"You Might Very Well Be the Cause of Cancer": Read Bernie Sanders' 1970s-Era Essays

[highplainsdem]

2015 article from Mother Jones, linking to lots of these writings:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-freeman-sexual-freedom-fluoride/

Last month Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent socialist seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, repudiated a 1972 essay he wrote for the Vermont Freeman, an alternative newspaper, which included depictions of a rape fantasy from male and female perspectives. On Meet the Press, he dismissed the article as a “piece of fiction” exploring gender stereotypes—”something like Fifty Shades of Grey.”

-snip-

Sanders was initially drawn to Sigmund Freud and his theories as a high school student in Brooklyn. He then studied psychology at the University of Chicago and at the New School for Social Research in New York. And he worked at a mental institution in New York City before settling in Vermont for good in 1968. Like many lefties of his time, he was heavily influenced by the Austrian psychologist Wilhelm Reich, a disciple of Freud whose work drew a connection between sexual repression and fascism. When Paris student demonstrators took the street in that year, they held up copies of Reich’s book.

Reich’s most famous invention was a product called the “Orgone Box,” a sort of hyperbaric oxygen chamber for orgasms. The device was supposed to expose users to “orgastic” energy circulating in the air. Such exposure, Reich theorized, could cure various maladies, including cancer.

In a 1969 essay for the Freeman called “Cancer, Disease and Society,” Sanders, then 28, contended that conformity caused cancer by breaking down the human spirit and inflicting emotional trauma. He quoted liberally from Reich’s 1948 book, The Cancer Biopathy, which, he noted, was “very definite about the link between emotional and sexual health, and cancer,” and he walked readers through Reich’s theory about the consequences of suppressing “biosexual excitation.”

-snip-

We'll have to hope that if Sanders becomes president, we won't see federal money spent on Orgone Boxes.

Or has Sanders since repudiated that early essay, too?

Btw, the journalist who wrote this Mother Jones article has images of that Sanders essay on documentcloud.org:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2157403-sanders-cancer.html

If you look at the third image there, which is of page 7 of that issue of the Vermont Freeman, you'll see, in the last full paragraph of the first column, that Sanders specifically identifies one of what he sees as the evil school-related causes of cancer:

"A child has an old bitch of a teacher (and there are many of them)..."

[BusyBeingBest]

1. I saw this yesterday. Bernie at 28 was a real weirdo.

It was the 60's, man...

[frazzled]

5. I was 19 at the time, and I knew better

Yes, I remember the whole Wilhelm Reich thing. We found it very camp and funny (not serious) at the time, sort of like going to the midnight show of "Reefer Madness." To seriously believe the cancer thing at that time, in an age of science, shows a dangerous lack of judgment. Put it together with the "old bitch" thing and you get gullible + angry sexist. 28 is not that young.

Let's remember that one of the big arguments that emerged from the Sanders camp in 2016 was that Hillary Clinton had been a Republican at age 19, before becoming a committed Democrat in college. No excuses were made for age. Turnabout is fair play.

[BusyBeingBest]

7. Yeah, I was not yet born when this was going on, but I'm guessing

it was pretty far from mainstream thought at the time--unsettling for an otherwise smart man.

[thesquanderer]

11. re:"one of the big arguments..in 2016 was that Hillary Clinton had been a Republican at age 19"

and to the small extent that argument surfaced, it went nowhere (and appropriately so).

This stuff will similarly go nowhere. From a voter's perspective, what someone wrote 50 years ago has no impact on their lives.

And we're not even talking about actions, just thoughts. Are we really going to say that silly ideas someone discussed in their youth precludes them from being president 50 years later?

[TCJ70]

14. If I'm supposed to write off parts of other candidates pasts...

...why would I not also be expected to write off some of Sanders?

[thesquanderer]

18. Right. This is like people who got on Biden over busing comments from the 70s. Even less...

...because Biden was in a position to influence policy, and Sanders wasn't. But whether you support Biden or not, I can't see making his record/statements from the 70s an issue. The country was different, the people were different... it's all nonsense in terms of how good a president they would be in 2020.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Woody Allen's "Sleeper" had a sauna-sized device called the Orgasmatron

Is that where Bernie was going with this?

So conformity is repressive. Hmmm. Therefore regimented exercise is not the same as free form exercise?

It was a long time ago, but I think Bernie had some issues.

[dalton99a]

3. Gotta think inside the box

Wilhelm Reich

[thesquanderer]

19. I'm not sure thinking was what they were doing inside the box. (n/t)

[ProfessorPlum]

4. There are well documented correlations between stress and cancer

while a lot of the "positive thoughts' school of medicine is woo, there definitely are physiological results of mind sets.

[TwilightZone]

6. No, there aren't.

The studies regarding links between stress and cancer are weak and inconclusive. They often do not adequately isolate changes in behavior that are a result, such as smoking.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/coping/feelings/stress-fact-sheet

[ProfessorPlum]

12. "Today I Learned"

Thanks for the link. The salient paragraphs are below. They indicate that there may be such links, but they haven't been proven with strong statistical evidence yet. Thanks!

Although stress can cause a number of physical health problems, the evidence that it can cause cancer is weak. Some studies have indicated a link between various psychological factors and an increased risk of developing cancer, but others have not.

Apparent links between psychological stress and cancer could arise in several ways. For example, people under stress may develop certain behaviors, such as smoking, overeating, or drinking alcohol, which increase a person’s risk for cancer. Or someone who has a relative with cancer may have a higher risk for cancer because of a shared inherited risk factor, not because of the stress induced by the family member’s diagnosis.

Also, below that it indicates that stress _does_ seem to cause pre-existing tumors to spread and grow, so kind of a mixed bag.

In any case, I think we can all agree that cancer and stress both suck, and so does attacking Sanders with 50 year old essays

[Demsrule86]

10. Nonsense...that school of though is and always was bat shit crazy...and of course Freud hated women

How many women were lobotomized do to such theories? My great aunt was in the 40's...in Virginia.

[uponit7771]

8. The statement about the kids touching each other is what's more alarming

[Demsrule86]

9. There goes the teacher vote and suburban Mom vote...Sanders can't be our nominee.

[LexVegas]

13. Disturbing. nt

[IluvPitties]

15. Bernie is... weird...

[HarlanPepper]

16. If I may quote Dumbya Bush

“That’s some weird shit.”

[David__77]

17. I think there's a link between sexual and emotional health.

I believe Wilhelm Reich was a very early supporter of gay rights. The Nazis burned his books.

I’m glad to know Sanders has explored these important issues.

[oasis]

20. If Bernie's our nominee, this kind of stuff will be talked about in bars,

barber shops and lunch counters throughout the purple states we'll need in the election. If voters have to struggle with the psychological makeup of a candidate they'll go with the safe choice.

We'll need a nominee who can help in crucial down ticket races.