Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf
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''Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf'' ("sexuality in the culture war"), 1936 (published later in English as ''The Sexual Revolution''), is a work by
Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...
. The subtitle is "zur sozialistischen Umstrukturierung des Menschen" ("for the socialist restructuring of humans"), the double title reflecting the two-part structure of the work. The first part "analyzes the crisis of the bourgeois sexual morality" and the failure of the attempts of "sexual reform" that preserved the
frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...
of capitalist society (marriage and family). The second part reconstructs the history of the sexual revolution that took place with the establishment of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
since 1922, and which was opposed by
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
in the late 1920s.Fraenkel 92, p. 11.


Significant differences among editions

Starting with the 1945 English edition, the following German, French and Italian editions had an unexplained change in the title: ''The Sexual Revolution''. Such title changed "not only the perspective, but also the methodology", resulting in a misleading presentation of the actual work contained in the book. More instructive is the change of the subtitle: from ''for the socialist restructuring of humans'' to ''toward a self-governing character structure''. The editions since 1945, also had a number of "reshuffles, terminology changes and abuses by editors", some of which were intended to "disguise the communist-revolutionary orientation", to avoid hurting the susceptible American public. There are also crucial omissions and changes to the content; while the original edition (1936), based its theory on the "rejection of the family institution as such", the softened versions reject just the "authoritarian family structure", aiming to replace it with a "better and more natural form of family". Other omissions or changes affected the "terms regarding religion, class society, radical left politics, the 'bourgeois' attribute referred to family, morality or sexuality, proletariat, etc.Fraenkel 92, p. 18 In 1992, Italian publisher Erre Emme, published for the first time not only an integral 1936 edition, but also integrations showing the changes of the 1945 edition, in order to allow a scientific confrontation.


Content

In Part I, Reich explains that sexual neuroses derive from the lack of gratification of natural sexuality. Natural sexuality is left unsatisfied and thereby creates neuroses due to suppression of this sexuality by the authoritarian state. For Reich, this state is characterized best by the capitalist state that is based on the unit of the patriarchical family, within which the
father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...
mirrors the state as the absolute authority. According to Reich, the authoritarian state uses a variety of tools in order to suppress its citizens' natural sexualities. These tools comprise Reich's view of "conservative,
sex-negative The sex-positive movement is a social movement, social and philosophical movement that seeks to change cultural attitudes and norms around sexuality, promoting the recognition of sexuality (in the countless forms of expression) as a natural and he ...
moralism" and include: # the ideology of lifelong, monogamous marriage, which Reich calls "compulsive marriage"; # the suppression of infantile sexuality, which Reich cites as the primary cause of unnatural sexual desires and perversions later in life; # a lack of candid sexual education or sexual freedom for adolescents; # the persecution of abnormal sexualities such as homosexuality; # the illegality of abortion; # marriage as a legalized institution, and the lack of an "incompatibility" reason for divorce. These various means of suppression in turn cause the authoritarian state's citizens to both repress their natural sexual desires and create new, neurotic, unhealthy sexual desires. Reich explains that this relationship between suppression/repression of natural sexuality and the creation or intensification of sexual neuroses is a cyclical relationship that constantly results in more power for the authoritarian state. The authoritarian state's motive, whether it is conscious of it or not, is to preserve its economic structure through continuance of the patriarchal family as its primary social unit. The family, according to Reich, is essential to the economic structure of capitalism because it benefits the capitalist as well as preserves itself to the next generation. The latter is achieved through suppression of infantile sexual attraction to the parents, thereby producing a repressed attachment to the family unit. The child longs for familial relationships and mimics the parent of its own gender in the creation of its own family. The capitalist benefits from the economic unit of the family because of the husband's economic dominance over the wife, who is economically dependent on her husband and works for no wage in the house. This allows the employer of the husband to pay him a lesser wage because the employer need not take into account the cost that the husband would have to pay a housekeeper or childcare provider. This lack of extra wage for traditional female housework and child-rearing encourages the woman to stay home to be economical, as well as allows her husband's employer to keep that extra surplus capital for himself. The husband also benefits because he is given power and authority in the home that he does not necessarily get in the workplace. In the preface of the 1945 edition, Reich says that "our" (
Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...
) family structure is inherited from old
patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
. Fraenkel (1992) notes that the supposed "
sexual revolution The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and the developed world from the 1 ...
" claimed for the West since the late 60s is indeed a misconception. Sex is not actually enjoyed freely, it is just observed in all the fields of culture. In order to move from that to an actual sexual liberation, we must change our mental structures and our moral inhibitions. Instead, the repressive
Judeo-Christian The term Judeo-Christian is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's borrowing of Jewish Scripture to constitute the "Old Testament" of the Christian Bible, or ...
morals still basically hold, and small social changes are exaggerated because they're seen in that light. Even many supposed atheists have just
secularized In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
and
internalized Internalization ( or internalisation) is the process of making something internal, with more specific meanings in various fields. It is the opposite of externalization. Psychology and sociology In psychology, internalization is the outcome of ...
the same old morals.Fraenkel 92, p. 19 The
bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...
ideology has a strong demand that
adolescents Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...
, having reached
sexual maturity Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans it might be considered synonymous with adulthood, but here puberty is the name for the process of biological sexual maturation, while adulthood is based on cultural definitio ...
, be repressed in
sexual abstinence Sexual abstinence or sexual restraint is the practice of refraining from some or all aspects of Human sexual activity, sexual activity for medical, psychological, legal, social, financial, philosophical, moral, or religious reasons. Sexual abstin ...
. To justify this sad privation, which is the basis of their
unhappiness Sadness is an emotional pain associated with, or characterized by, feelings of disadvantage, loss, despair, grief, helplessness, disappointment and sorrow. An individual experiencing sadness may become quiet or lethargic, and withdraw them ...
, all sorts of
unscientific The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific me ...
and ridiculous justifications have been made up. This doesn't happen,
anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...
cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural studies, sometimes called holocultural studies or comparative studies, is a specialization in anthropology and sister sciences such as sociology, psychology, economics, political science that uses field data from many societies thr ...
have shown, in many contemporary societies which don't have a marked
patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...
ideology (an ideology pushed by the bias of technologies like intensive agriculture and mechanization, and which are therefore controversially termed "primitive" by westerns). Anthropologists who have studied such people include
Bronisław Malinowski Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropol ...
, with his 1929 work ''
The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia ''The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia: An Ethnographic Account of Courtship, Marriage, and Family Life Among the Natives of the Trobriand Islands, British New Guinea'' is a 1929 book by anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski. The ...
'', Ploss- Bartels (de),
Havelock Ellis Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in ...
, Hans Meyer on the Wahehe and Wossangu. There is an active effort to obstruct
pubescent The adjective pubescent may describe: * people or animals undergoing puberty * plants that are hairy, covered in trichomes * insects that are covered in setae In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a ...
people from starting to engage in sexual activity. This includes keeping them from finding the information they need to understand their sexual issues. So-called "
sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...
" is practically always a work of
deception Deception or falsehood is an act or statement that misleads, hides the truth, or promotes a belief, concept, or idea that is not true. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda and sleight o ...
which focuses on biology while concealing excitement-arousal, which is what interests them the most, and hides the fact that all their worries and difficulties originate from unsatisfied sexual impulses.Reich 1936, Part one "the failure." 6. The puberty problem – (3°) "A reflection." – c. sexual relationships of pubescents – paragraph 4.a (pp. 198–199 of Italian edition)


Notes


References

*Fraenkel, Boris (1992) ''Introduction'' to the Italian version for publisher Erre emme *Letter by
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
to
Arnold Ruge Arnold Ruge (13 September 1802 – 31 December 1880) was a German philosopher and political writer. He was the older brother of Ludwig Ruge. Studies in university and prison Born in Bergen auf Rügen, he studied in Halle, Jena and Heidelberg. ...
. Kreuznach, September 1843. From the '' Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher''

as cited in
Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich ( , ; 24 March 1897 – 3 November 1957) was an Austrian Doctor of Medicine, doctor of medicine and a psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst, along with being a member of the second generation of analysts after Sigmund Freud. The author ...
(1936) preface to ''Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sexualitat im Kulturkampf, Die 1936 non-fiction books Sociology books Non-fiction books about sexuality Political books Sexual revolution Works by Wilhelm Reich