Ola Raknes - Raknes and His Influence On Wilhelm Reich

Raknes and His Influence On Wilhelm Reich

The collaboration and friendship between Ola Raknes and Wilhelm Reich would last through to Reich's death in an American prison cell in 1957. Most people have assumed that the influence between the two for the most part has gone from Wilhem Reich to Raknes, but this may not be the full picture. In the preface to the book Det levande i muskelpanseret ("The Living inside the Muscular Armor") which was published the same year Raknes died, another Reich therapist, Einar Dannevig, writes, "With his modest appearance and infinite loyalty toward his friend, Raknes contributed to a distorted image of himself. He is easily perceived as a loyal and grateful student of the great master even where he expressed opinions of his own which were hard fought for and well tested, Not until after he had turned 80, he wrote in the preface of his book Wilhelm Reich and Orgonomy: 'Some developments of Reich's ideas are due to myself and I am unable to tell, in some cases, which ideas were first mentioned by me, and which ones by Reich'. The fact that this is mentioned this late in a small preface of the best and probably most integrated presentation of Reich's life work having been written, has made many people overlook the fact that Raknes to a higher degree than any other has been co-creating in the development of those ideas which today form the foundation for the advanced development in different disciplines that one sees as the aftergrowth after Wilhelm Reich. With his firm integrity and independence, coupled with realizations which Raknes had arrived at through his studies in psychology of religion, philosophy, and psychoanalysis before meeting Reich, Raknes becomes a true friend and associate to Wilhelm Reich. With his lacking need for prestige, he was able to satisfy Reich's unusually strong demands for outward loyalty, while at the same time acting tactfully as a correcting agent when Reich in his later years could become the victim of his usually creative, but sometimes too lively and lonely imagination. With his more thorough philosophical background and acquaintance with philosophy of science, as well as his manifested ability to systematize, Raknes has meant very much to the development of the psychotherapeutic, biological, and natural philosophical theories that are usually ascribed to Wilhelm Reich alone." (Dannevig, 1975)