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

The healthy person does not need as much sexual outlet as the armored because he receives satisfaction and is not forever trying to attain it. He can then find joy in his work, which becomes more productive. He is faithful to his mate as long as he is satisfied. When he is no longer satisfied, he finds a new love and new satisfaction rather than remaining compulsively within a loveless marriage. Today, we have numerous manuals on sex with photographs of different positions and techniques designed to enable compulsive marriage partners to find some enjoyment in their sexual relations with each other. This is all a frantic effort to perpetuate our system and make it work. When excitation with one's partner is lost, usually no amount of training or technique will revive it. When excitation is there, each individual knows what to do. This mutual excitation may last a lifetime or it may disappear in a night, depending on other factors that the two have in common. For this reason, it is well that the two know each other well and live together for a time before marriage is contemplated. It may take time before the sexual experience is satisfying to both. Men are inclined to climax prematurely in a new relationship, and the woman does not then have an opportunity for sufficient stimulation. She usually requires more time than the male to reach acme and more foreplay before genital union.

Courting exists in all higher animals and serves the function of getting acquainted or "smelling each other out." Fear is deeply rooted and is necessary for survival; until it is eliminated, the organism cannot expand fully or surrender completely to another organism voluntarily and spontaneously. Courting establishes trust. It may be long or short, depending On Circumstances and the individuals involved, but the healthy Individual does not consider sexual union without some degree of courtship.

Once sexual union becomes an urgent goal, the activity may be divided into three stages: foreplay, genital union, and the orgastic convulsion. There are no rigid laws in nature for the first two. Foreplay includes whatever may be mutually acceptable and pleasurable, with the exception of sadistic acts. Nothing pleasurable can be considered perverse as long as the goal remains genital union. Foreplay may be long or short; usually, the male rushes to genital union, while the female prefers more foreplay. Both should be sexually excited (streamings in the genital) before even foreplay is considered. In a healthy relationship, foreplay consists largely of body contact and gentle caresses of the loved one's body. Frantic, harsh, manual excitation plays no part in it.

The sexual act can hardly be completely satisfying if one or other must be excited by artificial means. Such an individual is not biologically ready for the sexual act. Either his free energy has not reached the point of lumination, or it is bound by anxiety. Or, it may simply be that the partner is not desired.

Foreplay continues to increase the excitation to the point of urgent union (desire for penetration), a desire which should be present in both partners. Erection in the male is an obvious requirement.

Erection in the female is not so obvious nor so well considered a requirement. Yet, in adequate sexual readiness, the labia become erect as do the nipples when the breasts are responsive. Further, there are two types of vaginal secretion, watery and mucous. The latter, which is electrolytic, offers a higher degree of contact and excitation, and, unless it is present, a woman is short of full sexual readiness. Prolonged foreplay with clitoral stimulation will tend to produce a clitoral climax and interfere with full vaginal response.

It is still debatable whether the female feels pleasure in the vagina itself or whether this is an illusion from the pleasure felt in the labia and introitus. The posterior wall of the vagina seems to be the most responsive. There is, however, a definite urge for penetration and vaginal orgasm as opposed to the clitoral climax. The latter produces only a local response, while a vaginal orgasm results in a total response of the whole organism with complete satisfaction. Also, where there is genital potency, the vagina becomes an active organ, sucking the penis much as the mouth sucks a nipple.

Actual genital union where contact (streaming) is present causes an urgent need for friction movements, soft but aggressive, and synchronous with the breathing. Rapid, harsh movements are due to contactlessness and cover up any natural sensations of surrender. Timid movements or lack of movement may be due to anxiety or to cut down sensation.

The actual sex act lasts from three to twenty minutes, with a continued feeling of natural gentleness. The position requires only that there is no interference with freedom of movement. One may or may not proceed directly to orgasm. One may pause, alter position, etc., but, at a certain point, the act becomes automatic and initiates the involuntary orgastic convulsion. At this point, stopping or otherwise interfering becomes very painful and disturbing. This may occur when one or the other cannot tolerate the full swing of the orgastic convulsion and interferes by rapid, jerky movements or even withdrawal. Or one may become frozen and immobile and even lose sensation entirely. The sexual act should be devoid of fantasies, which are in themselves a running away.

The full orgasm depends on complete absence of holding in the organism. At a certain point, excitation grasps the whole person and its increase is not subject to voluntary control. Having first spread to the entire organism, it then concentrates in the genital area, and a warm, melting sensation follows. Involuntary contractions of the muscles in the genital area and the pelvic floor occur in waves; the crest of each wave of contraction coincides with deep penetration during expiration. The spasms that produce ejaculation follow. In women, there are contractions and elongation in the vagina, which are accompanied by a desire to receive completely. Because of the invagination, this is comparable to the expansive urge of the penis to penetrate fully. Next, there is a clouding of consciousness and an increase in contractions which involve the whole body. After the convulsions, the two organisms remain united for a time while the energy which has been concentrated at the genital flows back through the organism, which is experienced as gratification. Separation then occurs with relaxation, a tender, grateful attitude toward the partner, and sleep.

One of the greatest difficulties to overcome is to remove the compulsion from sex and to accept it only when it is really desired and pleasurable. Women are taught to believe that men want sex all the time and must be satisfied, so they feel obliged to feel ready to submit at all times. Men must demonstrate their manhood and satisfy women. If they could be honest with each other, most would find that neither desired sex nearly as frequently as they seem to except in new relationships. Normal sexual activity varies from three times a week to once in every two weeks depending on health, work, and environmental conditions, and one may abstain for as long as a year with no stasis disturbance.

Genital disturbances fall into two groups: the social (or nonbiopathic) and the biopathic (those due to chronic armor). Desire may be greater in the neurotic than in the healthy because of lack of adequate satisfaction.

People who have nonbiopathic disturbances or socially induced disturbances react to education with relief. Biopathic disturbances, on the other hand, are not affected by education, and people so disturbed ward off any such influence and even tend to build up rationalizations to strengthen resistance.

Social disturbances are usually due to ignorance and/or economic problems. One of the most frequent problems is a living condition that does not allow privacy. This situation creates anxiety and tension, which interfere with satisfaction. Frequently, the sexual act must be hurried because of the danger of interruption by others. In such cases, intercourse may be attempted In clothes and even while standing up. Such practices interfere with contact and freedom of movement, and they should be eliminated.

Commonly, there is a fear of pregnancy, which causes holding back. Some people do not trust contraceptives while others are opposed to them on religious grounds. Those who can accept advice readily have a better prognosis. Coitus interruptus and coitus condomatus both interfere greatly with satisfaction and are inadvisable. The same can be said for petting without the final act. Tension builds up with no relief.

Satisfaction is also interfered with when people with dissimilar energy levels attempt to relate to each other. Individuals are born with high or low energy charges and too great a disparity between partners leads to sexual incompatibility. An individual with a comparatively low charge may be healthy in every sense of the word but will have a lesser sexual need than a partner with a higher charge.

One cannot expect that the genital embrace will be completely satisfying to both partners in their first few encounters. Frequently, considerable time and patience are necessary for partners to adjust to each other. The healthy male may be premature, and the female may fail to be adequately excited because of anxiety due to the newness of the experience, particularly If the environment is not favorable.

Biopathic disturbances are due to chronic armor, which prevents the free flow of energy through the organism and inhibits the full orgastic convulsion. Particularly inhibitory are spasms of the throat and anus, which are the primitive openings of the alimentary canal.

Difficulties fall into two groups: (1) functioning that has been satisfactory but has ceased to be so, and (2) genital functioning that never has been satisfactory. Those in the former group have the better prognosis, especially where masturbation has been comparatively regular in childhood and adolescence with more or less rhythmic manipulation of the genital and subsequent natural acceptance of the genital embrace. In masturbation there must have occurred either no fantasies or fantasies of heterosexual genital union. In the genital embrace, there should be no fantasies. Sadistic, masochistic, homosexual, or otherwise perverse fantasies, either in masturbation or sexual intercourse, are indications of serious emotional problems.

Many people have no desire before the act, and artificial stimulation is necessary. This may be nonneurotic if the partner is not desired or if the energy level is below the lumination point. Some simply consider sex a duty or carry it out compulsively, such as every Friday night. Frequently, restrictions are placed on the partner. The man may resent the woman's moving during the act and wish her to remain completely passive or he may prefer entry from behind. These are usually due to a running away from full contact except during the later months of pregnancy when entry from behind is preferable.

Hardness in the embrace may be present, especially squeezing, which the healthy individual will not tolerate. There are many methods of avoiding strong excitation, such as holding the breath, controlling sounds, controlling movements, or engaging in rapid, jerky movements, arching the back, straightening or stiffening the legs, and holding the anal sphincter.

There are two types of genital embrace: (1) with orgastic streamings in the genital, or (2) without streaming. Streaming is felt as a sweet, melting sensation and a drawing out. If present, the prognosis is very good in terms of sexual satisfaction. If not present, one is faced with orgastic impotence. Here the orgonotic charge in the genital is lost, and contactless supervenes. To compensate for this, movements may be rapid and harsh, or there may be no impulse for friction movements at all and ejaculation is induced mainly through pressure. In some cases, even an urge for penetration is lacking. Only touch is felt. Pleasure in the genital is absent. The individual may be erectively potent but cannot surrender either to his partner or to his own organism. In all biopathic disturbances, considerable therapy is required. possible, although improvement to the point of obtaining a satisfying life can usually be achieved. A far surer path is the prevention of illness through a life-affirmative approach to childrearing based on self-regulation and a respect for natural laws.

* This article was written in 1982; parts have been reprinted from Man in the Trap by E.F. Baker, published by the Macmillan Co., New York, 1967.

Footnotes

1. "Puritanical" in the original sense of the word, meaning what is natural and pure. back to text

2. Many psychiatrists still maintain erroneously that neurotics may have a normal sexual life. It may be that the psychiatrist is unfamiliar with the criteria of orgastic potency or is fooled by the patient's description of his sexual life. I have had patients describe their sexual experiences in terms typical of orgastic potency. This is an illusion, which can be dispelled by pointing out to the patient that it is not real. Usually, by the next session, they complain that you have destroyed their sexual ability. Of course, if they had been experiencing real feeling, it could not have been destroyed so easily. Later, when they experience real sexual pleasure, they remark how different it is from their former experiences. back to text

3. From The Function of the Orgasm, Introductory Survey, pp. xxvi-xxviii, published by the Orgone Institute Press, Nev., York, 1942. back to text

4. "Experimental Investigation of the Electrical Function of Sexuality and Anxiety," Wilhelm Reich, M.D., The Journal of Orgonomy, Vol. 3(1 & 2), 1969. back to text

5. Freedom always entails responsibility. back to text

6. Sometimes she misinterprets these genital sensations for incestuous desires and feels guilty: she becomes anxious, withdraws, and loses contact with the baby, which leads to disaster for the mother and child. back to text 7. This is a cultural, not a natural condition. Malinowski found that, in the Trobriand Is-lands, where the natives were sex affirmative, the Oedipus complex as such was nonexistent.

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