Wilhelm Reich Museum in order to preserve some of the atmosphere in which the Discovery of the Life Energy has taken place over the decades.

3. I have throughout all of my lifetime loved infants and children and adolescents, and I also was always loved and understood by them. Infants used to smile at me because I had deep contact with them and children of two or three very often used to become thoughtful and serious when they looked at me. This was one of the great happy privileges of my life, and I want to express in some manner my thanks for that love bestowed upon me by my little friends. May Fate and the great Ocean of Living Energy, from whence they came and into which they must return sooner or later, bless them with happiness and contentment and freedom during their life times. I hope to have contributed my good share to their future happiness.

all income, profits or proceeds due me and the Trust from royalties on tools originating in my discoveries shall be devoted to the care of infants everywhere, towards legal security of infants, children and adolescents in emotional, social, parental, medical, legal, educational, professional or other distress. Part of the proceeds may be used for basic orgonomic research.

The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund shall be mainly devoted and safely directed to this end.

Mary Boyd Higgins, Trustee

New York, 1960

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Wilhelm Reich was born on March 24, 1897, in the German-Ukranian part of Austria, as the son of a well-to-do farmer. His mother-language was German, and until 1938 Wilhelm Reich (hereafter WR) was an Austrian citizen.

Although he was taught the Old Testament as well as the New from the standpoint of scientific interest, WR had no religious education and adhered to no religious creed or political party. His early education (1903-7) was as a private student. He passed his examinations at an Austro-German public school and attended a German high school between 1907 and 1915, preparing for natural sciences. He graduated in 1915 with Stimmeneinhelligkeit.

WRs interest in biology and natural science was stimulated early by the life on the farm, close to agriculture and cattle-farming and breeding in which he took part every summer and during the harvest. Between his 8th and 12th years, he had his own collection and breeding laboratory of butterflies, insects and plants under the guidance of a private teacher. The natural life functions, including the sexual function, were familiar to him as far back as he could remember, and this may well have determined his later strong inclination, as a bio-psychiatrist, toward the biological foundation of the emotional life of man, and also his biophysical discoveries in the fields of medicine and biology, as well as education.

After the death of his father in 1914, WR, then 17, directed the farm work quite on his own, without interrupting his studies, until the war disaster put an end to this work and destroyed all property in 1915. He was in the Austrian Army from 1915 to 1918 (a lieutenant from 1916 to 1918) and was at the Italian front three times.

In 1918, WR entered the Medical School of the University of Vienna, earning his living and paying his way through school by tutoring fellow students in pre-medical subjects. As a war veteran, he was permitted to complete the 6 year course in 4 years, and he passed the 18 Rigorosa in 18 medical subjects and received excellent (ausgezeichnet) in all the pre-medical subjects. He was graduated and obtained the M.D. degree in July, 1922.