Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America - History Book on 1960s Counterculture & Sexual Liberation Movement - Perfect for Sociology Students & Cultural Historians

The previous standard of scholarship for the study of Reich was Myron Sharaf's "Fury on Earth" (1983). Here, with his considerable skills as journalist and writer, Christopher Turner throws new light on Reich's tortured personality--within a well-elucidated backdrop of mid-20th century cultural history. As a newly arrived exile from European fascism, Reich was anxious for acceptance, recognition and fame in his new American milieu. (He no doubt envied the worshipping press coverage, as well as prestigious Princeton research appointment, enjoyed by Einstein.) With the immediate sea-change of sexual mores in the postwar period--the last vestiges of guilt-ridden puritanism giving way to Kinsey et al.--Reich insisted that perfect sexual well-being was the prerequisite of mental (and even physical) health. Unlike previous authors, Turner devotes substantial space to evaluating Reich's claims about his "orgone energy accumulator"--claims that would end in FDA investigation and Reich's imprisonment. Turner was able, not only to interview Reich's surviving family members with illuminating results, but also to locate new documentary material, most notably the revealing papers of Aurora Karrer, Reich's final female companion. Turner also tracked down several persons who, as children, were forced to undergo hands-on "orgonomic therapy" by Reich's associates. (Such therapy, in their accounts, seemed in some cases sadistic and/or sexually abusive.) Turner even tried out, and describes, his sessions with a couple of veteran Reichian therapists. Finally, Turner's dispassionate approach leads the reader to see Reich for what he was: a paranoid narcissist who succumbed to fantasies of messianic martydom--imprisoned by his own compensatory grandiosity.