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Christopher Turner

Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America Hardcover – June 7, 2011

by Christopher Turner (Author)

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One of The Economists 2011 Books of the Year A Boston Globe Best Nonfiction Book of 2011 Well before the 1960s, a sexual revolution was under way in America, led by expatriated European thinkers who saw a vast country ripe for liberation. In Adventures in the Orgasmatron, Christopher Turner tells the revolutions storyan illuminating, thrilling, often bizarre story of sex and science, ecstasy and repression. Central to the narrative is the orgone boxa tall, slender construction of wood, metal, and steel wool. A person who sat in the box, it was thought, could elevate his or her orgastic potential. The box was the invention of Wilhelm Reich, an outrider psychoanalyst who faced a federal ban on the orgone box, an FBI investigation, a fraught encounter with Einstein, and bouts of paranoia. In Turners vi

Print length

544 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date

June 7, 2011
Dimensions

6.2 x 2 x 9.1 inches
ISBN-10

0374100942
ISBN-13

978-0374100940
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Olivia Laing
82
Hardcover
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anyone who has seen Woody Allen's Sleeper will remember the Orgasmatron. In fact, this futuristic parody was based largely on the work of Wilhelm Reich, who coined the slogan "sexual revolution" in the 1930s. A pupil of Freud's who believed sexual and political revolution had to go hand in hand, Reich was an often-misunderstood genius for good reason. He invented the orgone energy accumulator, a phone booth–size cupboard intended to bestow sexual emancipation on its users. When his writings delved into even greater unconventional beliefs, like flying saucers, credibility was further strained. Other gurus figure in London journalist Turner's first book. What is lacking in prose excitement and humor over the sheer nuttiness of much of Reich's work is made up for by the well-described backdrop of Vienna and Berlin as hotbeds of culture, anti-Semitism, and insight into the psyche. Reich sailed from Austria to the U.S. in 1939, and, like many leftist European intellectuals, came under the FBI's scrutiny, which was his downfall. As much of a screwball as Reich was, he opened a Pandora's box for future sexologists like Fritz Perls at Esalen. As Turner shows, Reich was a seminal figure. 8 pages of b&w photos. (June)

Review

“How [Reich] went from being one of the inspirational figures of the psychoanalytic movement, as a clinician, a teacher and a writer, to being a cult figure on the margins of 1960s America is an extraordinary story, and Turner tells it with subtlety and panache. Turner has interviewed many people who knew Reich well, and he casts his net wide, setting Reich’s quirks and crimes in their historical context so that a portrait of the man emerges rather than a diagnosis.” —Adam Phillips, The London Review of Books

“ Very amusing and intelligent . . . This book will change the way in which we employ that increasingly lazy phrase ‘thinking outside the box.’” —Christopher Hitchens, The New York Times Book Review

“Christopher Turner’s smart, thorough, wholly engaging book takes the reader on a tragicomic adventure of the history of an idea that became an object: Wilhelm Reich’s orgone box. What began in Vienna with Sigmund Freud’s belief that the sexually repressive mores of society can make people sick evolved into a utopian, quasi-scientific fantasy that spread through Europe as fascism rose and eventually crossed the ocean to the United States, where it would play a crucial role in what is now called the sexual revolution. Turner’s measured account, bolstered by interviews with various characters close to the action, is a study in charisma, belief, and mental contagions that infected an entire culture, and which are still with us today.” —Siri Hustvedt, author of The Summer Without Men

“Turner has created a masterful synthesis of social history, psychosexual theory, obsession, and farce. The narrative is a madcap parade: Freud and Einstein, Leon Trotsky and Mabel Dodge, the Red Scare and UFOs, Ginsberg and Burroughs, Bellow and Mailer, Dwight MacDonald and James Baldwin, Woody Allen and Kurt Cobain—and Wilhelm Reich’s quixotic hunt for the ideal orgasm.” —David Friend, Creative Development Editor at VanityFair, and author of Watching the World Change

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (June 7, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374100942
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374100940
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 2 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,917,635 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #862 in Medical Psychology History
- #936 in Popular Psychology History
- #1,020 in Psychologist Biographies

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22 ratings

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w. c. manson

Reich re-examined--within the context of political and cultural history

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2021

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The previous standard of scholarship for the study of Reich was Myron Sharaf's "Fury on Earth" (1983). Here, with his considerable skills as journalist and writer, Christopher Turner throws new light on Reich's tortured personality--within a well-elucidated backdrop of mid-20th century cultural history. As a newly arrived exile from European fascism, Reich was anxious for acceptance, recognition and fame in his new American milieu. (He no doubt envied the worshipping press coverage, as well as prestigious Princeton research appointment, enjoyed by Einstein.) With the immediate sea-change of sexual mores in the postwar period--the last vestiges of guilt-ridden puritanism giving way to Kinsey et al.--Reich insisted that perfect sexual well-being was the prerequisite of mental (and even physical) health. Unlike previous authors, Turner devotes substantial space to evaluating Reich's claims about his "orgone energy accumulator"--claims that would end in FDA investigation and Reich's imprisonment. Turner was able, not only to interview Reich's surviving family members with illuminating results, but also to locate new documentary material, most notably the revealing papers of Aurora Karrer, Reich's final female companion. Turner also tracked down several persons who, as children, were forced to undergo hands-on "orgonomic therapy" by Reich's associates. (Such therapy, in their accounts, seemed in some cases sadistic and/or sexually abusive.) Turner even tried out, and describes, his sessions with a couple of veteran Reichian therapists. Finally, Turner's dispassionate approach leads the reader to see Reich for what he was: a paranoid narcissist who succumbed to fantasies of messianic martydom--imprisoned by his own compensatory grandiosity.

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Paki S. Wright

A mixed, ambitious bag

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2012

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Turner's biog of Wilhelm Reich is an odd compendium of serious scholarship and sensationalism (the title, while droll, is completely off-message for the contents of his book, and the cover is frankly pornographic). I suspect the publisher had something to do with their choice; it's a sad symptom of our times, wherein a dedicated scientist like Reich could be ridiculed because of our own sexual uptight-ness.

I met Reich when I was a child and wrote a novel about my experiences growing up under his shadow, "The All Souls' Waiting Room." There is no easy, one-size-fits-all description of the man himself. I knew instantly, as a four year old, that he loved children. In spite of some ensuing traumas that I received at the hands of his analysts, I've never blamed Reich for what happened to me, hence the illuminating conflicts I've spent much of my life trying to resolve. (See "Children of the Future" for some insights into his child-rearing theories.)

After years of research and reading everyone else's take on Reich -- including meeting Myron Sharaf, whose "Fury on Earth" is well-worth reading, and James DeMeo, who scrupulously continues Reich's scientific work (see "Heretic's Notebook") -- I had to come back to my own. To wit, I think Wilhelm Reich was a brilliant, tortured soul who was bigger than life and certainly bigger than the century he was born into; his mission to cure and heal was stupendous, world-changing -- and problematic, because it brought him up against the very forces that have been keeping humanity in the dark for millennia.

It's only recently, I feel, that Reich's work may actually be given its due. Turner's book goes a long way to peeling back the layers of Reich's life. I actually was surprised at his even-handedness -- until the end, when he basically blames the current state of psychological enslavement and political oppression on Reich's "sexual revolution" -- a phrase that has been so taken out of context as to be meaningless.

Quantum physics is beginning to explain some of the controversial findings of Wilhelm Reich. We can assume that, like many ground-breaking pioneers before him, he was a complex, multi-faceted man light-years ahead of his time, a man who paid a heavy price to bring some much-needed truths to our troubled planet. R. I. P.

10 people found this helpful

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John Wilder

Fiction disguised as history

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2013

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I read Turner's book along with Demeo's IN DEFENSE OF WILHELM REICH, as, to improve perspective, I like to get at least two differing views of the same subject. From what I've read, Turner is a modern journalist, twisting sketchy facts to fit his easy-to-read, but odd biographical fiction, while Demeo is an old-fashioned scientist who builds his thesis, fully on substantial, verifiable facts. Compare Turner's odd views on Kinsey and Reich to Demeo's more in-depth views for a good example.

I gave Turner's book two stars instead of none, or one, because I do like that Turner's efforts prove that Reich's work, even Turner's gross distortions of it, can gather so much attention in today's world, more than 50 years after Reich died in prison with his books and journals burned to ashes in government bonfires by Turner's intellectual ancestors.

6 people found this helpful

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leonardo E.

Eccellente

Reviewed in Italy on September 20, 2021

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Un libro molto piacevole da leggere. Estremamente chiaro, ottimamente documentato, l'autore ha anche raccolto informazioni aggiuntive intervistando conoscenti di Reich. Mi ha sorpreso la chiarezza relativa al dibattito teorico sulla sessualità, tenuto conto che l'autore non è uno studioso ma solo un giornalista. Inoltre Turner ha anche la capacità di allargare la prospettiva agli aspetti storici, culturali, sociali che hanno fatto da sfondo e influenzato l'operato di Reich. Assolutamente consigliato.

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dghawk

This book was recommended to me for a related writing project and thought ...

Reviewed in Canada on November 13, 2016

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This book was recommended to me for a related writing project and thought I would only read a couple of chapters. However, I ended up reading the whole thing and really enjoyed it.

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