Reviews
Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America by Christopher Turner
cetian's review
5.0
This is a book with two distinct parts, simply called "Europe" and "America". And the the book is built that way, having Wilhelm Reich's biography as a reference. "Europe", the shorter first part provides a good background for the freudian circle, and interwar cultural atmosphere from which Reich emerged. And then we get the mature Reich, that drifts away from Freud, goes to America and becomes one of the most intriguing, controversial, influential and forgotten (thanks to this book, not for long) figures of the XX century.
Very well written, always captivating and relevant. Turner did a thorough research that included interviews with the living remaining reichians and former reichians. This is a fundamental work to help us understand how we got to what Zizek refers to: this culture that produces individuals that feel guilty if they are not enjoying themselves. The less sexy title could be, "How we got from orgastic potency to mandatory enjoyment".
Very well written, always captivating and relevant. Turner did a thorough research that included interviews with the living remaining reichians and former reichians. This is a fundamental work to help us understand how we got to what Zizek refers to: this culture that produces individuals that feel guilty if they are not enjoying themselves. The less sexy title could be, "How we got from orgastic potency to mandatory enjoyment".
Spoiler
The last pages of the book, that tell a story of how psychoanalysis was turned into a tool of marketing in the 1950's and how gestalt therapy was industrialized, show us the first signs of this "mandatory" freedom that made people "feel guilty that they felt guilty" about sexual pleasure.
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