Description
“Twenty years have passed since the material in the first part of this book was summarized and published by the Muenster Verlag in Vienna under the title Geschlechtsreife, Enthaltsamkeit, Ehemoral. Twenty years do not count for much in the realm of biology; yet, in the first half of this turbulent twentieth century, human society has endured more misery than during many previous centuries. We may say that, in the last two decades, all the concepts which man has put forward for a clear understanding of his existence have been called into question. Among these concepts none has been more shattered than that of sexual morality, which, scarcely more than thirty years ago, seemed to guide human life in strict unswerving fashion. We are living in the midst of a genuine transvaluation of all values regarding the sexual life of human beings.”
Wilhelm Reich, M.D.
(from the Preface)
In this book, Wilhelm Reich summarizes the criticism of the prevailing sexual conditions and conflicts as it resulted from his sex-economic medical experiences over a period of years. He demonstrates, by way of individual examples, the general basic traits of the conflicts in present-day sexual living, dealing particularly with the institution of marriage and the revolution in family life, as well as with the problems of infantile and adolescent sexuality. He also presents a detailed and revealing study of the sexual revolution that occurred briefly in Soviet Russia in the first few years of their economic revolution.
“What we are living through,” Reich stated, “is a genuine, deep-reaching revolution of cultural living [which] goes to the roots of our emotional, social and economic existence…The senses of the animal, man, for his natural life functions are awakening from a sleep of thousands of years.”
The Sexual Revolution was first published in English in 1945. This revised fourth edition includes Reich’s prefaces to his earlier editions, as well as all of the other materials that appeared in those earlier editions.
