The sexual Revolution was supported by not only ground breaking discoveries of Sigmund Freud but also Wilhelm Reich, who believed that people cannot be happy without having proper orgasms. Freud’s philosophy was that primitive sexual and aggressive forces,can lead to chaos if not controlledand and that was the basing point of developing new theories by Reich.
To understand Reich we have to understand philosophies of Sigmund Freud as well as Karl Marx as they both influenced Reich’s life and therefore his theories.
In Freud’s point of view, if you have behaviour problems then deep down these problems reflect issues on the primitive level. By his psychotherapies, he wanted to get to the source of the problem. As mentioned in some of my previous posts like ‘Freud, Bernays and beauty of James Joyse's Ulysses' or The Century of the Self documentary by Adam Curtis.
Freud’s discoveries led through studying the dreams as dreams are the royal way to human’s unconsciousness. Through the therapies he did on his patients he was studying their dreams and trying to get into the roots of their insecurities and reasons for unhappiness. Freud named three layers of human’s mind, ID- instinctive drives and impulses, EGO- conscious mind (organising thoughts) that would help to make sense of the surrounding us world, and SUPER EGO that keeps the control over the other two. In his psychoanalysis he concluded that forces that are hidden deep in our sub-consciousness, like for example Edipus complex, should be controlled by our consciousness otherwise the bad ID will come out.
Even though Wilhelm Reich was brought up in Freud’s and Marx’s theories, he decided to create his own theories and publish the discoveries from his researches. Reich first practiced psychoanalysis and psychiatry in Vienna and then moved his research to Berlin in 1930s. His fascinating book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism was published in 1933 when Fascism was not only a symptom but also a cause of sexual repression. Considering the overall circumstances that the book was brought into public view it was considered to be a liability to the Nazis as well as Communist (Red Fascism) in the Soviet Union. Reich believed that the fear of revolted sexuality influenced irrationality of the people on the mass scale. Suppression of natural sexuality in a child makes it oppressive, shy, obedient, afraid of authority, good and adjusted in the authoritarian sense.
Comparing his theories to Freud’s layer’s of human’s mind, Reich believes that “every natural, social, or libidinous impulse that wants to spring into action from the biologic core has to pass through the layer of secondary perverse drives and it is thereby distorted”. (3) The second layer in the cruel and sadistic one (Freud’s unconsciousness/ secondary drives) is repressed by the surface, polite on; and underneath these two lies core, that represents honesty, good and loving. And so on contrary to Freud, he says that inside our mind there is good and it is society’s repression that makes the distortion and makes people dangerous. And so before Freud’s ID layer, there is another one that is pure and good which Freud didn’t get to. The three layers were repressed in society and the way we can see existence of the core layer is through music and painting. He developed an orgone box, an accumulator that was a cloud buster that in his mind would remove that orgone build up from human’s body. Along with his disciples, Reich bought a land in Maire where everybody had a vast amount of sex and they called it orgonon. Reich went so far in his belief in this box that he started to spread an idea that his box could cure illnesses, the ending point of his irrational beliefs was when he got arrested and convicted of spreading “the truth” that his box could cure cancer (Reich died in a prison).
Also, as the sexuality is the key, the sexual pleasure was the ultimate way to happiness. Effectively, if one is sexually repressed, one’s social relations will be affected. Sex in this way could represent a weapon of political domination. Reich was obsessed with sex, if there is no proper orgasm there is repression. He believed in Orgone energy that every person has inside and that has to be released, if it is not then it will build up creating so called body armour. The ability to loose ourselves in sexual ecstasy is the ultimate measure of well being.
Fascism is in our second layer it is not specifically the weakness of one nation it is in everyone and if manipulated it can be brought out as it happened to german lower classes during IIWW. And if a society can be manipulated, the society can be controlled. Lower middle class was the targeted, vulnerable class that responded to manipulation. In the idea of lower middle class family, father’s figure is dominating and so the rest of the the family was sexually repressed, that created rebellious children and so they were repressed and rebellious at the same time. This model of the family was used to dominance and repression and that was perfect for developing the authoritarian power. Reich believed that repression existed not for improvement (Religion) or for sake of culture (Freud) but to create citizens who obey authoritarian regime.
In 1950s America Sigmund Freud’s ideas were hugely influential. His nephew, Barneys implied his uncle’s theories into marketing (Crowd Psychology & Manipulation)
Freud’s daughter Anna led her life following her father’s philosophies about repressing inner-unconscious desires keeping her ID layer of the mind under constant control. 1960 brought more and more interest in Wilhelm Reich’s ideas practising releasing repression or anger.(2) And times of the new left came representing parts of the society living and believing in necessity of suppressing feelings and certain behaviours and rebellious and in-need-for freedom people wanting to not only no free their mind of the policeman but also express themselves as individuals. In mid 60s student protests began promoting the slogan of there is the policeman inside our heads and he must be destroyed. (2)
Democratic convention in 1968... protests continued and new strategies were undertaken to deal with rebellious students. Other manifesto of self revelation was creating Esalem Institude that took Reich’s ideas and developed into their own theories of self-release. The encounter groups were created to express difficult feelings and transcended them (race groups and convent 300 nuns). Setting yourself free will eventually lead to make the society free. (2) effectively, in 1960/70s the need for individuality became more and more visible in all aspects of life ( product choice- economy, society etc). As history shows the progress of technology helped in great deal in fulfilling more diverse needs of certain individual groups of the society (new products, better choice, bigger variety). People wanted to express themselves through not only their image but also new philosophies or free mind thinking. The market had to overcome new challenges. Eventually, corporation was possible and more suited products were available for individuals (conformist products). Reich’s idea in Marketing was all about you and selling it to you that started a new trend and drive in the sphere of consumerism. The market identified values and started targeting people after their values, demographics and lifestyles. The same idea was also implied into politics. And it has been carried on until current times.
Inspiration:
1. History and Context of Journalism (part IV), lecture in week 5
2. Screening in week 6 The Century of the Self documentary by Adam Curtis
3. Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism
The University of Winchester Journalism Course
