Despite what the term sounds like at first reading, "sex economy" has nothing to do with prostitution. It refers to the "economy" of sexual energy within the organism, and the perceived need to keep sexual energy from getting dammed up and either causing new actual-neuroses or feeding existing psychoneuroses. Even before his orgone energy years, Reich firmly believed that "libido" was a real, measurable energy of some kind, and not just a convenient analogy to explain sexual behavior.
Reich defined "sex-economy" in his glossary, which appeared in the back of some editions of The Function of the Orgasm, as "that body of knowledge which deals with the economy of the biological energy in the organism, with its energy household."
"Reich coined the term 'sex-economy' around 1930. . . . The use of the word 'economy' also reflects a Marxist influence: The safeguarding of the distribution of goods requires a rational economic policy. A rational sexual policy is not different if the same obvious principles are applied to sexual instead of economic needs."
— Myron Sharaf, Fury on Earth: A Biography of Wilhelm Reich, p. 166.
— Remainder of article yet to be written. —
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