Reich realized, that the ideology of any given social formation (or mode of production) not only has the function in a distorted manner to reflect it's economic structure in the minds of its members but to equally root this economic structure in their psyche. Thus, Reich identified IDEOLOGY as an obstacle for radical change of society because it factually constituted a material force that prevented the oppressed from acting in favor of revolution.
In analogy to Marx' famous statement, that theory converts itself into a material force (Gewalt) the moment it captures the imagination of the masses, Reich went on to ask: How does ideology convert itself into a material force, as soon as it captures the masses, and what is the concrete effect of this? He gave the answer in form of his splendid analysis of "Mass Psychology of Fascism": The systematic suppression of human, erotic life-generating and life-preservating energy (which he called Orgon) by industrialized civilization and in fact, throughout thousands of years of so-called human civilization, is responsible for the crippling of the human character. Only a radical revolution in all spheres of human life and civilization as such could enable what Reich calls the natural, self-regulating, creative character and what others like Frantz Omar Fanon and Ché Guevara have simply called: the New Man.
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