Defining the presence of a cinematic self in the misunderstood psychologist and experimental scientist once considered heir to Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich versus the Flying Saucers rejects orthodox portrayals of Reich’s engagement with UFO phenomena in the 1950s as evidence of psychosis. Combining original analysis and evidence from the Wilhelm Reich Archive, James Reich uncovers the fatal moments in Reich’s identification with the “spaceman,” and the development of the myth of a brilliant psychologist lost to his own grandiosity and paranoia. Taking seriously the influence of The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bad Day at Black Rock, and other narratives on Wilhelm Reich, this “psychoanalytic detective story” concerns existential traps, the conscious and unconscious collaboration of disciples, and unidentified flying object-relations. The author is not related to his subject.
About the Author
James Reich is a novelist, essayist, and journalist. He is the author of The Moth for the Star (7.13 Books), The Song My Enemies Sing, Soft Invasions, Mistah Kurtz! A Prelude to Heart of Darkness (Anti-Oedipus Press), I, Judas, and Bombshell (Counterpoint/Soft Skull). His account of innovations in British science fiction is published by Bloomsbury in its “Decades” series, The 1960s. His nonfiction has also appeared in Salon, SPIN Magazine, The Huffington Post, International Times, and other literary and cultural publications. James was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire in the West of England, and has been a resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, since 2009. He was greatly influenced by early exposure to the poetry of Dylan Thomas, and by a small book on dadaism, and later by Andy Warhol, the Beats, science fiction, psychoanalysis, punk rock, and the films of Ken Russell and Nic Roeg. Norman Mailer, Sylvia Plath, J.G. Ballard, Anne Sexton, Paul Bowles, D.H. Lawrence, and Lars von Trier are also vital constellations in his work. He has a Master’s degree in Ecopsychology from Naropa University.