Wilhelm Reich

Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) was a medical doctor educated at the University of Vienna, and trained as a psychiatrist under Julius von Wagner-Jauregg and Sigmund Freud. As a prominent psychoanalyst in Freud’s inner circle, Reich made path-breaking contributions to the understanding of psychiatric disorders, as well as to the theory and technique of psychoanalysis.

Pursuing Freud’s original energetic model of health and concept of libido, Reich came to see the libido as a form of life energy, and eventually coined a new term for this energy, orgone energy. He made the study of this energy his main focus for the last two decades of his life.