Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897–November 3, 1957) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author, who was trained in Vienna by Sigmund Freud.

Imprisonment and death

In May 1956, Reich was arrested for technical violation of the injunction when an associate moved some orgone-therapy equipment across a state line, and Reich was charged with contempt of court. Once again, he refused to arrange a legal defense. He was brought in chains to the courthouse in Portland, Maine. Representing himself, he admitted to having violated the injunction and arranged for the judge to be sent copies of his books. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

Related Topics:
1956 - Contempt of court - Portland - Maine

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Dr. Morton Herskowitz, a fellow psychiatrist and friend of Reich's wrote of the trial:

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Because he viewed himself as a historical figure, he was making a historical point, and to make that point he had conducted the trial that way. If I had been in his shoes, I would have wanted to escape jail, I would have wanted to be free, etc. I would have conducted the trial on a strictly legal basis because the lawyers had said, "We can win this case for you. Their case is so weak, so when you let us do our thing we can get you off." But he wouldn't do it. http://www.orgonomicscience.org/memories/trial.html

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On June 5, 1956, FDA officials traveled to Orgonon, Reich's 200-acre (80-hectare) estate near Rangeley, Maine, where they destroyed the accumulators, and on June 26, burned many of his books. On August 25, 1956 and again on March 17, 1960, http://www.orgone.org/wr-vs-usa/wr40319d.htm the remaining six tons of his books, journals and papers were burned in the 25th Street public incinerator in New York's lower east side. In March 1957, he was sent to Danbury Federal Prison, where a psychiatrist examined him, recording: "Paranoia manifested by delusions of grandiosity and persecution and ideas of reference." http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/Wilhelm%20Reich%20Scientific%20Genius%20or%20Medical%20Madman.html

Related Topics:
June 5 - 1956 - Acre - Hectare - June 26 - Burned - August 25 - March 17 - 1960 - New York - Lower east side - 1957 - Paranoia - Delusion - Persecution - Ideas of reference

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Reich died in his sleep of heart failure on November 3, 1957 in the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, one day before he was due to apply for parole. He was buried in Orgonon. At his own instruction, his granite headstone said simply:

Related Topics:
Heart failure - November 3 - 1957 - Lewisburg - Pennsylvania

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Wilhelm Reich

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Born March 24, 1897

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Died November 3, 1957

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Not one psychiatric or established scientific journal carried an obituary. Time Magazine noted:

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Died. Wilhelm Reich, 60, once-famed psychoanalyst, associate, and follower of Sigmund Freud, founder of the Wilhelm Reich Foundation, lately better known for unorthodox sex and energy theories; of a heart attack in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, Pa; where he was serving a two-year term for distributing his invention, the "orgone energy accumulator" (in violation of the Food and Drug Act), a telephone-booth-size device which supposedly gathered energy from the atmosphere, and could cure, while the patient sat inside, common colds, cancer and impotence.

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