Early Writings

Book excerpt: This volume marks the beginning of the publication in English of Reich's early writings. Volume One and the collections to follow will trace his scientific development from the psycho-analytical study of Ibsen's Peer Gynt, presented for membership in the Viennese Psychoanalytic Society (1920), to the crucial discovery of the bion (1938), which initiated his work in orgone biophysics and led to the discovery of cosmic orgone energy. In a foreword to this volume, Chester M. Raphael writes: "Viewing [Reich's] work retrospectively, it is easy to see the logic of its development from psychoanalysis to sex-economy and, finally, to orgone biophysics. Its continuity is so apparent that any tendency to fragment it or to ignore the relatedness of all his findings indicates a failure to comprehend its essence--the energy principal which unites all aspects of his work...Reich's early writings...are an integral part of the development that led to the discovery of orgone energy."