August 2009 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.
2009 Summer Conference
Closing Conference Thoughts From Reich
Bion Laboratory Manual Now Available
Talents, Generosity, & Volunteerism
Opening Remarks from 2009 Conference
2009 SUMMER CONFERENCE
Nearly 40 people attended our Summer Conference (July 13-16), including several
first-time attendees in the medical and academic professions from Brazil, California,
Canada, Greece and Mexico. Entitled "From the Archives of the Orgone Institute,"
the conference comprised lectures by scholars and researchers currently working with
archival materials for their projects, plus presentations of Reich's audio recordings,
films and unpublished documents. These were the conference presentations:
- New Narratives About Wilhelm Reich, M.D. (Opening Remarks)
- Historical Reactions to Pioneering Science: Darwin, Pasteur, Newton and Semmelweiss (Lecture)
- Reich's Unpublished Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence (Lecture & Projection of Archival Documents)
- Screening Reich's bion & cancer films
- Reich's Experimental Work in Biology: Technical Issues & Questions (Lecture)
- Reich's Unpublished Work Democracy Papers (Lecture & Projection of Archival Documents)
- Sex Education, Albert Crombie, and the Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) Attempt to Remove Reich's Citizenship (Lecture & Projection of Archival Documents)
- Listening to audio recordings of Reich's laboratory experiments with Geiger-Müller counters to develop the Orgone Motor
- The Trust's Documentary Film Project & New Manuscript (Discussion)
- Looking at archival documents about orgonometry; and listening to audio recordings of Wilhelm Reich explaining his gravity equations
- Screenings of (1) Personal films of Reich in Europe (2) Films of Reich's laboratory in Oslo (3) Reich's color films of activities at Orgonon
- Listening to audio recording of Reich founding the Orgonomic Infant Research Center
- A Controlled Double-blind Experiment Confirming the Effectiveness of the Orgone Energy Accumulator (Lecture)
- Challenges and Initiatives for Breakthroughs and New Narratives (Panel Discussion)
- Listening to audio recording of Reich's 1950 lecture "Man's Roots in Nature"
We thank all of the attendees and presenters for their participation in this summer's
conference, and for all of their ideas, feedback and friendship which are always
greatly appreciated.
CLOSING CONFERENCE THOUGHTS FROM REICH
We concluded our 2009 Conference with Wilhelm Reich's closing remarks from his lecture
"Man's Roots in Nature." This lecture concluded Reich's Second Orgonomic International
Convention at Orgonon on August 26, 1950. (The full transcript of Reich's talk appears in
Orgonomic Functionalism (Volume 2 - Fall 1990), published by The Wilhelm Reich
Infant Trust.)
"Now you will go home to your offices, as educators and physicians, and I hope you got one
thing from here. And that is a bit of courage and conviction. We are not alone. We have a
good thing in our hands. We can do a lot of good. What we need is a bit more fist, hardness,
rational hardness in our approach to our problems. A bit less fear of what someone says.
The best thing you have got is your conviction that you are right. That's the best thing you
have got. And as you go out, then try to maintain it.
"I can assure you that if you stop evading issues, if you go in a very prudent manner right
through the stuff you have to penetrate, people will respect you very highly. They're afraid
of you somewhere, but if you show courage, if you maintain your position, if you are a
learning human being, and modest, very modest, then you'll gain respect, very much, among
the people, and every single one of you will be a center. And this is not a very pleasant
position to have. The responsibilities are tremendous, quite tremendous. But it can be done!
"Every one of you can acquire the abilities to administer, not to govern, to administer.
To administer education, to administer medicine, to administer natural science, to administer
honesty, decency, truth, and maintain it against whatever might happen there. I wish to
thank you very, very much."
Wilhelm Reich, M.D.
NEW FROM REICH'S ARCHIVES – NOW IN OUR BOOKSTORE:
"A LABORATORY MANUAL FOR BION EXPERIMENTS"
Notes by Laboratory Worker – Norway, February 1938
(Handwritten & Typed Pages in German only – 105 pages)
$20.00 + postage
In his 2009 Summer Conference lecture, "Reich's Unpublished Laboratory Notebooks
and Correspondence," Professor James Strick--author and academic historian of science
--showed excerpts from this 1938 laboratory manual which he discovered during a visit
to the Archives.
Professor Strick strongly suggested that the Trust quickly make this manual available in
our bookstore for those seriously interested in bion research, despite the fact that we
currently have neither the time nor resources to translate this document into English and
issue it as a regular book. We agreed immediately, realizing that this primary resource
has tremendous value for the serious scientific researcher.
We want to caution everyone that this document will have limited interest and accessibility
to the average reader. It is a bound-Xerox edition of the manual's original pages: all of
the content is in German, some of is typed and some of it is handwritten. It also has an
Introduction in English by Professor Strick, which is included below in its entirety.
INTRODUCTION TO "A LABORATORY MANUAL FOR BION EXPERIMENTS"
I first found this document in the Reich archives in January 2009. Having for many
years attempted to replicate various parts of Reich's bion experiments and discussed
difficulties involved with others attempting to do the same, it was very exciting to find
what immediately appeared to be the "cookbook" for Reich's lab.
All the small (but often key) details of preparing culture media, staining, etc., are here.
For any serious student of the bion experiments, this is an indispensable source of crucial
technical instructions for carrying out those experiments. In these detailed recipes may
reside answers to why researchers in recent years have been unable to replicate important
parts of Reich's work, most notably the culturing of bions (especially on solid media)
and the production of SAPA bions. After Roger DuTeil visited Reich's lab in July and
August 1937 and observed at first hand the preparation of media, he was more consistently
successful in replicating Reich's results.
Such details are not the only potential source of difficulties. All the culture media in
Reich's time were prepared from scratch from fresh ingredients, for example meat, milk,
potatoes, etc. One can only wonder about the effects of our pesticide and antibiotic-laced
meats and milk, pesticide-laden potatoes, etc. today. Or in the case of the Norwegian
sea sand used in producing SAPA bions, whether oil spills from tankers or from North
Sea drilling have contaminated beaches in a way that will influence results. This might
well apply to beaches worldwide since the increasingly common oil spills of the past
four decades.
Reich's findings on the crucial effect on bion experiments of carbon, especially carbon
compounds heated to incandescence, certainly ought to inspire caution in this regard.
The existence of such ubiquitous, difficult-to-control variables need not overshadow,
however, the major contribution made by publication of the details contained in the
document you now hold in your hands. Certainly, the more we know, the more likely
we are to locate and solve the problems with replication.
The only two of these recipes available in published form before were "Culture Medium e"
(this booklet p. 20) and "Culture Medium IV (eggwhite medium)" (p. 21), which appeared
in the 1939 booklet Bion Experiments on the Cancer Problem, e.g.:
- Egg Medium IV. Combine:
- 38 grams of potatoes. (Thickly sliced and finely hashed)
- 75 cc milk. (Note that milk has been crossed out and bouillon substituted
as of December 1937 when Reich realized the medium gave better results
with this substitution.)
- 3 grams of potato flour
- 5 grams of peptone (Whitte).
This mixture is boiled for half an hour, being stirred for the first five minutes until it
forms a pulp. It is then cooled to about 50ºC. Then to it are added:
- 10 cc of 0.1 normal (also = 0.1 molar) KCl solution
- 1/2 gram of lecithin
- 10 cc Ringers solution (See p. 58 this volume, for formula. Many variants exist.)
- 6 cc glycerin
- 2-3 eggs (sterile, washed in alcohol)
This mixture is filtered through gauze and poured into sterile tubes. It is left in the dry
sterilizer (80-90ºC) for two hours until it hardens. The next day it is again left in the hot
air (dry) sterilizer for two hours at 90ºC, then for 24 hours in the incubator for control.
Adjust pH to 7.4 with about 3 drops of NaOH solution.
Even the last, seemingly minor point, written in by hand on the typed recipe, is the kind
of tacit, craft knowledge from a lab's working experience that rarely gets recorded in print,
yet can make a crucial difference in how experiments turn out. In the experimental
spontaneous generation debates of the 1870s between Bastian, Tyndall, Roberts and
Pasteur, the pH of the medium was at times a crucial factor behind different results.
Similarly, here we have the specific formula (numerous variants exist) used by Reich's
laboratory for Gram-staining microorganisms and bions:
- (p. 30) Grams Farbemethode
- Farben mit Karbolmethylviolet 2 Minuten lang [Stain for 2 mins. with solution
of Carbolmethylviolet]
- Jod- Jodkalium [Flood slide with Iodine-Potassium Iodide solution for 1 Minute]
- Absprulen mit Alkohol bis keine Farbe mehr abgeht [Flood slide with 95%
ethanol until no color remains visible]
- Gegenfarbung [Counterstain]
- Abspruling mit verdrinutem Karbolfüsein. [Flood slide with Carbolfuchsin.]
The next page has the recipe to mix all the stains from scratch, according to the procedure
of Folkehelsen.
A full English translation of this document should be prepared. But in the meantime it was
felt that the current form should be made available immediately, so that those researchers
around the world trying to replicate or extend Reich's work with bions could have access to
those crucial technical details that may make a big difference when trying to replicate the
original results.
For any serious student of the bion experiments, this document is quite indispensable.
Hopefully this may lead to solving some of the problems with culturability (especially
on solid culture media), with producing SAPA bions, etc.
James Strick, Ph.D.
Franklin and Marshall College
TALENTS, GENEROSITY AND VOLUNTEERISM
The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust and The Wilhelm Reich Museum have always depended
on our supporters' generosity and volunteerism for in-kind services, financial support, new
ideas, and for broadening our social network. And today our need for that generosity and
volunteerism is more crucial than ever. Understaffed, underfunded, our book and visitor
revenues down, and with our Endowment Fund deeply impacted by the economy, we need
your talents, social contacts and practical assistance in the following areas:
- Grantwriting
- Identifying and reaching out to key media contacts
- Identifying opportunities in the area of documentary film funding
- Identifying individuals and foundations who support untraditional organizations
- Organizing fundraising efforts
- Outreach efforts to academia, medicine, and science
OPENING REMARKS FOR 2009 SUMMER CONFERENCE:
"NEW NARRATIVES ABOUT WILHELM REICH, M.D."
Good morning. And thank you all for coming. On October 29, 2007--five days before
the 50th anniversary of Wilhelm Reich's death--The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust posted
the Index of The Archives of the Orgone Institute on our Museum website, a website
which currently averages close to 300 hits per day. An announcement and a link to this
Index was, and continues to be, prominently featured on our Home Page.
The archive Index itself is 141 pages long, and lists the contents of 282 archive boxes
which contain a total of approximately 1,735 individual files, plus photographs, plus films,
plus audio recordings, plus physical objects. Each one of these individual 1,735 files can
contain anywhere from a single page, to dozens of pages, to hundreds of pages in just
one file. These thousands upon thousands of original documents comprise a mixture
of typewritten pages and handwritten pages in the following categories of material:
- Conspiracy
- Correspondence
- Manuscripts
- Organizations
- Orgone Institute
- Orgone Institute Press
- Personal Files
- Published Work and Unpublished Translations.
Thousands of these typed and handwritten pages are in German, and thousands of these typed
and handwritten pages are in English. All of these materials are housed at "The Center for
the History of Medicine" at the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University, one
of the world's premier medical libraries. Comprising a total of 98 cubic-feet of material,
The Archives of the Orgone Institute is one of the Countway Library's largest collections.
Along with our website posting of the Archive Index are the Access Policies & Procedures
through which scholars and researchers tell us about their backgrounds, about the nature
of their research which warrants access to Reich's Archives, and which specific files in
the Archives they're interested in studying. The studying of these materials takes place
in "The Holmes Reading Room" at the Countway Library, where staff members bring out
one file at a time of the researcher's requested materials.
These Policies & Procedures were developed after extensive discussions that The Wilhelm
Reich Infant Trust had with scholars, archivists, and librarians well versed in best practices
governing the management of archives. Any scholar, researcher, archivist or librarian
involved in serious archival work is well aware that not all archives are open to the general
public, that not all archives allow anyone to simply walk in off the street to peruse original
and rare and irreplaceable resources.
Any scholar, researcher, archivist or librarian knows that Access Policies & Procedures for
any Archive reflect the preferences of the donor of the collection and the facility in which
the collection itself is deposited. Consequently some archives are open to the public-at-large
and many are not; and specific Access Policies & Procedures vary from one collection to
another.
And so it is with "The Archives of the Orgone Institute." The Access Policies & Procedures
governing this collection are a combination of the preferences and guidelines of both the
Countway Library and The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust. And within the collection itself,
there are a few additional guidelines and restrictions on certain materials. But restrictions
within a collection are also standard operating procedure in the management of reputable
archives.
For example, Federal regulations regarding "Protected Health Information" have established
specific restrictions on the access and use of patient files, of which there are many in Reich's
Archives. So all archival collections in America containing medical patient information need
to comply with these Federal regulations. Furthermore, because the Countway Library has
no facilities for viewing archival films or listening to archival voice recordings, these resources
in Reich's Archives are not currently accessible.
And finally, the Trust itself restricts access to several files containing what we consider
sensitive, unpublished scientific materials. These sensitive materials pertain to Reich's
orgone motor research and orgonomic equations, some of which require further discussions
and decisions involving patent and copyright law.
And today--more than 50 years after Reich's death--nothing in these original materials in
Reich's Archives has been changed in any way. Nothing whatsoever in any of the archival
manuscripts, correspondence, diaries and journals, laboratory notebooks, organizational
materials, translations, personal papers of any kind, films, voice recordings--nothing in
any of these or any other archival materials has been changed, falsified, or destroyed in
any way. And since November 2007, these materials have been accessible to scholars and
researchers--with the exception of the films and recordings, materials containing private
health information, and several files containing sensitive, unpublished scientific content.
Last year--instead of our regular summer conference--we held a small Archive Workshop
here in the Conference Building. To this Workshop, the Trust brought together a small
group of scholars and researchers to peruse and discuss these sensitive, unpublished materials
and to identify scientific and legal issues regarding these resources. These materials included
documents, laboratory notebooks, journal entries, and audio recordings of some of Reich's
experiments. And we'll be presenting many of these same materials to you this week.
You'll also be hearing from a handful of individuals whose specific projects require
significant research in Reich's Archives:
Professor Jim Strick, now working on a new book--his third book--this one about Reich's
bion experiments in Oslo in the 1930s, and how these experiments fit into the broader
context of the history of science and medicine.
Professor Philip Bennett, who has conducted archival research for two articles. One of
them is a work-in-progress about Reich's concepts of "Work Democracy." The other
article "The Persecution of Dr. Wilhelm Reich by the United States Government" will
be published soon in the International Forum of Psychoanalysis. It documents three
overlapping investigations of Reich: by the FBI, by the Food and Drug Administration,
and by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a long but little-known effort to deport
Reich which Philip will speak about tomorrow.
Mary Higgins will discuss the creation of a new manuscript--the sequel to American
Odyssey--drawn from Reich's diaries, journals, and correspondence from 1948 to 1957.
This represents Mary's fourth collection of Reich's diaries, journals, and correspondence
from different periods in his life. I will talk about my work-in-progress: a script I'm
writing for a full-length documentary film about Reich's life and work.
While all of our projects are different, the commonality here is that we are all supplementing
our knowledge of previously published materials by Reich with new information from his
unpublished archives to create new narratives aimed at newer and wider audiences. It's
understandable and desirable that various organizations devoted to Reich's legacy--
including the Trust--have published their own journals and other publications. But the
total readership of all of these publications is painfully small and comprises a huge amount
of overlap among a total of perhaps several hundred people.
In essence, we end up writing for ourselves and for each other, communicating among the
same few hundred readers without any strategy for reaching a broader and newer audience.
This need for new narratives about Reich--strategically directed at newer, wider audiences--
is today more urgent than ever as a way to counter and supplant the distortions and
misrepresentations about Reich that have persisted for decades…and that persist to this day.
For example, in the last year-and-a-half alone we've read distorted and salacious references
to Reich, orgone energy and the orgone accumulator in such mainstream publications as
Forbes Magazine, Vanity Fair, the Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, and a handful
of newspapers.
Throughout Reich's life--and up until today--the voices against him personally and
against his work have always spoken from platforms larger and more powerful than
Reich's, and from platforms much more influential than ours: voices from psychiatric,
medical, scientific, academic and government institutions; voices on radio and TV;
voices in popular magazines and books. Decades of these voices speaking from these
formidable and far-reaching platforms have created a factually and intellectually
dishonest narrative of Reich.
But it is a narrative of Reich told for so long and so insistently and so loudly that it has
become ingrained and accepted as fact in official and public consciousness. And it is
precisely this cumulative and corrosive narrative of Reich that dominates and constricts
every good and honest effort that all of us make on behalf of Reich's legacy. And in
terms of that legacy, the greatest casualty here is Reich's discovery of a specific biological
and atmospheric energy that he called "orgone," of which the traditional medical and
scientific communities are completely oblivious or completely dismissive.
In Reich's 1950 lecture "Man's Roots in Nature"--which we'll listen to on Thursday--
he declares that: "I am, to begin with, a natural scientist. Not a psychologist, and not
a psychoanalyst, of course. I went into the whole field of psychiatry as a scientist.
This interest was dictated primarily by the problem of energy."
And yet today, almost 52 years after Reich's death--with well over 7000 pages of his
writings publicly available for years, comprising 21 book titles and research journals
and bulletins; a year and a half after his Archives have become accessible to scholars
and researchers--the narrative of Wilhelm Reich as a natural scientist is completely
unknown or unacknowledged in the scientific, medical and academic communities.
Consequently, over two decades of Reich's scientific and medical research--from 1935,
when he begins his bio-electrical experiments in Oslo, until late 1956 or early ‘57--over
two decades of this work continue to be disparaged, distorted and dismissed by people
who have never even taken the time to seriously study it. To the scientific, medical and
academic communities, Reich's discovery and applications of a specific biological and
atmospheric energy that he called "orgone" are, quite simply, fantasy and fraud. And his
principal scientific and medical tool--the orgone energy accumulator--continues to be
misunderstood and ridiculed as either a salacious sexual device or as a worthless medical
device that Reich was allegedly promoting as a cancer cure. None of which is true.
By contrast, the commonplace narrative about Reich's earlier work exhibits, at times,
considerable admiration and intellectual honesty, including rational differences of opinion.
And so, for the most part, we don't see the same scorn and ridicule heaped upon Reich for
his early accomplishments as a gifted psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and clinician. There is,
by and large, a more reasoned tone to discussions and criticisms, to agreements and
disagreements regarding such issues as:
- Reich's repudiation of Freud's "Death Instinct"
- his elucidation of therapeutic techniques in Character Analysis
- his identification of character armor and muscular armor
- his political activism as a physician in Socialist and Communist
organizations to counter the authoritarian institutions and governments
in Vienna and Berlin
- his theories on the nature of fascism as the expression of irrational
character structure.
But these are not the issues that concerned the Food and Drug Administration here in
America. There's nothing about these issues in either the original 1954 Complaint or
in the Decree of Injunction against Reich. These are not the reasons why Reich's books
were banned and burned in the United States in the 1950s. And these are not the reasons
why Reich's scientific and medical research was, and continues to be, maligned and
marginalized to this day.
The Food and Drug Administration's official narrative about Reich in the 1940s and ‘50s
was fueled by the active cooperation and resources of the American Medical Association,
the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, as well
as numerous state chapters and affiliations of these three professional organizations. It was
a distorted narrative of Reich and his work that was, and continues to be, replicated and
disseminated in hundreds of articles in magazines, newspapers, and professional journals.
Boiled down to its essence the official, legal narrative--as stated in the 1954 Complaint
for Injunction against Reich--was this:
"...the alleged orgone energy, as claimed to have been discovered
and its existence proved by the said defendant Reich as stated for
the labeling for said devices, is not a powerful form of energy,
is non-existent..."
--leading to the logical assertion later in the Complaint that the orgone accumulator:
"...is not a preventive of and beneficial for use in all diseases
and disease conditions, is not effective in the cure, mitigation,
treatment, and prevention of the diseases, conditions, and
symptoms hereafter enumerated..."
And until this distorted legal, official and public narrative about Reich begins to change
significantly, Reich's reputation as a pioneering, although controversial, psychoanalyst
will remain assured, while 22 years of his scientific and medical legacy--from 1935 to
1957--will continue to be misunderstood, ridiculed or rejected.
In terms of crafting new narratives about Wilhelm Reich as a research physician and
natural scientist, some of the most valuable materials in his Archives are his laboratory
notebooks and daily journals. These resources document contemporaneously and with
raw data Reich's experiments in his laboratories in Oslo; in Forest Hills, New York;
and here at Orgonon--in this very space which was the Student Laboratory--as well as
in his other laboratory up in the Orgone Energy Observatory. And last October,
Professor Strick had the distinction and pleasure of being the first researcher to look
at Reich's laboratory notebooks of his bion experiments in Oslo during the 1930s.
When Reich first published these experiments in the 1930s, he was publicly criticized
and personally vilified. And for decades these same criticisms of his work have been
regurgitated ad nauseum, without any serious study and evaluation, so that today Reich's
bion experiments are virtually unknown in the scientific community.
Because Reich first discovered orgone energy in a specific bion culture in early 1939,
new narratives about Reich for new audiences need to clearly explain the bion experiments.
And, perhaps more important, to explain how these experiments are not the anomalies
portrayed by his critics and detractors, but, rather, how they fit squarely into existing
traditions of scientific and medical research of the time.
Without an understanding of the fundamentals and historic context of Reich's bion research,
the subsequent discovery of orgone energy--several years into this research--cannot be
adequately grasped. And if the discovery of orgone energy cannot be adequately grasped,
its empirical existence devolves into the stuff of mysticism, fantasy and delusion, which
has been the fate and reputation of orgone energy for far too long. Furthermore, what would
later become the Reich Blood Tests--as diagnostic medical tools for detecting systemic
disease processes--cannot be comprehended by new audiences without an underlying grasp
of Reich's bion experiments.
Reich's first-published results of these experiments ran to perhaps a couple hundred pages
and appeared in a limited German edition in 1938 under the title Die Bione. The result was
a massive newspaper campaign against him in Oslo, which was one of the factors leading
to Reich's decision to emigrate to America in August 1939. Condensed results of these
experiments appeared in his early research journals in America, and in The Cancer Biopathy
in 1948. And an English version of Die Bione appeared in the 1970's under the title
The Bion Experiments on the Origins of Life.
That Reich's original laboratory notebooks are now accessible, that they are completely
unaltered, and that Professor Strick recognizes their intrinsic value should not for a moment
be taken for granted. In "History of Science" research, this has not always been the case
with original laboratory notebooks.
In his 1995 book The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, the author--Professor Gerald
Geisen of Princeton--tells us this rather surprising fact: "For some reason laboratory
notebooks were long overlooked by historians of science, but their virtue as a strategic
site of inquiry have become evident in recent years."
Professor Geisen then cites only four major scientific biographies from the 1970s to the
and 1990s which were based on laboratory notebooks: one book about Michael Faraday,
two about French physiologist Claude Bernard, and one about Robert Milliken, the
American Nobel Laureate in Physics. Geisen also eloquently describes the intellectual
value of laboratory notebooks, as opposed to scholars simply relying on a scientist's
published results:
"… to rely solely on the published record is to distort our understanding
and appreciation of science as it actually gets done. The effect is
impoverishing in several respects. By making the results of scientific
inquiry look more decisive and straightforward than they really are,
the published record tends to conceal the pliability of nature. It
eviscerates science of its most creative features by conveying the
impression that imagination, passion, and artistry have no place in
scientific research. It makes it seem as if scientific achievement and
innovation result not from the impassioned activity of committed
hands and minds, but rather from passive acquiescence in the sterile
precepts of the so-called Scientific Method…The construction of
scientific knowledge is a much more interesting process than its
published record suggests."
I find this eloquent passage by Professor Geisen reminiscent of what Reich himself says
about the importance of understanding the research process. And I'm quoting now from
Chapter One of Ether, God and Devil:
"It is useful not only to allow the serious student of the natural sciences
to see the results of research, but also to initiate him into the secrets
of the workshop in which the end product, after much toil and effort,
is shaped. I consider it an error in scientific communication that,
most of the time, merely the polished and flawless results of natural
research are displayed, as in an art show. An exhibit of the finished
product alone has many drawbacks and dangers for both its creator
and its users. The creator of the product will only be too ready to
demonstrate perfection and flawlessness while concealing gaps,
uncertainties and discordant contradictions of his insight into nature.
He thus belittles the meaning of the real process of natural research."
Reich's open and fresh and honest attitude here is consistent with his attitudes and hopes
for his archives, and his directives regarding these archives in terms of future generations.
To quote from Reich's Last Will & Testament from March 1957, just three days before
being taken into custody and incarceration:
"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."
Could Reich be any more open in wanting future students of his work to study not only
his accomplishments, but also his mistakes and wrong assumptions? All of which makes
perfect sense today in terms of context and intellectual honesty. But "History of Science"
scholarship shows us that not all scientists feel the same way as Reich about their
unpublished materials.
Returning to Gerald Geisen's book The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, here is the
book's opening paragraph:
"In 1878, when he was 55 years old and already a French national hero,
Louis Pasteur told his family never to show anyone his private laboratory
notebooks. For most of a century those instructions were honored.
Pasteur's notebooks--like the rest of the manuscripts he left behind at
his death in 1895--remained in the hands of his immediate family and
descendants until 1964. In that year, Pasteur's grandson and last surviving
direct male descendant, Dr. Pasteur Vallery-Radot, donated the vast
majority of the family's collection to the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
But access to this material was generally restricted until Vallery-Radot's
death in 1971, and there was no printed catalog of the collection until 1985."
And a bit later on, Professor Geisen tells us:
"… the Pasteur Papers include a meticulously preserved collection of
more than 140 notebooks in Pasteur's own hand, of which more than
100 are laboratory notebooks recording his day to day scientific activities
over the full sweep of his 40 years in research…Until these manuscripts
are deciphered, edited for publication, and subjected to critical scrutiny,
our understanding of Pasteur and his work will remain incomplete…
To produce a detailed account of all of Pasteur's 100 laboratory notebooks,
several decades of work will surely be required…As the contents of these
once private documents find their way into public view, a fuller deeper
and quite different version of the Pasteur story will perforce emerge.
There is, in effect, a new history of Pasteur to be written."
And with Reich's laboratory notebooks available now to scholars and researchers at the
Countway Library, there is also a new history of Reich to be written, a new narrative of
Reich for which we are grateful for Professor Strick's skill, knowledge, and commitment.
A book about bion experiments published by a major academic press--as Jim's two
previous books have been--and dealing with one of the major pillars of orgone research
could go a long way toward correcting the distorted narratives about orgonomic science
and medicine, and toward reaching new audiences.
Ultimately, however, the greatest value here is this: the combination of closely studying
Reich's laboratory methodology and results, and studying more recent replications by
others will better prepare those interested in this work to engage with members of the
traditional scientific and medical professions--that new, wider audience to which
we must always aspire.
Professor Philip Bennett's two articles are equally promising in crafting new narratives
about Reich aimed at new audiences. Philip was the first scholar to apply for access to
the Archives, although in November 2007--at the Trust's invitation--members of
Reich's family were the first to visit the Countway Library. Reich's concepts about
"Work Democracy," which Philip is researching, are a crucial thread that permeates
Reich's thinking about the nature of work as performed by a group of people coming
together in a common task.
In Reich's own words: "Natural work democracy is the sum total of all functions of life
governed by the rational relations that have come into being, grown, and developed in a
natural and organic way." And Philip's scrutiny and comparison of Reich's published
and unpublished materials over the years will provide a greater understanding of Reich's
model for productive work in general and for productive work in terms of Reich's
research and co-workers.
Philip's other project--the soon-to-published article "The Persecution of Dr. Wilhelm Reich
by the United States Government"--is a true model for new narratives aimed at newer, wider
audiences. First of all, it is a factually accurate and sympathetic article about Reich that is
going to be published in a periodical called the International Forum of Psychoanalysis.
Historically and up until today, the American psychoanalytic community as a whole has been
hostile to Reich. What better evidence of this than their active cooperation with the Food
and Drug Administration in the 1940s and 50s, and their official approval of the legal action
against him? Placing this article in a publication not specifically dedicated to orgonomy,
but rather for a professional audience beyond those interested in Reich, is both strategically
and intellectually appropriate.
Secondly, the subject of the article itself--three overlapping government investigations of
Reich, often feeding off misinformation and distortion from one another--calls into question
the methods and integrity of all three investigations. And today, in the 21st century when
government misconduct is no longer the stuff of doubt or myth, perhaps the facts and themes
of Philip's article will take root and resonate among that new readership, that new audience.
So this week you'll become familiar with a cross-section of the kinds of primary resources
from Reich's Archives that are currently being accessed for these new narratives, as well
as for new narratives by me and by Mary Higgins.
We also hope that over the next few days all of you become familiar with one of the
greatest primary resources of Reich's legacy, which is Orgonon itself: our 175 acres of
fields and forests; our waterfront on Dodge Pond; Reich's two cabins; this building,
the former Student Laboratory; and the Orgone Energy Observatory on the hill, now
The Wilhelm Reich Museum.
In terms of pioneering science and medicine, Orgonon is a unique and historic property,
completely unknown to the traditional scientific and medical communities. Reich moved
his work here permanently because of the low humidity of the area--which was perfect
for his experiments--and because the property's views of the sky, mountains and lakes
were perfect for observations and measurements of atmospheric orgone energy and for
harnessing this energy for a variety of applications.
To become familiar with Orgonon itself and its surroundings here in the Rangeley Lakes
region is to appreciate yet another narrative about Reich: the narrative about the logical
culmination of his work from its psychiatric underpinnings to biology to medicine and
on into bio-physics.
Sixty years ago, in 1949, Reich wrote this to the physicians who were working with him:
"The plan gains momentum that I stay here at Orgonon and do not
return to New York. As you well know, my work during the past
few years has shifted more and more toward biophysics and physics,
away from individual psychiatry. Also, the training of psychiatrists
and educators had to shift more and more in the same direction.
"We realized and could not fail to realize, that we had entered new,
basic, physical territory. Orgone physics is the new basis of our whole,
including our psychiatric, existence. Man to us is today an energy system,
and not merely mind. You all know this.
"You also know that during the past three years, I had to divide
my activities between New York and Orgonon, doing psychiatry
In New York and orgone physics in Maine. The whole biophysical
and physical laboratory has been transferred to Orgonon. No work
in this field can be done any longer in New York, except already
established routine work such as blood tests in Dr. Tropp's office.
I must concentrate all my efforts on physical orgonomic observations.
Nobody can do that for me.
"My remaining years for productive work are beginning to be few.
I must begin to use every minute of it."
And likewise we should now begin to use every minute of our time together this week.
Once again, thank you all for being here. We realize and appreciate that your presence
here represents significant expenditures of interest, time and money, especially those
of you who have traveled long distances to be be here. And we do not take any of your
efforts to be here for granted. Thank you.
Kevin Hinchey
The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust
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.
|
