Orgastic potency

Within the work of the Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm

Reich (18971957), orgastic potency is the ability to experience an orgasm with specic psychosomatic characteristics and, among others, requiring the ability to love.[1]

point of Reichs orgasm theory was his clinical observation of genital disturbance in all neurotics,[9] which he
presented in November 1923, in the paper "ber Genitalitt vom Standpunkt der psychoanalytischen Prognose
und Therapie (Genitality from the viewpoint of psychoanalytic prognosis and therapy). That presentation was
met with a chilling silence, much hostility, and was partially discredited because Reich could not adequately dene normal sexual health. In response, and after a further
year of research, Reich introduced the concept orgastic
potency at the 1924 Psycho-analytic Congress, Salzburg
in the paper Die therapeutische Bedeutung des Genitallibidos (Further Remarks on the Therapeutic Signicance of Genital Libido).[10]

For Reich, orgastic impotence, or failure to attain orgastic potency (not to be confused with anorgasmia, the
inability to reach orgasm) always resulted in neurosis, because during orgasm that person could not discharge all
libido (which Reich regarded as a biological energy). According to Reich, not a single neurotic individual possesses orgastic potency.[2]
Reich coined the term orgastic impotence in 1924 and
described the concept in his 1927 book Die Funktion
des Orgasmus, the manuscript of which he presented to
Sigmund Freud on the latters 70th birthday.[3] Though
Reich regarded his work as complementing Freuds original theory of anxiety neurosis, Freud was ambivalent in
his reception.[4] Freuds view was that there was no single
cause of neurosis.[5]

In addition to his own patients love lives, Reich examined through interviews and case records those of 200 patients seen at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Polyclinic. Reich was impressed by the depth and frequency of genital disturbances he observed. One example was a patient who had reported having a normal sex life, but on
closer interviewing by Reich revealed not experiencing
orgasm during intercourse and having thoughts of murdering her partner following the act. Such observations
made Reich very suspicious of supercial reports about
sexual experience.[9] His analysis of these cases led Reich to conclude that genital disturbance was present in all
neuroses and correlated in severity to the severity of the
neurosis, and that all patients who improved in therapy
and remained symptom-free achieved a gratifying genital sex life.[9][11] This led Reich to establish criteria for
satisfactory sexual intercourse. Based on interviews with
people who appeared to have satisfactory sex lives, he described the sex act as being optimally satisfactory only if
it follows a specic pattern.[9][11] Orgastic potency is Reichs term for the ability to have this maximally fullling
type of sexual experience, which in the Reichian view is
limited to those who are free from neuroses and appears
to be shared by all people free of neuroses.[11]

Reich continued to use the concept as an indicator of a

persons health in his later therapeutic methods, such as
vegetotherapy.[6] During the period 19331937, he attempted to ground his orgasm theory in physiology, both
theoretically and experimentally.[7]

Background

2 Denition
Reichs precise denition for the phrase orgastic potency changed over time as he changed his understanding of the phenomenon. He rst described it in detail in
Wilhelm Reich
his 1927 book Die Funktion Des Orgasmus. In the 1980
Reich developed his orgasm theory between 1921 and English translation of the book, Genitality in the Theory
1924 and it formed the basis for all his later contributions, and Therapy of Neuroses, he dened orgastic potency as
including the theory of character analysis.[8] The starting the ability to achieve full resolution of existing sexual
1

4 RECURRENCE IN REICHS WORK

need-tension.[12]
In his 1940 book Die Entdeckung des Orgons Erster Teil:
Die Function des Orgasmus, published in English in 1942
as The Discovery of the Orgone, Volume 1: The Function
of the Orgasm, he dened it as the capacity to surrender
to the ow of biological energy, free of any inhibitions;
the capacity to discharge completely the dammed-up sexual excitation through involuntary, pleasurable convulsions of the body.[13]
His last published denition of orgastic potency, which
is part of his 1960 published Selected Writings, is the
capacity for complete surrender to the involuntary convulsion of the organism and complete discharge of the
excitation at the acme of the genital embrace.[14]
Reich related orgastic potency and orgastic impotence
to a, respectively, healthy and unhealthy sexual experience for the adult.[15] He described that the healthy experience has specic biological and psychological characteristics; is identical for men and women;[16] is characterised by love and the ability to express it; full, deep,
pleasurable breathing is present; deep, delicious currentlike sensations run up and down the body shortly before orgasm; and involuntary muscular movements are
present before climax.[17] Moreover, Reich dened the
healthy sexual experience exclusively in terms of the sexual union between male and female. The dierence between the presence and absence of orgastic potency in the
sexual encounter, as described by Reich, is summarised
by Boadella as follows:[15]

tence, in which the release of energy is incomplete.[23]

In other words, he argued that the inability of psychoneurotics to wholly discharge sexual energy caused a
damming up of energy (or sexual stasis), leaving them
in a vicious circle: the actual neurosis physiologically
provided the energy for the psychoneurosis, while the
psychoneurosis provided a psychological mechanism to
maintain the actual neurosis.[23][24] Accordingly, Reich
dened neurosis as the sum total of all chronic and automatic inhibitions of natural sexual excitations[23] and
which results in an outer rigidity and inner anxiety fuelling harshness, brutality, sexual sadism, restriction,
mechanisation, connement to routines and becoming
lled with compulsions or phobias as well as loneliness,
helplessness, craving for authority, fear of responsibility and mystical longing.[25] Orgastic potency enables the
individual to receive satisfaction in the sex act, whereas
those lacking in it are forever seeking it, and are therefore
likely to be more sexually needy.[26]
Reichs view of the relationship between actual and psychoneuroses has not found its way into psychoanalytic
thinking. However, it has the advantage of connecting psychopathology with physiology and, according to
Charles Rycroft, this makes Reich the only psychoanalyst to provide any explanation as to why childhood
pathogenic experiences (causing neuroses in classical
psychoanalysis) do not disappear when neurotics leave
their childhood environment.[27]

4 Recurrence in Reichs work

3

Orgasm theory

Reich was strongly inuenced by Sigmund Freud's distinction between psychoneuroses and actual neuroses, the
latter being considered of a physiological origin,[18] and
the related libido as the energy of an unconscious sexual
instinct.[19] However, Reich emphasised the libido theory
exactly when it was being discarded by psychoanalysis.[20]
Freud observed that one group of patients suering from
neurosis had sexual disturbancespractising coitus interruptus, conicts related to masturbation or sexual abstinenceand were cured when these disturbances were removed. Hence, Freud reasoned that sexual maladaption
caused the active damming-up of sexual stu[11] and
dened actual neurosis as anxiety based on dammedup libido.[21] In contrast, those with psychoneuroses had
conicts related to the unconscious: repressed impulses,
desires and memories, and repressed unresolved conicts
and childhood traumas.[11] Freud abandoned this view in
the 1920s and postulated the never popularly accepted
death instinct to explain the destructive behaviour that
was earlier attributed to frustrated libido.[22]

Reich expanded on the concept throughout his career. In

his 1942 scientic autobiography The Discovery of Orgone, Vol. 1: The Function of the Orgasm, Reich provided
the following summary of his ndings regarding orgastic
potency: it is an outcome of health, he argued, because
full orgastic potency can only come about if a person is
psychologically free of neurosis (pleasure anxiety absent),
physically free from body armor (chronic muscular
contraction absent), socially free from compulsive morality and duty as imposed by authoritarian and mechanistic
ways of life, and has the natural ability to love.[28] According to one source, Reich held that the vast majority
of people do not meet these criteria and thus lack orgastic
potency.[29]

Reich retained the idea of a sexual energy and the concept orgastic potency as central elements in sex-economy,
a general Reichian theory of health dealing with an organisms energy household.[30] Reich progressively called
this energy libido, sexual energy, emotional energy, bioelectric energy, biophysical energy and, nally, orgone
(life) energy. In terms of this theory, an individual lacking in orgastic potency is unable to fully discharge energy
Reich distinguished between complete release of ac- in orgasm, and thus remains in a constant state of tension,
cumulated sexual tensions in orgasm, resulting in the both physical rigidity and mental anxiety, which constirestoration of energy equilibrium, and orgastic impo- tutes neurosis.[31]

4.3

4.1

Implications for society

Character and muscular armor

the establishment of an adult sex life.[11] Sexual discharge

will leave him or her empty, unsatised, and not fully at
In Reichian psychology, the individual lacking or- peace,[23] resulting in sensations of emptiness and a feelgastic potency is seen to have developed a neurotic ing of inferiority, a widespread phenomenon termed postpsychosomatic armor that blocks the experience of coital tristesse.[11]
pleasure. This is dierentiated between the functionally
Reich argued that if repression occurred, this energy, in
identical character armor and muscular armor.[14]
the form of stored emotions or aects, was held back by
Central to Reichian character analysis is the concept of muscular contraction or armor, which restricts and imcharacter resistance or character defence, by which mobilises the body and becomes the somatic core of neua persons characterwhat the patient did rather than roses, making full orgastic discharge impossible.[34] Rewhat he or she saidwas seen as his or her primary de- ich dened muscular armor as: The sum total of the
fence mechanism. Character attributes include posture, muscular attitudes (chronic muscular spasms) which an
expression, and way of speaking.[32] Reich dened char- individual develops as a block against the breakthrough
acter armor as "[t]he sum total of typical character atti- of emotions and organ sensations, in particular anxitudes which an individual develops as a blocking against ety, rage, and sexual excitation.[33] Muscular armor prehis emotional excitations, resulting in rigidity of the body, vents the sexual climax from being experienced throughlack of emotional contact, and 'deadness.[14]
out the body.[17] For example, forms of armoring are
pulling back the pelvis or tightening the thigh and buttock
muscles.[35] Reich regarded the ego as playing an active
4.2 Genital and neurotic character
part in the act of perception, since whereas some people perceive the gentle stroking of an erogenous zone as
Reich used the terms genital character and neurotic pleasurable, for others it is merely a tactile sensation.[36]
character respectively to distinguish between characters
with and without orgastic potency. Real characters of actual people are considered to be somewhere on a con- 4.2.1 Resolving armor
tinuum between the two. The genital character is the
non-neurotic character structure, which is free from ar- Main article: Vegetotherapy
Body psychotherapy, Neomor and, therefore, has the capacity of natural-self reg- Further information:
ulation on the basis of orgastic potency.[33] The genital Reichian massage, Bioenergetic analysis, Gestalt therapy
character is able to fully focus on a task or object, has a and Primal therapy
natural yearning for continued human contact that nds
expression in work and social life, feels a healthy sym- Dissolving character and muscular rigidications
pathy for fellow human beings in sorrow and happiness, or armorings is the basic principle of Reichian
and experiences life as a fullment and unfolding of his or vegetotherapy.[37] This dissolution softens moveher natural tendencies and struggle to achieve objectives. ment, eases breathing, and can also bring back the
His or her sex life attains full bloom in a context of het- repressed memory of the childhood situation that
erosexual intercourse with full surrender, without identi- caused the repression, Reich wrote.[6] The two goals of
fying the partner either consciously or unconsciously with vegetotherapy are the attainment of orgastic potency
a parent, without wishing to torment or to be tormented, during sexual intercourse and of the orgasm reex
without accepting celibacy except for strongly convincing during therapy. The orgasm reex may be observed as
reasons, and without looking for another partner so long waves of pleasure moving through the body, a series of
as his or her aection for the partner is reciprocated.[11] spontaneous, involuntary movements,[6] and signies
The neurotic character operates under a principle of compulsive moral regulation due to chronic energy stasis.[33]
The neurotic characters work and life is permeated by
struggle to suppress original and even more basic urges
or tendencies. The various forms of neurotic character
correspond to the equally many ways of suppressing such
urges or tendencies that the human being in question considers to be dangerous or is ashamed of. A feeling of
inferiority may sometimes lead to a striving for power
and honor; work is directed by such desires or by duty,
rather than by a striving for joy and happiness. His or her
sex life is disturbed by impulses derived from pregenital wishes, so strong that they prevent the experience of
full release during orgasm, or else genital wishes are so
suppressed by prohibitions and a guilty conscience that
they either inhibit a full release during orgasm or prevent

that the person is free of body armoring, entailing the

ability to give and receive love in all its forms.[23]

4.3 Implications for society

4.3.1 Prevention through social reform
The Invasion of Compulsory Sex-Morality, written in
1931, was Reichs rst step in approaching the answer
to the problem of mass neuroses in society, followed by
The Mass Psychology of Fascism and The Sexual Revolution.[38] The primary sociological issues with which Reich
dealt included in particular the following three:
1. How to prevent neurosis through correct upbringing

5 RECEPTION
and education.

causing a build-up of charge at the skin, it is experienced

as pleasure; in contrast, if it ows inward, away from the
2. How to prevent sex-negative attitudes in society
skin surface, resulting in a lowering of charge at the skin,
through sexual reform.
then it is experienced as an increase in central tension or
[46]
3. How to prevent authoritarian repression through anxiety.
general social reform.[39]
Thirdly, in 1937 Reich published Experimentelle Ergeb4.3.2

Negative social eects

Reich coined the term emotional plague to refer to a

special group dynamic when the destructive, pathological
impulses of a group of neurotic characters become mutually reinforcing.[40] Emotional refers to the element of
social irrationalism in people. Plague refers to the contagious, infectious nature and the diculty of resisting it.
Thus, whereas the neurotic character struggles with feelings of guilt in order to suppress destructive drives (e.g.
a torture fantasy), people with the emotional plague unconsciously provide each other with a social alibi to act
out these suppressed drives. That is, they adopt a group
ideology that rationalises acting on irrational, secondary
drives. An example would be the Salem witch trials in
which dissident Christians were tortured and executed by
their own group.[40]

nisse ber die elektrische Funktion von Sexualitat und

Angst (The Bioelectrical Function of Sexuality and Anxiety) in which he thought he experimentally veried
the existence of what he rst termed the libidinal
economy.[47] The report summarised two years of research into the reaction of the skin to states of pleasure
and anxiety. His ndings included the following: normal
skin has a constant, basic electrical charge of 40 milivolts that does not change with mood states; erogenous
zones have a wandering potential that can at times be
much higher (200 milivolts) or lower, depending on the
mood states; change in potential does not depend on the
mechanical nature of the stimulus, but on changes in the
subjects sensation or emotion; and, erogenous zones can
have mechanical tension (be tumescent) without changes
in levels of the charge, e.g. as in the case of a 'cold
erection'.[48]

4.5 Orgone energy

4.4

Bio-electric experiments

In 1934, Reich expanded his orgasm theory in the essay

Der Orgasmus als Elektro-physiologische Entladung
(The Orgasm as an Electrophysiological Discharge).[41]
Through clinical observations in his sex-counseling centers, Reich concluded that conceiving of the orgasm as
only mechanical tension and relaxation could not explain
why some experience gratication and others do not.[42]
Thus, based on the work of Friedrich Kraus and others, Reich proposed that the orgasm is a bio-electric discharge, and is part of what Reich termed the orgasm formula:

A common misconception about Reichs later developed

orgone energy accumulator is that he claimed it could
provide orgastic potency to those sitting inside the device. Reich maintained the opposite: The orgone accumulator, as has been clearly stated in the relevant publications (The Cancer Biopathy, etc.), cannot provide orgastic
potency.[49] Likewise, in The Orgone Energy Accumulator, its Scientic and Medical Use, Reich wrote: Neuroses cannot be cured with physical orgone energy.[50]

5 Reception

mechanical tension > bioelectric charge

> bioelectric discharge > mechanical
relaxation.[41]

5.1 Academic and psychoanalytic reception

Secondly, in 1934 Reich published the paper Der Urgegensatz des Vegetatives Lebens (Sexuality and Anxiety: The Basic Antithesis of Vegetative Life). The paper is a literature study in which Reich explored the
physiology of the autonomic nervous system, the chemistry of anxiety, the electro-physiology of the body uids and the hydro-mechanics of plasma movements in
protozoa.[43] In conclusion, Reich proposed a functional
psychosomatic antithesis between the parasympathetic
and sympathetic nervous systems, captured respectively
as pleasure or movement towards the world, and anxiety or movement away from the world.[44][45] The corollary is the idea that bioelectric energy displayed an antithetic function: if it ows outward to the skin surface,

According to Myron Sharaf, Reichs view that the capacity to unite tender and sensuous feelings is important
for a healthy love relationship was not a new concept.
Freud had noted this as early as 1912. However, Sharaf
states that the involuntary physical aspects of the full genital discharge in Reichs work were new.[9] He called the
concept orgastic potency and the manner in which Reich
connected a series of psychological, social, and biological ndings with the presence or absence of this function
unique to Reich.[51]
When Reichs rst introduced the orgasm theory at the
psychoanalytic congress in Salzburg he was congratulated
by Karl Abraham for successfully formulating the economic element of neurosis.[20] However, Reichs presen-

5.2

Reichian legacy

tation of the orgasm theory came exactly when psychoanalysis was moving away from the original Freudian instinct theory based on psychic energy. In his 1926 book
Inhibitions, Symptoms, Anxiety Freud completely abandoned his earlier position and wrote: Anxiety never
arises from repressed libido.[52]

5
and furthermore he hid the conicts in the psychoanalytic movement that were explicit in Reichs work. A major entry mainly based on Fenichels work appeared in
the 1953, 1970 Psychiatric Dictionary by L. Hinsie and
R. Campbell: "Impotence, orgastic: The incapacity for
achieving the orgasm or acme of satisfaction in the sexual
act. Many neurotics cannot achieve adequate discharge of
their sexual energy through the sexual act. . . . According
to Fenichel, an important concomitant of orgastic impotence is that these patients are incapable of love.[60][61]

Freud was ambivalent in his reception. When Reich presented him the manuscript of Die Funktion des Orgasmus in May 1926, Freud replied, That thick?" Later that
year he wrote to Reich that the book was valuable, rich
in observation and thought,[53] but in May 1928 wrote to As of September 2012, there are no peer-reviewed artiLou Andreas-Salom: We have here a Dr. Reich, a wor- cles in the PubMed database that discuss the concept of
thy but impetuous young man, passionately devoted to his orgastic potency or Reichs orgasm theory.[62]
hobby-horse, who now salutes in the genital orgasm the
antidote to every neurosis. Perhaps he might learn from
your analysis of K. to feel some respect for the complicated nature of the psyche.[5]
Sharaf writes that the theory was immediately unpopular within psychoanalysis.[54] Paul Federn (18711950),
Reichs training assistant, and Hermann Nunberg (1884
1970) were particularly opposed to it. The German psychiatrist Arthur Kronfeld (18861941) wrote a positive
review of Die Funktion des Orgasmus in 1927: In this
extremely valuable and instructive work the author has really succeeded in broadening as well as deepening Freuds
theory of sex and of the neuroses. He broadens it by
clarifying for the rst time the signicance of the genital orgasm for the development and the whole structure
of the neuroses; he deepens it by giving Freuds theory
of the actual neuroses an exact psychological and physiological meaning. I do not hesitate to consider this work
of Reichs the most valuable contribution since Freuds
The Ego and the Id.[55] The most prominent Freudian
to make clinical use of the concept orgastic potency was
Edward Hitschmann, the Director of the Psychoanalytic
Polyclinic.[56]
Two further reactions to Reichs work in the psychoanalytic movement were either completely ignoring it or
using the concept as if it was commonly accepted, but
without referring to Reich as the source. As a result,
the theme orgastic potency survived but became divorced
from the concepts in which Reich embedded it. For example, in Clinical Psychology Charles Berg uses Reichs
sex economic theory of anxiety as his own without attributing it to Reich.[57] Erik Erikson was another psychoanalytic writer who partially adopted Reichs concept
without acknowledgement. In his bestselling Childhood
and Society, Erikson wrote: Genitality, then, consists
in the unobstructed capacity to develop an orgastic potency so free of pregenital interferences that the genital
libido . . . is expressed in heterosexual mutuality . . .
and with a convulsion-like discharge of tension from the
whole body.[58][59]

5.2 Reichian legacy

The two colleagues of Reich who build most on Reichs
orgasm theory and orgastic potency are Philipson and
Lowen. They emphasised the importance of human relationship in orgastic functions.[63]
Tage Philipson, in his 1952 book Kaerlighedslivet: Natur
Eller Unnatur, studied natural and unnatural love-life. He
wrote that in healthy people sexuality and love will always be associated together. Sex will come from the heart
and return to the heart. . . . the fully healthy person must
be the person with completely free love feelings. . . .
When this is the case other feelings will also be able to
stream through the entire organism: hate, sorrow, anxiety, etc., and the orgasm, as the highest point of sexuality,
will also be able to aect the entire organism.[64][65]
Alexander Lowen in his 1966 book Love and Orgasm distinguishes between achieving orgasm in the Kinsey meaning of sexual performance, and the entering into a love
relationship as a whole human, similar to Reich. Like
Reich, Lowen considers the latter to be the expression of
health, not a means to it.[66]
Theodore Wolfe, an American pioneer in psychosomatic
medicine and later colleague of Reich, thought that anxiety was the cause of both neuroses and psychosomatic
distortions. When reading Reichs Der Funktion des Orgasmus he found in it what he called the key to understanding the dynamics of this relationship.[67]

In a review of Reichs sexual theories Elsworth Baker,

a psychiatrist and colleague of Reich, wrote that in particular Reichs sexual theories were commonly misinterpreted and misunderstood. While Reich was portrayed as
advocating a wild frantic promiscuity to seek mystical,
Otto Fenichel, in the classic textbook The Psychoana- ecstatic orgasm that could cure all neuroses and physical
lytic Theory of Neuroses, uses aspects of Reichs orgasm ills, Baker continues, Reich in fact found that the healthy
theory but disguised that they were Reichs contribution, person needs less sexual activity and that the orgasm has a
function to maintain health only for the healthy person.[68]

WORKS BY WILHELM REICH

Comparing denitions of orgasm

Drive and Libido Concepts from Forel to Jung in

ibid.: 86-124.

The concepts of the sexual acme used in the famous

1948 and 1953 Kinsey reports and the 1966 research by
Masters and Johnson were dierent from the one used
by Reich. Reich directly related orgastic potency with
the total response system, the personality, contact-ability,
total psychosomatic health of a person.[69] In contrast,
Kinsey and Masters and Johnson restricted their conclusions to phenomena that all sexual climaxes had in
common.[70] For example, Kinsey dened the male orgasm as all cases of ejaculation[71] and the female orgasm as the sudden and abrupt release . . . from sexual
tension, [excluding] the satisfaction that may result from
sexual experience.[72] In other words, Kinsey focusses
on the physiology, anatomy and technique involved in inducing a discharge of tension. Therefore, Kinseys usage of the term orgasm covers behaviour that in the Reichian typology ranges from orgastic potency to orgastic impotence.[73] Furthermore, examples of physiological distinctions Reich made but which were not pursued
by Kinsey and Masters and Johnson include the dierence between local and total bodily responses, and between voluntary and involuntary movements.[74]

1923: Zr Triebenergetik, Zeitschrift fr Sexualwissenschaft 10. Republished in English as Concerning the Energy of Drives in ibid.: 143-157.

Mature orgasm
See also: Orgasm Clitoral and vaginal categories
In 1905, Freud developed the psychoanalytic distinction
between clitoral and vaginal orgasm, with only the latter
being identied with psychosexual maturity.[75] This distinction has since been challenged among others on physiological grounds. For example, Masters and Johnson
wrote: Are clitoral and vaginal orgasms truly separate
and anatomic entities? From a biological point of view
the answer to this question is an unequivocal NO.[76]
However, a clinically grounded qualitative distinction between psychosexual maturity and immaturity was only introduced with Reichs concept orgastic potency vs. orgastic impotence (instead of vaginal vs. clitoral).[77] As Masters and Johnson focussed on phenomena shared by all
sexual climaxes - ranging from what Reich categorised as
orgastic potency to impotence - their nding has no direct
relevance to or implications for Reichs distinction.[78]

Psychoanalysis
In the following articles Reich discussed the positive and
negative therapeutic reactions of patients to changes in
their genitality:[79]
1922: "ber Spezitt der Onanieformen", Internationale Zeitschrift fr Psychoanalyse 8. Republished
in English as "Concerning Specic Forms of Masturbation" in ibid.: 125-132.
1924: "ber Genitalitt vom Standpunkt der psychoanalytischen Prognose und Therapie, Internationale Zeitschrift fr Psychoanalyse 10. Republished in English as On Genitality: From the Standpoint of Psychoanalytic Prognosis and Therapy in
ibid.: 158-179.
1925: Weitere Bemerkungen ber die therapeutische Bedeutung der Genitallibido, Internationale
Zeitschrift fr Psychoanalyse 11. Republished in
English as Further Remarks on the Therapeutic
Signicance of Genital Libido in ibid.: 199-221.
1926: "ber die Quellen der neurotischen Angst
(Beitrag zur Theorie der psychoanalytischen Therapie) [On the Sources of Neurotic Anxiety (A Contribution to the Theory of Psychoanalytic Therapy)],
Internationale Zeitschrift fr Psychoanalyse 12, and
International Journal for Psychoanalysis 7: 381391.
1927: Die Funktion des Orgasmus: Zur Psychopathologie und zur Soziologie des Geschlechtslebens, Vienna: Internationale Psychoanalytische
Verlag.[80] Second, revised edition published in English in 1980 as Genitality in the Theory and Therapy
of Neurosis, New York: FSG, ISBN 0374516413.
Biology

Works by Wilhelm Reich

Sexology
1921: Der Koitus und die Geschlechter, Zeitschrift
fr Sexualwissenschaft 8. Republished in English in
1975 as Coiton and the Sexes, Early Writings, Vol.
1, New York: FSG: 73-85, ISBN 0374513473.
1922: Triebbegrie von Forel bis Jung, Zeitschrift
fr Sexualwissenschaft 9. Republished in English as

In the following articles Reich explored whether the orgasm theory was rooted in physiology:[7]
1934: Der Orgasmus als Elektro-physiologische
Entladung, Zeitschrift fr Politische Psychologie
und Sexualkonomie 1: 29-43, Copenhagen. Republished in English in 1982 as The Orgasm as an
Electrophysiological Discharge, The Bioelectrical
Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety, New York:
FSG: 3-20, ISBN 0374517282.

7
1934: Der Urgegensatz des Vegetatives Lebens,
Zeitschrift fr Politische Psychologie und Sexualkonomie 1: 125-142, Copenhagen. Republished
in English as Sexuality and Anxiety: The Basic Antithesis of Vegetative Life, in ibid.: 21-70.

[5] Letter from Freud to Lou Andreas-Salom, May 9,

1928, The International Psycho-Analytical Library,
89:174-175.
[6] Sharaf 1994: 238-41, 243.
[7] Boadella 1985: 102, 135.

1937: Experimentelle Ergebnisse ber die elektrische

Funktion von Sexualitat und Angst, Klinische und Ex- [8] Boadella 1985: 23.
perimentelle Berichte 4, Copenhagen: Sexpol Ver[9] Sharaf 1994: 86-105.
lag. Republished in English as The Bioelectrical
Function of Sexuality and Anxiety, in ibid.: 71- [10] Boadella 1985: 16.
161.
[11] Raknes 1944.

Synthesis
1942: The Discovery of the Orgone Vol. 1: The
Function of the Orgasm, New York: Orgone Institute Press.

[12] Reich 1980: 18.

[13] Reich 1999: 102. Note: the original reads damned-up
but this is probably a typo.
[14] Reich 1961: 10.
[15] Boadella 1985: 17-8.

See also
Body psychotherapy
Human sexual response cycle
Libido
Psychosexual development
Sexual dysfunction

Footnotes

[1] Reichs account of the ideal sexual act is remarkable both

for its explicitness, which must have required courage in
the pre-Kinsey, pre-Masters and Johnson era in which it
was written, and for its omission of the word 'love'. And
yet it is clear that it is love that he is talking about. Orgastic potency as formulated by Reich is the capacity to love
body and soul, psychosomatically.Rycroft 1971: 33.
Mah, Kenneth and Yitzchak M. Binik (2001) The
nature of human orgasm: a critical review of major
trends, Clinical Psychology Review 21(6): 823-56:
Reichs model takes a unisex, integrated biopsychological perspective.
Corrington, Robert S. (2003) Wilhelm Reich: Psychoanalyist and Radical Naturalist, New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, p. 88.: The coda to the
entire argument of Genitality was sounded in two
striking sentences: 'Satised genital object love is
thus [the justied aim] of our therapeutic eorts.'"
[2] Gabriel, Yiannis. Freud and Society. Routledge, 1983, p.
178.

[16] Reichs model takes a unisex, integrated biopsychological perspective. Source: Mah, Kenneth and Yitzchak M.
Binik (2001) The nature of human orgasm: a critical review of major trends, Clinical Psychology Review 21(6):
823-56.
[17] Daniels 2008: Orgiastic Potency [sic].
[18] Rycroft 1971: 29.
[19] Rycroft 1971: 18-22.
[20] Boadella 1985: 19.
[21] Kovel 1991.
[22] Rycroft 1971: 34, 36-7.
[23] Daniels 2008: Neurotic Sexuality.
[24] Rycroft 1971: 29-31.
[25] Baker 1986: 3, 10 (in pdf).
[26] Baker 1986: 12 (in pdf).
[27] Rycroft 1971: 31.
[28] Reich 1999: 6-8.
[29] Konia 1987.
[30] Raknes 1944: Lead.
[31] Baker 1986: 2, 10 (in pdf).
[32] Daniels 2008.
[33] Reich 1961: 9-12.
[34] Baker 1986: 2 (in pdf).
[35] Daniels 2008: Sexuality and Armoring.

[3] Sharaf 1994: 91-2, 100, 116.

[36] Reich 1999: 52.

[4] Sharaf 1994: 100101.

[37] Reich 1999: 8.

10

REFERENCES

[38] Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust 2011.

[73] Boadella 1985: 26-7.

[39] Boadella 1985: 62.

[74] Boadella 1985: 28-9.

[40] Boadella 1985: 215.

[75] Boadella 1985: 27.

[41] Boadella 1985: 103-4.

[76] Masters 1963, quoted in Boadella 1985: 28.

[42] Reich 1982: 8-9.

[77] Boadella 1985: 28.

[43] Boadella 1985: 103-4, italics in original.

[78] Boadella 1985: 28.

[44] Reich 1982: 68-9.

[79] Reich 1980: Foreword to the First Edition (p. 3).

[45] Boadella 1985: 109.

[80] Online at the Internet Archive (pdf).

[46] Baker 1986: 6-7 (in pdf).

[47] Boadella 1985: 131, 135.
[48] Boadella 1985: 131-4.
[49] Reich, W. (1950, April) Orgone Energy Bulletin 2(2),
quoted in November 2011 Update From The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust and The Wilhelm Reich Museum, Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust (accessed 26 January 2013).
[50] quoted in Gardner, Martin (1957) Fads and Fallacies in
the Name of Science, Courier Dover Publications: 256.
[51] Sharaf 1994: 4.
[52] Freud 1948: 54, quoted in Boadella 1985: 20.
[53] Freud 1942, quoted in Sharaf 1994: 100101.
[54] Sharaf 1994: 86.
[55] Kronfeld 1927, quoted in Boadella 1985: 19.
[56] Boadella 1985: 21.
[57] Boadella 1985: 23-4.
[58] Erikson quoted in Boadella 1985: 25.
[59] Boadella 1985: 23-5.
[60] Hinsie and Campbell quoted in Boadella 1985: 24-5.
[61] Boadella 1985: 24-5.
[62] PubMed (2012) Orgastic Potency
[63] Boadella 1985: 30-1.
[64] Philipson 1952, quoted in Boadella 1985: 31.
[65] Boadella 1985: 31.
[66] Boadella 1985: 31.
[67] Boadella 1985: 32.
[68] Baker 1986: 1, 12 (in pdf).
[69] Boadella 1985: 30.
[70] Boadella 1985: 28.
[71] Kinsey 1948: 59-60, quoted in Boadella 1985: 26.
[72] Kinsey 1953:628, quoted in Boadella 1985: 26-7.

10 References
Baker, Elsworth (1986), Sexual
Theories of Wilhelm Reich
(PDF), Journal of Orgonomy 20
(2): 175194, ISSN 0022-3298,
OCLC 1754708, archived from the
original on 6 June 2012.
Boadella, David (1985), Wilhelm
Reich: The Evolution of His Work,
London.
Daniels, Victor (10 May 2008),
Lecture notes on Wilhelm Reich
and His Inuence, Victor Daniels
Website in The Psychology Department (Sonoma State University),
archived from the original on 6 June
2012.
Freud, Sigmund (1942), Letter to
Reich. quoted in Reich (1942) The
Function of the Orgasm, New York.
Freud, Sigmund (1948), Inhibitions, Symptoms, Anxiety, Hogarth
Press.
Kardiner, Abram (1955), Sex and
Morality, Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Kinsey, Alfred (1948), Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male, & Others, New York.
Kinsey, Alfred (1953), Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female, &
Others, New York.
Konia, Charles (1987), A Patient
Brought to Genitality (PDF), Journal of Orgonomy 21 (2): 172184,
ISSN 0022-3298, OCLC 1754708,
archived from the original on 6 June
2012.
Kovel, Joel (1991), A Complete
Guide to Therapy: From Psychoanalysis to Behaviour Modication,
London: Penguin Books, ISBN
0140136312.

9
Kronfeld, Arthur (1927), Review
of Die Funktion des Orgasmus",
Archiv. fuer Frauenkunde 14.
Lowen, Alexander (1966), Love
and Orgasm, New York & London.
Marmor, Judd (1954), Some Considerations Concerning Orgasm in
the Female (PDF), Psychosomatic
medicine 16 (3): 240245, archived
from the original on 16 September
2012.
Masters, W.H. (1963), Johnson,
V. E., The sexual response cycle
of the human female III. The Clitoris: anatomic and clinical considerations, West. Jo. Surg. Obst. &
Gynec..
Masters, W.H. (1966), Human
Sexual Response, Johnson, V. E.,
Boston, US.
Philipson,
Tage
(1952),
Kaerlighedslivet:
Natur Eller
Unnatur, Copenhagen.
Raknes, Ola (March 1944), (under pseudonym Carl Arnold), Sexeconomy: A theory of living functioning, International Journal of
Sex-Economy and Orgone-Research
3 (1): 1737, OCLC 5917664.
See here for a summary on Xiandos.info, archived from the original
on 9 June 2012.
Reich, Wilhelm (1961), Selected
Writings: An Introduction to Orgonomy, Foreword by Mary Boyd Higgins, New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, ISBN 0374501971.
Reich, Wilhelm (1980) [Published
in 1927 as Die Funktion des Orgasmus: Zur Psychopathologie und zur
Soziologie des Geschlechtslebens],
Genitality in the Theory and Therapy of Neurosis, Trans. by Philip
Schmitz, New York: Farrar, Straus
and Giroux. Note: not to be confused with the 1942 The Function
of the Orgasm, Volume I of The Discovery of the Orgone.
Reich, Wilhelm (1999) [First English tr. published 1942], The
Function of the Orgasm: SexEconomic Problems of Biological
Energy, The Discovery of the Orgone, Volume I, Trans. Vincent R.
Carfagno, London: Souvenir Press,
ISBN 0-285-64970-1.
Roazen, Paul (1985), Fury on

Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm

Reich. Myron Sharaf. New York:
St Martins Press/Marek, 1983, xiii
+ 550 pp., Psychoanalytic Review
(National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis) 72: 668
671, ISSN 0033-2836, archived
from the original on 8 June 2012.
Rycroft, Charles (1971), Reich,
London: Fontana.
Schilder, Paul (1941), Types of
anxiety neuroses, Int. Journal of
Psa.
Sharaf, Myron (1994) [unabridged
republication of the 1983 New
York: St. Martins Press ed.], Fury
on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich (1st Da Capo Press ed.),
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da
Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-80575-8.
Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust (4
January 2011), The Invasion of
Compulsory Sex-Morality, archived
from the original on 6 June 2012.

11 Further reading
Baker, Elsworth (1986), Sexual Theories of Wilhelm
Reich (PDF), archived from the original on 6 June
2012.
Bakhtunin, M (2014), The Art of Making Love,
archived from the original on 15 January 2014.
Raknes, Ola (1944), Sex-economy: A Theory of Living Functioning. For a summary see here on Xiandos.info, archived from the original on 9 June 2012.
Reich, Wilhelm (1927) [1980 translation], Extract
from: Die Funktion des Orgasmus/Genitality in the
Theory and Therapy of Neuroses (Part II) (PDF),
archived from the original on 6 June 2012.
Reich, Wilhelm (1942), The Discovery of the Orgone Vol. 1: The Function of the Orgasm, New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 0374502048.

12 External links
Documentary Mans Right to Know (28 min) Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust. An introduction to the life
and work of Wilhelm Reich.
Documentary Who is Afraid of Wilhelm Reich
(Wer Hat Angst vor Wilhelm Reich) (1:34 hr),
Antonin Svoboda in coproduction with Austrian
TV.

10

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