September 2004 Update
From
The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust
& The Wilhelm Reich Museum
We thank you for your continual interest and support. For newcomers to our e-mail Update list, none of the names on this list--nor the names of any Museum visitors, conference attendees or bookstore customers--are shared with any other individuals or organizations. If at any time you wish to be removed from this list, please let us know.
All previous Updates, dating from March 2004, available online.
You can access them through the Updates option at the top of this page or via the Quick Links along the left side of the page. These Updates provide the best contemporaneous accounts of the Trust's ongoing activities over the past six years.
Visiting Orgonon in September
Lecture in New York City
Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Endowment Fund
Bringing Reich’s Work to the Scientific Community
Back in Print: Reich Speaks of Freud
Trends in Our Bookstore
Orgonomic Functionalism
Rental Cottages
VISITING ORGONON IN SEPTEMBER
Please note that while our 175 acre property, with its trails and
nature walks, is open year round from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.,
the Observatory is open for tours on Sundays only from 1- 5 p.m.
It will be closed from October through June, and re-open in July.
Special tours can be arranged throughout the year by calling the
Museum office at (207) 864-3443. The Conference Building,
which houses the Museum and Trust offices, the Orgone Room,
and our new Reading Room, is open year-round Monday-Friday
from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
LECTURE IN NEW YORK CITY - OCTOBER 8th
"SEX, CLASS AND SOCIAL WORK :
WILHELM REICH'S FREE CLINICS AND THE
ACTIVIST HISTORY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS"
Our annual benefit for the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Endowment
Fund will feature a presentation by Elizabeth Ann Danto, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor of Social Policy at Hunter College School of
Social Work, City University of New York (CUNY). The benefit
will be held at the Williams Club at 24 E. 39th St. and will begin
at 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Danto has written and lectured extensively about the social
activism of pioneering European psychoanalysts in the early
20th century, including an article on Reich's free clinics published
in Psychoanalytic Social Work (Spring 2000). Dr. Danto is also the
author of "The Berlin Poliklinik: Psychoanalytic Innovation in
Weimar Germany" (Journal of the Psychoanalytic Association,
December 1999) and "The Ambulatorium: Freud's Free Clinic
in Vienna" (International Journal of Psychoanalysis, May 1998).
Her book Oedipus Red - Psychoanalysis in Europe, 1918-1938
will be available in Spring 2005 from Columbia University Press.
The evening will include a champagne fete with hors d'ouvres.
A contribution of $75 to the Endowment Fund is requested,
$35 for students with valid college or university I.D. If you're
planning to attend, R.S.V.P as soon as possible.
Checks can be made out to the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Endowment
Fund, and mailed to P.O. Box 687, Rangeley, ME. 04970. For further
information, call the Museum office at (207) 864-3443.
WILHELM REICH INFANT TRUST ENDOWMENT FUND
Our funding needs cover a broad range from individual project support
to general support to capital support. With the Museum's annual
operating budget now approaching $150,000 (to maintain seven
buildings on our 175 acre property, plus salaries and office expenses),
capital support is more crucial than ever.
Like most non-profits, we need to secure a solid financial base as we
plan for the future. Which means we cannot survive without a healthy
Endowment Fund.
At the suggestion of Paul Della Penna, a long-time supporter from
Canada, The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust began its Endowment Fund
which is managed by a senior officer at UBS Financial Services.
The Fund now consists of over $200,000, none of which we are
currently using for our expenses. This sum represents individual
contributions, proceeds from our annual programs at the Williams
Club in New York City, and generous bequests from two individuals
who were profoundly committed to Reich's work and the mission of
the Trust. Our goal is to build up the Fund to $1,000,000 by 2008,
at which time we can use the interest to meet our budgetary needs.
Please help us provide a solid financial base for the Trust through
contributions of assets during your lifetime or bequests in your will.
Helping us realize our goal is a unique and practical way to express
your commitment to Reich's legacy.
BRINGING REICH'S WORK TO THE TRADITIONAL
SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL COMMUNITIES
Implicit in the Trust's mission is the need to interest traditional
science and medicine in the value of Reich's work. This we are
doing consistently, quietly, and strategically. With input from
our friends and supporters, we are researching and identifying
individuals, organizations, and funding resources to whom we might
send materials for the purpose of pursuing a variety of opportunities.
For example, today more than ever before there are numerous
well-financed alternative medical trials involving a plethora of
promising new treatments. It is imperative that these trials
provide a context in which the American medical community will
seriously and honestly study the orgone energy accumulator and
the extensive medical data documented by Reich and his colleagues.
Equally important is presenting Reich's findings to physicists who
may be questioning long-held precepts about energy, space, and the
laws that govern the universe. Here again, Reich's empirical findings
offer a compelling body of work worthy of serious examination.
In the past few years we have sent out packages of materials
to physicians, physicists, medical and scientific researchers,
and educators. These include copies of our biographical video
Man's Right to Know, along with selections of Reich's work
carefully chosen for each individual, based on his or her profession
and areas of interest.
While we have no illusions about the formidable obstacles we
face in these endeavors, Reich's emphasis in his Will on the
"secure transmission to future generations of a vast empire
of scientific accomplishment" makes our course of action clear.
BACK IN PRINT: REICH SPEAKS OF FREUD
For years Reich Speaks of Freud has been out of print, and available
in the Museum bookstore only in bound xerox copies. Thanks to
the collaborative efforts of our publisher Farrar Straus & Giroux
and Lightning Source, a books-on-demand publishing house,
it is now available in softcover in our Museum Bookstore.
First published in 1967, the core of this book is a transcript of a
three-day interview with Reich, conducted by Kurt Eissler of the
Freud Archives in October 1952 at Orgonon. An extensive
documentary supplement provides pertinent extracts from Reich's
writings and previously unpublished material from the Reich Archives,
including letters to Freud, Adler, Ferenczi and others involved in
the early struggles within psychoanalysis.
This volume, more than any other, clarifies the relationship between
Reich and Freud, documents the unrelenting hostility of the
psychoanalysts toward Reich, and traces the origins of many of
the rumors and distortions that we hear even today.
We often recommend this book to those who are just learning about
Reich and are curious about which titles might provide the best
introduction to his life and work. This volume presents a
conversation with Reich that is accessible, concise, and rich with
detail and insight about the early decades of psychoanalysis.
Along with Selected Writings and The Function of the Orgasm,
Reich Speaks of Freud is an ideal resource for newcomers to orgonomy.
TRENDS IN OUR BOOKSTORE
We keep close tabs on the sale of books, reprinted materials, videos,
audiotapes, and other items in the Museum Bookstore. In addition to our online store, these materials can be purchased during visits to Orgonon or by phone,
FAX or e-mail through the Museum office.
Publisher Farrar Straus & Giroux also provides us with figures about
domestic and foreign book sales. And friends and visitors frequently
report to us on titles they often see in the popular chain bookstores.
(Generally the most commonly found Reich titles in major bookstores
are Character Analysis, The Function of the Orgasm, Listen Little Man,
and The Mass Psychology of Fascism.)
Below is a list of the Museum bookstore's best-selling materials,
starting with the most popular:
- Listen Little Man
- Ether, God and Devil/Cosmic Superimposition
- Man's Right to Know (biographical video)
- Contact with Space
- "Plans for Constructing an Accumulator" and "Plans for
Constructing an Orgone Blanket"
- The Function of the Orgasm, Genitality, The Murder of Christ
- The Cancer Biopathy
- "Alone" (audiotape), American Odyssey, Children of the Future,
The Oranur Experiment
- The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety,
Selected Writings
- The Bion Experiments, "The Orgone Energy Accumulator" (booklet)
ORGONOMIC FUNCTIONALISM
In terms of the commercial market, Reich's scientific writings have
never attracted a significant readership. Consequently, various titles
by Reich have gone in and out of print over the years. And publishers
have been reluctant to commit their resources to any new scientific
materials authored by Reich. Yet Reich's unpublished writings on
infant care, parenting, education, physics, nature, weather, and other
topics are crucial to understanding the breadth of orgonomy.
In the Spring of 1990, The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust issued
Volume I of Orgonomic Functionalism, intended as a bi-annual
periodical devoted to previously unpublished material by Reich,
as well as key selections from his books and bulletins. Edited by
Mary Boyd Higgins and Chester M. Raphael, M.D., the Trust
was assisted financially in this endeavor by the generosity of an
eclectic group of supporters: Stewart Ascher M.D., Kenneth
Baker D.O., Paul Della Penna, Jeanne Fitzgerald, Seymour Gottlieb,
Morton Herskowitz D.O., the Institute for Orgonomic Science,
Monte Jaffe, Heiko Lassek M.D., Victor Sobey M.D., and William Steig.
Volume 6, published in 1996, turned out to be the final issue,
due to lack of funding. We hope to resume publication in the near
future. Meanwhile, all six volumes of Orgonomic Functionalism
are available in the Museum Bookstore in their original binding.
We call your attention to their invaluable contents, and hope you'll
add them to your collection.
Volume 1 - Spring 1990
"Developmental History of Orgonomic Functionalism - Part 1"
"From Homo Normalis to the Child of the Future"
"A Note on Sympathetic Understanding"
"Silent Observer, Part 1: The Yearning for the Hidden Sweetness"
"Functional Thinking: A Discussion with Wilhelm Reich"
Volume 2 - Fall 1990
"Developmental History of Orgonomic Functionalism - Part 2"
"Silent Observer, Part 2: Freud's Position in the Sexual Revolution"
"Wrong Thinking Kills"
"On Using the Atomic Bomb"
"Man's Roots in Nature: A Lecture and Discussion"
Volume 3 - Summer 1991
"Developmental History of Orgonomic Functionalism - Part 3"
"Orgonotic Pulsation, Part 1: Differentiation of Orgone Energy from
Electromagnetism Presented in Talks with an Electrophysicist"
"The Evasiveness of Homo Normalis"
Volume 4 - Summer 1992
"Developmental History of Orgonomic Functionalism - Part 3"
"Orgonotic Pulsation - Part 2"
"Orgone Functions in Weather Formation"
"Attitude of Mechanistic Natural Science to the Life Problem"
Volume 5 - Summer 1994
"Orgonomic Functionalism in Non-Living Nature - Part 1"
"Orgonotic Pulsation - Part 3"
"Parents as Educators"
"Open Season on Truth"
"The Fundamental Problem of Form"
Volume 6 - Summer 1996
"Orgonomic Functionalism in Non-Living Nature - Part 2"
"Orgonotic Pulsation - Part 3"
"Desert Development and Emotional Deadness"
"Processes of Integration in the Newborn and Schizophrenia"
"The Meaning of ‘Disposition to Disease'"
"The Difficulty"
Single volume : $18.75
Any two volumes: $35.00
Volumes 1-6: $100.00
RENTAL COTTAGES
Looking to get away in the next couple of months? September is
peaceful and beautiful in Rangeley: the crowds are gone, and the
summer weather often lingers as we ease into autumn. The fall
foliage peaks anywhere from the last days of September to the
first week of October. And even after peak season, autumn in
Maine is tranquil and memorable.
We still have availabilities at our two rental cottages. The smaller
cottage we call Bunchberry was originally built by Reich as a study,
while the larger cottage known as Tamarack provided living quarters
for him and his family. Both cottages offer quiet, seclusion, and
access to the shores of Dodge Pond. For more details, please visit
our website or call us at (207) 864-3443.
UNTIL NEXT MONTH
Please share this Update with colleagues, friends, and family who may be interested in the life and legacy of Wilhelm Reich and the good works of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust and The Wilhelm Reich Museum. Thank you again for your friendship and support.
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