Video: Philip Bennett, PhD
May 13, 2023
Wilhelm Reich on Marriage
In this talk I will review Reich’s published material on the topic of marriage. His earliest reference can be found in Early Forced Marriage, which was published as a short addendum to Passion of Youth. Other passages about marriage and compulsory monogamy can be found in his published books, beginning with the final chapter of the original Function of the Orgasm (1927), and a section on marriage in Sexual Excitation and Sexual Satisfaction (1929). A good part of his 1930 book, Sexual Maturity, Abstinence, and Marital Morality centers on marriage; that text later became the first half of The Sexual Revolution. The Invasion of Compulsory Sex-Morality, originally published in 1932, is based on anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski’s account of the Indigenous people of the Trobriand Islands, which deeply impressed Reich. I will reference that work, and also share a passage on marriage from The Sexual Struggle of Youth, also published in 1932.
Philip W. Bennett, PhD, is a retired university professor. He has just completed his book, Work Democracy: The Social and Political Life of Wilhelm Reich and his book proposal is currently being considered by a publisher.
