The New York Times - Sunday Book Review
Christopher Hitchens reviews
ADVENTURES IN THE ORGASMATRON
How the Sexual Revolution Came to America
By Christopher Turner
In the classic confessional memoir “The God That Failed,” Arthur Koestler describes some of the characters who made up the constituency of his Communist Party group in Berlin in the early 1930s: “Among other members of our cell, I remember Dr. Wilhelm Reich. He . . . had just published a book called ‘The Function of the Orgasm,’ in which he had expounded the theory that the sexual frustration of the proletariat caused a thwarting of its political consciousness; only through a full, uninhibited release of the sexual urge could the working class realize its revolutionary potentialities and historic mission; the whole thing was less cockeyed than it sounds.”
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6 comments:
Mr. Hitchins,
What a shame that you did not personally investigate Dr. Wilhelm Reich's biophysical work, before accepting at face value what the non-scientist faux-literary and travel-book author Christopher Turner, has pronounced in his deeply flawed and biased "Adventures in the Orgasmatron". The title alone should have given you some pause. But it is fashionable these days to always laugh at the poor sot in the stocks, whomever it might be, against whom we can throw all our emotional crap, like the Muslims throw stones at the Devil-pillar in Mecca. Everyone then feels so much better. Was that you?
To inform: I've investigated Reich's biophysical work over decades, including his orgone energy accumulator, and can personally report (and have done so in many published articles and books) that his findings are both sound and reproducible. Review these, for example:
http://www.waterjournal.org/volume-3/demeo
http://www.orgonelab.org/DeMeoEdgeScience.pdf
http://www.orgonelab.org/DeMeoToTSubtleEnergies.pdf
I'm not alone in that regard, of having replicated Reich's biophysics. Do you even know the published literature on this issue? Does any of that matter to you? Or must one have a big name, and big publisher sponsor an ad campaign and reviews for the Times to get your attention? Do you know anything about the history of scientific discovery, and repression? How the “mainstream” always goes with the reactionary pogroms against new discovery?
Turner surely knows the evidence in favor of Reich's biophysics -- he attended scientific conferences where such information was presented – which shatters his central thesis of "Reich the Crackpot". He deliberately does not mention any of it. He also fabricates a deceit against Reich, through a faux guilt-by-association with every kind of sexually-twisted example from the late 20th Century – also ignoring Reich’s frequent denouncements of the same.
You once wrote a book about Orwell, noting with accuracy something he said: "Lies of Omission are the worst kind of lie". Precisely because the ignorant won't even know they are being led into dangerous waters. That pretty much defines the Turner book, as well as what you just did, lending your otherwise good name towards yet another public auto-da-fe abuse of Reich's corpse.
Reich's work is a testament to the dangers of book-burning – I note, you said nothing about that. You might review my article "New Information on the Persecution and Death of Wilhelm Reich" to see how it wasn't the old "McCarthites" who engineered his death in prison, and the book-burning, but rather liberal-left-atheist Reds of various hues, including members of two notable Soviet spy rings. You can damn well read the article to learn the details. Here:
http://www.orgonelab.org/ReichPersecution.htm
This is doubly regrettable for you personally, because the orgone accumulator has a notable capacity to often (but not always) shrink tumors, reduce the physical pains associated with cancer, and stimulate a return of appetite, energy and vitality to those withering away, depending upon how far it has gone.
I'd always considered you a man of principle and decency, but this time you've gone way off the rails. If you can center yourself, and not merely react to my strong words, you might ask, just what is going on, and why, that people are so exercised after 50+ years after Reich's death, that they want not only to blame the worst aspects of the New Left sexual rebellion on him, but to also make yet another merciless round of "analysis" (eg, defamatory sex-smears and jokes) about the orgone accumulator -- which in spite of what the AMA or FDA might proclaim, is an authentic scientific and curative device!
Regards,
James DeMeo, PhD
Director, Orgone Biophysical Research Lab
Ashland, Oregon, USA
PS. For my several scientific books on this and related subjects, do an Amazon.com search on my name.
You are in excellent company, Dr DeMeo. Just like you, theologians moan, as it were, that Hitchens hasn't spent thousands of useless hours studying their non-subject before he criticizes it.
I thoroughly agree with Dr. De Meo. I have read over 10 reviews of Turner's book and am struck with how none of them, including Mr. Hitchen's, examined Turner with a critical eye.
There are many replications of Reich's work by reputable scientists published in peer-reviewed journals. I, for example, with others, replicated Reich's findings on the positive effects of the orgone energy accumulator on cancer in mice. Published in the Journal of Subtle Energy and Energy Medicine.
Richard Blasband, M.D.
Anonymous said...(As regards DeMeo's comment on Christopher's review on Turner's book on Reich) September 25, 2011 6:25 PM : "You are in excellent company, Dr DeMeo. Just like you, theologians moan, as it were, that Hitchens hasn't spent thousands of useless hours studying their non-subject before he criticizes it."
Anonymous's comment seems pretty knee jerk but it is cause for thought in this case. In his discussion on religion (which for the most part is about Christianity) Christopher shows that he is familiar with the bible and what it says. He is in this case going to prime sources. (For me personally the problem with religions is their worship of messengers rather than the message which they complete distort and in many cases turn on their head - but this is an aside). But in the case of Reich he DOES not go to prime sources or look at Reich himself. So the comparison (between theologians and DeMeo complaining about Christopher does not hold methinks)
If you want to do a good review GO to the original source in my opinion.
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