September 20, 2024
Obituaries

Wilhelm Reich’s daughter dies at 84

HANCOCK – Dr. Eva Reich, daughter of Dr. Wilhelm Reich and lecturer on the controversial work on orgonomy that he pioneered more than a half-century ago, died Aug. 10 at her home. She was 84.

Eva Reich, a native of Vienna who moved to the United States in 1938, participated in many of her father’s controversial experiments. Wilhelm Reich, a psychiatrist, died in prison in 1957 after his conviction for ignoring an injunction that outlawed devices he developed to accumulate energy associated with sexual orgasm.

A graduate of the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Eva Reich and her husband, artist William Moise, moved to Hancock in 1952, where she set up a rural practice. After her divorce in 1974, Reich traveled to 30 countries to lecture about her father’s work and her own.

Focusing on infant emotional health, she developed a treatment for upset and colicky babies that involved a gentle touch she called butterfly baby massage.

Reich’s survivors include a daughter, Renata Moise of Hancock.

A memorial service will be held Monday at the Monteux School Forest Studio.


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