Sexual Theories of Wilhelm Reich
Elsworth Baker, M.D.
Reprinted from the The Journal of Orgonomy, Volume 20 Number 2
The American College of Orgonomy
Reich at first believed that this energy was electrical in nature and called it bioelectric energy. Later, he discovered many different qualities in it not characteristic of electricity and renamed it orgone (organism) energy. It thus became apparent that, to safeguard health, this energy must be maintained within certain definite limits, which is accomplished nat-urally by genital functioning. Thus he called "sex economy." When pleasure was felt in the sexual embrace, the energy had reached the gen-ital and could be discharged. Adequate discharge could occur only in the presence of a full orgasm, which means participation of the entire organism through total bodily convulsions. This capacity for full gratification Reich called " orgastic potency." Thus, in women, only vaginal orgasm could achieve this gratification, while a clitoral climax, which is only a local response, could not. In the absence of pleasure or in the presence of anxiety, no energy reached the skin and genital (which is part of the skin) and discharge could not occur. A full orgasm (genital potency) could not take place under conditions of sexual inhibitions or repressions. Further, it was not possible without privacy and a suitable environment with both partners fully relaxed.
Reich could only conclude that sex, which was formerly believed to be solely for reproductive purposes, had the vitally important function of maintaining a stable energy level within the organism. Sexual activity Is thus of little value for emotional health unless it is experienced with pleasurable excitation reaching a peak at the orgasm, when the excitation rapidly diminishes.
It would follow, then, that without sexual repression, there would be no neuroses. This is indeed the case in those societies that are sex-affirmative, such as the Trobriand Islanders'. Such societies are matrilineal in structure. In western civilization (and most Asiatic and other countries), a patriarchal form of social structure exists which is sex-negative. We have, there-fore, to be concerned with the social cause of sexual problems and hence neuroses. Our whole society is oriented against true sexual freedom and, from infancy on, every effort is made to inhibit and repress any sexual manifestations. The infant is unable, because of clothing, to reach his genital and, later, any attempt to touch it or play with it is stopped. Boys and girls alike are severely reprimanded for any curiosity about the other's body, and adolescents who engage in sexual relations can be severely punished. Thus, only a few are allowed to grow up with a natural sexual attitude, and yet, when they marry, they are supposed to be able to function. Few find or attain a satisfying sexual relationship even in our day when youths are boldly showing their sexual interest and demanding its fulfillment.
The youth of today are making their demands on a disordered structure crippled years ago in childhood. They mistake license for freedom. [Footnote 5] The result is a compulsive, irresponsible sexuality that offers little release and is accompanied by pornography, perversion, public nudity, and frequent sexual orgies. They quote Reich as the authority for this so-called sexual freedom, and society says, if this is what Reich stood for, we do not want any part of him. This, in fact, is what Reich was very bitterly opposed to. The fact that Reich stood for an affirmative sexual attitude had been distorted Into such chaotic sexual expression.
Further, many well-meaning but Ignorant physicians, psychologists, and sex counselors, knowing the importance of sex in emotional problems, advise their patients to go out and have sex as a standard therapeu-tic practice. This reminds me of the old gangster parties where a trigger man held a gun in your ribs and told you, "The boss wants you to show that you are having a good time or else." Such advice to a shy, timid, and inhibited youth can very well end disastrously, with increase in guilt and symptoms and possible complete collapse. I have seen such cases. No one should be advised to have sex until he is ready for it emotionally and has sufficient knowledge about the possibility of venereal infection or un-wanted pregnancy. Then he will not need to be so advised. Occasionally, the timid may need encouragement but only by an expert who can adequately judge that he is truly ready. Reich found in his research among the youth that only one-third were emotionally prepared for a sexual life, and one-third needed considerable information and counseling, while the remaining third required extensive therapy. It 's true that the majority of youth today have grown up with a better attitude toward sex but most without sufficient responsibility toward it.
Our sexual revolution has largely misfired with many in chaotic rebellion, flaunting what they con-sider their freedom and their rights rather than taking on a responsible sexual life. I do believe that most of our youths who never make the headlines have made real gains over the older generation, and this is where the real hope lies.
There are three peaks of sexual activity in the first 21 years of life: fancy, first puberty at about five years of age, and puberty. These periods particularly require much understanding and contact for the health of the child. The infant who has developed for nine months in the warm, relaxed uterus of a loving mother in constant contact with her living, pul-sating organism continues to need that contact for warmth, security, and particularly the energetic excitation which stimulates him and makes him glow and expand with life and with pleasure. He can thus develop rapidly and become increasingly self-sufficient in moving about and keeping himself entertained. I have seen babies born under natural conditions, in the home rather than a hospital, who will follow you with their eyes immediately after birth, nurse within an hour, and turn over in a few hours. This seldom happens with a baby born in a hospital. The first few hours after birth are extremely important for future healthy development. The baby is born able to respond to his feelings and make known his needs. If these needs are responded to contactfully and satis-fied, it is much harder to crush him later.
A baby such as this, born naturally to a relaxed and loving mother, will be seen at the end of nursing to experience an oral orgasm. In infancy, the mouth is the dominant zone for contact, satisfaction, and discharge of energy similar to the genital function later on. The oral orgasm. It serves a function orgasm occurs only in healthy infants who have good contact with a mother whose nipples are sensitive, warm, and alive. It starts as a quivering of the lips, which spreads to the face, finally ending in trembling and soft convulsive movements of the head and throat and sometimes of the whole body. This oral orgasm maintains a natural energy charge. At the same time, the genital is a pleasurable organ which the baby loves to play with. Contact with the mother is of vital importance to the infant and also to the mother. Most obstetricians are aware that nursing aids in the normal involution of the uterus. But it also gives excitation and that sparkle of life to both infant and mother. The mother may experience strong sensations traveling to the genital with a deep feeling of love. [Footnote 6]
Most babies, however, do not have such a start in life. They may develop a spastic uterus, which prevents free movement. The birth process itself may be long and difficult, with anesthesia, drugs, and forceps, and birth may even be mechanically held back to await the doctor's arrival. At birth, the environment which greets the newborn is mostly unfriendly. To begin with, it is cold compared to the uterus. Then the baby is slapped to make it breathe, hung by the feet, and even yet too often a stinging medication is placed in its eyes. This is only the beginning. It is separated from the mother, whom it continues to need, and is placed in a crib with a hard mattress, frequently with bright overhead lights shining down relentlessly 24 hours a day. After starving for 24 to 48 hours, the baby is put on regulated feedings, usually from the cold, insensitive nipples of the neurotic mother or from an inanimate bottle. The environment is noisy and chaotic, the nurses frequently rough and careless, mittens are placed over the babies' hands so they cannot scratch themselves but, then, neither can they suck their thumbs for oral satisfaction. It is pitiful to watch them try. Further, they are frequently wrapped so tightly they have no free movement and are blocked in all directions from reaching out into the environment. We gain a false impression of the helplessness of infants. Blocked thus, they can only contract. The chest stops its free movement, the diaphragm blocks, the eyes do not focus, and the skin becomes cold and blue. At first, they react with angry crying, later with crying and whining to show their misery. Now add circumcision, and the penis, too, contracts and remains cold and blue and is conditioned to pain rather than pleasure.
With this effective start, life is further blocked by early toilet training which ultimately renders the child more compliant in curbing his masturbatory impulses and sexual strivings. Sphincter control is not attained until eighteen months of age so that earlier toilet training requires contraction of the body musculature, especially of the thighs, buttocks, and pelvic floor, as well as retraction of the pelvis, and further respiratory inhibition. This is a familiar example of the armoring process, which binds energy and prevents it from reaching the pelvis where it can be discharged. It effectively diminishes natural emotional expression and especially the pleasurable sensations from the pelvis. Next the child runs into admonishment when he touches his penis and faces the dire threats of the results of masturbation.
Thus, in general, release is prevented, so the energy increases and tension mounts. Sexual impulses and other aggressive drives, which were at first tender and soft, become harsh and brutal. This is the origin of sexual sadism, which society so rightly tries to abolish but strongly handles by further repression. Because of the frustrations, rage develops, and it, in turn, must be repressed. With little release of biological energy, the individual must of necessity continue to Increase his armor (muscular contraction) which may eventually include the whole musculature. He feels a constant inner tension and anxiety. Finally, effective armoring falls, and the repressed sexual drives break through and are warded off in the form of symptoms. The child becomes restricted, mechanical, and confined to definite routines of living filled with compulsions or phobias.
He arrives at the second peak of sexual activity at about four years of age. This stage is ushered in by genital exhibitionism and pride in the genital; then, at about five years of age, he develops strong feelings of love and sexual interest in the parent of the opposite sex. This is accompanied by plans of marriage to the mother or father some day and jealousy and resentment toward the parent of the same sex. This is the famous Oedipus complex [Footnote 7] and it requires great understanding and reassurance on the part of both parents for the child to resolve this stage satisfactorily and proceed on to a maturing sexuality. The loved parent must assure the child that his love is returned and that he is the most important and loved person in the parent's life. The rival parent must not show jealousy or ridicule but accept the child's attitude as natural. If this is done, even this parent becomes accepted and loved as part of the triangle. Secure in this love, the child can later give up the parent easily for a suitable mate. On the other hand, if the child's love is rejected, he withdraws into himself, becomes shy and timid, and develops a rich fantasy life to replace reality; or, if the rival parent is jealous, angry, or ridiculing, the child becomes filled with guilt and fear of castration. In either case, the Oedipus situation is never resolved, and any future love object is endowed with qualities of the rejecting parent, and sexual feeling becomes filled with anxiety, guilt, and revived castration fears.
I once had as a patient a young man who was divorced and had kept his small daughter with him. He finally fell in love with a charming young lady, but, to his great consternation, his young daughter became very jealous and violently opposed to his loved one. He asked me what to do. Since his daughter was five years old and at the oedipal level, I told him to tell her that he loved her more than anyone in the world and to show, her a great deal of affection. He was amazed to see the change in her and how she was able to accept her rival even after the marriage. She did remind him occasionally that they had a secret that they would never tell her rival. The stepmother knew of course, and was glad to allow her to have her father's love. Secure in her father's love, the child was able to love her new mother and accept her completely.
From first puberty to second puberty, no one can really say what the healthy child's sexual life would be - perhaps both masturbation and heterosexual play, including actual intercourse. Freud believed that the child went Into a period of sexual repression called the latency period where no sexual interest was shown. Growth and development use up a large part of the child's energy, so a sexual outlet may not be as important as it is in adolescence, but certainly it is not an asexual period. Those who maintain a sexual interest and activity remain healthier than those who do not. Malinowski found that, in the Trobriand Islands, children had sexual play and actual intercourse exclusively from 4-6 years and onward. This seems more natural than masturbation, because sexual pleasure is greater where another organism Is involved for mutual excitation and sharing of the experience. Also, a moist surface, particularly electrolytic, like body fluids, makes for a higher degree of charge and excitation, as will the mouth and nipple in infancy and the penis and vagina in inter-course. Masturbation is more satisfying if the penis is lubricated with sa-liva (which is electrolytic).
Puberty is particularly important because it, in fact, can give the individual a second chance to become healthy if the society is understand-ing and sympathetic. The endocrines mature then, as do the sexual or-gans, and sexual desire becomes overwhelmingly strong and urgent, more so than at any other period in the individual's life. If these drives are allowed suitable outlet, many early problems can be overcome. But, it is just at this period that society reacts most strongly against any out-let. The weaker ones are driven back into themselves, refraining from sexual outlet; even masturbation is filled with guilt and inhibited as much as possible. These end up severely crippled emotionally. The stronger ones find a sexual outlet but frequently as a symbol of rebellion and with strong feelings of guilt. Their sexual drive is expressed but under the most unfavorable circumstances: in cars, in buses, with insufficient knowledge of contraception, and always with the fear of being caught. If they are over 18 years of age, they are in a safer position legally and many now are beginning to live together at colleges and when they work away from home.
Reich believed that we needed to develop a whole new concept of sexuality. He viewed the body as an energy system in a constant state of expansion and contraction or pulsation (seen most easily, in the pulse and respiration). In health, energy flows freely through the body. This energy is built up in the organism by the intake of food, fluid, and air. It is also absorbed directly through the skin. It is discharged by activity, excretion, emotional expression, the process of thinking, and by conversion into body heat, which radiates to the environment. Also it is used up in growth. In the usual course of events, more energy is built up than is discharged. If this were to continue, the organism would either have to grow continually or burst. To maintain a stable, economic energy level, excess energy must be discharged at more or less regular intervals. This economic discharging of energy is the function of the orgasm.
As energy increases, the body regularly builds up tension. At a certain point, known as the lumination point, the tension is felt as sexual excitement in the healthy individual. Energy above the level of the lumination point may be looked upon as sexual energy or the libido, which Freud described. Normal expansion markedly increases. The skin becomes warm and dry, the pulse full and slow, breathing is deep, vision is sharp, and the genitals fill with blood and become acutely sensitive. In full sexual excitement, not only must energy reach the skin surface, especially the genitals, but this energy must be excited from within. This means acceptance of the genital feeling and anticipation of the genital embrace. Excitation is further increased by the presence of the sexual object until a close contact and union of the genitals become imperative. Rhythmic friction rapidly produces a maximum peak of energy concentration and excitation in the genital. Discharge occurs through total convulsions of the body, the orgasm, and the economic energy level is reestablished.
Reich believed that, from the time of birth, everyone is endowed with the sexual capacity which is necessary to maintain a stable energy level in the organism and prevent stasis. This is nature's safety valve, to which man has developed a negative, repressive attitude. The result is emo-tional and physical disease, exploitation, sadism, and destructiveness, not only of man himself but toward all nature. Each individual has a right to sexual expression throughout his life, which should be acknowledged and affirmed. If this and his other needs are satisfied from birth, he is capable of regulating himself and needs only to be taught to respect the rights of others and his and his own safety. This self-regulation contains its own morality. If this were the rule in our society, sex would become an expression of love, not a conquest; perversions, sadism, and prostitution would cease to exist, and neuroses and criminality would be unknown. These are not just theoretical possibilities but have been demonstrated in those societies that are sex-affirmative.
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