Skip to content
Wilhelm Reich

File:Wilhelm_Reich.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ84412· pop 69· linked from 901 articles

Wilhelm Reich

Sign in to save

Austrian-American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, sex educator and sociologist (1897–1957)

OverviewAI-generated

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) was a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, philosopher, and writer. Born in Dobrianychi, he held citizenship in Austria–Hungary, Austria, Poland, and the United States. Reich received a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Vienna and worked at the Vienna General Hospital, University of Oslo, and The New School. He was a member of the Communist Party of Austria, the Communist Party of Germany, and the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Reich participated in World War I and died of heart failure.

His notable works include *Ibsen's Peer Gynt*, *Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf*, *Jenseits der Psychologie*, and *Der Einbruch der sexuellen Zwangsmoral*. Reich was married to Annie Reich and had students including Aslaug Vaa and Alexander Lowen. He spoke English and German and identified as an atheist.

Synthesized by Vinony from 44 facts across 9 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Firecrawl, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
24 March 1897
Died
3 November 1957
Works
196

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Dobzau, Galica, Austria

Wilhelm Reich was an Austrian doctor of medicine and psychoanalyst, a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author of several influential books, most notably Character Analysis (1933), The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933) and The Sexual Revolution (1936), Reich became known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry.

Known for

  • Who is afraid of Wilhelm Reich? — Self (archive footage)2009
  • The Century of the Self — Self (archive footage)2002
  • WR: Mysteries of the Organism — Himself1971

via TMDB

Official website

Link to the official site · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Wilhelm
Gender
male
Citizenship
Germany
Place of birth
Dobrianychi
Place of death
Lewisburg
Languages spoken
German
Religion
atheism
Academic degree
Doctor of Medicine
Doctoral advisor
Julius Wagner-Jauregg
Field of work
body psychotherapy
Movement
Orgastic potency
Conflict
World War I
Image
Wilhelm Reich.jpg
Show 12 more facts
Commons category
Wilhelm Reich
date of birth
1897-03-24
date of death
1957-11-03
topic's main category
Category:Wilhelm Reich
cause of death
heart failure
significant person
A. S. Neill
facet of
Orgone
writing language
English language
name in native language
Wilhelm Reich
partner in business or sport
Edith Jacobson
manner of death
natural causes
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Wilhelm Reich (/raɪx/; Austrian German: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈraɪç]; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian doctor of medicine and a psychoanalyst, a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author of several influential books, The Impulsive Character (1925), The Function of the Orgasm (1927), Character Analysis (1933), and The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), he became one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry.

Reich's work on character contributed to the development of Anna Freud's The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence (1936), and his idea of muscular armour—the expression of the personality in the way the body moves—shaped innovations such as body psychotherapy, Gestalt therapy, bioenergetic analysis and primal therapy. His writing influenced generations of intellectuals; he coined the phrase "the sexual revolution" and according to one historian acted as its midwife. During the 1968 student uprisings in Paris and Berlin, students scrawled his name on walls and threw copies of The Mass Psychology of Fascism at police.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Wilhelm Reich” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (13)

On the map