Wilhelm Reichs mottagande i Sverige psykoanalys, marxism, biologi och kosmologi
In this essay I have been writing about the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. It was written at the Library School in Borås as a contribution to the struggle of the maintenance of the free word. In the essay I have been concentrating on how Reich was received in Sweden from the publication of his first book 1927 to the year of 2000. The work started with a biographical chapter and a chapter about Reich's scientific development, which was divided into three phases: one psychoanalytical and Marxist, one physiological and biological and a third phase that makes a synthesis of these in a cosmological form. The analytic material has been books and articles from periodicals and papers. The analytic method was partly formed out of George Herbert Mead's interactionistic communication theory. In the analysis I have first of all been interested in the ideological struggle in Sweden between left and right that has been going on since the beginning of the last century. According to my way of looking the analysis showed more than anything else that an ideological shift towards the right has influenced the reception of Wilhelm Reich in Sweden: during the thirties, forties and fifties is Reich's name mainly mentioned together with questions about education of children, during the sixties and seventies is the discussion on Reich focused on Marxist and theoretical matters and during the eighties and nineties is the discussion most of all characterized of the fact that Reich's nondialectic biological and cosmological orgone research gets less negative received. As I see it the analysis also showed that papers in general are more normative than periodicals and books, which are more cognitive. I have questioned if this as well means that papers usually are more ideological than periodicals and books, which was something that I believed very strongly in the beginning of the essay. Finally, differences of male and female reception have been analysed. It has here been shown that women write more about practical things than men: for example questions focused on the family as well as therapeutic questions. However, to big conclusions have not been drawn out of this because of the relatively slightness of the analytic material.