No comments about Horace Mann: His Ideas And Ideals.

5 comments about Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, And Psychoanalysis.

1. Read about 1,000 pages of Freud's writing before you make any judgements.



2. Richard Webster has done a marvellous job to show how fraudulent Freud really was. More revealing is that all ideas about the human psyche are to be questioned hereafter: the existence of defense mechanisms, existence of the death wish, the existence of the Ego, Superconscience and Id. If you ask me: nothing of these speculative concepts are really true. Webster shows quite convincingly the case against the 'diagnosis' conversion-hysteria. Still accepted in modern psychiatry but a complete misnomer: intrapsychic energy to be converted in physical pain/disorders, how? The whole Freudian thinking is still present in movies, television soaps and more frightening in forensic psychiatry, the military, national intelligence agencies, police departments. Obviously the 'dark side of mankind' has an extremely attractive side to it. What is frightening and disturbing is the fact that this whole conceptual pseudo-thinking about the human psyche (originated with Freud) really is a religionlike belief system. Very difficult to replace and really hindering better therapies for people who are suffering emotionally. Richard Webster's book should be thé textbook in psychology en psychiatry courses to show two things: 1. how our ideas about the human psyche and emotional system is largely based on a pseudo-theory and therefore a better alternative model of emotions and cognitions should be sought (for example in scientifically driven cognitive behaviour therapy).
   2. how science really should work and should not work.
   The strange thing is that Webster's book, to my knowledge, is nowhere in the world, really a textbook in psychology or psychiatry courses. Freud is still taught as if he has done some marvellous things and if some of his ideas are still correct. This is the most unbelievable thing of it all. And really frightening.



3. One looks back on the Freudian age with as much wonder at its flourishing as its sudden demise. The confusions of psychoanalytic thinking and the poor foundations on which it was laid were always concealed in the humanistic insights that gave the theory appeal and seeming cogency in the reign of positivism. This brilliant disguise behind an incoherent metapsychology hides a theory that was a casualty of the impossible demands placed on a science of psychology by the demands of reductionist science. Finally, in the account of Webster, we see the fatal account of the details of record in Freud's early research whose great success seems more a brilliant feat of paradigm promotion than of any breakthrough in science. The oddity of Freud's thinking is and remains a mystery in itself. The legacy of the invisible strain of Schopenhauer botched is seldom seen here, and the source of confusion over the 'unconscious' can be instantly clarified by seeing this positivist nosedive of the earlier 'right sense of the noumenal self' and its unknowability. Perhaps this was the poignant ambition of the scientist triumphant here, where defeat was foreordained by the philosopher.

   This book reads as a relief to anyone who survived the onslaught of this charming muddle with its impossible financial demands placed on the curse of being neurotic, even as one senses we have not heard the last of Freud. One might fault the conclusion where sociobiology is seen to come to the rescue with still another confusion of the basic issues in still another ambitious science whose fate will be another book like this one. But anyone who suffered the arm-twisting pretensions of this reign in thought will find a swift exit from the mesmerizing contradictions of Freud's theories. And yet a legacy of Freud remains as soon as the mind is freed to reconsider the issues from scratch without the fixation on certainty in the basic tenets. But for the moment it is important to simply a necessity to be free from the false claims and demands of what was an impostor theory, hard as it is to make that statement of one of the most enigmatic minds of the twentieth century. This book can be very helpful in simply moving on without looking back.




4. Among Webster's many scholarly achievements in this meticulous and devastating examination of Freud's life and work, he exposes the extraordinary number of myths about Freud which abounded in the twentieth century. A minor one is that Einstein was a great admirer of Freud. This is erroneous. In a letter to one of his sons in the early 1930s Einstein wrote that he was unconverted by Freud's writings and believed his methods dubious - even fraudulent (cited in *The Private Lives of Albert Einstein*, by Roger Highfield and Paul Carter, p. 233).



5. At the back of the book, a reviewer is quoted: "What a great demolition job!" And it really is. It puts Freud and all of his theories right where they belong: On history's scrapyard. The seriousity of this book is evident to the reader, one does not doubt that Websters side of the Freud story reveals some long hidden truths. Webster shows that all of Freuds "scientific findings" were nothing else than the thoughts of a very small man who hated mankind, and hated children most of all. Unfortunately, Freud also had a natural authority that made others fear and respect him, and tragicly enough, also believe him. Had Freud lived today, he would have been bancrupt hundred times over from loosing lawsuits, and perhaps also would have been put away behind bars. What Freud has done to patients is really an outrage. Webster also writes that his book is just the beginning - he has opened a door to the biographical facts, where most people have hesitated to go in before him. Freud protected himself from all future critisism by raising the self-made shield: "If you question Freuds truths, that proves that there's something psychologically very wrong with you". Now everyone can search without being brandmarked and stigmatized in this way. And as more people will start digging, the more we will see of the damage Freud did to his patients. And it will become more evident the damage he has done to the conception of Man for a whole century. After the demolition job is done, Webster concludes: Man is nothing even remotely what Freud has described us to be. And he follows up with the most important question of all: When we are nothing of what has been the dominating psychological view for hundred years - who and what and how are we then? And he encourages each and every one to join in the creating of a new and ultimately much more optimistic understanding of Man.

No comments about Louis Dumont and Hierarchical Opposition (Methodology and History in Anthropology).

1 comments about FREUD'S OWN COOKBOOK.

1. This unique cookbook is compiled from Freud's own recipes and comments. It is warm and fuzzy and highly amusing at times, and actually has great recipes. I have given three copies as gifts and they were well received.

4 comments about When the Music Stopped: Discovering My Mother.

1. I am so happy that Ms. Gradova's son has kept her memory alive in this entertaining book. It is full of drama, humor and pathos. What an amazing life they had in Chicago, as their house was an oasis and stopping point for all of the great musicians of the day. I would like to see this book made into a movie. There is such a great story within its pages that would translate magnificently to the screen.
   
   The only shortcomings of this book are the long digressions and attempts at analyzing Ms. Gradova's mind and motives from the perspective of her son as analyst. These segments detract from what is a magnificent, touching and at times heartbreaking story.
   
   If you skim over these long digressions, you'll find a wonderful story of a complex woman, who made a questionable decision to abandon her career, which haunted her and her family for the rest of her life.



2. We search in vain through Harold Schonberg's book, THE GREAT PIANISTS: FROM MOZART TO THE PRESENT, for the name "Gitta Gradova," a Chicago-born concert pianist and internationally acclaimed genius. How could such a respected NEW YORK TIMES critic have omitted the awesome Gitta Gradova from his carefully researched publication of 1963? Three possibilities come to mind: 1. Gitta left no recordings, 2. She dropped out "cold turkey" in 1941 (after a career of less than twenty years), 3. She was a woman.
   
   But Dr. Thomas J. Cottle, author, professor, and family therapisr, finally sets the record straight in his powerful biography of his mother, Gitta Gradova, WHEN THE MUSIC STOPPED: DISCOVERING MY MOTHER. Because of its rare candor, based on the son's keen observations and remembrances of his anguished youth spent at Hawthorne Place, Chicago, this biography is unforgettable.
   
   Born in Chicago in 1904, a city that remained her home base. Gitta Gradova (originally Gertrude Weinstock) was the youngest child of parents who had emigrated from Russia. Her ambitious father quickly recognized the exceptional gifts of his prodigy child, and saw to it that from the age of six she was directed only towards becoming a concert pianist. (In pursuit of this career, she never finished high school.)
   
   Early musical studies took place in Chicago, but as her mastery grew, her father determined that she should go to New York for further musical studies. He had met and become friends with Sergei Prokofiev, and assumed that this composer might be of help to Gitta. Their first meeting in Chicago, however, did not augur well. According to Gitta herself, when her father introduced her to Prokofiev, he asked her, "What will you play for me?" And she responded in the self-assured style (or facade) that later characterized her stage personality, "Who the hell are you? I don't want to play for you."
   
   Nevertheless, when Gitta was twelve years old, the father packed her off on a train to go all by herself to New York. Prior to her leaving, her father had asked Prokofiev to watch over her health, her well-being, and above all, her developing artistry.
   
   By Gitta's account, she was all alone when she arrived in New York, and at first did not even have a place to stay. No mention whatsoever is made of Cottle's grandmother's part - or non-part - in her husband's grandiose plans, and Cottle later addresses this separation, imposed on a young child, as one of several experiences that may explain some of his mother's behavior - especially her all-consuming animosity towards him, the rare male over whom she ever had any control.
   
   Later, she actually managed to spend a fair amount of time with Prokofiev, and although she was never really overly fond of him, still she did respect him. He had a salutary effect on her musical growth, and she was most indebted to him for introducing her to Sergei Rachmaninov, her lifelong friend and mentor. (Despite her eventual vast repertoire, she still tended to prefer playing Rachmaninov's music in concert.)It was around this time that she took the stage name, Gitta Gradova.
   
   Besides Gitta's own writings in this book. there are also excerpts from reviews of her many triumphant appearances. Even for her final concert in 1940, with the New York Philharmonic, one critic was able to rave:
   
   "There is fire and brimstone in music, and Mme. Gradova fanned them into a dazzling blaze of brilliance."
   
   One year later she left the concert stage forever. Although Gitta explained her reason for ending her concert career as the desire to devote herself to "motherhood" (she already had two small children) it would seem that there were more complex dynamics at work. Cottle, author of some thirty books and numerous articles in the field of psychology, analyzes and speculates painstakingly on these variables and those of other disciplines as well.
   
   Despite her professed dedication to motherhood, she in fact turned out to be an ill-equipped parent (even a damaging one). And great artist that she was, she ended up, to use Cottle's simile, like a "Ferrari caged in a garage," imprisoned in an untenable situation of her own making.
   
   Although she really may have loved her children and done the best for them that she knew how, it would have been better, her son seems to feel, if she had remained on the concert stage. Yet, at the same time he is also aware that for a number of reasons this might have been risky - particularly in light of her terror of making memory slips, an obsession that grew increasingly menancing during her last years of concertizing.
   
   Gitta's personality was complex. In turn, she could be warm - gracious - fascinating - gregarious - clever - insightful - articulate - magnetic - loyal. Later in life, she was remembered as a charismatic hostess who presided over star-studded soirees at Hawthorne Place, Chicago, sometimes a witty and and engaging story teller, or spontaneous spell-binding pianist. She had never given up music entirely, and was quite comfortable in the security of her own home, playing chamber music extemporaneously with her celebrated guests.
   
   But Gitta had a darker side, and everyday life at Hawthorne Place was far from joyous. Often she would drag around the house in an unkempt, ill-conceived outfit, depressed, angry, complaining, preoccupied with details of some banal soap opera, finding her own existence either irritating or three-quarters empty. But it was especially "Tommy," who became the scapegoat, doomed to bear the brunt of his mother's savage sarcasm.
   
   During his adolescence, they would have terrible word duels on a regular basis. At the lowest point Gitta would tell Tommy that when she would finally be rid of him (presumably meaning "dead") she would be "smiling" in her casket. This ghoulish scenario haunted her son well into adulthood. But not to be outdone, Tommy would retort that Gitta was totally worthless, and, as a mother, one rotten failure. The exact words were unimportant. This was a "dialect of insult" in which each participant aimed at the jugular, and deep wounds were inflicted that never totally healed.
   
   Although this was the heyday in Chicago of psychoanalysis, and mother and son each had their share of psychoanalytical probing, yet nothing really helped to dissipate the miasma that prevailed at Hawthorne Place. Dr. Cottle believes than an expert family therapist might have been the answer, but alas, they were not rescued in time.
   
   The book, which provides a rare record of Chicago's musical history, contains vivid descriptions of the sumptuous soirees held regularly at Hawthorne Place. On these occasions, Gitta would join in extemporaneous chamber music, along with the many internationally known musicians present. Some of these comprised Vladimir Horowitz, her true "alter-ego," not to mention Sergei Rachmaninov, Arturo Toscanini, Sergei Prokofiev, Josef Hofmann, Nathan Milstein, Jasha Heifitz, Igor Stravinsky, AD INFINITUM.(In one photo, there is the rare image of a laughing Rachmaninov, standing close to his friend Gitta, along with informal snapshots of Gitta and her other illustrious guests, not to mention fascinating glimpses of family members.)
   
   Many Chicagoans - even musicians - are unaware of their city's glorious musical past, and that at one time Hawthorne Place was THE happening place for what was perhaps the greatest chamber music to be heard anywhere in the world. They may never have heard that this venue was at one time a true "Mecca," where world class artists could rub shoulders on a regular basis, and be moved to make spectacular music together. In fact, even in New York City there may never have been one single site where so many great artists gathered together time after time. It was the best of all possible worlds, and a cherished time always to be remembered.
   
   When Gitta turned eighty, to the shock of everyone present at her birthday celebration, she announced that she would be returning to the concert stage. She even followed through on this plan and set a date to perform Rachmaninov's FIRST PIANO CONCERTO at Ravinia on July 5th, 1985, under the baton of James Levine. Whether she would ever have had the courage to go through with this plan will never be known. She died three months before the performance.
   
   What comes through strongly in this book, however, is the deep admiration and even awe Thomas Cottle had for his mother's phenomenal music, as well as the love he always had for her, despite a troubled adolescence. This book is a most touching tribute to his mother.



3. I ordered this book after listening to an interview with the author. The stories of the various musicians and performances were somewhat endearing but there wasn't anything to tie them together. In some ways the book reads like a textbook - very factual and precise but then segues into anectdotes and childhood memories. Perhaps it is Cottle's bias as Gradova's son that fuels his need to pontificate the minutia of his family couch. This book does get better as you read but it certainly is heavier on detail than I expected and is in serious need of editing.



4. This is a story about a fascinating woman, the writer's mother Gitta Gradova, a brilliant pianist who--after all kinds of pressures and for all kinds of reasons--stopped performing publicly in order to raise her family. Her son has brought her back to life on the pages of this book along with her dozens of brilliant celebrated friends and colleagues. That's not the half of it, though.
   This writer, an experienced and articulate student of human nature whose background in psychology has--somehow--not dulled his personal honesty, takes the oppurtunity to explore the landscape of children and parents as children grow up, the motives of artists in general and of his mother in particular, the conflict all talented women face as their children are born, and the nature of performance of all kinds. Cottle's tangential discussions of the nature of art--rich with thought and examples--are more complete, provocative and loving than many books devoted to the subject.
   This is a book about art and a book about family showing the balance between the two that all artists most somehow find. It's a book about women and their sons, about the sacrifices and frictions of life here on earth, and ultimately about all of us.

No comments about Jung.

5 comments about Identity's Architect: A Biography of Erik H. Erikson.

1. Mediocre, ladder climbing academics, as opposed to real scholars, sometimes manage to learn over the years how to appear significant. Friedman appears to have mastered the ropes. Get the right publisher, see to it the publisher sends your book to friends for reviews. Arrange for dual hardback and paper back printing. If you read "Identity's Architect" be sure to read the introduction, preface, acknowledgement and such, and jot down the names mentioned. You will have recorded a mediocre mutual admiration society.
   
   Graduate students who truly want to become educated need to learn about mutual admiration societies, campus fads, academic career climbers, mediocre professors who take an early retirement from a lower university and manage to get a paying position at a more significant university by jumping on a new external funding opportunity. I advise too that you read book reviews and keep a keen eye on the names you find mentioned together, reviewers who criticize the book that was not written and who trash a book they did not read. Long is The list of shils. Buy and study a copy of Daniel Boorstin, "The Image" and you too will be pepared for designing your academic career. If you want to become educated and a real scholar, you may want to limit formal schooling to foreign language mastery and train yourself beginning with Mortimer J. Adler's classic "How to Read a Book."
   
   Are you one of those who thinks government corrupt? Our Campus populations consist of plenty who will stab friends in the back over a small grant or accept a large tax payer funded research grant for research they already did with a series of small grants from their university. Then, there are the professors who fake respect for a professor they despise simply because that professor is skilled at the grant writing game. A book should be written, at least one song recorded about the American campus hustle. As one swell put it several years ago: 'government funding may make academics richer but it doesn't make them smarter'
   
   It is a contest who will be forgotten first, Erikson or his official biographer, who got the opportunity to compile the official biography, as no one else more prominent was interested. None of the major biographers saw Erikson important enough to waste several years of work on. Oh, a note about allusions to "book awards." When an academic has real book awards such as a Pulitzer or some other award significant enough to be listed in a World Almanac, they name the award. When they had a few insignificant local awards, they use vague language like "book awards." There should be a book on the hype publishers use to sell books. Authors nearly always write the jacket blurbs, unless they really are significant. Then, major figures or accomplished Editors write them.
   
   Friedman and the remains of the Erikson fan club need to ask themelves a serious question. Did Friedman do more for the forgotten Erikson by writing a biography of him, than Erikson actually did for American thought? Most likely the benefit was mutual; Each man benefited from the other. The biographer elevated his image and the Professor written biography exaggerates the importance of the forgotten "thinker." Daniel Boorstin would call this scenario a "pseudo-event" and its pseudo-event creation (the law of pseudo-events. 'a pseudo-event creates other pseudo-events').
   
   What was Erikson? He was not a scientist. He was not a grand theorist. He wasn't a leading intellectual. In study after study, psychoanalysis is found to be ineffective. In fact, there is no evidence Freud himself helped a single one of his "patients" - according to the patients Franz Boas students located and interviewed. Under careful rational analysis, Erikson was probably a secular high priest, a sort of theologian, a modern shaman. His work had no factual basis, no rational footing. He will not be remembered.
   
   How many of you readers have any idea who he was or why you should invest money and a few hours reading a thick book about him? It is well written but still academic and consequently boring to most people. The last truly well-written book Friedman wrote is a book he would like to forget, "Inventors of the Promised Land." He invested over 15 years on "Gregarious Saints". Track down the brief history of that tome before deciding to buy a copy of "Identity's Architect." It is not a brilliant book. It is competent, if you ignore the psychological parts.
   
   A lot of humanities professors who still waste time turning their "scholarship" over to psychoanalytic formulas. Once a scholar falls in love with any formula, they condemn their work to mediocrity. It is revolting what happens when a "scholar" or artist ploughs a loose theory to any investigation of human kind. Most revolting of all is when an alledged "scientific" theory is already proven wrong. The search for truth stops at the starting gate when any simple theoretical formula is applied to research and analysis. The end result is no more englightening than formula, unsigned romance novels.
   
   This biography could have been a lot shorter. An educated editor would have insisted on more sticking to the facts and less "shrinking Erik Erikson." Some publishers puzzle me to no end. They will not financially break even on any book they publish written by professors like Friedman. Yet, they repeatedly publish them and in doing so, add weight to university library basement storage.
   
   My advice is not to waste good time on this book, unless you are a leisure reader who would waste good time reading books like a novel by George Washington Cable.



2. I had been introduced to the theories of Erik H. Erikson in a grad. course in Educational Psychology. The course introduced just enough of Erikson to whet my appetite to learn more about the man; I am glad I did because after reading this book, I feel I have gained a richer understanding of his 8 Stage Life Cycle Theory, and the concept of Identity.

   Professor Friedman's book is compassionate, but not fawning. He gives as complete a picture of a very complex man; as complete as one would hope to have, and he does so in a non-judgemental way.

   There are many unattractive aspects of Erikson the man; why did this sensitive man, this lover of children who was estranged from his own step-father, virtually disown his own son, who had Down's Syndrome, and have him institutionalized? What made him so ambivalent about his Jewish identity? Friedman explores these issues in a very thorough, yet compassionate way. Erikson himself had a difficult time reconciling the dark side of Gandi while writing his biography; lovers of Erikson, like myself, may have that same struggle while reading this book, but Mr. Friedman does a superb job of bringing out, and sythesizing the "dark Erik" with the Erikson whose works have inspired many a generation of people like myself who are advocates for the welfare of children.

   I read this book first before reading "Childhood and Society" and "Identity Youth and Crisis" and I am glad I did, for Eriksons paradigm was born from his own identity crisis he suffered, which Friedman does a masterful job of portraying.

   If you really want to understand Erikson's Works, read this book first. You too will be glad you did.




3. This is a superb biography of one of the most influential psychoanalytic theorists of the American postwar period. Erikson's writings profoundly influenced not only clinical psychological work, but also the general tenor of social and cultural thinking in this country. Yet his insights were not immediately embraced, and his personal life was not without turmoil and profound heartache. Lawrence Friedman has done a wonderful job of presenting a fully dimensioned, meticulously researched and empathic portrait of this remarkable clinician and thinker who, perhaps more than any other individual writer, shaped the way that we think about ourselves and our society.



4. All too often when reading a biography, the author fails to ask the questions that often spring to my mind. Most of these questions are about about the subjects motivation...the why questions. Lawrence Friedman dares to try and answer the hard and complex questions about a life, in this case, Erik Erikson's life. Even if Erikson is only a vaguely familiar name, this biography is worth reading because its a study of a very human life. In addition to being a well-written life study, Identity's Architect helps us to ask the difficult question about the origins of our own identity. In tracing the reoccuring themes in Erikson's life, Friedman makes transparent the very human activity of identity construction. We know none of us springs whole from Zeus'head, but we rarely question how we came to be the individuals we are. In asking the questions of Erikson's life, Friedman challenges us to question the construction of our own identities.



5. For many these days, the name, Erik Erikson, may seem a distant memory. Yet unbeknownst to many of us, we often rely upon Erikson's insights into stages of development, the life cycle, and identity crisis for a just a glimpse or understanding of who we are and where we are heading in life.

   In this penetrating biography of Erik Erikson, Lawrence Friedman sucessfully explores the inner conflicts and struggles of Erikson's own identity issues for insights into Erikson and his theories. What emerges from Friedman's book is the sense that both Erikson's legacy and insights are vital to our own struggles to know ourselves. In this reviewer's humble opinion, Friedman brilliantly shows how Erikson's relevance and impact today is no less than it was decades ago.

   A jewel of biography!

3 comments about LSD: My Problem Child: Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism, and Science.

1. LSD: My Problem Child is not as hard to find anymore!
   
   A second edition of the story of the infamous substance is now available. 232 pages plus 16 pages of color plates, with a new foreword from Stanislav Grof, M.D.
   
   Click here to see the new edition and go here for more information and photos of the book.



2. This book must be extremely rare to find a physical copy so if you are interested in reading it I suggest you look online (I read it at [...]). This book gives a complete history of the Albert Hoffman's research leading up to the discovery of LSD-25 as well its effects on society at the time, its uses, and even his correspondence with various writers and other enthusaists (bet you didn't know that he frequently met with Aldous Huxley). A quote in his introduction describes what he intends to write about:
   "It is my desire in this book to give a comprehensive picture of LSD, its origin, its effects, and its dangers, in order to guard against increasing abuse of this extraordinary drug... I believe that if people would learn to use LSD's vision-inducing capability more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and in conjunction with meditation, then in the future this problem child could become a wonder child."
   The beginning parts on his initial work with egrot alkaloids and his synthesis of LSD is probably only of interest to a chemist, but it isn't hopelessly complicated (I enjoyed that section even with my minimal understanding of chemistry). It wasn't until years after its initial founding that he was drawn back to it and discovered its psychedelic qualities. It goes on to discuss the thrill/fear of his first accidental trip and his awe of its capabilities. This book is more than just an account of events and history. Unlike typical scientific writings, it often discusses his feelings and beliefs about LSD and even his travels to other countries for personal psychedelic research. The last chapter especially deals with spirituality and the use of psychedelics.
   One great quality of this book is that it is highly objective and although it includes some of Hoffman's beliefs it carefully gives both sides of the story. It basically recommends LSD only for medical or careful psychological use under professional guidance, but gives enough information and insight as to the nature of the drug, that you are free to form your own opinion.
   
   I highly reccommend this book since it so carefully covers all aspects of LSD and other psychedelics. This may be of interest to those with or without a firm understanding of chemistry.



3. Interesting book if you're that interested in the history of LSD. Now that the Dead are no longer with us, I suppose there will be less and less interest.

No comments about In Darkest Africa: Or the Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin Governor of Equatoria.

2 comments about Wilhelm Reich: Psychoanalyst and Radical Naturalist.

1. This book does a reasonable job to overview Reich's life and most of his early work, though it fails to be as thorough as for example Sharaf's "Fury on Earth". The author gives his impressions of Reich's work, a philosopher's discourse and comparative review of Reich's behavioral findings as they relate to modern ideas in psychiatry and psychology... and on that matter he does a reasonable job. However, what bothered me was the terrible misrepresentation of Reich's biophysical research. Corrington either does not know about, or knows but for some reason fails to discuss, the multitude of controlled studies undertaken both during Reich's lifetime and after his death, which have verified the more controversial aspects of his biological and orgone energy discoveries. So, for example, the reader will learn nothing about: 1) DeMeo's 1970s University of Kansas replication of Reich's cloudbuster research, showing positive results, nor DeMeo's global cross-cultural study "Saharasia" which used standard anthropological evidence to prove the global accuracy of Reich's sex-economic findings on the origins of violence. 2) The double-blind and controlled studies of S. Mueschenich and R. Gebauer at the University of Marburg in the early 1980s, "The Psycho-Physiological Effects of the Reich Orgone Accumulator", verifying exactly Reich's original findings on the human physiological response to the orgone accumulator. Also not mentioned, the additional replication study of the orgone accumulator by G. Hebenstreit at the University of Vienna. (both of these are fully cited in DeMeo's "Orgone Accumulator Handbook") 3) The large number of replication studies on the orgone accumulator's effects upon plants and cancer mice by Richard Blasband, Courtney Baker, Robert Dew and others as published in many articles in the Journal of Orgonomy, Annals of the Institute for Orgonomic Science, Pulse of the Planet and (German) Emotion journals, from c.1965 up into the present. 4) Replication studies on Reich's bions, as made by biologists from R. duTeil in France, who presented his results to the French Academy of Science in 1938, to B. Grad in Canada to Dew, Blasband, and a whole list of others who made replications of Reich's biogenesis and bion experiments -- none are mentioned except in a single passing footnote (p.280, n.10) The recent issue of Pulse of the Planet (subtitled "Heretic's Notebook") shows color photos of protocells and bionous forms well on the path to life made from completely sterile and previously "dead" preparations, following or building upon Reich's original protocols, by Grad, Snyder and DeMeo, equal to anything published by NASA in the nature of contemporary "origins of life" research. 5) Also not mentioned, clinical studies from German physicians, where "Orgone Accumulator Therapy" has shown dramatic help to cancer patients and against other immune-system disorders. Unlike the USA, where the FDA uses policemen and the courts to assure a pharmaceutical monopoly, in Germany the orgone accumulator has a legal status similar to acupuncture and homeopathy, as an accepted form of "energetic medicine" which is even recommended to the EU by the German government for harmonization of medical practices. And so on. Corrington is an academic, sympathetic to Reich, and so he should have dug into and explicitly reported on these matters. He also apparently got the ear of Roger Straus, head of Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishers, who is intimate with the Wilhelm Reich Museum and also claims to be sympathetic to Reich -- so both the author and editor are in the "Reich circles" sufficiently to know about these studies, or at least to have been asking some questions. Why are the "friends of Reich" so systematically oblivious to these facts, or unwilling to mention them in new books such as this one? I know for a fact, that Straus was approached to publish other books which gave these facts on Reich's biophysical work, but those books were politely refused. Why? Why is it that those who are interested in Reich's therapeutic work, often denigrate and ignore his biophysical work. Why? A half-dozen emails by author Corrington to senior researchers following up on Reich's work over the years would have provided him with an abundant list of such replication studies -- the orgonelab.org website has an entire lengthy "Bibliography on Orgonomy" online and available to anyone, with an entire separate list of citations to Reich's work and the many replication studies. Nearly none of it is mentioned in the Corrington book, save for the materials on Reich's early work. Why? This is a glaring omission, a "condemning with faint praise" of his later biogenesis, cancer and orgone energy discoveries, and it stands out like a sore thumb. This book will help the dishonest "skeptics" to once again sit comfortably with their long-time disinformation and outright lies about Reich, which were responsible for his death in prison, for the burning of his books, and for the contemporary academic distortions and black-out on his important discoveries. This book will be a frustrating and upsetting read for those who know the facts.



2. Few important thinkers have been as marginalized as the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). Critics tend to focus on Reich's late, almost mystical writing, at the expense of his early breakthroughs in the analytic field. Indeed, Reich's critical ostracize repeats his personal and professional isolation from the 1930s onward. Rejected by the psychoanalytic community, and separated from his children, Reich ended his life in a federal prison on a charge, from of all places, the Food and Drug Administration. Robert Corrington's new book seeks to restore Reich's rightful place among other important twentieth century thinkers. A professor of theological philosophy at Drew University, Professor Corrington, places Reich's late work in a theological framework. More importantly, Corrington writes about Reich's work as a unified oeuvre whereby the later visions emerge logically from an earlier, more noted foundation.

   Orgasm theory is the lynchpin of Reich's thinking. More Freudian than Freud, Reich's devotion to a biological model emerges in the 1923 essay, "Concerning the Energy of Drives," which Corrington discusses in a detailed chapter on Reich's early writings and case studies. Reich refused Freud's postulation about a death drive stressed a life affirming philosophy at the time Freud turned toward ego psychology draining psychoanalysis of its radical core. Other early papers feature the seeds of character analysis delineated in 1925's study of the impulsive character. Corrington nicely outlines Reich's focus on the somatic core of illness and the significance of negative transference. Further, Corrington points out Reich's use of active intervention in the therapy session. Although Sandor Ferenczi also stressed an active engagement with the patient, Reich's work brought him into contact with the patient's social world and an understanding of how health requires not just individual emotion adjustment, but the transformation of social institutions. Chapter three focuses on The Mass Psychology of Fascism and Chapter four on Character Analysis. Each of these texts is classic and Corrington illuminates the works in a careful, balanced fashion. Sadly, therapy today continues to neglect the social dimension. Psychiatry's reliance on medication, which attacks only the symptom, rarely understands the dilemma of patients who cannot even afford the medication proscribed for them. Reich's sensitivity to the working class deserves the credit this book accords him.

   The text, as mentioned earlier, reads Reich's late work, in the context of the analyst's overall development. On one hand, Reich's preoccupation with orgone energy and his use of primitive technology like the "orgone accumulator" are difficult to take seriously
   Certainly, Reich lacked Einstein's theoretical genius and, consequently, could never formulate a reasonable account for his alleged findings. On the other hand, the super string theories of contemporary physicists also lack confirmation. What brings disparate thinkers together is a commitment to a unified theory of the universe and Corrington admirably outlines Reich's devotion to solving life's mystery, whether in failure (orgone energy) or triumph (the significance of social intervention in the therapeutic process). The book is highly recommended and should help return Reich's work to circulation. Dr. David Seelow, R.P.I.