Radical Tradition: Wilhelm Reich (1891-1957)

Natural scientist and psychoanalyst from Austria and explorer of “orgiastic potency”(Die Funktionen des Orgasmus,1927). He moved to New York in 1939. The three main topics of his work were Travel, God, and Sex

Unlike the anti-populist Italian ‘radical tradition’ and impotent sexual adept Julius Evola (Sicilian nobleman 1898-1974), Reich was a lifelong communist. Reich’s sexualpolitik pamphlets attacked all forms of repression – or “biting down” as he called the many strange cases and queerness he encountered. For instance he blamed Freud’s jaw cancer on sexual repression rather than cigar smoking.

In 1956 six tons of his pamphlets and books were ordered by the authorities to be burnt in the New York incinerators.

American vagabond writers such as Burroughs, Bellow, Mailer are said to have been influenced by him, as is Michel Foucault in France. In popular culture see also Kate Bush-single Cloud Busting – 1985 (etc)