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DiscoverMaineMagazine.com
Rangeley’s Wilhelm Reich by James Nalley
A radical thinker
I
eccentric outcast, it is possible to understand how he came to be based on his life’s patterns. Wilhelm Reich was born in Dobzau in present-day Ukraine on March 24, 1897. The son of Leon Reich, a farmer, he, and his brother were brought up to speak only German, even though both parents were Jewish. When he was young, Reich watched his mother having a repeated affair with his tutor. According to the book Wilhelm Reich: Psychoanalyst and Radical Naturalist (2003) by Robert Corrington, “He told his father, and after a long period of beatings, his mother committed suicide in 1910, for which Reich blamed himself.” This exposure also spurned his
n 1956, an Austrian psychoanalyst was found guilty of violating an injunction and sentenced to two years in prison. In this case, he was ordered to destroy every “orgone accumulator” as well as all labeling referring to “orgone energy.” As he claimed, these cabinet-like devices, constructed of layers of organic materials (to attract the energy) and metals (to radiate the energy towards the center of the box), could aid in the cures for impotence, cancer, the common cold, etc. He also believed that traumatic experiences blocked the Jim Wilson flow of life-energy in the human body, Valley Crossing Building leading to physical and mental disease. Carrabassett Valley, ME 207-235-2642 However, regardless of whether he was — Wilhelm Reich in 1922 — 83 Main St., Kennebunk, ME considered a brilliant innovator or an 207-985-3361
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140 years of trusted service.
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