Wilhem Reich
Early in his career, Wilhelm Reich was a respected psychiatrist. He gradually became a crank:
Later in life, he became a controversial figure who was both adored and condemned. He began to violate some of the key taboos of psychoanalysis, using touch during sessions, and treating patients in their underwear to improve their “orgastic potency.” He said he had discovered a primordial cosmic energy, which he said others called God, and which he called “orgone.” He built “orgone energy accumulators” that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about “sex boxes” that cured cancer.
It’s been a while since I’ve written a post about a crank. I love cranks.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 10:00 pm and is filed under cranks, history, old dead white guys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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