Description
A 5-day in-person only course offered at Orgonon (this is a repeat of the course offered in the summer of 2025)
July 20-24, 2026
Wilhelm Reich is widely known as a pioneer in character analysis and body-oriented psychotherapy, for his astute analysis in The Mass Psychology of Fascism, and for his free sex education and birth control clinics 1925-1932. His remarkable contributions in laboratory science, however, have been misunderstood, dismissed or entirely overlooked. This course is a highly condensed version of a one-semester college course titled Sex, Lies and Bookburning, and is intended to give the student an introductory survey of the scientific basis of Reich’s work. We will discuss readings from The Function of the Orgasm, Early Writings vol. 1, The Bioelectrical Investigation of Sexuality and Anxiety, The Bion Experiments, The Cancer Biopathy, The Oranur Experiment, and Ether, God and Devil/Cosmic Superimposition. Sessions will be held in the Conference Building at Orgonon. Opportunity will be available to try an orgone energy accumulator and an observing session will be offered in the orgone room.
Mon thru Friday 9 am to 1 pm.
Course fee $250. Student rate: $100.
A list of readings associated with each of the five days of the course will be provided. Some will be links to downloadable PDF files (which we ask that you do not distribute), and others refer to books or selected chapters of books.
The course will cover all the reading material provided; however readings are not absolutely required. The more of the material that you read and think over beforehand, the more you will get out of the course. The course is designed to be accessible to those who read what they can.
Instructor: James Strick, Ph.D.
Jim has studied Reich’s work since 1974 as an undergraduate. Now a PhD in history of biology and medicine (Princeton U., 1997) and a Professor at Franklin and Marshall College, he has published several books on the history of ideas and experiments about the origin of life, including Wilhelm Reich, Biologist (Harvard U. Press, 2015). He has served on the Trust’s Archives Committee since 2007, and on the Board since January 2017. He served as Board President from 2018 to 2021.
