This really hit home for me. I’m 24 and in that place of not knowing what to do with my life yet, so reading about how you found your way into this work over time was genuinely encouraging.
I’ve spent a long time thinking about orgone and Chinese medicine on my own, without many people to talk to who take it seriously. Great to see that this way of thinking actually has a place in the world.
One honest question your writing raised for me: Reich wouldn’t train anyone who wasn’t a medical doctor. In your view today, is the medical route still the right foundation for someone pursuing this work seriously, or are there other paths you’d consider viable? Not looking for shortcuts.
Hi Erik, glad my work has helped you. I was 31 before I really found a path that resonated with me. There was some tradition of thinking about orgone and Chinese medicine which started in Germany and continues to this today here and there, it's great that is continuing. There was a very eclectic practitioner using orgone in Argentina, Dr Inza but though he has a website I haven't heard from him recently. There is a practitioner in Italy working currently, D’Ingiullo, who has an article in psychorgone journal.
Good question and one I've thought about too.
I think Reich was right to do this in his time and context but that it is more of a handicap now in some ways. In the 1950s, and with Reich being so controversial, it was a kind of protection for orgonomy to restrict it to medics. Psychiatric orgone therapy was even more restricted, with medicine and psychiatry both being required I think, or that was the requirements of the American College of Orgonomy I think. Interestingly, Reich did make exceptions, his best friend, the British educator, AS Neill was doing orgone psychiatric therapy with teens during and just after WW2, with little more than advice from Reich via letters.
The effects of restrictions vary by country, because in the UK doctors tend to be the least forward thinking of professionals quite often and tend to restrict access to alternatives, unlike British nurses who tend to be much more open toward new therapies. In Germany I believe doctors are more open so it would be less of a burden on orgonomy to have restrictions there. Overall though, just to answer your question, I don't think currently it is very helpful for orgone therapists to be restricted to medics, both for the public and for orgonomy. There is I think one body in the US which trains non-medics.
As far as acupuncture goes, which is unregulated in the UK, degree level training for non-medics with a medical semester seems to work well. It is useful to have good anatomy and physiology and some medical background for orgone therapy (and acupuncture) but often lay people who have done a course and can red flag the right things are just as good as anyone medically trained. Lay people also tend to be more careful with certain routines than medics or ex nurses.
So in a nutshell I don't think the medical route is a particular requirement for working in orgonomy as a therapist or otherwise but a good background as part of any other training or as an option within a course would be fine.
This really hit home for me. I’m 24 and in that place of not knowing what to do with my life yet, so reading about how you found your way into this work over time was genuinely encouraging.
I’ve spent a long time thinking about orgone and Chinese medicine on my own, without many people to talk to who take it seriously. Great to see that this way of thinking actually has a place in the world.
One honest question your writing raised for me: Reich wouldn’t train anyone who wasn’t a medical doctor. In your view today, is the medical route still the right foundation for someone pursuing this work seriously, or are there other paths you’d consider viable? Not looking for shortcuts.
Thank you for your work
Hi Erik, glad my work has helped you. I was 31 before I really found a path that resonated with me. There was some tradition of thinking about orgone and Chinese medicine which started in Germany and continues to this today here and there, it's great that is continuing. There was a very eclectic practitioner using orgone in Argentina, Dr Inza but though he has a website I haven't heard from him recently. There is a practitioner in Italy working currently, D’Ingiullo, who has an article in psychorgone journal.
Good question and one I've thought about too.
I think Reich was right to do this in his time and context but that it is more of a handicap now in some ways. In the 1950s, and with Reich being so controversial, it was a kind of protection for orgonomy to restrict it to medics. Psychiatric orgone therapy was even more restricted, with medicine and psychiatry both being required I think, or that was the requirements of the American College of Orgonomy I think. Interestingly, Reich did make exceptions, his best friend, the British educator, AS Neill was doing orgone psychiatric therapy with teens during and just after WW2, with little more than advice from Reich via letters.
The effects of restrictions vary by country, because in the UK doctors tend to be the least forward thinking of professionals quite often and tend to restrict access to alternatives, unlike British nurses who tend to be much more open toward new therapies. In Germany I believe doctors are more open so it would be less of a burden on orgonomy to have restrictions there. Overall though, just to answer your question, I don't think currently it is very helpful for orgone therapists to be restricted to medics, both for the public and for orgonomy. There is I think one body in the US which trains non-medics.
As far as acupuncture goes, which is unregulated in the UK, degree level training for non-medics with a medical semester seems to work well. It is useful to have good anatomy and physiology and some medical background for orgone therapy (and acupuncture) but often lay people who have done a course and can red flag the right things are just as good as anyone medically trained. Lay people also tend to be more careful with certain routines than medics or ex nurses.
So in a nutshell I don't think the medical route is a particular requirement for working in orgonomy as a therapist or otherwise but a good background as part of any other training or as an option within a course would be fine.