Wilhelm Reich on Gratification

“The suppression of natural sexual gratification leads to various kinds of substitute gratifications. Natural aggression, for example, becomes brutal sadism which then is an essential mass-psychological factor in imperialistic wars.”

“The sexual anxiety is caused by an external frustration of instinctual gratification, and is anchored internally by the fear of the dammed up sexual excitation. This is the mechanism of orgasm anxiety. It is the fear of the organism – which has become unwilling to experience pleasure – of the overpowering excitation of the genital system. Orgasm anxiety forms the basis of the general pleasure anxiety which is an integral part of the human structure.”