Anarchist Studies, Volume 1, 1993 No.1

"This Paper analyses the degree of success that the radical psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich obtained in spreading his views on the organization of sexuality under capitalism with reference to Spain. Fundamental to Wilhelm Reich’s thesis of sex-economy was the perceived need for an international sex-economic organization and this article assesses the reception of his writings and activities among the revolutionary sectors of the Spanish left. The revolutionary socialist, Trotskyist and anarchist press of the 1930s is examined and inter-organizational links on an international level are discussed. Examples are taken from journals such as the Revista Blanca and Leviatan as well as from Reich’s own Zeitschrift fur politische Psychologie und Sexualokonomie. The reception of radical ideas on sex is placed in the context of anarchism’s ability to embrace new ideas, which placed it ahead intellectually of its counterparts on the left."