Reich fought in the war, then studied at the University of Vienna while the city was gripped by a brutal famine, making him one of the few college students who didn't choose to have a terrible diet. He soon began studying under some guy named Sigmund Freud, then knocked up one of his patients, because the medical industry was rather fast and loose with ethics back then. The 19-year-old girl died -- possibly after a failed illegal abortion which was possibly conducted by Reich -- and her mother killed herself out of grief. Reich was fixated on sex, and one of his daughters speculated that he was molested as a child. On the lighter side, he could rock the fuck out a bow tie.
That's a small cherry atop a flaming shit sundae, but you take what you can get.
Reich promoted openness in sexuality, especially among teenagers, and would later coin the phrase "sexual revolution." He also pushed for easy access to contraception, abortion, and divorce. That wouldn't go over well in parts of America today, and this was conservative Catholic Austria in the '20s and '30s. His therapy methods included stripping patients down to their underwear and massaging them ... to uh, get them comfortable with expressing their emotions. That's the ticket.