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'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
List of contents
The Viewpoint of the Observer * Introduction * My Relationship with Reich The Development of the Mission: 1897-1920 * Reichs Childhood and Youth: 897-1917 * Becoming a Psychoanalyst: 1918-1920 Reich as InsiderBuilding a Career and Marriage: 1920-1926 * Reichs Work on the Impulsive Character: 1922-1924 * Reichs Early Work on Character Analysis: 1920-1926 * Reichs Work on Orgastic Potency: 1922-1926 * Personal Life: 1920-1926 The Radicalization of Reich: 1926-1930 * Reichs Illness and Sanatarium Stay in Davos, Switerland: Winter, 1927 * July 15th, 1927, and Its Aftermath: 1927-1928 * The Application of Sex-economic Concepts on the Social SceneThe Sex-pol: 1927-1930 * Personal Life and Relations with Colleagues: 1927-1930 Liberation and RejectionReichs Breaks with the Communist Party and the Psychoanalytic Association: 1930-1934 * The Sex-political Furor: 1930-1934 * The Psychoanalytic Furor and Reichs Break with the Psychoanalytic Association: 1930-1934 * Personal Life: 1930-1934 First Steps on the Road to LifeReichs Experimental Work in Scandinavia: 1934-1939 * The Bio-electrical Experiments: 1934-1935 * The Bions: 1936-1939 * Psychiatric Developments: 1934-1939 * Personal Life and Relations with Colleagues: 1934-1939 On His Own in AmericaTotal Immersion in Studies of Life Energy (Orgone Energy): 1940-1950 * Getting Settled in America: 1939-1941 * The Discovery of Orgone Energy: 1940 * The Medical Effects of the Accumulator: 1940-48 * Psychiatric, Sociological, and Educational Developments: 1940-1950 * Personal Life and Relations with Colleagues: 1941-1950 The Road to DeathThe FDA Campaign and Oranur: 1948-1957 * The American Campaign Against OrgonomyThe Beginnings: 1947-1948 * The Oranur Experiment: 1950-1953 * Personal Life and Other Developments: 1950-1954 * The FDA Injunction and Reichs Responses: 1951-1955 * Background to the Trial for Contempt of Injunction: 1955-1956 * The Trial: 1956 * The Destruction of Orgone Energy Accumulators and Burning of Reichs Publications: 1956-1957 * Prison and Death: 1957
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.
Summary
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
