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Myron R. Sharaf
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Fury On Earth: A Biography Of Wilhelm Reich Paperback – March 22, 1994

by Myron Sharaf (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
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Written by a former patient, student, and assistant of Wilhelm Reich, this biography recounts the life and career of the controversial psychoanalyst and argues that most forms of therapy practiced today include some idea that Reich pioneered







"Interweaving a thorough examination of Reich's psychiatric theories and techniques, scientific experiments and grandiose claims, with his stormy person life and deteriorating mental balance, [Sharaf] achieves an impressive portrait of a complicated, tragic figure. . . . His work is a psycho-biography on the order of Erikson's studies of Luther and Gandhi, for he analyzes Reich's achievements in light of his personal conflicts, achieving a unified portrait of a highly complex innovator."--Los Angeles Times




"What is amazing is that Sharaf has managed to turn a definitive biography into such absolutely compulsive reading."--Colin Wilson, author of The Quest for Wilhelm Reich
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  1. Print length
    584 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    March 22, 1994
  4. Dimensions
    9 x 6.18 x 1.41 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0306805758
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0306805752
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

'Reading Myron Sharaf's passionate biography of his charismatic mentor and colleague is like being engulfed in an ancient drama about heroic intention. True to its literary analog and human source, Fury on Earth ends in catharsis. I felt like crying upon closing it.'--Webster Schott, Washington Post Book World

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

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Da Capo Press (March 22, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 584 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0306805758
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0306805752
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 6.18 x 1.41 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

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Myron R. Sharaf

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
36 global ratings
A Great Biography of a Great Scientist.
5 out of 5 stars
A Great Biography of a Great Scientist.
Myron Sharaf’s biography of Wilhelm Reich is not only a scrupulously honest and historically accurate account of Reich’s personal life and the evolution of his scientific research program, especially Reich’s discovery of the function of the orgasm, bions, and Orgone energy, but it is also a supreme example of the art and genre of biography, worthy of comparison to Boswell’s "Life of Samuel Johnson." And I had the opportunity to say just that to Dr. Sharaf, when I met him at an Orgonomy conference in November 1984 in DC where he signed my first edition of his book.
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Top reviews from the United States

DB
5.0 out of 5 stars Immaculate Condition
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2013
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Fast delivery, what more could I want. Worth waiting for, I was amazed at how immaculate the condition of the book was in.
One person found this helpful
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Thomas J. Mcway
5.0 out of 5 stars Wilhelm Reich Book
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2014
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A great book about Wilhelm Reich about a man who worked with Wilhelm Reich for many years.
3 people found this helpful
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genyc
5.0 out of 5 stars a book about a great man
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2015
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a book about a great man
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Passionate Therapist
4.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't Seem Objective, Despite Excruciating Care to Be Just That
Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2008
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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' (as in reaction formation against repressed anger) people, both on the receiving end (patients) and the sending end (therapists). Sometimes it takes a 'not nice' (straight-forward) person like Reich to make it all effective. In character analysis terms most therapists are oral characters (looking for nurturance and an idealized perfect parent), and Reich was a psychopathic character (which is the one character type type Reich himself never explored!) If one reads Ilse Ollendorf's biography of Reich Wilhelm Reich: A Personal Biography, 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...
34 people found this helpful
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William Erickson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Biography of a Great Scientist.
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2019
Myron Sharaf’s biography of Wilhelm Reich is not only a scrupulously honest and historically accurate account of Reich’s personal life and the evolution of his scientific research program, especially Reich’s discovery of the function of the orgasm, bions, and Orgone energy, but it is also a supreme example of the art and genre of biography, worthy of comparison to Boswell’s "Life of Samuel Johnson." And I had the opportunity to say just that to Dr. Sharaf, when I met him at an Orgonomy conference in November 1984 in DC where he signed my first edition of his book.
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William Erickson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Biography of a Great Scientist.
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2019
Myron Sharaf’s biography of Wilhelm Reich is not only a scrupulously honest and historically accurate account of Reich’s personal life and the evolution of his scientific research program, especially Reich’s discovery of the function of the orgasm, bions, and Orgone energy, but it is also a supreme example of the art and genre of biography, worthy of comparison to Boswell’s "Life of Samuel Johnson." And I had the opportunity to say just that to Dr. Sharaf, when I met him at an Orgonomy conference in November 1984 in DC where he signed my first edition of his book.
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2 people found this helpful
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Potlemac
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding biography of Wilhelm Reich
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2013
In this book Myron Sharaf shares with us the difficult journey of Wilhem Reich. An incredible story of a man ahead of his time - an individual of great intellect, passion and courage who suffered for his genius.

The United States in the 1940s and 50s wasn't ready for a person of Reich's character and intellectual magnitude. It's as if Reich had been transported to that conservative and repressive period in our history from some time in the distant future. Can you imagine writing about the function of the orgasm in an age of literary censorship, sexual repression, political witch hunts and religious and racial intolerance? That's where Reich found himself!

In 1956, agents of the United States government burned his books and his papers, then tried and imprisoned him. (Reich didn't cooperate with the court and naively thought that he could only be judged by a jury of his peers - fellow scientists!) He died of a heart attack in Federal Prison while serving a term of two years for contempt. It's a very sad chapter in American history.

In the 1990s I visited the town of Rangeley, ME and, on my return, informed Myron that the town now organizes field trips to Orgonon so students and tourists can visit Reich's labratories. Myron astutely observed, "Just like Jesus. First they crucify him. Then they praise him."
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Paki S. Wright
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary man, extraordinary mind
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2012
I met Myron Sharaf when I was researching my own book about Wilhelm Reich, which ultimately became a novel, "The All Souls' Waiting Room." I was trying to piece together fragments of my childhood lived under Reich's shadow and Sharaf's biography helped me enormously. Sharaf's objectivism and compassion for Reich reached super-human levels because the latter had an affair with Sharaf's wife that ultimately destroyed their marriage. I can imagine no greater homage to a great man than that his biographer still seeks the truth of a person's life in spite of enormous psychic pain.
8 people found this helpful
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ron piana
4.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive and well-researched bio of Wilhelm Reich. The ...
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2015
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A comprehensive and well-researched bio of Wilhelm Reich. The only shortcoming was coverage of the Cold War era, during which Reich was persecuted by the FBI and FDA.
5 people found this helpful
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Adam H
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant biography of an extraordinary man
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2022
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This is the best biography I have read. This book really helps you to understand some of the ideas in Reich's books as the biographer explains them clearly and succinctly. Reich's life itself is extraordinary and quite beyond fiction. Highly thought-provoking and highly recommended.
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leonardo E.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, recommended
Reviewed in Italy on February 26, 2017
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A book very well informed and well written. The life, the ideas and the historical context of Reich are described in detail. Recommended.
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Divine
3.0 out of 5 stars Interessant
Reviewed in France on April 13, 2010
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Un peu déçu sur cette biographie. Elle mélange les concepts psychanalytiques que je ne goute guère et la vie extraordinaire de ce psy qui dérive sur l'étude de flux énergétiques dont on ne sait s'ils sont efficaces ou non. J'aurais aimé plus de recherche sur la vie de ses parents.
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NN
5.0 out of 5 stars Brillante Biographie eines großen Verrückten!
Reviewed in Germany on January 29, 2010
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Auch nach fast 3 Jahrzehnten stellt Myron Sharafs groß angelegtes Lebensbild das Nonplusultra der Reich-Literatur dar, denn nirgendwo sonst wird so umfänglich, distanziert und liebevoll zugleich über diesen Exzentriker berichtet. Dabei ist sein Verhältnis zum Meister zwiespältig, die geliebte hochaltruistische Vaterfigur auf der einen Seite, der unberechenbare egozentrische Sonderling, der einem auch schon mal die Frau ausspannt, auf der anderen. Auch wenn es emotional schwierige Momente gibt, so gelingt es Sharaf doch, objektiv zu bleiben, so dass uns hier keine Hagiographie geboten wird, sondern ein Multiversum mit allen seinen Anziehungen und Abstoßungen.

Hat er also die definitive Biographie geschrieben, wie man hin und wieder liest? Nein, denn auch das wird klar: trotz aller Ausführlichkeit, Wilhelm Reich war noch komplexer, noch konträrer und noch revolutionärer, er lässt sich in keine Biographie pressen und außerdem sind die Blickwinkel, aus denen man sich ihm nähern kann einfach zu heterogen.

Methodisch mäandert Sharaf zwischen Werk/Theorie und privatem Leben. Das wirkt zwar mitunter etwas statisch und vermindert die präsentierte Fülle des Reichschen Daseins - er kämpfte immer zugleich an mehreren Fronten -, hat aber den Vorteil, intelligent Ruhe- und Anspannungsphasen beim Lesen wechseln zu lassen, und außerdem eignet sich das voluminöse Buch, an dem auch Vielleser eine Woche zu kauen haben werden, dadurch besonders als Nachschlagewerk.

Das erste Drittel des Wälzers ist Reichs psychoanalytischer Phase, der Charakteranalyse etc. gewidmet, der Rest, den Bion- und Orgonforschungen sowie dem abschließenden Gerichtsprozess. Entsprechend werden die Wertungen des Autors vorsichtiger, kommt er doch aus der Psychoanalyse, ist sich zudem wohl selbst nicht sicher ob an der Orgonomie "was dran ist". Umso mehr wird unausgesprochen die Notwendigkeit betont, sich ihr endlich wissenschaftlich zu widmen und das gilt heute noch wie vor 30 Jahren!

Am stärksten aber ist Sharaf dort, wo es um den Menschen Wilhelm Reich geht; akribisch arbeitet er dessen Idiosynkrasien heraus, präsentiert uns entschieden keinen angenehmen Zeitgenossen, wohl aber einen streitbaren Kämpfer voll unbeschreiblicher Energie, der sich zu Ende seines Lebens in seine eigene Ideenwelt eingesponnen zu haben schien. Gerade die menschliche Tragik und deren Beschleunigung in Reichs Leben arbeitet der Verfasser vorbildlich heraus.

Und über allem schwebt die Frage: War Reich ein Genie oder war er verrückt? Die Antwort lässt sich wohl nur auf Deutsch geben: Reich war ein Ver-rückter, der die Dinge verrückt, einer der das scheinbar offensichtliche mit anderen Augen sah. Der Reich, den diese Biographie beschreibt, war weder Gelehrter (Sammler des Wissens) noch Wissenschaftler (Verwalter des Wissens), sondern ein Forscher (Schaffer des Wissens), ein originärer Schaffender, wie ihn Nietzsche einst entworfen hatte - daher auch das dämonische Element -, durchaus im ganz kindlichen Sinne, für den es keine Autoritäten gab.

Man kann nur hoffen, dass sich mehr Leser der englischen Originalausgabe zuwenden, allein schon um den unsäglichen Wucher mit der deutschen Ausgabe zu unterlaufen. Das Englisch ist klar und gut strukturiert - Sharaf kann schreiben! - und wer sich ein klein wenig im psychoanalytischen und orgonomischen Vokabular auskennt, der sollte keine größeren Probleme haben.
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M. Ravey
5.0 out of 5 stars Karl Marx.... Sigmund Freud......................WILHELM REICH!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2013
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This biography of Wilhelm Reich is hugely worth while.....Myron Sharaf writes an appropriately 'distanced' yet appropriately partisan account to the life of this giant of a thinker. WR's relative obscurity is testimony to his unerring pursuit of scientific truth - a must read!
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