New for 2026 — Authorized Fourth Edition. This newly typeset edition restores the original Theodore P. Wolfe 1946 translation, overseen and approved by Reich and out of print for decades, together with new supporting material: a foreword by Professor Håvard Friis Nilsen, a bibliographic introduction by Dr. Philip W. Bennett, and Reich's 1933 Foreword and 1934 Afterword appearing in English for the first time. Wilhelm Reich, M.D. (1897–1957), first published this landmark study of the psychological roots of fascism in Nazi Germany in 1933, at the beginning of Hitler’s regime. It was banned almost immediately. Drawing on his work as a psychoanalyst and sexologist, Reich examines why the fascist message appealed to broad masses of voters in a time of economic uncertainty. At the time of publication, this was the first analysis of Nazism from one of Freud’s pupils, and for many years, it remained the only one. In a new foreword, Professor Håvard Friis Nilsen situates the book in its historical context.

Text: English, German (translation)

"In August 1934, without warning or explanation, Wilhelm Reich was expelled from the International Psychoanalytic Association. Political expediency and the organization's growing adherence to Freud's death instinct theory had prevailed over Reich's scientific efforts to understand the functioning of what Freud had termed "libido."" "The provocative originality of Reich's work in the years to follow would inevitably distance him from Freudian psychology. But the result was an extraordinary widening of his scientific interests, scrupulously documented in these journals and letters. They record his pioneering laboratory experiments to verify the reality of the pleasure function and his discovery of an unknown energy that exists in all living matter. They record, too, the anguish of a man unafraid to speak his truth in the face of attack and defamation, even though it cost him his profession, his homeland and his adopted country, his wife, his two children, and his lover." "In her introduction to the volume, Mary Boyd Higgins of the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust considers key events and themes of Reich's life and work during the years leading up to 1934."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved