Wilhelm Reich citáty
Wilhelm Reich
Datum narození: 24. březen 1897
Datum úmrtí: 3. listopad 1957
Wilhelm Reich byl rakousko-americký psychiatr a psychoanalytik židovského původu se silnými inspiracemi v marxismu. Byl žákem Sigmunda Freuda.
Reich se pokoušel skloubit marxismus, psychoanalýzu a kvantovou fyziku. Později do svého systému začlenil též jógu a východní filozofie, především teorii čaker a kundaliní.
Přijal Freudův koncept libida a rozšířil ho o sociologickou dimenzi z marxistické pozice. Vytvořil tzv. sexuální politickou ekonomii. Byl také přesvědčen, že libido je energií, která podléhá stejným fyzikálním zákonitostem jako jiné formy energie.
Později teorii libida přeformuloval do teorie orgonu. Dospěl k přesvědčení, že orgon má kosmický původ a nevzniká v těle, ale člověk je jeho přijímačem. Sestrojil orgonovou komoru, kde lidé měli být vystavováni silnému proudu orgonu a takto léčeni. Na principu orgonu později sestrojil i přístroj, jímž údajně dokázal rozhánět mraky na obloze či přivolat déšť.
Jako Žid a komunista uprchl v roce 1933 z Německa po nástupu Adolfa Hitlera do Skandinávie. V roce 1939 přesídlil do Kalifornie v USA. Po druhé světové válce se stal jako marxista podezřelým z protiamerické činnosti a Americký úřad pro ochranu potravin navíc zahájil tažení proti jeho orgonovým přístrojům. Byl uvězněn a po ročním pobytu ve vězení zemřel. FDA mezitím nechala spálit mnoho jeho nepublikovaných teoretických materiálů o orgonu.
Podobní autoři
Allen Wheelis1
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Zbyněk Havlíček3
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americký psychiatrCitáty Wilhelm Reich
„You dare not think that you ever might experience your self differently: free instead of cowed; open instead of tactical; loving openly instead of like a thief in the night.“
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: "What right do you have to tell me things?" I can see this question in your apprehensive look. I hear this question from your impertinent mouth, Little Man. You are afraid to look at yourself, you are afraid of criticism, Little Man, just as you are afraid of the power they promise you. You would not know how to use this power. You dare not think that you ever might experience your self differently: free instead of cowed; open instead of tactical; loving openly instead of like a thief in the night. You despise yourself Little Man. You say: "Who am I to have an opinion of my own, to determine my own life and to declare the world to be mine?" You are right: Who are you to make a claim to your life?
„Your life will be good and secure when aliveness will mean more to you than security; love more than money; your freedom more than party line or public opinion“
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: You beg for happiness in life, but security is more important to you, even if it costs you your spine or your life. Your life will be good and secure when aliveness will mean more to you than security; love more than money; your freedom more than party line or public opinion; when your thinking will be in harmony with your feelings; when the teachers of your children will be better paid than the politicians; when you will have more respect for the love between man and woman than for a marriage license.
„When I say "animal," I do not mean anything bad, cruel or "base"; I am stating a biological fact.“
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: MAN IS FUNDAMENTALLY AN ANIMAL. Animals, as distinct from man, are not machine-like, not sadistic; their societies, within the same species, are incomparably more peaceful than those of man. The basic question, then is: What has made the animal, man, degenerate into a machine?
When I say "animal," I do not mean anything bad, cruel or "base"; I am stating a biological fact. Man has developed the peculiar concept that he is not an animal at all, but, well — man; a creature which long since has shed that which is "bad," which is "animal." He demarcates himself in all possible ways from the bad animal and points, in proof of his "being better," to culture and civilization which distinguish him from the animal. He shows, in his whole behavior, his "theories of values," his moral philosophies, his "monkey trials" and such, that he does not want to be reminded of the fact that basically he is an animal, an animal, furthermore, which has much more in common with the "animal" than with that being which he asserts to be and dreams of being. The theory of the German Übermensch has this origin. Man shows by his maliciousness, his inability to live in peace with his kind, his wars, that what distinguishes him from the other animals is only his unbounded sadism and the mechanical trinity of the authoritarian concept of life, mechanistic science and the machine. If one looks at the results of civilization as they present themselves over long periods of time, one finds that these contentions of man are not only erroneous; more than that, they seem to be made expressly for the purpose of making man forget that he is an animal.
Section 3 : Work Democracy versus Politics. The Natural Social Forces for the Mastery of the Emotional Plague
„The basic question, then is: What has made the animal, man, degenerate into a machine?“
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: MAN IS FUNDAMENTALLY AN ANIMAL. Animals, as distinct from man, are not machine-like, not sadistic; their societies, within the same species, are incomparably more peaceful than those of man. The basic question, then is: What has made the animal, man, degenerate into a machine?
When I say "animal," I do not mean anything bad, cruel or "base"; I am stating a biological fact. Man has developed the peculiar concept that he is not an animal at all, but, well — man; a creature which long since has shed that which is "bad," which is "animal." He demarcates himself in all possible ways from the bad animal and points, in proof of his "being better," to culture and civilization which distinguish him from the animal. He shows, in his whole behavior, his "theories of values," his moral philosophies, his "monkey trials" and such, that he does not want to be reminded of the fact that basically he is an animal, an animal, furthermore, which has much more in common with the "animal" than with that being which he asserts to be and dreams of being. The theory of the German Übermensch has this origin. Man shows by his maliciousness, his inability to live in peace with his kind, his wars, that what distinguishes him from the other animals is only his unbounded sadism and the mechanical trinity of the authoritarian concept of life, mechanistic science and the machine. If one looks at the results of civilization as they present themselves over long periods of time, one finds that these contentions of man are not only erroneous; more than that, they seem to be made expressly for the purpose of making man forget that he is an animal.
Section 3 : Work Democracy versus Politics. The Natural Social Forces for the Mastery of the Emotional Plague
„What you worship in the Christ child, you poor little marriage-ridden man, is your own yearning for sexual freedom!“
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: You worship the Christ child. The Christ child was born of a mother who had no marriage certificate. What you worship in the Christ child, you poor little marriage-ridden man, is your own yearning for sexual freedom!
„See yourself as you really are.“
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: See yourself as you really are. Listen to what none of your leaders and representatives dares tell you: You are a "little, common man." Understand the double meaning of these words: "little" and "common."
Don't run. Have the courage to look at yourself!
„The great man, then, knows when and in what he is a little man.“
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: You are different from the really great man in only one thing: The great man, at one time, also was a very little man, but he developed one important ability: he learned to see where he was small in his thinking, and actions. Under the pressure of some task which was dear to him he learned better and better to sense the threat that comes from his smallness and pettiness. The great man, then, knows when and in what he is a little man.
„If, by being revolutionary, one means rational rebellion against intolerable social conditions, if, by being radical, one means "going to the root of things," the rational will to improve them, then fascism is never revolutionary.“
— Wilhelm Reich
Context: If, by being revolutionary, one means rational rebellion against intolerable social conditions, if, by being radical, one means "going to the root of things," the rational will to improve them, then fascism is never revolutionary. True, it may have the aspect of revolutionary emotions. But one would not call that physician revolutionary who proceeds against a disease with violent cursing but the other who quietly, courageously and conscientiously studies and fights the causes of the disease. Fascist rebelliousness always occurs where fear of the truth turns a revolutionary emotion into illusions.
Preface to the Third Edition (August 1942)
