Orgonomy grew in the womb of psychoanalysis. Dr. Reich considered his work as an extension of Freud’s libido theory. Freud proposed three major psychoanalytic theories:

1. Libido theory (the theory of psychosexual energy).
2. Topographic theory (the theory of the conscious and the unconscious).
3. Structural theory (the theory of the id, ego, and superego).

Freud’s students one by one abandoned the libido theory because of its social, cultural and political consequences and elaborated endlessly on the topographic as well as structural theories. However Reich recognized the significance of libido theory, the theory of energy and further developed this theory in the laboratory and the clinic into the science of orgonomy. Hence orgonomy is an extension of Freud’s libido theory. Dr. Reich himself in the book, Reich Speaks of Freud, states, “Basically, Freud discovered the principle of energy functioning of the psychic apparatus. The energy-functioning principle. This was what distinguished him from all other psychologists. Not so much the discovery of the unconscious. The unconscious, the theory of the unconscious, was to my mind, a consequence of a principle he introduced into psychology. That was the principle, the natural scientific principle, of energy—the ‘libido theory’.” – (Reich, Wilhelm: Reich Speaks of Freud, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1967, p. 15).

Front row: Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, Carl Jung
Back row: Abraham A. Brill, Ernest Jones, Sándor Ferenczi

Reich’s early works were mostly concerned with the treatment of the patients and dealt with their psychological health and illness. In his therapeutic work, Dr. Reich developed two major orgonomic theories, the orgasm theory and the theory of emotional and physical armoring. His clinical experience brought to light the significance of a proper metabolism of sexual energy in the human organism, which Dr. Reich called “sex economy”. In his book The Function of Orgasm, (Reich, Wilhelm: The Function of Orgasm, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973 p. 5). Dr. Reich states, “Sex-economy is a natural scientific discipline. It is not ashamed of the subject of sexuality, and it rejects as its representative everyone who has not overcome the inculcated social fear of sexual defamation.” In the same book (p. 3) Reich writes, “The subject of ‘sexuality’ virtually cuts through all scientific fields of research. In its central phenomenon, the sexual orgasm, we meet the questions deriving from the field of psychology as well as from the physiology, from the field of biology no less than from that of sociology. Natural science offers hardly another field of research that is so well equipped to exhibit the fundamental unity of everything that lives and to guard against narrow, fragmentizing specialization. Sex-economy became an independent discipline having its own method of research and its own body of knowledge. It is a natural scientific, empirically founded theory of sexuality.”

Reich during the First Orgonomic Conference, Orgonon, August 1948

Orgonomy, by virtue of dealing with orgone energy, the life energy, touches many aspects of our lives. In addition to psychology and medicine it has branches in sociology, biology, and orgone physics. It is crucial that orgonomic knowledge be understood and that this knowledge be available for the public. We believe that this knowledge, if properly applied, has great potential to help human beings evolve toward a humanity worthy of the name, in touch with their innermost core and able to feel and to love. As a small step toward these ends, the Institute for Orgonomic Science is planning a series of conferences, and one such conference is being planned for the Los Angeles area.

The Institute for Orgonomic Science (IOS) has prepared the following questionnaire that we ask our interested readers to take few minutes to respond to, to help us prepare for this conference.

Dear Interested Reader,

The Institute for Orgonomic Science (IOS) is an organization that is dedicated to the science of orgonomy and the work of Wilhelm Reich. The IOS is planning a three-day conference on different aspects of orgonomy to be held in the Fall of 2016 in the Los Angeles, CA area. This conference will feature presentations by an international group of researchers on different aspects of orgonomy. Included will be presentations on Reich’s sociological concepts; on medical and psychiatric aspects of orgonomy such as psychiatric orgone therapy, and on work in the natural sciences such as the bion experiments, orgone physics and weather engineering. The fee for attending the conference is estimated to be $190 for the entire three-day conference or one-day participation on a particular topic for $90. If you are interested in attending in such a conference please click HERE and express your interest in attendance. Please also let us know which of the above-mentioned topics you are most interested in, or if you would like to see presentations on other orgonomy-related topics. This information will help the organizers decide about the program and venue, etc. We will send you further information when the details of the conference are worked out.

Thank you for your help in this matter.