Orgone Institute (Rangeley, Me.)

The Orgone Institute was founded in 1942 by Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957), psychiatrist and psychoanalyst (Vienna, M.D. 1922), who emigrated to the U.S. in 1939. First living in New York and later in Maine, he developed a therapy outside accepted psychoanalytic techniques. Reich posited the orgone as a biological base of psychic energy which in neurosis becomes dammed up somatically as well as mentally and can be released only through a combined physical and psychological therapy. His approach is related to Freudian theories of sexuality and repression of instinct and is grounded in his early work in Austria (1920-1939) on neurotic defense and character formation as evidenced in cases of failure in traditional psychoanalytic therapy. His work in Germany also involved psychoanalytic interpretation of the sociological phenomena of national character and political process.

From the description of Archives, 1897, 1919-1956. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 281433196