Skip to content
quotesby

Psychic disturbances are the consequences of the sexual chaos of society. For thousands of years, this chaos has had the function of psychically subjecting man to the prevailing conditions of existence, of internalizing the external mechanization of life. It has served to bring about the psychic anchoring of a mechanized and authoritarian civilization by making man incapable of functioning independently.

Wilhelm Reich#9

PsychologyPoliticsSocietySexualityAuthoritarianism

About this quote

What does it mean?
Societal sexual disorder creates psychological disturbances that bind people to a mechanized, authoritarian system, preventing independent functioning.
In plain terms
Sexual chaos in society makes people psychologically dependent on authoritarian structures.
What can you take from it?
Address sexual repression to foster psychological independence.

Where it applies

  • living under a totalitarian regime
  • experiencing cultural sexual taboos

Putting it to work

  • promote sexual education
  • encourage open discussions about sexuality

Questions to consider

  • How does sexual repression influence political structures?
  • Can psychological independence exist without sexual freedom?

Another view

The claim oversimplifies complex social and individual psychological factors.

More from Wilhelm Reich

  1. Psychic health depends on orgastic potency, i.e., upon the degree to which one can surrender to and experience the climax of excitation in the natural sexual a…

    Permalink to quote #8
  2. The vital energies regulate themselves naturally without compulsive duty or compulsive morality - both of which are sure signs of existing antisocial impulses.

    Permalink to quote #10
  3. I am well aware of the fact that the human race has known about the existence of a universal energy related to life for many ages. However, the basic task of n…

    Permalink to quote #7

Related quotes

  1. Nothing irritates us [Fascists] so much as to be taken for pillars of order. Nothing so exasperates us as the people who come to us through fear of Communism. …

    Alessandro PavoliniAlessandro Pavolini quote #1
  2. The hope in the hearts of millions of national socialists can be fulfilled only by an authoritarian government.

    Franz von PapenFranz von Papen quote #4
  3. 'For too long, we have allowed fear to dictate our politics and suspicions, to shape how we perceive other communities.'

    Ratu Epeli GanilauRatu Epeli Ganilau quote #4