American College of Orgonomy - Science

When Wilhelm Reich died on November 3, 1957 one of the most remarkable and productive careers of the twentieth century ended. A major contributor to psychoanalytic theory and practice in the 1920s, Reich became the first to combine direct bodywork with psychotherapy. His clinical work convinced him that emotional health ultimately depends on how an individual handles his or her sexual drive, and that central to this regulation is the ability to release excess energy through a full and gratifying orgastic discharge.

With a genius for natural science and a Renaissance-like facility for grasping different disciplines, Reich followed the energy source of human emotions into physiology, biology, physics and, finally, into the very atmosphere of the Earth. He proved, through a series of experiments, that there is a single energy that is experienced as emotions, that is released in sex, that generates life, and that is the basis for primary physical processes in nature and out into the cosmos. He found that this energy has distinct physical characteristics, can be measured, and that it can be concentrated under certain conditions. For ages, humankind has sensed and tried to understand this primordial universal energy. It has been identified as "chi" in China; "kupuri" among the Huichols of Mexico; the "e1an vital" in the Western vitalist tradition. Reich called this energy "orgone," a name derived from the words organism and orgasm, and he named the science of its study "orgonomy."

Following the death of Reich, a small group of physicians founded the American College of Orgonomy as a training and research center for the continuing study of orgone energy functions in living and non-living nature. Among the College's many research and educational interests is the raising of healthy children.

To explore the views of orgonomy on raising children, we asked contributing editor Wabun Wind to conduct this interview. Wabun has a long-time interest in the child raising practices of traditional peoples, is a new mother herself, and is also familiar with the work of Wilhelm Reich. Dr. Richard Schwartzman of the College agreed to be interviewed, and showed himself to be a direct, practical and thought provoking man who does not shy away from addressing the most controversial problems in the raising of healthy children.

We hope you will join them.

Wabun Wind: Dr. Schwartzman, perhaps we could begin by acquainting the readers of Wildfire with your background and the work that you do.

Dr. Richard Schwartzman: I'm a medical orgonomist practicing medical orgone therapy in Philadelphia. My practice is in treating patients (adults, children, and infants) with medical orgone therapy. I'm a physician trained in psychiatry and Board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology as well as by the American Board of Medical Orgonomy, which is the accreditation board for physicians of the American College of Orgonomy.

Wabun Wind: What is the American College of Orgonomy?

Richard Schwartzman: The American College of Orgonomy was established in 1968 and founded by Dr. Elsworth F. Baker at the request of Wilhelm Reich who asked him to assume responsibility for the future of orgonomy. Its purpose is to set and maintain standards for all work in orgonomy, to promote and encourage scientific work in the field of orgonomy, and to provide training, education and information to those who are interested.

Wabun Wind: And orgonomy is the study of orgone, or life energy.

Richard Schwartzman: Yes. Orgonomy is the natural science of orgone energy and its various functions. It is the study of orgone energy in the human organism, in all living things, in the atmosphere of the Earth, and out into the cosmos as well. Orgonomy also offers an understanding of disciplines seemingly far removed from science, such as religion, politics, and social issues.

Wabun Wind: Many Wildfire readers are familiar with the Chinese concept of the chi energy, or the Native American concept of the sacred energy that moves through all things and is referred to as the Great Spirit or the Great Mystery. Do you feel that with orgone energy you are talking about the same energy?

Richard Schwartzman: Yes. This is the same energy that is described also as Prana. But Wilhelm Reich's contribution is that he has demystified energetic functions and has put its investigation on a scientific basis. This enables us to rationally see its functions within the individual, in nature, and in the atmosphere.

Orgone energy is primordial, cosmic energy. It's universally present. It is able to be demonstrated visually, thermically, electroscopically and with the Geiger-Muller counter. In the living organism it is biological energy, that is, it is in energy that is within us and is the source of our emotions and feelings; it's the energy that runs us. It's our life energy.

Wabun Wind: Would it be fair to say Reich's contribution was to make this energy understandable in the context of Western civilization?

Richard Schwartzman: Yes, he has made it understandable. To the extent that if individuals are willing, they can look at his work, duplicate his scientific experiments, and see it - orgone energy - for what it is.

Wabun Wind: I know that there is an increasing interest in Reich's work today, but during his life his discoveries were quite controversial and not well accepted.

Richard Schwartzman: I'm fond of Johnathan Swift's observation: "When a true genius appears in the world, you can know him by this sign that the dunces are all in a confederacy against him." Reich was maligned and then attacked. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) literally hounded him to death. He was incarcerated and died in the Lewisburg federal prison. He was sent to prison because he failed to obey a court injunction, not because any of his work was ever proven to be fraudulent. He simply refused to submit his scientific discoveries to a court of law for judgment. And because he held to that belief he was jailed.

The FDA mounted an intensive campaign to get Reich, and based it primarily upon claims they said he had made for the orgone energy accumulator. They maintained that he held out all kinds of promises, that he profited from the sale of the accumulators, and so forth. These claims were not true, but they were out to get Reich and of course they did.

Wabun Wind: Reich defined a form of behavior, which he called the emotional plague. Can you explain a little about that behavior and whether this campaign against him was an example of it?

Richard Schwartzman: The emotional plague is marked by destructive behavior on the social scene, and it is carried out by those people, or their institutions, who put themselves forth as doing something that is right and proper. They firmly believe they are serving a good purpose and that they do it for the "good" of others. However, the motives they give are not the real ones. They are rationalizations. Plague characters can't tolerate living life, especially sexuality, because they are themselves so sexually starved. They are intelligent and aggressive and are driven to block and control joy, aliveness, and the natural sexual expression. It was the emotional plague that killed Reich.

He wrote about sexuality and was bold enough to use the term orgasm and speak of infant and childhood sexuality. The plague came out against him claiming he was sexually perverted himself, that in his therapy he promoted sexual promiscuity and so forth.

Wabun Wind: What is Reich's therapy, or what is now called medical orgone therapy?

Richard Schwartzman: Medical orgone therapy involves both psychological interventions through talking, and direct biophysical work on the body. In the verbal part of the treatment we don't hark back to the past a great deal, but rather focus on present-day problems. We look at the individual's character attitudes and their defense mechanisms. Reich made the remarkable discovery that it wasn't always what the patient talked about but rather how he or she presented the material.

For example, some individuals are aggressive and "know it alls," others are always nice and polite, some are superior and sarcastic, while still others are overly accommodating, or act always as good little boys or girls. The ways we act are many and no two individuals are the same. How we now present ourselves to the world reveals how we had to be when we were growing up. This was the way we adapted to avoid anxiety and to survive. It's the character defense, or character armor as Reich called it, which is still alive in the present, that is dealt with in treatment. When this is done correctly it automatically leads the patient into deeper realms of repressed emotions, feelings and often memories. This is the characteranalytic aspect of therapy in very simplified terms.

Later Reich introduced direct work on the body to relieve the spasms and contractions that are held within the body. This is what Reich termed the "muscular armor." Reich was the first to work in this manner but he's rarely acknowledged as the pioneer of all body-oriented therapies.

What Reich discovered was that the character attitudes and the biophysical holdings in the body, what we call the armor,are two sides of the same coin. What we hold in our bodies biophysically is really the repressed emotions and feelings that Freud called the unconscious. The unconscious is not somewhere in the mind, wherever that might be, but is held physically within the body in the armor.

With the body work the repressed rage, fear and sadness and other feelings and emotions are released to free up the chronically contracted state and allow expansion and the experience of pleasure. When this occurs the energy naturally flows downward into the genitals and strives for periodic release. The loosening of the armor allows a fuller and more complete orgastic discharge. This is the endpoint of therapy and we always strive for it. When the individual can periodically release their energy buildup in the genital embrace they will be able to maintain a state of health and be free of their neurosis.

All this might sound quite complicated, but it's really straightforward. It boils down to this: the individual is blocked from full functioning by both the character armor and by the physical armor; and the treatment attacks both sides of the problem. And I would add one last word: the treatment is often not easy on the patient nor is it short.

Wabun Wind: Would you give an example of what would cause an armoring?

Richard Schwartzman: Well, let's say we have a child who is very angry at a parent. Of course, the child cannot express that rage because of the repercussions that would come down upon him. So he holds it in by tightening his jaw and clenching his teeth, stiffening his neck and holding his breath. The rage remains stuck in his arms and shoulders because it can't be expressed.

When this process is repeated over and over, when it is necessitated by the conditions under which the child is forced to grow up, the holdings become chronically anchored in the body and the person develops muscular spasms (involuntary muscular contractions and tensions) throughout the body which serve to bind up the repressed emotions.

Wabun Wind: Are people aware that they have these spasms, that they are holding these feelings in their musculature?

Richard Schwartzman: Most times not. Their armorings are within them, but they're not too aware of them. If the armoring is tight enough the individual is not aware that he's rigidified. It's when the armor doesn't completely hold that the person develops headaches or a stiff neck or tight shoulders, and so on.

This is why we so much enjoy exercise or a massage. It relieves the armoring temporarily, but unfortunately it returns quickly. Only the release of the chronic spasms through the expression of long repressed feelings and emotions will bring permanent relief. But mostly these holdings are so anchored in the body people are not aware they have them except to the extent that they have some physical symptoms of discomfort. For example, they don't know that their headaches are the result of bound up rage in their head and neck. When the rage is gotten out their headaches are relieved.

Wabun Wind: Will chronic armoring lead to physical illness?

Richard Schwartzman: It certainly can. That's another aspect of Reich's remarkable discoveries: armoring is the basis for most physical diseases as well as psychological illness. Herein lies the solution to the riddle of the "psychosomatic" diseases that are so little understood and so difficult to treat.

When we talk about armoring, we generally refer to it as being in the muscles themselves, but that's not strictly true. The armoring goes through and through the entire organism; it goes into the parenchyma of the brain, it goes into the plasma system the armor affects every organ and every structure in the body.