Sex and Character: An Investigation of Fundamental Principles

Contents

Contents A Book That Won’t Go Away: Otto Weininger’s Sex and Character xi Daniel Steuer Translator’s Note xlvii Ladislaus Löb Preface 3 First (Preparatory) Part: Sexual Diversity Introduction 9 On the development of concepts in general and in particular. Man and Woman. Contradictions. Fluid transitions. Anatomy and endowment . No certainty in morphology? Chapter I: “Men” and “Women” 12 Lack of differentiation in the embryo. Rudiments in the adult. Degrees of “gonochorism.” Principle of intermediate forms. M and W. Evidence. Necessity of establishing types. Summary. Oldest inklings. Chapter II: Arrhenoplasm and Thelyplasm 16 Location of sexuality. Support for Steenstrup’s view. Sexual characteristics . Internal secretion. Idioplasm — arrhenoplasm — thelyplasm. Oscillations. Proofs from unsuccessful castration. Transplantation and transfusion. Organotherapy. Individual differences between cells. Cause of intermediate sexual forms. Brain. Surplus of boys born. Determination of sex. Comparative pathology. Chapter III: Laws of Sexual Attraction 27 Sexual “taste.” Probable existence of laws. First Formula. First interpretation . Proofs. Heterostyly. Interpretation of same. Animal kingdom. Further laws. Second formula. Chemotaxis? Analogies and differences . “Elective af¤nities.” Adultery and marriage. Consequences for the offspring. Chapter IV: Homosexuality and Pederasty 41 Homosexuals as intermediate sexual forms. Innate or acquired, healthy or pathological? Special case of the law. All humans pre- disposed to homosexuality. Friendship and sexuality. Animals. Proposal for a therapy. Homosexuality, penal law, and ethics. Distinction between homosexuality and pederasty. Chapter V: Characterology and Morphology 47 The principle of intermediate sexual forms as a cardinal principle of individual psychology. Simultaneity or periodicity? Method of psychological investigation. Examples. Individualizing education. Levelling. Parallelism between morphology and characterology. Physiognomy and the principle of psychophysics. Methodology of the theory of variety. A new question. Deductive morphology. Correlation and the concept of function. Prospects. Chapter VI: Emancipated Women 57 The woman question. Desire for emancipation and masculinity. Emancipation and homosexuality. Sexual taste of emancipated women. Physiognomical observations about these. The rest of the celebrities. W and emancipation. Practical rule. The masculinity of every genius. The women’s movement in history. Periodicity. Biology and the conception of history. Prospects of the women’s movement. Its fundamental error. Second or Main Part: The Sexual Types Chapter I: Man and Woman 69 Bisexuality and unisexuality. One is Man or Woman. The problem of this condition and the main dif¤culty of characterology. Experiment, analysis of sensation, and psychology. Dilthey. The concept of empirical character. Aim and non-aim of psychology. Character and individuality . The problem of characterology and the problem of the sexes. Chapter II: Male and Female Sexuality 75 The problem of a female psychology. Man as psychologist of Woman. Differences in the “sexual drive.” In the “contrectation drive” and the “detumescence drive.” Intensity and activity. Sexual irritability of Woman. Greater breadth of sexual life in W. Sexual differences in the perception of sexuality. Local and temporal contrast of male sexuality. Differences between degrees of sexual consciousness. Chapter III: Male and Female Consciousness 82 Sensation and feeling. Relationship between them. Avenarius’s classi-¤cation of “elements” and “characters.” Not possible at an earlier stage. Wrong relationship between distinctness and characterization. iv l Contents Process of clari¤cation. Surmises. Degrees of understanding. Forgetting . Breaching and articulation. The concept of the henid. The henid as the simplest psychological fact. Sexual difference in the articulation of contents. Sensitivity. Certainty of judgment. Developed consciousness as a male sexual characteristic. Chapter IV: Endowment and Genius 91 Genius and talent. Genius and cleverness. Method. Understanding more human beings. What does understanding a human being mean? Greater complexity of genius. Periods in psychic life. No belittlement of exceptional individuals. Understanding and noticing. Inner connection between light and wakefulness. Final establishment of the conditions of understanding. More universal consciousness of genius. Greatest distance from the henid stage; accordingly a higher degree of masculinity. Only universal geniuses. W without genius and without hero worship. Endowment and sex. Chapter V: Endowment and Memory 101 Articulation and reproducibility. Memory of experiences as a sign of endowment. Remembrance and apperception. Applications and inferences. Capacity for comparing and relating. Reasons for the masculinity of music. Drawing and color. Degrees of genius; the relationship between the genius and the individual without genius. Autobiography. Fixed ideas. Remembrance of one’s own creations. Continuous and discontinuous memory. Unity of biographical self-awareness only in M. Character of female memories. Continuity and reverence. Past and destiny. Past and future. Desire for immortality. Existing attempts at a psychological explanation. True roots. Inner development of the human...