Wilhelm Reich, a Viennese psychiatrist, pioneered a unique form of psychoanalysis, emphasizing character structure.
Training at the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute, he later became part of the Vienna Institute in 1924.
Reich believed orgasmic release was essential for mental well-being, suggesting that inhibited sexual energy could lead to adult neuroses.
His thoughts tied him to the sexual politics movement, which combined radical politics and sexual education.
In his 1933 work, “Charakteranalyse”, Reich described character as a shield against recognizing neuroses, evidenced by muscular tension, proposing its treatment through direct manipulation.
By 1934, his unconventional ideas led to his expulsion from the International Psychoanalytic Association. Later, Reich introduced “orgonomy” and the “Orgone Energy Accumulator”, asserting that orgones influenced mental health.
After relocating to the U.S., his methods clashed with the FDA. Imprisoned in 1956 for flouting an injunction, he died a year later.
The subsequent destruction of his works by the FDA became a notable censorship incident.
In this post, I have curated the top quotes by Wilhelm Reich.
Best Wilhelm Reich Quotes
Never force anything, just let it be natural, and it will always be okay. Okay? ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Love is the absence of Anxiety. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
I observe to the letter all laws that make sense but combat those that are obsolete or absurd. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
The few bad poems which occasionally are created during abstinence are of no great interest. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
In its pure form, fascism is the sum total of all irrational reactions of the average human character. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Every muscular rigidity contains the history and the meaning of its origin. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Follow the voice of your heart, even if it leads you off the path of timid souls. Do not become hard and embittered, even if life tortures you at times. There is only one thing that counts: to live one’s life well and happily… ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Open avowal of dictatorship is much less dangerous than sham democracy. The first one can fight; sham democracy is insidious. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Love, work and knowledge are the well-springs of our life. They should also govern it. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Because I’m a man who works, who knows what a human being is like inside, who knows that every human being has his worth, and who wants the world to be governed by work and not by opinions about work. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Famous Wilhelm Reich Quotes
Only one thing matters: live a good, happy life. Do your heart’s bidding, even when it leads you on paths that timid souls would avoid. Even when life is a torment, don’t let it harden you. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
In recent times, more and more human thinking has come to assume that the idea of a universal natural law and the idea of ‘God’ are pointing to one and the same reality. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
If the psychic energies of the average mass of people watching a football game or a musical comedy could be diverted into the rational channels of a freedom movement, they would be invincible. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Not until man is willing to recognize his animal nature – in the good sense of the word – will he create genuine culture. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
The elimination of individual capitalists and the replacement of private capitalism by state capitalism in Russia has not in the least altered the typical helpless and authoritarian character structure of the masses of people. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
The socially irresponsible man is the man absorbed in sexual conflicts. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
The vital energies regulate themselves naturally without compulsive duty or compulsive morality both of which are sure signs of existing antisocial impulses. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
I know that what you call ‘God’ really exists, but not in the form you think; God is primal cosmic energy, the love in your body, your integrity, and your perception of the nature in you and outside of you. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Popular Wilhelm Reich Quotes
Only the liberation of the natural capacity for love in human beings can master their sadistic destructiveness. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Only you yourself can be your liberator! ~ Wilhelm Reich.
It is the basic evasion of the essential which is the problem of man. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Rooting in work is crucial to any accomplishment. Rooting in mere enthusiasm will in the long run force illusory measures to keep the fires of empty enthusiasm going. And this makes politics and politicians. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
It is above all man’s social position that decides whether he will sublimate his sadism as a butcher, surgeon, or policeman. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
The question of how and why the encrustations and rigidifications of human emotional life are brought about led directly into the realm of vegetative life. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Once we open up to the flow of energy within our body, we can also open up to the flow of energy in the universe. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Wilhelm Reich Fascism Quotes
Mistaking insolence for freedom has always been the hallmark of the slave. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
If ‘freedom’ means, first of all, the responsibility of every individual for the rational determination of his own personal, professional and social existence, then there is no greater fear than that of the establishment of general freedom. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Fascism is the frenzy of sexual cripples. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Top Wilhelm Reich Quotes
Scientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Man’s right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word freedom should ever be more than an empty political slogan. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
I do not believe that to be religious in the best, authentic sense a man has to destroy his love life and mummify himself, body and soul. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
It is sexual energy which governs the structure of human feeling and thinking. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
The Little Man does not know that he is little, and he is afraid of knowing it. He covers up his smallness and narrowness with illusions of strength and greatness. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Am I a Spaceman? Do I belong to a new race on earth, bred by men from outer space in embraces with earth women? ~ Wilhelm Reich.
Emotional and physical states can be altered by changing the breathing pattern. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
The fact that Hitler was a political genius unmasks the nature of politics in general as no other fact can. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
One cannot equate “capitalism” and “democracy. ~ Wilhelm Reich.
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! ~ Wilhelm Reich.
So these were the 40 quotes from Wilhelm Reich.
If these quotes and sayings connect with you, check out our other posts on Martin Seligman quotes and Francis Chan quotes.
