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[bradley!bucc2!pwh@uiucdcs.cs.uiuc.edu (Pete Hartman)]

For a while now I've been planning on finding some books about or
by Wilhelm Reich, out of curiousity about this "orgone energy"
stuff mentioned in this group.  The recent argument pushed me into
action, and I thought that some relevant things could be made
general knowledge....My source is a book called "Wilhelm Reich"
(simple enough...) by Charles Rycroft.  I originally thought it to 
be a biography, but it it more an assessment of Reich's work.

To make a long analysis short, the point of the book is that Reich
was generally a brilliant man who came to many valid (or nearly
valid) insights about personality and relationships, and felt it
necessary to give these insights the stamp of a natural science.
His understanding of the scientific method, however, seems to have
been poor--he did experiments without control groups etc., and was
in the habit of finding facts to support his theories rather than
finding theories that fit the facts.  Unfortunately, in the latter 
instance, he tended to interpret others' work in ways that helped 
his theories, but weren't necessarily valid.

The other point the author makes is that many of Reich's theories
were similar to what artists and poets have been saying for some
time about the nature of life, and taken in such a way have a
definite validity.  Had he not felt it necessary to explain these
thoughts in a "scientific" way, he wouldn't have been so isolated
(although in such a light such insights were hardly ground-breaking).

As far as his work being "dangerous", as XYZ/dana seems to insist,
it seems unlikely to me.  That's not even cited as a reason for
his arrest:  "By the 1950's Reich had persuaded himself that it
was possible to isolate life energy in the form of vesicles, which
he called bions, and to store it in accumulators known as orgone
boxes.  He also believed that it was possible to cure patients with
cancer and other diseases by placing them inside these boxes.  In 
1954 the United States Food and Drug Administration placed an 
injunction against the distribution of orgone boxes on the ground 
that the claims made on their behalf were fraudulent.  Reich refused
either to obey the injunction of to recognize the competence of the
courts to adjudicate on matters of scientific fact.  He was eventually
charged with contempt of court and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
After imprisonment he was diagnosed paranoid and transferred to 'the
only penitentiary with psychiatric treatment facilities,' where he was,
however, declared 'legally sane and competent.'  On November 3, 1957,
he died of heart disease."

On the subject of the orgone boxes (the only part of treatment that
could potentially be considered dangerous):  "Incidentally, orgone
boxes--or to give them their official name 'orgone-energy accumulators'--
were constructed of alternating layers of steel wool and rock or glass
wool, with celotex soft-board on the outside.  Apparently they were
the shape of a telephone box of coffin, and I am told that one did 
indeed feel a bit strange after being encased in one, probably on account
of their poor ventilation."  However it is worth noting that nowhere
does it indicate that Reich's treatment allowed someone to stay in
a poorly ventilated box to the point of physical or psychological harm.

It is also indicated that quite a bit of his practice was successful
in treating psychological problems, but this success was probably more
due to Reich's personality and approach than to his theories.

I think that my major outrage in the matter of his arrest is not that
a brilliant man was trampled by an unfeeling government, although that
has some truth to it, but that his books were burned.  There was no need
or excuse for such an action, and it just adds to my realization of how 
little the government really cares about its citizens rights.

If you want a fairly quick and seemingly fair and realistic analysis of
Reich's theories, I'd recommend going to your local library and finding
this book.  It's only just over 100 pages, and seemed to me to be balanced
between finding Reich's valid points and pointing out his obviously 
off-the-wall attempt to find physical explanations for why these points
worked in therapy.