American College of Orgonomy

Long ago, Wilhelm Reich, M.D. envisioned a broad training program that would teach orgonomic principles to individuals working in diverse professions. Reich never implemented such a program before his death in 1957. Today, through its new program in social orgonomy, the ACO is bringing Reich’s dream to fruition.

At the same time, some non-physicians were invited to attend various ACO programs as guests. That changed this year when the ACO inaugurated a training program in social orgonomy. Now qualified non-physicians working in clinical fields can receive formal training to become social orgonomists.

“There is a tremendous need for people who are informed with principles of orgonomy. We need medical orgonomists but we also need well-trained, well-informed people who are involved in all the helping professions,” says Peter A. Crist, M.D., who is chairman of the subcommittee on training in social orgonomy.

Those who wish to train in social orgonomy must have an advanced degree in a clinical field such as psychology, social work, nursing, or organizational development. Physicians who are training to become medical orgone therapists must be in therapy as part of their training. Social orgonomy trainees have the same therapy requirement.

“The College believes the most important factor in being a medical orgone therapist is the physician’s own character, so they do not act out their own neurotic behavior in the therapeutic relationship,” says Dr. Crist, who is a fellow of the ACO and member of its training faculty. “This must also be the basic standard for social orgonomists. Character is everything. Students need to be functioning as rationally as possible.”

The first step for the would-be medical orgonomist or social orgonomist is to be in therapy with an approved training therapist. The next steps are to be recommended by the therapist, submit formal application, be interviewed by the training committee and be approved to start the training. At this point the trainee begins the didactic course, a basic, introductory course in orgonomy. Interestingly, the course directly evolved from the training seminars that Reich taught as director of the technical seminar under Freud in the 1920s.

Fran Kaplan Neall is a masters prepared nurse who is now training to be a social orgonomist. She is presently taking the two-year long didactic course as part of her training. The first half of the course covers the history behind medical orgone therapy, how the concept was developed and how Reich’s research evolved. Now, the group is covering the specific character types. Ms. Neall says the training is very helpful to her in her particular field of nursing, which is targeted to psychiatric and mental health. “It’s so much more helpful than the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual] that the outside world uses in diagnosis,” she says. The method there is to identify a cluster of symptoms, she says. “It’s exciting just being on the edge of having a deeper understanding of how to approach people.”

Dr. Crist has been teaching the didactic course since 1982. At the time he was a psychiatric resident, and initially felt he lacked sufficient clinical experience for the job. However, he says Elsworth F. Baker, M.D. assured him he could handle it, since the course was theoretical not clinical in nature. “Dr. Baker made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” he laughs.

Throughout his years teaching the course, Dr. Crist says it has become very clear to him that although character analysis is used in the medical realm, it is in fact primarily a tool that addresses the social realm. For this reason it is particularly appropriate to teach people working in the social realm the techniques of character analysis, he says.

For now the social orgonomy program is open to people engaged in clinically oriented fields. Dr. Crist hopes the ACO one day will be training a diverse group of professionals. “The grand vision is to eventually be able to have a whole range of careers and disciplines informed about character—how to manage character, not change or restructure it.”