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One of The Economist’s 2011 Books of the Year A Boston Globe Best Nonfiction Book of 2011
Well before the 1960s, a sexual revolution was under way in America, led by expatriated European thinkers who saw a vast country ripe for liberation. In Adventures in the Orgasmatron, Christopher Turner tells the revolution’s story—an illuminating, thrilling, often bizarre story of sex and science, ecstasy and repression.
Central to the narrative is the orgone box—a tall, slender construction of wood, metal, and steel wool. A person who sat in the box, it was thought, could elevate his or her “orgastic potential.” The box was the invention of Wilhelm Reich, an outrider psychoanalyst who faced a federal ban on the orgone box, an FBI investigation, a fraught encounter with Einstein, and bouts of paranoia.
In Turner’s vivid account, Reich’s efforts anticipated those of Alfred Kinsey, Herbert Marcuse, and other prominent thinkers—efforts that brought about a transformation of Western views of sexuality in ways even the thinkers themselves could not have imagined.
- Sales Rank: #1549514 in Books
- Published on: 2011-06-07
- Released on: 2011-06-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.10" h x 2.00" w x 6.20" l, 1.75 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 544 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Anyone who has seen Woody Allen's Sleeper will remember the Orgasmatron. In fact, this futuristic parody was based largely on the work of Wilhelm Reich, who coined the slogan "sexual revolution" in the 1930s. A pupil of Freud's who believed sexual and political revolution had to go hand in hand, Reich was an often-misunderstood genius for good reason. He invented the orgone energy accumulator, a phone booth–size cupboard intended to bestow sexual emancipation on its users. When his writings delved into even greater unconventional beliefs, like flying saucers, credibility was further strained. Other gurus figure in London journalist Turner's first book. What is lacking in prose excitement and humor over the sheer nuttiness of much of Reich's work is made up for by the well-described backdrop of Vienna and Berlin as hotbeds of culture, anti-Semitism, and insight into the psyche. Reich sailed from Austria to the U.S. in 1939, and, like many leftist European intellectuals, came under the FBI's scrutiny, which was his downfall. As much of a screwball as Reich was, he opened a Pandora's box for future sexologists like Fritz Perls at Esalen. As Turner shows, Reich was a seminal figure. 8 pages of b&w photos. (June)
Review
“How [Reich] went from being one of the inspirational figures of the psychoanalytic movement, as a clinician, a teacher and a writer, to being a cult figure on the margins of 1960s America is an extraordinary story, and Turner tells it with subtlety and panache. Turner has interviewed many people who knew Reich well, and he casts his net wide, setting Reich’s quirks and crimes in their historical context so that a portrait of the man emerges rather than a diagnosis.” —Adam Phillips, The London Review of Books
“ Very amusing and intelligent . . . This book will change the way in which we employ that increasingly lazy phrase ‘thinking outside the box.’” —Christopher Hitchens, The New York Times Book Review“Christopher Turner’s smart, thorough, wholly engaging book takes the reader on a tragicomic adventure of the history of an idea that became an object: Wilhelm Reich’s orgone box. What began in Vienna with Sigmund Freud’s belief that the sexually repressive mores of society can make people sick evolved into a utopian, quasi-scientific fantasy that spread through Europe as fascism rose and eventually crossed the ocean to the United States, where it would play a crucial role in what is now called the sexual revolution. Turner’s measured account, bolstered by interviews with various characters close to the action, is a study in charisma, belief, and mental contagions that infected an entire culture, and which are still with us today.” —Siri Hustvedt, author of The Summer Without Men
“Turner has created a masterful synthesis of social history, psychosexual theory, obsession, and farce. The narrative is a madcap parade: Freud and Einstein, Leon Trotsky and Mabel Dodge, the Red Scare and UFOs, Ginsberg and Burroughs, Bellow and Mailer, Dwight MacDonald and James Baldwin, Woody Allen and Kurt Cobain—and Wilhelm Reich’s quixotic hunt for the ideal orgasm.” —David Friend, Creative Development Editor at Vanity Fair, and author of Watching the World Change
About the Author
Christopher Turner lives in London and writes for The Guardian and other publications.
Most helpful customer reviews
23 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
For a balanced review look here!
By Alf
I picked up this book after reading excellent reviews in the UK's Sunday Times ("clever and colorful ... a terrific book") and Economist ("an erudite and engaging work of social history"). It did not disappoint; Reich is a fascinatingly complicated character - at one stage Freud's heir apparent, who believed that unleashed libido could bring about revolutionary social change. Turner's book is a well researched, scholarly yet accessible account of how Reich's ideas disseminated into American popular culture. There seems to be strong evidence that Reich himself became schizophrenic towards the end of his life (e.g., thinking he could shoot down UFOs and that Eisenhower was sending planes to protect him) - and reading some of the other reviews this is clearly hard to take for his devotees who approach his work uncritically. In fact Turner is well aware of the orthodoxy, and deals with it in a balanced way (the Sunday Times comments that Turner is "admirably restrained throughout and refrains from passing cheap judgements" and I would agree) - he shows in his book that Reich thought the orgone box could cure cancer and could "sexually excite" those that sat in it, and explains why Reich later distanced himself from those views. At any rate the beats and bohemians that picked up on Reich's thinking certainly believed in the box's potency; the book is a cultural history that traces the spread of his influence into those circles and the culture at large. For anyone interested in how we have come to believe that sexual liberation is the route to happiness and freedom this book offers a powerful historical, critical and entertaining perspective. I recommend giving it a read (expect some vitriolic responses from the Reichians to this review - according to the author's note they tried to censor this book).
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Soft belly not bellicose.
By A. Alter
Regardless whether you agree or disagree with Reich, disagree or agree with Christopher Turner's presentation of Reich - this is a serious, scholarly, and underpriced book. What I didn't expect is that I would be so entertained.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
I liked this book, despite some egrarious lies of omission.
By Merovie
First off, Wilhelm Reich is a personal hero of mine, and like many of my heroes, such as Hunter S. Thompson, Aleister Crowley, and George Carlin, he was also tragically flawed. I myself have suffered from mental illness and my tendency to become megalomaniacal, obsessive, and paranoid when I felt people were, in Karen Horney's words "moving against me" was all too real. I don't think Turner's book is an attack on Reich at all. I think it is an honest look at the man's genius AND his flaws. Is orgone real? Who knows? Was Reich somewhat mad? What member of the psychological professions isn't? I got a degree in psychology BECAUSE of my mental illness. He and Freud BOTH shared the same obsessive drive for fame and recognition.
Personally, I wonder if Reich, in his later "orgone" years wasn't 'touched in the head.' Claiming that your cloud-buster scares off malevolent radiation-spreading UFOs and that the planes in the sky were sent to watch over your family are things Reich actually told people.
The thing is, as a scientist, he may have been totally off, and it seems that he was driven to that because his true brilliance, as a socialist political thinker and psychoanalyst contributed to his rejection by members of both. I suppose he thought distancing himself from both was a way of "getting back" at both the communist party and the International Psychoanalytical community.
The book rightly describes Anna Freud as one of the most grotesque and repugnant human beings who has ever walked the planet, and describes Freud as having become a traitor to his own ideals. Freud was just as much of a "my way or the highway" control freak as Reich, yet many of the reviews here seem to think Reich was some kind of saint Who Could Do No Wrong.
Even Myron Sharaf does not paint this kind of rosy picture of Reich. Reich was a complicated, stubborn, fanatical, and often deluded and deeply flawed human being. I also read DeMeo's "In Defense of Wilhelm Reich" and was happy to find out that the story about Reich killing his dog, Troll, was a lie. But DeMeo's book is pretty terribly written, using words like "nasty" and "smutty" to describe people who slander Reich. DeMeo also seems to blame left-wingers for Reich's troubles and claims that those who advocate for unrestricted sexual freedom are pedophile apologists.
Turner, I found, wrote a mostly unbiased book, except that, as DeMeo points out, gets and reports personal information from people who felt betrayed by Reich, such as his last girlfriend and his estranged daughter, whose mother, with a head full of Anna Freud's neurotic ideas, turned her against Reich. To me, the worst lie in "Orgasmatron" is the story Aurora Karrer tells about Reich's dog. That Turner leaves out the veterinarian report or the facts as known by Ilsa Ollendorff is unconscionable. These days, you can be almost any kind of disgusting human being, but people draw the line at animal abuse. I found that most of the lies of omission and "slander" have more to do with Reich's personal life than his ideas. Demeo, an environmental scientist who obviously has a confirmation bias towards Reich's work, is happy to tell you that he can "personally verify" Reich's scientific findings, yet he also seems to imply that there has been a "scientific conspiracy" to suppress Reich's findings for 65 years, and that's just not how science works. If there was anything to orgone energy, mainstream scientists would support Reich, not vilify him. In truth, most scientists just don't find his work to have merit.
It was because of Reich's social and sexual ideas, and not his orgone energy research, that earned him the ire of the American people - but the FDA used his orgone research as an excuse to punish him for his sexual and social ideas. If Reich hadn't been so stubborn, and had shown up in court the first time he was asked, he probably could have argued his case under the First Amendment. That Demeo paints the ACLU as a commie organization "out to get Reich" is just ludicrous. The ACLU offered to defend Reich under the First Amendment and Reich turned them down because HE saw them as a commie organization.
That the FDA destroyed him is tragic and an injustice that will forever live in infamy. But for all Reich's flaws, he was absolutely right in assuming that it is not psychology's job, as Freud and his horrible, sex-hating daughter maintained, to help people adjust to a truly sick "status quo" but that it is psychology's job TO CHANGE THE STATUS QUO.
Nowadays, the profession of psychiatry doesn't even TRY. They just talk to you for ten minutes and send you on your way with a prescription for pills to gobble that will allow you to deal with a world run by sociopaths. College psychology classes would benefit greatly from courses about both Reich and Ignacio-Martin Baro (who said that neurosis cannot be understood outside the context of history, oppression, and environment). When you tell people that the things everyone takes for granted as "normal" - the "free market" system, the Protestant work ethic, there being an invisible sky monster that keeps tabs on you at all time, etc - are actually NOT normal, and lead to adjustment in a sick society, people inevitably think you are crazy.
Was Reich crazy? Hell yes. Most geniuses are.
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