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Help us maintain the legacy of Wilhelm Reich by making a tax-deductible donation.

April 2010 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 (48 of them) provide the best contemporaneous accounts of the Trust's ongoing activities over the past six years.

Presentations in Greece
New Manuscript Accepted for Publication
Lecture and Benefit in New York
Perspectives on Reich's Archives
Foreign Publications of Reich's Works
Observations About Foreign Publications
Upcoming Greek Publications
This Summer at Orgonon
Renting Our Cottages
Enjoy the Rangeley Lakes Region
Use PayPal to Support the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust
We Have Speakers Available

A QUOTE FROM REICH

"Es ist leicht, Ziele zu zeigen. Schwer ist es, die Wege zum Ziel zu finden."

"It is easy to point out goals. It is hard to find the paths to the goal." 

PRESENTATIONS IN GREECE

Last month, at the invitation of the Hellenic Association of Orgonomy (HAO), the Trust delivered two public lectures in Greece entitled "Wilhelm Reich, M.D. – Safeguarding His Legacy From Distortion and Slander." Representing the Trust was Kevin Hinchey, Board Member of the Trust and Associate Director of The Wilhelm Reich Museum.

The first lecture was given on March 13th to an audience of over 300 people in the Lecture Hall of the Society for Macedonian Studies in Thessaloniki. On March 14th, a second lecture was given to a standing room only assemblage of well over 400 people in the Auditorium of the Eugenides Foundation in Athens. Both talks were preceded by screenings --with Greek subtitles--of Man's Right to Know, the Trust's 28-minute biographical DVD about Reich. The text of these presentations is available on our website.

The HAO's enthusiasm, professionalism and attention to detail were exemplary in its organizational skills and public relations acumen. To promote the lectures, an attractive brochure was created and widely distributed, along with leaflets and posters. The HAO also issued press releases and, well before the lectures, a Greek journalist contacted the Trust with a list of interview questions for an article in a Thessaloniki newspaper.

The results were two evenings of overflow crowds at both lectures, ample time for lively questions and answers afterward, and an opportunity to personally meet physicians, physicists, biologists, mathematicians, college students, and a variety of other people whose lives have been touched in some way by Wilhelm Reich's work.

This invitation to Greece came from two attendees at our 2009 Summer Conference at Orgonon, "From the Archives of the Orgone Institute": Theodota Chasapi, M.D. and Tania Anastasia Zotou, M.D. who are psychiatrists, medical orgonomists and clinical associates of the American College of Orgonomy. Dr. Chasapi was a founding member of the HAO in 1988, and Dr. Zotou is currently its president.

Our deepest thanks to Dr. Zotou and Dr. Chasapi for this wonderful opportunity--and for their hospitality--as well as to other members of the HAO who participated in this effort: Theodoros Antoniou, Christos Mousouliotis, Christos Papioannou, and Nana Hatzi.

Thanks also to Peter Crist, M.D. and the American College of Orgonomy who encouraged and supported the HAO in organizing these lectures.

And a special thank-you to George Konstandinidis and his wife Despina Klisiari for their unforgettable music.  

NEW MANUSCRIPT ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION

On Friday, January 22nd, we mailed our new manuscript to Farrar, Straus and Giroux, our publisher in New York City. Its working title is Where's the Truth – Letters and Journals (1948-1957), the sequel to American Odyssey and the fourth and final autobiographical volume of material from Reich's letters and journals. (The other two are Passion of Youth and Beyond Psychology.)

In late March, we received a letter from Jonathan Galassi, President of FS&G, expressing his intent to publish the manuscript. And with that, the arduous editing process now begins.

As with the three previous volumes of Reich's letters and journals, the editing process will be a significant one, with considerable effort required to refine and shape the current manuscript into its final published version. None of these four volumes existed already as "unpublished manuscripts" in Reich's archives. These volumes were the product of culling through hundreds upon hundreds of pages from various archive files--correspondence, personal diaries, work journals, and other documents --then making selections from this vast reservoir of material and painstakingly assembling these selections into a coherent whole.

The submitted manuscript included the following Editor's Note from Mary Higgins:

This is the final work in a set of four autobiographical volumes: Passion of Youth, Beyond Psychology and American Odyssey. It begins in 1948, soon after the appearance of an article by left-wing journalist Mildred Edie Brady in New Republic magazine incited an "investigation" of Reich's work by the Federal Food and Drug Administration. It ends with his death in an American prison cell in 1957. Readers will share Reich's journey through these turbulent years, so stark in tragedy, so rich in hope and flow of new knowledge.

No publishing date has been announced.  

JOIN US IN NEW YORK CITY ON JUNE 11, 2010
FOR A LECTURE AND TRUST BENEFIT

Every autumn from 2002 and 2006, and again in 2008, we hosted an evening benefit for The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Endowment Fund at the Williams Club in New York City. These benefits featured presentations by different speakers about current projects that address Reich's life and legacy. And they helped raise much-needed income for our Endowment Fund, which is more critical today than ever.

Because of our inordinately busy schedule last Fall--including final preparations of our latest manuscript for submission--we held no annual autumn benefit in 2009.

This June we are resuming this event with the following evening presentation:

The evening will include a champagne fête (compliments of a Friend) with hors d'oeuvres.

When: Friday – June 11, 2010 – 6:00 p.m.

Where: The Williams Club, 24 East 39th St., New York City.

Contribution: $75 per person to benefit The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Endowment Fund. $40 for students with valid college/university I.D. R.S.V.P. by June 1, 2010.

Checks can be made out to The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Endowment Fund, and mailed to: The Wilhelm Reich Museum, P.O. Box 687, Rangeley, ME. 04970.

For more information--or to R.S.V.P. if you're planning to attend--please contact us at (207) 864-3443 or email: wreich@rangeley.org. 

SOME PERSPECTIVE ON WILHELM REICH'S ARCHIVES

This item is addressed primarily to those occasional strident voices we hear insisting to anyone who will listen that Reich's entire archive must immediately be made available on the Internet for all the world to see. To which we always reply, "Do you have any idea how much time, effort, human resources and money that would require? But, if you do have the money, let's talk first about the digital preservation of Reich's archives."

Predictably, none of these people ever understands what's required and none of them ever has any money for anything we do. But hopefully the following comments will be instructive for those seriously interested in Reich's legacy and for the considerable efforts required to preserve and advance that legacy.

At a recent reception at Harvard University, on the eve of the annual "Joint Atlantic Seminar in the History of Biology," we had the pleasure of speaking with two of the chief researchers of the Darwin Correspondence Project. 5 As summarized on its website, "The Darwin Correspondence Project was founded in 1974 by an American scholar, Frederick Burkhardt, with the aid of Sydney Smith, a zoologist in the University of Cambridge (UK). They originally set out to locate, research and publish summaries of all letters written by Charles Darwin (1809-82), the most celebrated naturalist of the nineteenth century…Since then, the Project has had a staff of researchers and editors in both the UK and US, those in the UK being based in Cambridge University Library, which houses the largest single collection of Darwin manuscripts, and his own library of books and journals. The Darwin Archive in Cambridge includes around 9000 letters."

The two researchers we spoke with at Harvard told us that the total number of Darwin letters is around 17,000, that their goal is to produce a definitive printed version of this correspondence to be followed by a digital version, and that funding for this project comes from numerous sources. Which we subsequently looked up on their website: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Bonita Trust, British Academy, British Ecological Society, Isaac Newton Trust, National Endowment for the Humanities, Pew Charitable Trust, Royal Society, Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, among others. All mainstream funders supporting a major project over decades, involving a world-famous scientific figure (who, by the way, has the honor of being buried in Westminster Abbey).

Our further research disclosed that similar well-funded efforts have been underway for decades on behalf of the papers of Louis Pasteur and Thomas Edison, two of the most acclaimed individuals of their times. Reich's archives--i.e. The Archives of the Orgone Institute--have been accessible to scholars and researchers since November 2007 at Harvard's Countway Library of Medicine. This collection comprises thousands of letters, just like Darwin's collections, plus thousands and thousands of additional pages: manuscripts, diaries & journals, laboratory notebooks, organizational documents, legal papers, etc. Reich's archives consist of 98 cubic-feet of materials that demand and deserve the same kind of serious scholarly interest, attention, commitment and major funding as the Darwin, Pasteur and Edison projects.

But unlike these three men, Reich's books were banned and burned in America during his lifetime, he died in prison, and today's medical and scientific communities ignore him, dismiss him, or are completely unaware of him. Digitizing Reich's archives is, in fact, a legitimate goal to preserve the content of historic documents on other technological platforms for future generations. But this will require hundreds of thousands of dollars, considerable organization, and significant and qualified human resources. And given the prevalent public "narratives" of Reich, mainstream funders of the caliber of those supporting The Darwin Correspondence Project are unlikely to find a Wilhelm Reich project to their liking.

That being said, if anyone is willing to spearhead such a visionary effort and its required funding--as Frederick Burkhardt did with the Darwin project in 1974--please talk to us. 

FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS OF REICH'S BOOKS

We are frequently asked which of Reich's books have appeared in what specific languages. Other than in English, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FS&G) editions of Reich's hardcover titles have been published in 20 languages, with many books commonly going in and out of print over the years.

Below is each title, the FS&G publication date, the languages in which it appeared, and the year of the first foreign-rights contract for each language:

• AMERICAN ODYSSEY (1999)
  No foreign publications.
  
  
• BEYOND PSYCHOLOGY (1994)
  German (1994), Italian (1982).
  
  
• THE BIOELECTRICAL INVESTIGATION OF SEXUALITY AND ANXIETY (1982)
  German (1993), Greek (1985), Italian (1982).
  
  
• THE BION EXPERIMENTS ON THE ORIGIN OF LIFE (1979)
  French (1979), German (1994), Italian (1980).
  
  
• THE CANCER BIOPATHY (1973)
  French (1973), German (1969), Greek (1971), Italian (1974), Portuguese (1999), Spanish (1977).
  
  
• CHARACTER ANALYSIS (1963)
  French (1971), German (1983), Italian (1970), Portuguese (1976), Serbo-Croatian (1987), Spanish (1998).
  
  
• CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE (1983)
  German (1983), Greek (1985), Italian (1984), Japanese (1984).
  
  
• COSMIC SUPERIMPOSITION (1973)
  French (1973), German (1994), Italian (1973).
  
  
• EARLY WRITINGS (1975)
  French (1973), German (1974), Italian (1974), Portuguese (2005).
  
  
• ETHER, GOD AND DEVIL (1973)
  French (1972), German (1981), Greek (1985), Italian (1973), Japanese (1975), Portuguese (1999).
  
  
• THE FUNCTION OF THE ORGASM (1961)
  Czech (1992), Danish (1970), Dutch (1969), a French contract with Reich (1950), German (1986), Greek (1982), Italian (1967), Korean (2002), Norwegian (1970), Persian (1993), Polish (1993), Portuguese (1972), Romanian (1985), Serbo-Croatian (1988), Spanish (1994). Also published in the United Kingdom (1967).
  
  
• GENITALITY (1980) [published in 1927 as Die Funktion des Orgasmus]
  German (1974).
  
  
• THE INVASION OF COMPULSORY SEX MORALITY (1971)
  French (1971), German (1971), Italian (1971), Portuguese (1983). Also published in the United Kingdom (1971).
  
  
• LISTEN, LITTLE MAN! (1965)
  Dutch (1970), French (1971), German (1982), Greek (1985), Italian (1971), Norwegian (1976), Portuguese (1971), Serbian (1997), Serbo-Croatian (1988), Spanish (1978), Swedish (1983), Turkish (2005). Also published in the United Kingdom (1971).
  
  
• THE MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM (1969)
  Danish (1973), Finnish (1983), French (1971), German (1970), Italian (2001), Korean (2002), Portuguese (1976), Spanish (1979), Swedish (1983). Also published in the United Kingdom (1971).
  
  
• THE MURDER OF CHRIST (1966)
  Czech (1995), French (1970), German (1977), Greek (1982), Italian (1971), Polish (1994), Portuguese (1981), Spanish (1979). Also published in the United Kingdom (1971).
  
  
• THE ORANUR EXPERIMENT (1994)
  German (1994).
  
  
• OROP DESERT (1994) [published in 1954 as CORE - Volume VI]
  German (1994).
  
  
• PASSION OF YOUTH (1988)
  French (1988), German (1988), Greek (2002), Hebrew (?), Italian (1988), Portuguese (1991), Spanish (1989). Also published in the United Kingdom (1988)
  
  
• PEOPLE IN TROUBLE (1976)
  French (1993), German (1981), Italian (1974), Spanish (1979).
  
  
• RECORD OF A FRIENDSHIP: CORRESPONDENCE OF WILHELM REICH AND A. S. NEILL (1981)
  French (1978), German (1981), Greek (1981). Also published in the United Kingdom (1981).
  
  
• REICH SPEAKS OF FREUD (1967) French (1971), German (1981), Italian (1969), Japanese (1970), Portuguese (1977), Spanish (1969). Also published in the United Kingdom (1971).
  
  
• SELECTED WRITINGS – AN INTRODUCTION TO ORGONOMY (1960)
  German (1971), Italian (1961). Also published in the United Kingdom (1973).
  
  
• THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION (1962)
  Dutch (1969), French (1981), German (1965), Greek (1972), Italian (1961), Japanese (1970), Portuguese (1967), Serbo-Croatian (1984), Spanish (1966), Swedish (1969). Also published in the United Kingdom (1969). 
  
  

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT FOREIGN PUBLICATIONS

Spending some time studying this list is an interesting and valuable exercise in assessing the fluctuating interest and awareness of Reich throughout the world. The specific book titles, languages, and the years of each foreign-rights contract yield some interesting facts, patterns, implications, speculations, and lessons for determining future strategies, projects and partnerships. Here are a few random observations:

• The Function of the Orgasm – published in 16 languages, including English.
  
  
• Listen, Little Man! – published in 13 languages, including English.
  
  
• Number of foreign titles: German (23), Italian (19), French (15), Portuguese, in both Brazil and Portugal (12), United Kingdom (12), Greek (10), Spanish (10), Serbo-Croatian (4), Japanese (4), Dutch (3), Swedish (3), Czech (2), Danish (2), Korean (2), Norwegian (2), Polish (2), Finnish (1), Hebrew (1), Persian, in Iran (1), Romanian (1), Serbian (1) Turkish (1).
  
  
• An organization called the Fund for an Open Society published a Serbian translation of Little, Little Man! in 1997.
  
  
• American Odyssey – Letters and Journals (1940-1947), published in 1999, was the only book in which no foreign publisher expressed any interest. In Austria, Germany, Denmark and Norway--where Reich lived for about two thirds of his life--no interest in publishing this book about Reich's first years in America.
  
  
• Beyond Psychology – Letters and Journals (1934-1939) published in 1995. Despite the fact that 226 of its 252 pages take place in Norway, no Norwegian publisher expressed any interest in this book. The book appeared in only two other languages: German and Italian.
  
  
• Reich lived in Norway from 1934 until August 1939 when he emigrated to America, arriving in New York City four days before the outbreak of WWII. His laboratories in Oslo were the venues for his bioelectrical experiments, his bion experiments, and his discovery of orgone energy in bion cultures. Yet only two of his books have been published in Norwegian: The Function of the Orgasm and Listen, Little Man!
  
  
• In answer to a question we are occasionally asked: we have not heard from any Russian publishers interested in Reich's books. Although during Reich's lifetime, the Orgone Institute Press received several book orders from the Soviet Union.
  
  
• In the past few years we've heard from publishers in Mongolia and Bulgaria. 
  
  

UPCOMING GREEK PUBLICATIONS

The Cancer Biopathy was published in Greek from 1971 to 1979. The Function of the Orgasm was published in Greek from 1982 to 1987. We are pleased to report that Greek publisher Kostas Theodoribasis, with whom we met in Athens, is working with the foreign-rights department of Farrar, Straus and Giroux to bring these two titles back into print. He has also expressed interest in publishing Greek editions of additional Reich titles in the future.  

THIS SUMMER AT ORGONON

After much discussion at the end of last year and earlier this year, we've decided--with considerable regret--that we will not be having our usual Annual Summer Conference this year. The Trust is facing many issues and tasks that require our attention and focus:

• Archive management
• Fundraising
• Membership
• New website
• Outreach
• Publishing projects
• Strategic planning
• Upgrading office technology

--as well as numerous other "housekeeping" items. Many of these issues and tasks are regularly attended to by a handful of loyal supporters--none of whom live in Rangeley--who generously donate their time, skills and talents from afar.

We felt that this year, instead of devoting our efforts to organizing another summer conference, the best use of our time would be using that same week (July 12th) to work with this small group of supporters on the pressing issues that need our attention.

Summer conferences have and always will be a significant part of Orgonon's activities. In fact, only once in the past 30+ years have we not had a summer conference: that was in the summer of 2008 when we held a small Archive Workshop to look, for the first time, at some of the more sensitive materials in The Archives of the Orgone Institute.

In terms of the broader interests of the Trust and Reich's work, we felt it was far more important that year to devote our time, energy and resources to looking at these archival materials, rather than organizing another summer conference simply because that's what we've always done. Similarly, this year--in terms of the broader interests of the Trust and Reich's work--we feel we need to invest our collective time, skills and resources in more pressing issues. 

A PERFECT WAY TO SUPPORT US – RENTING OUR HOUSEKEEPING COTTAGES AS YOUR GETAWAY SPOT

Are you looking for a peaceful, reasonably priced get-away? And did you know that it can be found right here at Orgonon?

Our two furnished housekeeping cottages offer quiet, seclusion and access to the shores of Dodge Pond, with a private dock for each cottage. And because these cottage rentals have become a substantial source of income for the Trust, what a perfect way to express your support in a practical way for all that we do.

Please take a look at the descriptions of our cottages.

The smaller cottage that we call "Bunchberry"--after the prolific, indigenous bunchberry plant--was originally built by Wilhelm Reich as a study in the 1940s. At that time, while in the Rangeley area, he resided at his cabin on Mooselookmeguntic Lake several miles to the west, and would retreat to this study at the abandoned farm property he bought in 1942 and which he named "Orgonon." Later, this study was expanded to become the home of Orgonon's first caretaker, Tom Ross, and his family.

The other cottage, which we call "Tamarack"--after one of our native trees--was built a few years after Bunchberry, is substantially larger, and provided living quarters for Reich and his family. In his writings and voice recordings, Reich refers to it as the "Lower Cabin" because of its location near Orgonon's south property line.

Both cottages have monitor and electric heat. In addition, Tamarack has a large stone fireplace and Bunchberry has a wood-burning stove. Wood is provided for both cottages. Bunchberry sleeps four while Tamarack sleeps eight. Both have complete kitchen facilities and linens. Children's furniture is available. Pets are welcome. Each cottage has DirecTV and a DVD player.

And did we mention that you can hear the hauntingly beautiful call of the loons who live on Dodge Pond? Bunchberry is available year-round. Tamarack is available year-round except for a four-week period from mid-June to mid-July when it is donated to the Adoptive and Foster Families of Maine. For more information, call (207) 864-3443.  

A PERFECT WAY TO ENJOY THE RANGELEY LAKES REGION

Both cottages are located on the west shore of Dodge Pond with convenient access to all that the Rangeley Lakes Region has to offer:

• Next to snowmobile trail ITS 89.
  
  
• 3.5 miles to Rangeley Village, where there is ample dining and shopping.
  
  
• Easy access to the six Rangeley Lakes--Rangeley, Mooselookmeguntic, Cupsuptic, Upper Richardson, Lower Richardson, Umbagog--plus the Kennebago River and Cupsuptic River.
  
  
• Less than 10 miles to the Appalachian Trail.
  
  
• 10 miles to the Saddleback Mountain Ski Area.
  
  
• Four-season outdoor recreation: hiking, swimming, boating, fishing, downhill and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling.
  
  
• Snowshoeing, sledding and cross-country skiing on the Orgonon property.
  
  
• Deer, moose and many small animals frequent the area.  
  
  

NOW ON OUR WEBSITE: USE PAYPAL TO BECOME A FRIEND OF THE WILHELM REICH INFANT TRUST

Now it's easier than ever to become a Friend of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust by making whatever donation you're comfortable with through PayPal.

In addition to our regular Membership Categories--

• Individual - $25
• Family - $35
• Business - $40
• Contributing - $50
• Sustaining - $125
• Donor - $250
• Patron - $500
• Life - $1000

--you can set up a recurring monthly donation of $5, $10, $25, $50, $100, or $250 by clicking the appropriate PayPal button. And if you don't already have a PayPal account, we can handle that for you. For further information, e-mail us at: wreich@rangeley.org or call us at (207) 864-3443.

Please become a Friend of the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust and help sustain the legacy of Wilhelm Reich by making a tax- deductible donation to the Trust. Join Friends from all over the world who contribute significantly and benefit from the privileges of membership:

• Free admission to the Wilhelm Reich Museum during visiting hours.
  
  
• Patron and Life members receive guest passes for persons who are accompanying them.
  
  
• 10% discount on purchases from the museum bookstore.
  
  
• The annual newsletter with original material by Reich and reports about Trust activities.
  
  
• Advance notice of new publications by Reich.  
  
  

WE HAVE SPEAKERS AVAILABLE

Are you planning an event or are you part of an organization that would like to hear more about the life and legacy of Wilhelm Reich? Or more about The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust or The Wilhelm Reich Museum? The Trust has available speakers to address your group. For more details, please contact us at: wreich@rangeley.org.

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.