Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 15:37:14 -0500
From: Nick Totton <100532.2353@compuserve.com>
To: orgonomy <orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu>
Subject: copyreich, conspiracy etc
Sender: owner-orgonomy@jefferson.village.virginia.edu


Wow, this list's exciting at the moment! What a lot of stimulating and important
postings. I'm especially grateful for Jim Martin's recent messages, and for
Shawn Wilbur's thoughtful posting. A few comments on various aspects of recent
discussion:

I seem to have started something with my rather naive posting suggesting
scanning hard-to-obtain material into the Web. Some amnesia on my part, perhaps:
back in the 70s some friends of mine were pursued by Higgions et al for
publishing * What Is ClassConsciousness?* and *Dialectical Materialism and
Psychoanalysis* as pamphlets. These, by the way, are the most important of
Reich's Marxist writings, especially the first, in which he gives a blazing
analysis of why fascism rather than communism was appealing to young working
class Germans. I don't know whether they are available in printed sources, and
would be interested to hear. Sharaf's Fury on earth gives a good account of
Reich's Marxist phase.

Shawn , you're so right about Reich's complex influences. Reading *Function of
the Orgasm* in that way - trying to reinsert Reich into his period and milieu -
is a mindblowing experience. If anyone's interested in reading my MA
dissertation on The Body in Psychoanalysis, which is largely about how Reich's
ideas *complete psychoanalysis*, contact me and I'll send it by e mail. Seems to
me that many people now read Reich 'ahistorically'. He is a figure of his time
and place; and that makes him  more, not less, extraordinary!

Are there other bodywork therapists on this list besides myself? Sometimes this
seems a missing flavour in the pot.

Also, I have to say that there's a shortage of *practical orgonomy* here.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember anyone apart from myself posting
anythionmg about new experiements and new devices since I've been on the list.
I'm tempted to conclude either that secretiveness - almost always the companion
of paranoia! - is dominant; or that the field of orgonomy is stagnant. Surely
the value of Reich's ideas can only be demonstrated by their *development* in
new directions.

About conspiracy. All I know about the workld is that I don't know much. It
seems entirely likely to me that a *LOT* of secret power-oriented activity goes
on and always has gone on. (There's certainly plenty of it in the small worlds
that I know intimately!) However, I am extremely doubtful of my ability *ever*
to establish the reality  behind the nonsensical spectacle that is 'public
reality'. Each thread I start to follow, I soon realise would take huge amnounts
of my time to do justice to - and even then I might never know one way or the
other.

So I'm broadly neutral about conspiracy theories - or rather, I believe the
general thesis (They know more than we do, etc) but doubt the precise details/
However, reich's own work does seem to offer a powerful and adequate explanation
of the circumstances around his imprisonment and death, without invoking
conspiracy: i. e., the Emotional Plague. According to Reich, the perception of
unarmoured vitality *automatically* sets off reactions of persecution in anyone
with a high energy level combined with pelvic armouring. No conscious conspiracy
is required.

I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this ramble.

Nick Totton
100532.2353@compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/selfheal



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