In Dialogue: On the American College of Orgonomy Joel Carlinsky and Petros Evdokas Special to Paranoia Magazine* A Short Introduction to the Dialogue Petros Evdokas Joel Carlinsky and I often have exchanges on various subjects related to Orgonomy, the branch of science created by Dr. Wilhelm Reich during several decades of the early and mid 20th century. The authoritarian nature of social and political structures within the US and Europe, plus the humongous financial and political ruling class interests that dominate the world of science and academia have forced this branch of science underground, where it exists in various applications in the world of healthcare, natural science, cosmology and politics. Orgonomy is constantly under attack by various forces - since the internet has enabled free communication and made publication a lot more accessible to people, Orgonomy has found new tools to survive, grow and evolve. But it has also become vulnerable to new forms of attack. Namely exploitation, distortion and co-optation. A recent round of discussion about the American College of Orgonomy (ACO) was triggered by a name I'd never heard of. The dirt that this round of dialogue was able to stir up from the depths of the cesspool astounded me. Joel Carlinsky: "Do you know anything about a former U.S. Senator Zell Miller? He is apparently connected with the American College of Orgonomy (ACO). That means he must have had therapy from an orgonomist. And that can mean a member of the Senate was brainwashed and under control of what amounts to a mind-control cult. I think that would make a good investigative story. So if you know anything more about this Senator please let me know." Petros Evdokas: "Well, I looked him up. I see that Zell Miller's name is promoted on the website of the American College of Orgonomy by saying that he 'endorses' the book titled 'The Emotional Plague', by Charles Konia, M.D. Zell Miller also endorsed George 'the Dubya' Bush for re-election. 'Senator Zell Miller (D) endorses Bush for 2004' http://www.watchblog.com/democrats/archives/000503.html I think it's important to note that this was an endorsement for re-election after George Bush threw the planet into the worst political~military crisis it has faced in decades, and the worst environmental crisis in history. The promotional text for the book he endorses, here, http://www.theemotionalplague.com/EP_Home.html is worse than political excrement. It claims to examine and explore 'from a unique, non-psychological perspective the pathology in human nature' that has 'given us the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein.' Notice that it does not mention Richard Nixon who supervised the murder of about 2.5 to 4 million Vietnamese people and reduced Cambodia to rubble ('back to the Stone Age' was the term used at the time), nor the Bush dynasty which is responsible for almost 2 million deaths in the Middle East, perhaps more. Perhaps my views on the American College of Orgonomy are biased. I had some contact with graduates of the seminars they taught in Greece (one of them taught by Peter A. Crist, M.D.), plus I've studied some of the articles in the academic~professional journal of their affiliated group in Greece. I am not just disappointed by them, I am positively repulsed. I've experienced more of the authoritarian character structure and its deranged forms among people who promote themselves as suit-and-tie Reichian or Orgonomy "professionals", than among the dirty unwashed or even miserably sophisticated people who seek my help in therapy. My enthusiasm and excitement upon discovering and studying W. Reich's work in the early eighties received its first and most serious blow soon afterwards, when I tried to figure out what the "official" followers of Orgonomy were doing in his name. I was so disgusted with their petty imitations and shallow versions of what the authoritarian establishment institutions do, that I had to stop reading their stuff and stop following their news. Every few years or so (as rarely as possible) I check up on them again and I find it's the same crap. Unchanged. Or worse. Take one recent article published on their website, for example - it illustrates the all-American Nazi ideology that has come to characterize the late 20th century culture of counter-revolution that currently dominates modern Amerikkka: 'Responding to Terrorism in the 21st Century' by Robert Harman, M.D. http://www.orgonomy.org/Articles/Harman/Responding_To_Terrorism.html It is nothing but pseudo-orgonomist, pseudo-reichian fanatical indoctrination against Communism and Islam. The author applies himself to provide a scientific-sounding moral justification (an ideological foundation, the 'green light') for the extermination of the peoples who are vehicles of those two trends, Communism and Islam. Just like all of the modern all-American nazis, they use a fake 'opposition to Hitler' to disguise their fascist project. All of the nazis of the modern era in Amerikkka claim to be 'against Hitler'. Is there any Orgonomy-minded person anywhere in the world who could get away with the following statement? 'The overexpansive pursuit of pleasure is also one reason why many of our brightest minds, both liberal and conservative, who choose to work in business, computers, etc., would never consider a career in the military, FBI, CIA, or other fields whose function is to protect the country from external threats. This is a real loss to the nation.' And yet it's a real quote from a 'real Reichian', an 'accredited professional' writing in a 'peer reviewed' journal of 'scientists' whose scientific work is supposedly founded on the liberation of trapped and stagnated sexuality and the freeing up of the flow of sensuousness within the physiological structures and energetic functions of the organism so that sexuality and sensuousness are able again to pulsate as freely as the breath. The quote is from the article I mentioned above, titled 'Responding to Terrorism in the 21st Century', by Robert Harman, M.D. It says, essentially, that sensuousness and sexuality ought to be reined in, that the wanton 'overexpansive pursuit of pleasure' must be remedied, so that more people will join the CIA. These people make me sick. Reich would have had a heart attack right there on the spot if he had heard a 'Reichian' spout such anti-sexual venom. Every occasion in which I encounter their authoritarian crap is a slap in the face of every honest and dignified orgonomy worker. It makes me embarrassed to use the word 'Orgonomy' to describe the largest parts of what guides my work in both healthchare and politics. Seeing the kind of politics they promote, who can trust their definition of the healthy person? Who can trust their definition, understanding, application and process of 'therapy'? Is 'therapy' aimed at making people happy to embrace their personal identification with the Supreme Authority of the Corporate State of Amerikkka and its machinery of power, the largest killing machine in the solar system, and be proud of it? So, to get back to the question or comment about Zell Miller's relationship with the American College of Orgonomy, I see it as nothing by a shallow opportunist mutual aid between modern day fascists hell-bent on imposing their atrocious vulgarity on the world both by force and by sickening indoctrination. Ach. I need another round of vomit-therapy." Joel Carlinsky: "THANK YOU! Your words made my day! This is about the best evaluation of the American College of Orgonomy (ACO) I have ever seen. You are not only 100% right, but you also have a positive talent for words. Dr. Konia, the author of the book endorsed by Senator Zell, had an article once in the Journal of Orgonomy, comparing liberals to cancer cells in the body politic, and advising that liberals should be quarantined from the rest of the community. That in my opinion, stops just short of advocating mass roundups and concentration camps for liberals. I would point out that New York lawyer Edward Pell is an honorary member of the ACO. He was formerly Program Director of Radio Liberty, the CIA propaganda station broadcasting US propaganda to Eastern Europe. In the early 70s several Orgonomists received honorary knighthood from the Knights of Malta, a right-wing Roman Catholic lay order whose membership list reads like a roll call of the Reagan Administration. Dr. Richard Blasband was a good friend of the late Charles Pitchel, who had at one time been appointed by Adolf Hitler as his personal representative in America. Trevor Constable was accepted and endorsed by the ACO in 1970, and published a number of articles in the journal. In 1968 he had been a campaign worker for George Wallace, who ran for president on a segregationist platform. The ACO received several grants in the $10,000 to $50,000 range from the late Lawrence Rockefeller. One of those grants was specifically for cloudbusting by James DeMeo. The ACO has destroyed the professional careers of several independent therapists who, like you, dared to do therapy without their permission. But there were some non-MD's who were granted permission by Ellsworth Baker to do therapy because they followed his political line. I could go on and on, but you get the point. The whole history of the ACO is one of right-wing apologetics, hypocrisy, and blatant authoritarianism by people who try to monopolize Orgonomy for their own ego-gratification. In the late 80s, Patricia Humphrey, the wife of right-wing Republican Senator Gordon Humphrey, was head of the ACO fund-raising committee. She raised over $5,000,000 for them to build a new building. The building was never built and today nobody will say what happened to the money. I have long thought that in the wrong hands, orgone therapy could be used as a tool of brainwashing. The steps involved are the same as those described by William Sargent in his book, 'Battle For the Mind', which is the classic on the subject. And many of their former patients show the traits that would result from this misuse of orgonomic procedures, including life-long emotional dependency on the therapist. Which has made me wonder if some members of Congress or the Bushistas inner circle might have been patients of some orgonomist." Joel Carlinsky and Petros Evdokas, In Dialogue: On the American College of Orgonomy October, 2008 Contact: Joel Carlinsky: joelcarlinsky@yahoo.com Petros Evdokas: petros@cyprus-org.net ~~~~~~~~~ * Special to Paranoia Magazine: This article was originally prepared for publication in Paranoia Magazine but editorial, legal and practical considerations prevented that decision from becoming actualized. |