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This volume is a collection of taped interviews with Wilhelm Reich, recorded in October 1952, as part of the Sigmund Freud Archives, and selections from Reich's correspondence and writings from 1920 to the 1950's. It was understood that Sigmund Freud Archives material deposited in the U. S. Library of Congress was not to be released for one hundred years. After Reich's death, among his papers was a copy of the transcribed interviews which were published without authorization, by the editors, Mary Higgins and Chester M. Raphael, M.D. The additional correspondence and fragments of Reich's writings seem to have been added as padding in order to fill out the volume.
The major issue raised by this book is the legal and ethical one of publication in the first place. Nothing is gained by its appearance, but damage is done. Most important, gossip about still living persons finds its way into print. In addition, those working on the Freud Archives are compromised. It is most curious that the editors could have imagined that Reich's cause might be served by the release of these tapes. For one who knows Reich's mind from the brilliance and tightly organized presentation of Character Analysis, the rambling grandiosity and contentiousness recorded here document his mental state later in his life. For example, on page one hundred twenty-five we read, 'But Freud, with his penetrating statement of a psychic energy principle touched upon the life energy