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Myron R. Sharaf has written an extensive, detailed, and thorough story of the life of Wilhelm Reich, psychoanalyst, founder of the Orgone Energy Movement, and tireless researcher and theoretician. Reich's interests ranged from clinical observations and applications which broadened psychoanalytic theory and technique to the application of psychoanalytic theory to social and political issues to laboratory research on the role of Orgone Energy on the overall functioning of the individual.
Dr. Sharaf was a student, patient, and co-worker with Dr. Reich for 13 years during the period of his research and treatment with . In this book, Dr. Sharaf attempts to show the influence of Reich's childhood and family relationships on the course of his personal and professional life.
Dr. Sharaf begins Reich's story with an account of his family background. Reich was born on March 24, 1897 in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire, the eldest of two sons. Reich's parents had an unhappy marriage. His father is described as an authoritarian gentleman farmer who was jealous, possessive and violent toward his wife. The influence of Reich's mother on his emotional development is neglected by the author except for the trauma of his mother's suicide by poison when Reich was 12. The author attributes her suicide to overwhelming feelings of shame after the discovery of her extramarital affair with the family tutor. Reich reported that he told his father of the affair, and hence held himself indirectly responsible for his mother's death. The emotional effect of this trauma on Reich is only explored on the Oedipal level, i.e., in terms of witnessing the primal scene, the resultant heightening of incestuous fantasies, the rivalry of father and son. Pre-oedipal feelings, wishes, and needs are minimized by the author as well as