Wilhelm Reich & the Frankfurt School?

[malgosia askanas]

Ralph wrote:

> It's also disturbing, by the way, how uncritical 
> Reich's followers are today.  It's one thing to be sympathetic and follow 
> possibly fruitful ideas; it's another to be a cult follower.  Is there 
> something typically American about this?  

Nah, you get the same in Germany.  But I don't find that any more, or any
less, disturbing, than the opposite "cult" of uncritically labelling Reich
as "crackpot".  Neither makes any effort at any critical scientific 
understanding of Reich's work; neither attempts critical experimental
pursuit of his findings, or careful reproduction of the experiments he 
performed - yet each unflinchingly and to-the-death fixates on a "judgement" 
about what they neither understand nor have worked through.  One group labels 
anybody who engages in an honest scientific critique of Reich as "emotionally 
plaguey", while the other labels anybody who takes any of Reich's scientific 
work seriously as "cult follower".  May the devil come and choose.


-m