Cinema: Psychic Comedy

Yugoslav Film Maker Dusan Makavejev first discovered the work of Psychologist Wilhelm Reich some 20 years ago as a student at the University of Belgrade. Reich exerted a considerable influence on Makavejev, who was especially fascinated with the psychologist's attempts—most notably in the book Dialectical Materialism and Psychoanalysis —to synthesize the doctrines of Marx and Freud. Makavejev's new film WR —Mysteries of the Organism is part biography, part documentary on Reichian therapy, part fable and part essay, an altogether improbable but successful collection of episodes. It is also satanically funny.

Reich held that political systems were repressive because people were not psychologically...

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