Reich, Wilhelm

views updated

Reich, Wilhelm (1897–1957) Austrian psychoanalyst, clinical assistant to Sigmund Freud (1922–28). In the USA from 1939, he claimed to have discovered ‘orgone’ energy, a primal force in the atmosphere. The function of the sexual orgasm was to discharge orgone energy. In 1950, he was imprisoned for fraud and died in jail.

More From encyclopedia.com