Wilhelm Reich's machines of sexual revolution

Abstract

The essay discusses the case of Wilhelm Reich in the light of current demand of a direct and immediate access to the raw intensities of pure jouissance by means of gadgets, networks, data and the like. Early on, Reich already insisted that politics and sex are related, if not inseparable. He also thought that both are broken as they always disappoint. He suggested to fix them simultaneously, as the only ‘cure’ for the false consciousness of authoritarian ideologies causing sexual repression was a revolution. This essay offers a Lacanian reading of Reich's transition from clinical practices to bioelectric experiments with skin and muscles and to designing his signature machine, the orgone accumulator, a collector of, and storage for, the ‘orgone energy’ for improving sexual potency and achieving a ‘true orgasm.’ I find such transition worth attention for two reasons. First, it demonstrates a consistent refusal on his part to accept what Lacan defined as “inexistent sexual rapport”, that Reich expressed by equating the absolute key of sexual relations with the event of the body, an orgasm, which (second reason) can only be achieved with the help of techno-augmentation.