Thursday, 4 December 2008
Communist Party of Germany vs Wilhelm Reich
In 1930, Reich moved his practice to Berlin and joined the Communist Party of Germany. His best-known book, The Sexual Revolution, was published at this time in Vienna. He again set up clinics in working-class areas and taught sex education, but became too outspoken even for the communists; after his book, The Mass Psychology of Fascism, was published, he was expelled from the party in 1933.
FDA vs Wilhelm Reich
In 1947, following a series of critical articles about Wilhelm Reich's “psychofascism”[29] in The New Republic and his “dubious professional standing”[30] in Harper's, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began an investigation into his claims, and won an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators. Charged with contempt of court for violating the injunction, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved sending the judge all his books to read, and arguing that a court was no place to decide matters of science. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and in August 1956, several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA.[7][19] He died of heart failure in jail just over a year later, days before he was due to apply for parole.[8]
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