13 Responses to “Discussion Board”

1. Stephan Simonian M.D. says:

   September 4, 2010 at 7:46 pm

   Legislation-Ending Corporal Punishment in School Act
   
   We recently learned that Congresswoman Caroline McCarthy, a democrat from New York, introduced the legislation, “ending corporal punishment in school act” that would stop paddling in schools- spanking with paddle, a form of corporal punishment. Apparently this kind of punishment is still legal in some states in the USA.

   We contacted several educators who were appalled by learning that paddling still exists in some states. In fact, many of us were not aware that hitting is still allowed in some parts of the United States, one of the leading countries of liberty and justice in the world. Hitting children is in fact a reflection of the emotional bankruptcy of educators and parents. Those who are familiar with orgonomy and Dr. Wilhelm Reich’s writings, and the knowledge of human emotional structure, know that the roots of neurotic illnesses is in authoritarian and oppressive treatment of children. This causes a high level of anxiety and activates early childhood fears, fears of punishment that have been seeded in them in authoritarian families. It reinforces the process of armoring in the body and psyche and makes them psychologically crippled. It also lays the grounds for accepting dictatorial and fascistic rulers. There is much to be said about authoritarian punitive treatment of children, which the corporal punishment is the extreme of it. We hail Congresswoman Caroline McCarthy’s move in introducing legislation to end corporal punishment in schools, a move which is long overdue.

2. lorcan kilroy says:

   September 9, 2010 at 6:49 pm

   yes as a public school teacher I couldn’t agree more …although corporal punishment is not allowed in my school, I see clearly the results of it and of other oppressive and authoritarian treatment that students are subjected to in their homes. I particularly noticed the comment about this laying the groundwork for acceptance of dictatorial and fascistic rulers. This odd human behavior,repeated throughout history on a tragic scale, is mirrored on a lesser scale in some schoolchildren. Children who have been repeatedly punished in an authoritarian way often seek out and feel oddly more comfortable with dictatorial and fascistic authority figures. Their emotional systems become anxious and insecure when confronted by freedom and an environment which fosters autonomy,self government, independence, and open curiousity.

   These are the oddities of armoring.The child has had to armor, to resign, and shrink their emotional spirit to survive the abuse. For their survival, they physically and emotionally had to give up their initial fight against the aggressor.

   Corporal punishment cannot be underestimated as a tragedy and I applaud congresswoman McCarthy.

3. Ed Malek says:

   January 24, 2011 at 5:19 pm

   Factors in the Tuscon Rampage

   The following is a short piece submitted by one of our readers:

   Biography:
   Ed Malek, licensed Marriage, Family Therapist with offices in Oakland, CA. Specializing in orgone therapy and character analysis. More information can be found at http://www.edmalekorgonetherapy.com

   In the aftermath of the tragic shooting in Tucson on January 8th, the nation is still affected by this massacre, and news stories still abound. Not since 9/11 has the nation drawn this close to mourn, to pay homage and to question what can be done to prevent such an occurrence.

   Part of the reason why newspapers still carry this story is due to the unfortunate state of Representative Giffords who is still hanging on to her life, and is a stark reminder that anyone can be the next victim. What occurred in Arizona happens almost everyday but in different form and quantity. On the average, a few dozen people lose their lives to sociopathic violence everyday. This is more that what most European states and Japan lose in a whole year.

   To learn from this event and perhaps prevent the next criminal psychopath form harming us is the focus of this paper. There are many possible sociological avenues that can be mobilized-such as the neighborhood, schools, police and businesses-all who noticed Loughner to be insane with a violent streak, but our focus will be on examining why none of the dozens who feared Loughner and/or were entrusted with public safety acted clearly and decisively to restrain him. From the university police to the park officer who last saw him driving on the 7th through a red light (and only gave him a warning) some sort of psychological blindness exists. This blindness is an ocular block which is both supported and caused by the Emotional Plague.

   In the form of political correctness (PC), all who saw the unstable and frightening young man refused to take seriously their core feelings of unease, fear and suspicion of insanity. They either felt he deserved another chance or punishment was not a correct answer: The many chances in school until he was suspended–but given another chance if he was cleared by a psychologist; the bank tellers who had their fingers on the alarm button whenever he walked in; and the virtual gaming community who saw his strange behavior. Another important element is that in many states a person cannot be forcefully institutionalized even when he is a danger due to numerous and complex laws that purport to give “patient rights” to the mentally disturbed. If Loughner would have been institutionalized and treated when the first dangerous symptoms appeared, his overall state might have improved and perhaps he would have continued therapy/psychotropic medication, with his delusions under control.

   Some patient rights organizations, instead of also protecting the welfare of the general public, block any such possibilities of confinement of the mentally ill and thus are political organizations instead of social ones; the difference being that the latter is concerned with healthy functioning and the former with the “party line”. Anybody that belongs to the party in question is without failing and to be protected with special treatment.

   This brings us to the PC question: What once where legitimate movements to right the wrong of a specific group from objective second-class treatment has become a cause-celebre for special treatment, sado/masochistic complaining and abusive acting-out. The two most prominent “prejudice” issues of today where PC directly plays a role are sexuality and race relations. These issues are forever frozen in opposing camps by the very fact that any “victim” can easily turn a legitimate debate into accusations of “discrimination” and thus derail any progress. People who do not agree with their position are called insensitive and made to feel guilty and there is a great power behind it. (The reason why it is so easy for most to fall into feeling guilty is due to the unconscious dynamics, i.e. Oedipus complex). They then lose their common sense objectivity-which stems from the core- and feel ashamed. In effect, what the emotional plague accomplishes through PC is suppress one’s intellect and passion’s and eventually causes permanent repression (armoring). This is a slippery rope to follow since when one denies reality in one sphere, another sphere will also be affected; social issues are really not so isolated from one another, just as one armor segment will affect the six remaining ones to some degree.

   The following is a schematic of how PC works biophysically:
   PC thinking>>suppression of core>>uncomfortable biophysical state>>repression>>excessive buildup of energy without capacity of release (inhibition)>>superficial façade of PC>> and starts over again with PC thinking which reinforces it further.

   Since people are forced to live superficially they will miss or discount the important clues of a psychopathic criminal, or as with Loughner, will feel too guilty to do anything meaningful. Here lies the other component of the emotional plague–it inhibits natural aggression. In both of the above behaviors, the original core impulses have nowhere to go and thus are contained by the armor (or the destructive secondary layer). But as Wilhelm Reich taught, armor is not completely capable of repressing impulses and when they try to break through the armor, they can either convert to personal neurosis or psychopathic behavior. As the saying goes, “There is no free lunch” in repression.

   The President has counseled the country’s citizens to be more tolerant towards differences in each other which in my opinion is both superficial and just another sentiment which will ultimately do the opposite. (Some of Loughner’s victims even have forgiven him). I think being more passionate with our natural feelings and not be controlled by guilt would have been better advice.

   Perhaps the feelings the President and the media abhor-wild passion-has a truthful component in it; Reich termed this the countertruth which means that a great truth cannot be brought to fruition due to a smaller truth in the opposing viewpoint. With the example of encouraging passions, due to armor in people and the secondary destructive feelings that are bound up in them, encouraging release would be a risky endeavor. In a way, it is better to encourage bland acceptance (another PC tactic) and not earnest passions which might lead to violence. I think this is what many are unconsciously afraid of, and day-to-day experience of insulting some supra-sensitive person bears this out. So how are we to escape from this entanglement?

   If we look at some other democracies such as in Europe where some states are known for their “passions” (i.e. Italy, Greece, and France) — they also have a low crime rate with virtually nothing that compares to our modern psychopathic mass killings. They have many national workers’ strikes where anger is expressed; there are heated arguments in parliament and between constituents without bloodshed; and they typically disdain from PC thinking in regards to sex and religion. In a word–they are more conservative oriented. They still value traditions, conventional families and God. We, on the other hand are more liberal and progressive in that “new” is always better than “old”. Unfortunately, this false liberalism is tainted by the emotional plague, and the Tucson massacre was another wake-up call for America.

   So if passions are both good and bad, what is the solution? First, one must delegate between core and neurotic passions–that is being able to discriminate. There is such anathema to this natural biological function that this capacity is stilted in most people. The word has been hijacked and turned upside-down by PC with it being used interchangeably with “hate”. Secondly, change has to occur slowly and in measured amounts as not to cause destructiveness (the same skill is used in orgone therapy), and this can be accomplished by the various social institutions who are empowered to do so. Schools can allow real free-expression without threat of expulsion; politicians can be direct with their opponents without just following the party-line; psychiatrists will have to differentiate between healthy sexuality and not, and speak their minds without fear of ostracism; and the police could back this change as necessary to allow for this nascent freedom. Presently, the police themselves are incredibly shackled from carrying out their duties, and their lives are more at stake due to such PC as “criminal rights” and outlawing of “profiling”. In summary, we have to “get more real”.

4. lorcan kilroy says:

   January 27, 2011 at 10:51 pm

   Too much political slant I think. I think that the spectrum of being “pc” or “false liberal” vs. being more “conservative” or “real” has not as much to do with fixing problems like this as Mr. Malek suggests.

   There are many so-called “conservatives”who don’t seem to have the common sense contact to recognize the need for more gun control, and many “liberals” who do have a contactful recognition of that need and vice versa. Political posturing is not the answer, we just have to be practical instead. Although Reich spoke of certain character types being drawn to certain social/political postures, he was basically apolitical when addressing issues of movement and change of emotional health. Perhaps this is because adoption of political posture , as sometimes seen in relation to Orgonomy, is unfortunately often a common deviation of energy and a sign of armor and fear. The putting of energy into such posturing sometimes serves to draw energy away from clear core perception and sensation.

   Yes ,armoring causes mass shooting outbursts, but one or another posture of either pc liberal tolerance or conservative staunchness is not going to change things.That pendulum has been swinging in society forever and both sides have been superficial and impotent and have not stopped such incidents as mass shootings.Mass shootings and other such outbursts of violence have steadily increased since the 1950’s as the distorted secondary layer and stasis in people’s armor has become looser and emerged, albeit in pornographic and/or violent ways.Yes, mass shootings are extreme and psychopathic but they still fall under this umbrella of eruptions from armored characters.I dont believe they are happening more and more because people are “pc” and “liberal” and they allow it or fail to stop it. Simply more strict screening for gun control is one of the most practical approaches to stop mass shootings.On a deeper level just more aggressive outreach of Orgonomic knowledge and bringing understanding of health and therapy to sick people is the route we should follow (in addition to the gun control).

5. Ed Malek says:

   January 29, 2011 at 2:04 pm

   In response to Lorcan Kilroy: You are correct that politics is not the solution, and I wish to clarify my use of “liberal” and “conservative”. Using the above two labels of liberal and conservative has its challenges since from an orgonomic viewpoint these represent the emotional, biophysical attitude and not a political party. I think it would be better if there was another term for these states of being, but we don’t have any others presently. At the same time, these characters have somewhat of a correlation to actual politics, since someone who is of one structure usually votes for that party. As you alluded, a liberal can be more conservative than itself and vice-versa. My paper outlines the socio-political characterology which Baker, in Man In The Trap, and more recently, Konia, in The Emotional Plague expound, and it is based on a person’s typical armor which influences his ideology. Specifically, a muscularly armored person would be more feeling and thinking in infinite, “cosmic” terms, while a person who is armored in the ocular region tends to feel in the head (sentimentality) and thinks in finite, more “minute” details. After this slight digression to explain the basics of socio-political characterology, I wish to point out that society-at-large has become anti-authoritarian and by definition liberal since the social revolution of 1960’s. This is why anti-social behavior has increased to such an extent as compared to the pre-1960’s where the conservative (so-called unhip) family structure ruled. And this is where pornography also found its way to the general public. I also agree with you regarding stricter and more sophisticated gun-control to keep weapons out of the hands of people like Loughner.

6. lorcan kilroy says:

   January 30, 2011 at 10:50 am

   hmm this discussion board could get interesting…some people involved with orgonomy read it and I guess what I was saying to everyone is: dont waste your energy getting stuck in conservative posturing and the usual schtick about how liberals are bringing down the world and society is going in the toilet because of them. Don’t waste your energy in adopting the conservative’s snail’s pace of change and action…..it seems people are huddled in the corner with this conservative positioning, timidly and cautiously protecting the legacy of “holy father reich or Baker”, critically looking out there at the sick armored society with its violence and pornography etc etc .Like Victor Sobey said before he died, the secondary layer had to come out and is still coming out in society. Reich recognized there would be a rise of impulsivity, of “half-assed” unarmoring, of pornography and violence…Reich was not a conservative or liberal..he was a tornado of action who swept through Europe, then Scandanavia, then the US, taking action; action setting up clinics, action educating, action of therapy, action of publishing, and he gathered people to him as he went and what he did reverberated through lives around him and beyond. why is a similar energy of action not happening since, this healthy energy acting to aggressively confront disease? Why do others since then have the same intentions intellectually but are not able to be as aggressive Orgonomically as Reich?In a raw way its because people are afraid when facing and feeling sensation/impulses and being connected with the impulses of others…actions comes from sensation of impulse, whether that impulse is straightforward or deviant. The conservative posture towards secondary impulse is to repress it… to decry “liberal permissiveness”. It seems like the conservative in Orgonomy alligns himself with the “establishment” in society, as if the establishment is somehow healthier and not interwoven with the fabric of armor, which it really is in this society. Since ‘father Reich’ died maybe this person feels helpless and does not really know what to do.Conservative posturing and talk is kind of a comfort to him and he has the illusion of feeling effective and potent condemning spineless liberals and the ills thay cause.
   What effect has this had on anything in the last 70 years?Lets face it, the number of people, especially young people, coming to Orgonomy events and being active in change is pathetic and now Orgonomy faces the risk of becoming obsolete…a group of older people just fading away….

   I feel those in Orgonomy must recognize and accept that the secondary layer must come off as we progress towards a healthier society. This is a difficult subject because people will say you are encouraging and validating energy to adopt deviant secondary expressions permanently.However this rationalization can be people’s own fear of impulses in themselves. Think of a patient in therapy..it can be a bumpy road.. …..the armor comes off in a messy way ,and when energy moves but yet armoring is still there, secondary expressions can pop up. Yet in the end the patient can progress. Even with all these crazy behaviors like mass shootings, like Victor Sobey said ;things are improving in America , not getting worse.

   Of course people must take measures when someone is shooting people and also in many other cases of destructiveness. Authorities must drop the hammer, zero tolerance. An example is total gun control.A gun is actually a pathological explosive device which, like explosives, was curiously created because of the explosive aspects of armor and surface tension of the organism (see article on this site on suicide bombers). In countries like Ireland where there is much emotional pathology and potential for gun homicide, extremely limited access to guns makes the citizen gun homicide rate very very low .

7. lorcan kilroy says:

   February 1, 2011 at 9:47 am

   Hey Ed I have to say it feels good to see health professionals like yourself starting to integrate Orgonomic principles into your practice and also presenting yourself to the public as being aligned with Orgone therapy.Theres just a huge emergency need for the public. The time of being stringent and sanctimonious about who is allowed to train in Orgonomy has to end, simply because of the emergency situation and the size of the population. Discussion boards and feedback like this are good to help reflect on distortion and so forth…hopefully there will be many more like you in the health fields who move in this direction in coming years….

8. Joel Carlinsky says:

   May 8, 2011 at 9:39 am

   If you are against easy access to guns, what about cheap, easy access to cloudbusters? There are several websites selling cloudbusters or giving exact instructions on how to build one, and several hundred people on every continent have already done so.

   I once spoke to Dr. Victor Sobey about this issue. He told me that when Reich invented the cloudbuster, in 1952, Sobey had been the only one to urge him not to publish because of the risk of misuse. Reich published anyway, but when I spoke to him, Sobey still felt he had been right and Reich should have kept his mouth shut.

   Now, after many severe storms and floods have been caused by incompetent, irresponsible playing with cloudbusters, including the recent catastrophic floods in Queensland, Australia, it is becoming more and more obvious Sobey was right. We badly need a few people speaking up and demanding transparency and accountability in the use of the cloudbuster.

   I was a student of Dr. Eva Reich, the daughter of Dr. Wilhelm Reich, and received tutoring from her in the field of orgone biophysics, including the use of the Reich cloudbuster. I also have long been active in the environmental movement, and it is from that perspective that I have recently been conducting a campaign against atmosphere abusers who are engaging in cloudbuster malpractice.

   Under normal conditions, the cloudbuster should only be used rarely, when there is an atmospheric problem such as a prolonged drought, to restore things to normal. Today, thanks mainly to the use of radioactivity in industry and warfare, the atmosphere is increasingly out of order and the cloudbuster is needed more than at any time in history.

   Unfortunately, thanks in large part to the internet, many irresponsible people, not knowing much about cloudbusting and the proper use of it to restore natural, self-regulating conditions to a damaged atmosphere, are promoting it as a form of “weather control”, which is a form of malpractice that places the lives of innocent members of the public at risk.

   In fact, this misuse of this device is a form of atmosphere abuse, comparable to abuse of children or animals, and causes further damage to the already damaged atmosphere, making restoration of natural self-regulation more difficult.

   The indiscriminate proliferation of cloudbusters in the hands of “weather control” hobbyists is shaping up to be a major environmental problem and whole ecosystems are threatened by people playing around with the weather from their backyards.

   Many of these people have good intentions, but effecively zero knowledge of orgonomy. Others are motivated by irrational needs for power and a sense of control. The input of people coming from a background in the psychiatric side of orgonomy is sorely needed to help bring some sense of rationality to the field.

   Thank you.

   Joel Carlinsky

9. Martin says:

   November 26, 2011 at 6:09 am

   “If we look at some other democracies such as in Europe where some states are known for their “passions” (i.e. Italy, Greece, and France) –… In a word–they are more conservative oriented. They still value traditions, conventional families and God”

   1/3 of France are atheists. up to 1/2 of all children in France are born out of wedlock.

   Italy has more rapes reported per capita than the US

   I don’t have the time to go through all the inaccuracies an fallacies in that posting.

10. Debbie says:

    January 27, 2012 at 1:49 am

    More widespread dissemination and rebirth of Wilhelm Reich’s scientific findings and works needs so desperately to become mainstream, especially to reach the eyes, ears and hearts of our younger generations who are being blindsided with disinformation, junk science, and hopelessness at nearly every turn. They need real hope and answers.

11. Lloyd says:

    November 30, 2013 at 12:48 pm

    New video here.
    Life Sex and Sexuality Affective Emotion in the Thought of Wilhelm Reich:

    Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPucxo-R70E
    Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC7pQb3SHEY
    Part 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT0aawYqDLg
    Part 4 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S4tcog4VFw
    Part 5 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EKDkuLEtWQ

12. James Strick says:

    October 30, 2014 at 3:23 am

    An excellent documentary film about Reich has been written by filmmaker Kevin Hinchey and is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. Go to this link to learn about the film and to donate:
    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/25874147/wilhelm-reich-documentary-film-project/

    Here is your chance to get behind a really constructive contribution to bringing Reich’s science to a new generation via a meticulously researched, factually accurate PBS-style documentary film. Only 22 days left in the Kickstarter campaign! Please lend your support! In the next 24 hours we have a $5000 matching grant from a generous donor.

13. James Strick says:

    October 30, 2014 at 4:23 am

    An update on the Reich documentary film, Thurs morning 10/30:

    On Wednesday evening an anonymous donor who had contacted us a few days ago—intrigued by Wilhelm Reich’s life and legacy and troubled by the burning of his books and research journals by the Food & Drug Administration—made good on the promise of a generous pledge for the production of this documentary film..

    That, together with yesterday’s slow but steady stream of other donations, accounts for this morning’s appreciable increase in our pledge totals. And we’re deeply grateful for all of these new “backers”.

    And we continue to receive enthusiastic and, in many cases, very touching e-mails and phone calls from “backers” of this film in Africa, Asia, Europe, Mexico, South America and the United States.

    So who are these supporters and what are their backgrounds?

    Some are people whose work is inspired by Reich—from the communities of orgonomy, bio-energetics, acupuncture, Reiki, Chinese medicine, energy medicine and biology. Others hail from academia, in such disciplines as the history of science, European history, psychology and sociology.

    Some tell us that for years certain books by Reich have resonated with them on some personal level.

    And still others are completely new to the subject and have become “backers” because they’re fascinated by what they learned from our Kickstarter project video about Reich’s promising biological and cancer research; or they were outraged to learn that the publications of a renowned psychiatrist, research-physician and scientist were actually banned and burned in America in 1956 and 1960.

    Yes, this fundraising campaign is moving forward and for all the right reasons: the story of Wilhelm Reich deserves, at long last, to be told factually, and all of the “backers” are telling us this with their pledges, e-mails and phone calls.

    But none of us can afford to take our eyes off the prize: our financial goal is $168,500 by November 21st. We have 22 days to reach that goal…otherwise we receive none of the monies that have already been pledged.

    So if you haven’t yet become a “backer”, NOW IS YOUR CHANCE TO JOIN THIS WORTHWHILE EFFORT to produce this much-needed and long overdue film. Help us keep the momentum going and PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT NOW. And please KEEP SPREADING THE WORD AND SENDING THIS KICKSTARTER LINK to others who may be interested in joining this effort.

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/25874147/wilhelm-reich-documentary-film-project

    Thank you.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

Leave a Reply