Wilhelm Reich Museum

19 Orgonon Circle
Rangeley, ME 04970
(207) 864-3443

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Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) was a medical doctor educated at the University of Vienna, and trained as a psychiatrist under Julius von Wagner-Jauregg and Sigmund Freud. As a prominent psychoanalyst in Freud’s inner circle, Reich made path-breaking contributions to the understanding of psychiatric disorders, as well as to the theory and technique of psychoanalysis.

Pursuing Freud’s original energetic model of health and concept of libido, Reich came to see the libido as a form of life energy, and eventually coined a new term for this energy, orgone energy. He made the study of this energy his main focus for the last two decades of his life.

Wilhelm Reich emigrated to the United States in 1939, as WWII was breaking out, settling in New York, but quickly came to enjoy summers in Maine and eventually moved full time to Rangeley, ME.

The Wilhelm Reich Museum preserves for future generations the atmosphere in which Reich worked during the later years of his life. The main exhibits are located in the Orgone Energy Observatory, a building that Wilhelm Reich built in 1948 and 1949 which is now listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.