Fury On Earth: A Biography Of Wilhelm Reich (Paperback)

~ Myron Sharaf (Author) "When Wilhelm Reich died in his sleep at the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 1957, few people paid attention..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Communist Party, Ilse Ollendorff (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Argues that most forms of therapy practised today include some idea that Wilhelm Reich pioneered. This biography - written by a former patient, student and assistant of Reich - reveals how the same "life functionalism" that Reich studied brought him personal isolation and death in prison.

About the Author

Myron Sharaf was a patient, student, and assistant of Wilhelm Reich's between 1948 and 1954. He currently teaches in the Department of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, practices psychotherapy in the Boston area, and gives lectures and workshops in this country and in Europe.

Product Details

• Paperback: 584 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (March 21, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306805758
• ISBN-13: 978-0306805752
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #254,257 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #75 in

  Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Social Scientists & Psychologists

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mad, bad and dangerous to know., March 20, 1998

By	[e-mail] (London, England) - See all my reviews

An extraordinary read, totally compelling as you follow Reich through the traumas of the twentieth century, his own grip on reality fragmenting all the time. And yet he remains a strangely attractive character - sure he is a "crackpot" but the book forces you to re-examine conventional views of society and science. The author, although obviously an enthusiast for Reich's idiosyncratic "Weltanschauung", never flinches from describing Reich's rampant excesses. Ultimately, you're left with a sense of sadness that the world proved too small a space for Reich and the nagging feeling that time will increasingly vindicate his extraordinary ideas.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Astonishing Biography, May 30, 2000

By A Customer

This has to be one of the best biographies ever written. It is certainly the best ever written about Reich. You will not be able to put it down or forget it after you've read it. The effort that went into presenting all of the aspects of Reich's life and work is staggering. That extraordinary flame of humanity, Willhelm Reich, is presented here as never before. Bravo!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't Seem Objective, Despite Excruciating Care to Be Just That, January 23, 2008

By	Passionate Therapist (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich (Hardcover)

I want to say at the outset that the body- and character- based therapy started by Reich has changed my life and pleasure like nothing else has. I am grateful, and surely he was a genius and also courageous....

Psychotherapy is almost entirely composed of very nice people, both on the receiving end (patients) and the sending end (therapists). Sometimes it takes a not nice person like Reich to make it all effective. In character analysis terms most therapists are oral characters, and Reich was a psychopathic character (which is the one character type type Reich himself never explored!) If one reads Ilse Ollendorf's book, the difficult details of his narcissistic traits are there (double standards, jealousy, dominance, wife-beating, avoiding financial obligations, yet being generous where it would make a show etc..) even though she does tries to justify it with his genius. Sharaf though, goes to great complicated apologistic length to portray Reich as someone to whom usual standards can't apply. perhaps the usual yardsticks don't apply, but I think the usual standards of justice and fairness should apply to him. It does seem however that Reich had enough of a self-reflective process to avoid being as exploitative as his character type often is.

No other book on Reich gives so much detail. But this book does not give any clear picture of how Reich was like to spend time with. That usually indicates that those around him were blinded in some way... Oral characters often pick psychopathic characters to be Messiahs because they are then supplied with necessary aggression by proxy. That can be useful synergism if a cult does not form out of it.