“Dr. Wilhelm Reich was condemned for unscientific claims by the Food and Drug Administration in 1956 because of his theories about sexual freedom and his discovery of an alleged "orgone" energy.”
Source: Everything Is Under Control (1998), p. 361; some of Wilson's account of the suppression of Reich's ideas and work are technically exaggerative: though many of Reich's books mentioning his concepts of orgone energy and the "orgone accumulators" of his laboratory were destroyed the destruction of his equipment and books was not actually total.
Context: Dr. Wilhelm Reich was condemned for unscientific claims by the Food and Drug Administration in 1956 because of his theories about sexual freedom and his discovery of an alleged "orgone" energy. He quickly became the most world-famous victim of the FDA's quest to impose One True Faith on medical practice in the United States, because the Feds not only destroyed all the equipment in Dr. Reich's experimental laboratory but burned all his books, too, in an incinerator, and then they put him in jail where he died of a heart attack.
Since many disapprove of this unconstitutional way of silencing heresy, Dr. Reich has remained a center of controversy. … In addition to his bio-physical heresies, Dr. Reich vastly offended many people by his sociological theory, which holds that fascism is just an exaggerated form of the basic structure of sex-negative societies and has existed under other names in every civilization based on sexual repression. In this theory, the character and muscular armor of the average citizen — a submissive and frightened attitude anchored in body reflexes — causes the average person to want a strong authority figure above them. Tyranny, in this model, is not created by tyrants alone but by neurotic masses who want tyrants.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Robert Anton Wilson110
American author and polymath 1932–2007Related quotes
James W. Prescott (1930) American psychologist
"Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence" (1975)
Sam Keen (1931) author, professor, and philosopher
Source: The Passionate Life (1983), p. 101
Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible
The Satanic Bible (1969)
Michael Pollan (1955) American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism
Source: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
“Stuart was not dismayed by his sexual feelings about the boy.”
Iris Murdoch book The Good Apprentice
The Good Apprentice (1985), p. 247.
Merce Cunningham (1919–2009) American dancer
1952 <br class="br">from the front-page of the website of the Merce Cunningham Trust http://www.mercecunningham.org/merce-cunningham/
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
1960s, Playboy Interview (1969)
Thomas Kuhn book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), I. Introduction: A Role of History
Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/deep-throat-1973 of Deep Throat (6 March 1973) <br class="br">Reviews, No star rating