Wilhelm Reich belongs to a group of psychoanalytic pioneers who contributed to the foundation of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. He helped lay the framework for ego psychology. He elaborated on the necessity to understand the content of resistances. He isolated resistances in the clinical situation and described their merging with character. At a time when psychoanalytic technique was devoted only to the discovery of oedipal sexuality, he explained how analysis required inclusion of a variety of resistances, particularly those that protect the self or person against attachment and closeness.

Reich was a charismatic teacher. He was in his twenties when he made his major contributions to psychoanalysis. Moreover, at the time, he was a social activist and a leader in the communist youth