In 1936, Reich wrote "The Sexual Revolution". In 1939, Reich moved to NY and then Oregon, Maine. In 1942, Reich created the "ORGONE INSTITUTE RESEARCH LABORATORIES". Reich invented the system of "ORGONOMY" and the "ORGONE ACCUMULATOR" which was a large box that supposedly trapped "orgone energy" and helped cancer victims.  He believed mental and physical illness came from deficits in bodily orgone. This was only an experiment, but a campaign of tabloid attacks led the police to investigate Reich. The FDA declared the Orgone Accumulator was fraudulent and must be banned and also Reich must remove the word "or-gone" from his books.  Reich refused to stop using the Orgone Accumulator and was sent to Jail for Contempt of Court. Most of Reich's books were burned by authorities in New York City. On Nov. 3, 1957, Wilhelm Reich died of heart failure at the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, PA.

 

Reich's work on the expression of the personality based on the way the body moves has influenced such famous psychotherapists as Alexander Lowen (bioenergetic analysis) and Arthur Janov (primal therapy). Van Gogh's "Starry Night" with it's wavy and unrepressed energy is thought by some to be an example of "orgone energy".