Normal and
abnormal
conduct have the same roots.
Weininger - 1946 - Mind and Death of a Genius
?
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? 158 Genius and Insanity
by the manner in which Sex and Character originated as a
theory on talent. At first glance, it does not seem peculiar that
a young man should want to write a theoretical essay on tal-
ent, and indeed it would not have been peculiar were it not
for the fact that the artistic and intellectual talents of Otto
Weininger and his own inner conflict served as the basis for
the whole investigation. Obviously he was writing about him-
self. One may guess that his theory was intriguing, nearly
harmless, although a little superficial. He attacked earlier
metaphysical thinking and believed, as Ewald says (p. 36),
that "great talent in a man was supposed to be the result of a
higher development of his sensuality. "
Given Weininger's nature, it is certainly not surprising that
he should write about talent on the theory that the man with
the greatest sensuality has the most talent. As the book de-
veloped from this early plan, one can follow the development
of the man who wrote it. "The book was originally meant as a
chapter on structural psychology; it grew into a universal study
of character and ethics and finally became a mystical philos-
ophy of release. This change of focus expressed the different
stages of the quick development through which Weininger
went. The psychologist became a philosopher, the philosopher
became a religious mystic. The stages are easily recognized as
the first, second, and third parts of Sex and Character"
(Ewald, pp. 65-66).
As he changed, the book, too, changed radically. The prob-
lem of sex was substituted for the problem of talent as the
central theme, and the sex question became, as Ewald says,
"more acute . . . more dualistic, and more tragic. " 3
The close relation between man and work appeared even
more distinctly after his experience on the November night of
1902. That experience colored his mind, and his feelings are
expressed strikingly in Sex and Character. Many pages reflect
his suicidal mood. While research work is, as a rule, done
3 Ewald's evidence is supported by other sources. Weininger originally planned
to call his book Eros and Psyche, so Ewald tells us, and in a letter to Professor
Jodl, Otto referred to it by the initials "E. und P. "
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? Genius and Insanity 159
coolly and without fear, Weininger wrote the main part of
Sex and Character with the thought of self-destruction always
present. Reading this part of the book, even without any
knowledge of the author, leaves an impression not only of the
author's great mind, but also of his mood while writing. The
book was written for another world, the world he voluntarily
entered a half year after the book's publication. The funereal
atmosphere of his words fully reflects his inward nature.
Usually the relationship between an author and his work is
more hidden than in Weininger's case. The author's own per-
sonality is one of the main characteristics of Sex and Charac-
ter. There he presented what was most significant in the very
depths of his soul. The material for his theory of talent he
found in his own thoughts and experiences at a time when his
mind did not seem troubled by any morbid process. The mere
fact that he took up the study of talent seems to show his own
desire for self-display. The root of this desire was the intrinsic
value he found in his egocentric world, a value stemming from
his own sexual drive. He always gave in to the urge to play a
role, even at the cost of his own life. The result was that his
personality and the genuine value of his work were dimin-
ished. His personal life indeed became merely the stage for his
theatrical experiences, and his hysterical struggle became a
fight against his inner conflicts.
The development of his mental condition was marked by
hysterical symptoms to such a degree that his real mental state
was concealed. We can reach the significant part of his per-
sonality only by peeling off the layers of hysterical traits which
cover it. Only then do we see his conflicts, his repressed sexual
drive, his narcissism, his isolation, and his periods of split per-
sonality. Then his emotional and intellectual struggles make his
hysterical traits appear practically as caricature. True, those
traits did color the development of his personality, but hysteria
was not the center of his mental state.
Hysteria and schizophrenia are similar because both orig-
inate in repressed sexual feelings. The two diseases express
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? 160 Genius and Insanity
themselves to a large extent by the same means, and in the
early stages it is possible for a schizophrenic patient to be mis-
taken for a hysteric. In spite of these manifestations in com-
mon, there is a profound difference. Yet since their traits in
common are psychosexual in nature, it is easy to see why
Weininger's mental condition might superficially appear as
hysteria although it was in reality schizophrenia.
It is interesting to note that several of Otto Weininger's
friends thought he suffered from epilepsy "because epilepsy
and genius are related" (Der Fall, p. 9). And there is some
indication that Weininger may have ascribed epilepsy to him-
self. He believed that there was a close relationship between
the mind of the epileptic and that of the criminal. A remark
in "Letzte Aphorismen," found only in the first edition of
Vber die letzten Dinge (p. 81), establishes a linkage: "Psy-
chologist--criminal; scientist--neurasthenic. " 4
We have previously seen that Weininger assigned criminal
traits to himself. When we remember that he also--at least
on occasion--believed himself a genius, we may see that he
must have connected epileptic symptoms with his supposedly
criminal traits. His imagination and intuition thus found in
himself a combination of genius, epilepsy, and crime. Yet de-
spite the belief that he and his friends may have held about his
symptoms of epilepsy, we must conclude that he did not ac-
tually suffer from epilepsy.
Weininger's almost explosive mental development, with its
incessant inner conflict and disharmony, displays several fea-
tures which might be called psychopathic, yet since the term
psychopath covers various types of personality, little or noth-
ing would be gained by trying to apply this concept to the
make-up of Weininger. 5
* In this connection it may be mentioned that a certain type of criminal, furi-
ously opposed to the social order, generally shows an epilcptoid temperament.
See Hermann Hoffmann, "Ober Temperamentvererbung," Grenzfragen des
Nerven- und Seelenlebens, 1923, p. 43; Stumpfl, Studien iiber Vererbungen und
Entstehung geistiger Storungen, p. 79.
s For a discussion of the term psychopath, see David Abrahamsen, Crime and
the Human Mind (New York, 1944), pp. 110-12.
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? Genius and Insanity
161
For the sake of completeness it may also be recorded that
we have no basis for thinking that he suffered from a brain
disease of syphilitic nature.
The only psychiatric investigation as to Weininger's state
of mind was made by Ferdinand Probst, M. D. , of Munich. In
his work Der Fall Otto Weininger (The Case of Otto Wein-
inger),6 Probst came to the conclusion that "Weininger was
mentally ill, probably suffering from a mental disease of
manic-depressive character. " This psychiatric investigation
made a sensation and provoked criticism from Weininger's
friends and acquaintances. Thus, Wilhelm Stekel in his ar-
ticle "Der Fall Otto Weininger" (The Case of Otto Wei-
ninger) in Die Wage (No. 45, November, 1904) reviewed
Probst's conclusions, using these words: "With such little
competence, and even less psychology, one should not pass
judgment on a genius, even if he does show pathological fea-
tures. We are far fonder of a morbid genius than of a sound
but talentless human being. " Probst's judgment of Wei-
ninger's state of mind, his disease, and his work was deficient,
unreasonable, and disrespectful. 7
As to the diagnosis made by Probst, it must be emphasized
that a symptomatological distinction between schizophrenia
and a manic-depressive malady can be reached only through
studying specific schizophrenic symptoms. Only after a pre-
cise scrutiny of Weininger's mental state has shown no symp-
? This dissertation, which appeared in Grenzfragen des Nerven- und Seelenlebens
in 1904, was originally planned by L. Loewenfcld of Munich. Having read
Sex and Character, he had no doubt that Weininger was deranged, but he
could not clarify the nature of the derangement. He wrote to Weininger's
father, who sent him the information asked. Since Probst at this time an-
nounced a lecture on Weininger for psychiatrists, Loewenfeld wrote to him,
offering what material he had. Probst then wrote "Der Fall Otto Weininger. "
The article was later expanded into the psychiatric dissertation.
7 Probst tries to prove four stages in Weininger's manic-depressive disease: a
phase of initiation of a hypomanic character with creation or the dualistic per-
to a nearly manic phase, the last and heaviest depression ending with the
catastrophe of October 4, 1903. Probst believed that Weininger's transition of
personality was a hysterical phenomenon.
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? Genius and Insanity
torn indicating schizophrenia should we start thinking of a
manic-depressive condition. At the same time it must be
stressed that the latter, at its fullest development, from time
to time manifests itself as schizophrenia, and that, vice versa,
acute forms of schizophrenia are often marked by a manic-
depressive color. As to Weininger's case, if it was one of
manic-depressive disease, it must have followed a nontypical
course. We may, however, note that there is a close relation-
ship between a manic-depressive disorder and schizophrenia
because they have in common a narcissistic regression. Both
are marked by a damaged ego structure and by the loss--to a
greater or less degree--of the power to test reality. 8
It is postulated that disease of the manic-depressive type is
seen mainly in those of mixed bodily constitution. It has been
asserted, indeed, that the psychological features of the human
attitude are closely connected with the morphology and physi-
ology of the body. 8 As to Weininger, we earlier stated that his
mental constitution was schizoid. What was his bodily struc-
ture and how was it related to his mental make-up? 10
We have three photographs of Weininger. The first is a
snapshot taken in his college days and later reproduced on the
cover of the later editions of Sex and Character and Vber die
letzten Dinge. This shows Weininger as long, thin, and
meager, with slender arms and legs. The face is oblong, the
8 See the illuminating article by Dr. Paul Federn, "Psychoanalysis of Psy-
chosis," Psychiatric Quarterly, XVII (July, 1943), 485.
9Ernst Kretschmer, Medizinische Psychologie (Leipzig, 1926, 1939), p. 147;
W. H. Sheldon, in collaboration with S. S. Stevens and W. B. Tucker, The
Varieties of Human Physique: An Introduction to Constitutional Psychology
(New York and London, 1940). Sheldon and his co-authors construct a new
description of individual differences in morphology, consisting of three primary
components of the bodily constitution.
10 It may be stated as accepted theory that the thin individual with sharp face,
long nose, narrow shoulders, flat chest, long limbs, and pale fatless skin
(leptosome) is supposed to be the type of the overwhelming majority of the
schizophrenic group, while the rather short, stout individual (pyknic) is thought
to be the usual type of those who suffer from manic-depressive disease. It must
be stressed, however, that this classification of morphological and physiological
features into different groups with their corresponding mental types disregards
the influence of environmental factors on the body structure.
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? OTTO WEININGER IN THE SPRING OF 1903
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? Genius and Insanity 163
nose straight and long, the Hps thick, the forehead high, the
chin projecting. The second picture, taken in the spring of
1903, was reproduced in the first edition of Sex and Character.
It shows him with glasses and a small mustache, and his face
has a certain tortured expression. The third picture is a bust
taken after his death. The two later pictures show the same
traits as the first
The impression which these photographs give us accords
well with the descriptions given by his contemporaries. He was
of slim stature, five feet eight inches in height, and he had no
special muscular strength. His face was originally rather pretty
and revealed a gleam of genius. All the pictures show him as
the intelligent young investigator with a searching glance, the
inflexible ascetic with a clenched fist. Weininger thus may be
classified in bodily as well as mental aspects as of the schizoid
type. The oddity of his mind was so marked that even an
admirer, Freiherr Wilhelm von Appel, noted Weininger's un-
realistic attitude and wrote in his review of Sex and Character:
"I hope many will read this book, but beware! Weininger's
realm is not of this world. " 11 The same general thought ap-
peared in Professor Jodl's recommendation to the publisher.
"Along with much that is really striking," he said, "there is
much that I think very fantastic--the theory of the henid, the
denial of soul in woman, the extension of the concept of the
nature of genius, the explanation of the ego and ego experi-
ences. Many of these subjects look strange in the author's
circle of thoughts, otherwise extremely realistic; there is a mys-
tical aspect to some ideas, though in general his views are
natural-scientific" (From stenographic notes of Margaret Jodl).
Weininger's schizoid make-up was that of a man whose in-
tellectual and emotional life was directed partially to the sur-
rounding world, but mostly toward his inner self. This sort of
dualism enables the schizoid to appear normal until his whole
character may seem suddenly reversed. We are back at the
11 "Ein grosses Buch von einem grossen Menschcn," Neue Bahnen /tir Kunst
und offentliches Leben, December, 1903, p. 613.
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? 164 Genius and Insanity
problem of distinguishing the normal from the abnormal
mind. It can be solved only on the basis of understanding that
abnormal mental phenomena are exaggerations or deviations,
varying from normal phenomena only in degree, not in type.
Normal and abnormal conduct have the same roots.
A person's social conduct depends upon his ability to adapt.
In healthy individuals ideas are accompanied by adequate
feelings, while in persons suffering from schizophrenia the as-
sociation between ideas and feelings is wanting. For the in-
dividual, social adaptation is, however, in reality a sublimated
sexual transference. After two persons have been together for
a certain period of time a positive or negative mental rapport
is established and expresses itself in feelings of sympathy or
antipathy. On such feelings of sympathy are friendship and
harmony based.
We may say that a man's social behavior corresponds to the
way he reacts to sexual stimuli. Therefore, one may find a man
easy-going or difficult of access, graceful or awkward in conduct,
showing more or less capacity to adjust, that is, capability for
transference. As to Weininger's personality make-up, he did
not, with his affects, belong to the gay type, because he did not
live in immediate contact with his environment. This failure
to establish contact arose from a failure of transference; he did
not have the proper capacity for transferring his libido to the
external world. He disliked and refrained from displaying any
feeling at all. His emotions and passions did not break through.
Since all transference can be traced back to sexuality, it is logi-
cal to conclude that Weininger's mental illness had destroyed
his capacity for sexual transference in particular and social
transference in general.
When a person turns away from the surrounding world, he
necessarily feels that he is alone, pitted against a world that is
hostile to him. Weininger acquired such a hostile attitude to
his environment. He developed feelings of isolation from the
external world--originally an autoerotic isolation--and, shut-
ting himself off from actuality, withdrew gradually into his
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? Genius and Insanity 165
own shell. The result was that he retreated into an idealized
world, where his real life took place. In this withdrawal he was
in good company, for many schizoid artists and schizophrenic
poets (such as Holderlin and Strindberg) are compelled to
take refuge in a world where their tender imaginations meet
no resistance.
Throughout his life Weininger demonstrated suppression
of his emotions by his cool manner and his lack of affects. The
disaster for him was that the distance between his ego and
actuality became greater and greater until at last there were no
connections left--a condition that indicates a schizophrenic
process.
A partial withdrawal from reality is a manifestation seen in
normal and in neurotic persons, but in them the withdrawal
is quite different from that of the schizophrenic. It is a turn
toward fantasy (introversion), and the person withdrawing
builds figures of fantasy from objects of childhood. The schizo-
phrenic individual, instead, abandons this interest in objects.
As Abraham 12 has pointed out, the difference between a
neurosis and a psychosis depends upon whether or not any ob-
ject representations are preserved in the process of withdrawal.
Weininger's apparent contact with his environment would
seem contrary to this theory of schizophrenia. Yet what oc-
curred in Otto is not uncommonly found in schizophrenics;
he tried to maintain contact with the surrounding world but
was able to do so only momentarily because the restitutive
powers in him were short-lived.
In Weininger the feeling of omnipotence was instigated by
his primary narcissism, which was clearly related to his pro-
nounced self-esteem. The result was that he developed a pe-
culiar brand of speculative metaphysics. For him all objects
gradually became concrete ego-qualities. His ego was pene-
trated by the world, and the world was penetrated by his ego.
This aspect of his mental development was expressed with
startling clarity in his constructive symbolism.
12 Karl Abraham, Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis (London, 1942), p. 77.
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? 166
Genius and Insanity
In the chapter "Metaphysics" in Vber die letzten Dinge he
wrote: "The thought came to me (in the spring of 1902) that
there must be a relationship between the deep ocean and crime,
and I believe I can maintain the same idea today. The depths
of the ocean have no share in light, the greatest symbol of the
highest life; any being that chooses to live theie must be crimi-
nal, afraid of light. An octopus, when it is symbolic, can be
seen only as a symbol of evil" (U. L. D. , p. 115). And he con-
tinues, "During the following summer and fall I developed
from this idea the plan--and I could fulfill only a very small
part of the tasks it involved--of writing an animal psychology
that would have quite a different meaning from any study that
had previously been done. "
It was thus in,the spring of 1902 that he first took up the
project of a general theory of symbolism, but he did not begin
to set it down on paper until August or September, 1903, when
he was staying in Italy. About the basic idea he wrote: "It is
founded on the theory of man as microcosmos. . . . Since
there is a relationship between the human being and every-
thing in the world, everything must be present in him in one
way or another. To the human the world system must be iden-
tical with the human system. . . . Every form of existence in
nature corresponds to some quality in man, every possibility in
man corresponds to something in nature. All that can be sensed
in nature is interpreted through the psychological categories in
man and confirmed as symbols" (U. L. D. , pp. 113-14).
This theory seems closely connected with the formula he
wrote down in Sex and Character, which is of interest here be-
cause of its symbolic content. He wrote (p. 161), "A man is
important in proportion to the importance he places upon
everything in his life. " There is no reason to doubt that the
idea of a general system of symbolism was continually in his
mind at that time (1902-3). It appears in his discussion of the
genius in Sex and Character, in which he is thinking of him-
self. According to his statement, the ego of the genius is uni-
versal comprehension (p. 220): "The great man contains the
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? Genius and Insanity 167
whole world within himself; genius is the living microcosmos
. . . it is everything. In him and through him all psychical
phenomena cohere and are real experiences, not an elaborate
piecework brought into the mind by science. The genius sees
nature and all existence as a whole--the relations of things
flash upon him intuitively; it is not necessary for him to bridge
the gaps. "
To Weininger facts became the symbols of a psychic rela-
tionship and had no objective reality. When he wrote that "the
scientist takes phenomena as they best fit his mind, while the
great man or genius takes them as what they are" (Sex and
Character, p. 220), he was undoubtedly applying the thought
to himself. In Taschenbuch he explained (p. 32) how the
genius (himself) has confidence in his intuition: "The genius
does not need the transcendental method, because there is suf-
ficient certainty in his intuition. . . . The justification of the
psychic method is to see things in God. " And through the sum-
mer of 1903 he continued to hold to the psychic method.
In discussing the genius, Weininger expounded his own
ideas of universal symbolism. "From the idea of universality,
which is always present in the genius, he can see the importance
of the parts. Everything within himself and beyond himself he
values according to the standard of this union. For this reason
alone evaluation does not represent a function of time to him;
it always represents the great and eternal idea. Thus genius is
also deep; only genius is depth, only depth is genius. Therefore
the opinions of the genius have greater value than the opinions
of others. He creates out of his world-comprising ego, while
other people never become conscious of this creative process.
To him everything is full of meaning, all things are symbols.
Breathing is something more than a mere physical process in
the thin walls of the capillaries; the blue of the sky means to
him more than just the partial polarization of diffused and re-
flected light; snakes are not simply limbless reptiles.
"The genius sees symbols in oceans and mountains, in light
and darkness, in cypresses and palms, in pigeons and swans; he
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? i68
Genius and Insanity
not only feels, he also recognizes, something deeper in them.
The ride of the Valkyries is not caused by disturbances in the
air. All this is evident to him only because the external world
is in the deepest and closest connection with his inner world,
because the external world is to him only one little aspect of his
inner world, because the world and the ego are one in him. He
does not have to put experiences together according to rules
and laws" (Sex and Character, p. 222).
Since Weininger's turn to the theory of symbolism took
place in the spring of 1902, it is natural to see a connection
between it and the moral scruples which afflicted him at that
time. That connection is confirmed in the chapter "Meta-
physics. " "If I may make a personal remark, I may say that I
went through a long period when I regarded the chief idea in
the theoretical philosophy of Kant--that psychic phenomena
are facts of the same order as physical phenomena--as one of
his greatest and most genius-packed thoughts. I became doubt-
ful later, mostly because of my moral theoretical discussions. "
Weininger claimed to be the first to create a concept of general
symbolism. "If it should not be possible for me to complete
this construction [of the system], I may still claim for myself,
apart from the specific results, recognition as having been the
first person to have visualized it theoretically" (U. L. D. , p. 114).
What was the origin of this symbolic view? We find the
answer in his personality make-up, which was marked by
strongly repressed biological drives and a temperament which
was at once hypersensitive and cool. In him there was a definite
ratio between increased hypersensitivity and mental aloofness.
It is said that all the phenomena of light affected him strongly
and that this sensitivity grew in the latter part of his life. "In
the last period," wrote Rappaport, "it had the strongest effect
on him when he could look out on the brightly illuminated
distance through a very narrow opening" (U. L. D. , p. ix).
His way of looking at phenomena, corresponding to the state
of his mind, changed after the first of his symbolizing appeared.
The signs grew more pronounced through the summer and
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? Genius and Insanity 169
autumn, taking shape in the chapter "Animal Psychology" in
Vber die letzten Dinge, which was a collection of symbols. In
the summer of 1903 his interest in symbolization rose to a
climax. Taschenbuch indicates this clearly. His ideas at the
time were, for the most part, then cast in the form of aphorisms.
"The stars no longer laugh, they no longer have relationship to
light, but only to decency and happiness. They lack physical
properties. All animals are criminals, even the horse and the
swan (beauty without purpose, it flies no more). One should
be afraid of the swan. . . . For a river the danger is becoming
a swamp, for the ocean the danger is whirling water. One possi-
bility in the ocean corresponds to insanity. . . . The plant is a
disease; here is singularity (no walls between the cells) but no
unity, because sense organs and motion are lost (intellect,
will). The plant is characterized as immobile, that is, it re-
mains fixed in its place, has become unfree in space" (Taschen-
buch, pp. 51-55).
Examples like these are numerous. His symbolization grew
and became more and more a delirium of symbols. Finally the
process reached its final, peculiar, and monstrous phase in
Taschenbuch and the "Letzte Aphorismen," in which all
material things appear as symbols. Rappaport says: "Every
single animal, every plant, every mineral, mountain and valley,
water and fire, light and heat, became symbols. Light became
his symbol of decency, fire a symbol of destruction, the well a
symbol of birth; the river is the Apollonian principle, the ocean
the Dionysian. Dogs, swine, and snakes are symbols of crime"
(U. L. D. , p. viii).
This sort of symbolism is characteristic of archaic thinking.
The symbol, unconsciously adopted, is a manifestation of re-
gression to an earlier stage of thinking. When, for instance,
Otto Weininger says that snakes are symbols of crime, he is
using the snake as a symbol to hide an unconscious idea which
he could not bear. Since the snake is a phallic symbol, it is
easy to see why it symbolized crime for Weininger. The male
sexual organ is the means for expressing the sexual drive--an
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? lyo Genius and Insanity
idea rejected by him--and it was therefore for him a symbol
of crime.
To Weininger universal symbolism seemed a means for
broadening knowledge of life: symbolism was an expansion of
existing life, a prolongation. In the symbol he felt that he
traced some of his own experiences, and thus symbolizing be-
came a projection. He often upheld the statement that was the
starting point of his symbolism, "The world is my idea. "
"This," he said, "is the ideal of all philosophy, and it reveals in
the clearest fashion how things are reflected through the ego of
the philosopher" (U. L. D.
? 158 Genius and Insanity
by the manner in which Sex and Character originated as a
theory on talent. At first glance, it does not seem peculiar that
a young man should want to write a theoretical essay on tal-
ent, and indeed it would not have been peculiar were it not
for the fact that the artistic and intellectual talents of Otto
Weininger and his own inner conflict served as the basis for
the whole investigation. Obviously he was writing about him-
self. One may guess that his theory was intriguing, nearly
harmless, although a little superficial. He attacked earlier
metaphysical thinking and believed, as Ewald says (p. 36),
that "great talent in a man was supposed to be the result of a
higher development of his sensuality. "
Given Weininger's nature, it is certainly not surprising that
he should write about talent on the theory that the man with
the greatest sensuality has the most talent. As the book de-
veloped from this early plan, one can follow the development
of the man who wrote it. "The book was originally meant as a
chapter on structural psychology; it grew into a universal study
of character and ethics and finally became a mystical philos-
ophy of release. This change of focus expressed the different
stages of the quick development through which Weininger
went. The psychologist became a philosopher, the philosopher
became a religious mystic. The stages are easily recognized as
the first, second, and third parts of Sex and Character"
(Ewald, pp. 65-66).
As he changed, the book, too, changed radically. The prob-
lem of sex was substituted for the problem of talent as the
central theme, and the sex question became, as Ewald says,
"more acute . . . more dualistic, and more tragic. " 3
The close relation between man and work appeared even
more distinctly after his experience on the November night of
1902. That experience colored his mind, and his feelings are
expressed strikingly in Sex and Character. Many pages reflect
his suicidal mood. While research work is, as a rule, done
3 Ewald's evidence is supported by other sources. Weininger originally planned
to call his book Eros and Psyche, so Ewald tells us, and in a letter to Professor
Jodl, Otto referred to it by the initials "E. und P. "
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? Genius and Insanity 159
coolly and without fear, Weininger wrote the main part of
Sex and Character with the thought of self-destruction always
present. Reading this part of the book, even without any
knowledge of the author, leaves an impression not only of the
author's great mind, but also of his mood while writing. The
book was written for another world, the world he voluntarily
entered a half year after the book's publication. The funereal
atmosphere of his words fully reflects his inward nature.
Usually the relationship between an author and his work is
more hidden than in Weininger's case. The author's own per-
sonality is one of the main characteristics of Sex and Charac-
ter. There he presented what was most significant in the very
depths of his soul. The material for his theory of talent he
found in his own thoughts and experiences at a time when his
mind did not seem troubled by any morbid process. The mere
fact that he took up the study of talent seems to show his own
desire for self-display. The root of this desire was the intrinsic
value he found in his egocentric world, a value stemming from
his own sexual drive. He always gave in to the urge to play a
role, even at the cost of his own life. The result was that his
personality and the genuine value of his work were dimin-
ished. His personal life indeed became merely the stage for his
theatrical experiences, and his hysterical struggle became a
fight against his inner conflicts.
The development of his mental condition was marked by
hysterical symptoms to such a degree that his real mental state
was concealed. We can reach the significant part of his per-
sonality only by peeling off the layers of hysterical traits which
cover it. Only then do we see his conflicts, his repressed sexual
drive, his narcissism, his isolation, and his periods of split per-
sonality. Then his emotional and intellectual struggles make his
hysterical traits appear practically as caricature. True, those
traits did color the development of his personality, but hysteria
was not the center of his mental state.
Hysteria and schizophrenia are similar because both orig-
inate in repressed sexual feelings. The two diseases express
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? 160 Genius and Insanity
themselves to a large extent by the same means, and in the
early stages it is possible for a schizophrenic patient to be mis-
taken for a hysteric. In spite of these manifestations in com-
mon, there is a profound difference. Yet since their traits in
common are psychosexual in nature, it is easy to see why
Weininger's mental condition might superficially appear as
hysteria although it was in reality schizophrenia.
It is interesting to note that several of Otto Weininger's
friends thought he suffered from epilepsy "because epilepsy
and genius are related" (Der Fall, p. 9). And there is some
indication that Weininger may have ascribed epilepsy to him-
self. He believed that there was a close relationship between
the mind of the epileptic and that of the criminal. A remark
in "Letzte Aphorismen," found only in the first edition of
Vber die letzten Dinge (p. 81), establishes a linkage: "Psy-
chologist--criminal; scientist--neurasthenic. " 4
We have previously seen that Weininger assigned criminal
traits to himself. When we remember that he also--at least
on occasion--believed himself a genius, we may see that he
must have connected epileptic symptoms with his supposedly
criminal traits. His imagination and intuition thus found in
himself a combination of genius, epilepsy, and crime. Yet de-
spite the belief that he and his friends may have held about his
symptoms of epilepsy, we must conclude that he did not ac-
tually suffer from epilepsy.
Weininger's almost explosive mental development, with its
incessant inner conflict and disharmony, displays several fea-
tures which might be called psychopathic, yet since the term
psychopath covers various types of personality, little or noth-
ing would be gained by trying to apply this concept to the
make-up of Weininger. 5
* In this connection it may be mentioned that a certain type of criminal, furi-
ously opposed to the social order, generally shows an epilcptoid temperament.
See Hermann Hoffmann, "Ober Temperamentvererbung," Grenzfragen des
Nerven- und Seelenlebens, 1923, p. 43; Stumpfl, Studien iiber Vererbungen und
Entstehung geistiger Storungen, p. 79.
s For a discussion of the term psychopath, see David Abrahamsen, Crime and
the Human Mind (New York, 1944), pp. 110-12.
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? Genius and Insanity
161
For the sake of completeness it may also be recorded that
we have no basis for thinking that he suffered from a brain
disease of syphilitic nature.
The only psychiatric investigation as to Weininger's state
of mind was made by Ferdinand Probst, M. D. , of Munich. In
his work Der Fall Otto Weininger (The Case of Otto Wein-
inger),6 Probst came to the conclusion that "Weininger was
mentally ill, probably suffering from a mental disease of
manic-depressive character. " This psychiatric investigation
made a sensation and provoked criticism from Weininger's
friends and acquaintances. Thus, Wilhelm Stekel in his ar-
ticle "Der Fall Otto Weininger" (The Case of Otto Wei-
ninger) in Die Wage (No. 45, November, 1904) reviewed
Probst's conclusions, using these words: "With such little
competence, and even less psychology, one should not pass
judgment on a genius, even if he does show pathological fea-
tures. We are far fonder of a morbid genius than of a sound
but talentless human being. " Probst's judgment of Wei-
ninger's state of mind, his disease, and his work was deficient,
unreasonable, and disrespectful. 7
As to the diagnosis made by Probst, it must be emphasized
that a symptomatological distinction between schizophrenia
and a manic-depressive malady can be reached only through
studying specific schizophrenic symptoms. Only after a pre-
cise scrutiny of Weininger's mental state has shown no symp-
? This dissertation, which appeared in Grenzfragen des Nerven- und Seelenlebens
in 1904, was originally planned by L. Loewenfcld of Munich. Having read
Sex and Character, he had no doubt that Weininger was deranged, but he
could not clarify the nature of the derangement. He wrote to Weininger's
father, who sent him the information asked. Since Probst at this time an-
nounced a lecture on Weininger for psychiatrists, Loewenfeld wrote to him,
offering what material he had. Probst then wrote "Der Fall Otto Weininger. "
The article was later expanded into the psychiatric dissertation.
7 Probst tries to prove four stages in Weininger's manic-depressive disease: a
phase of initiation of a hypomanic character with creation or the dualistic per-
to a nearly manic phase, the last and heaviest depression ending with the
catastrophe of October 4, 1903. Probst believed that Weininger's transition of
personality was a hysterical phenomenon.
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? Genius and Insanity
torn indicating schizophrenia should we start thinking of a
manic-depressive condition. At the same time it must be
stressed that the latter, at its fullest development, from time
to time manifests itself as schizophrenia, and that, vice versa,
acute forms of schizophrenia are often marked by a manic-
depressive color. As to Weininger's case, if it was one of
manic-depressive disease, it must have followed a nontypical
course. We may, however, note that there is a close relation-
ship between a manic-depressive disorder and schizophrenia
because they have in common a narcissistic regression. Both
are marked by a damaged ego structure and by the loss--to a
greater or less degree--of the power to test reality. 8
It is postulated that disease of the manic-depressive type is
seen mainly in those of mixed bodily constitution. It has been
asserted, indeed, that the psychological features of the human
attitude are closely connected with the morphology and physi-
ology of the body. 8 As to Weininger, we earlier stated that his
mental constitution was schizoid. What was his bodily struc-
ture and how was it related to his mental make-up? 10
We have three photographs of Weininger. The first is a
snapshot taken in his college days and later reproduced on the
cover of the later editions of Sex and Character and Vber die
letzten Dinge. This shows Weininger as long, thin, and
meager, with slender arms and legs. The face is oblong, the
8 See the illuminating article by Dr. Paul Federn, "Psychoanalysis of Psy-
chosis," Psychiatric Quarterly, XVII (July, 1943), 485.
9Ernst Kretschmer, Medizinische Psychologie (Leipzig, 1926, 1939), p. 147;
W. H. Sheldon, in collaboration with S. S. Stevens and W. B. Tucker, The
Varieties of Human Physique: An Introduction to Constitutional Psychology
(New York and London, 1940). Sheldon and his co-authors construct a new
description of individual differences in morphology, consisting of three primary
components of the bodily constitution.
10 It may be stated as accepted theory that the thin individual with sharp face,
long nose, narrow shoulders, flat chest, long limbs, and pale fatless skin
(leptosome) is supposed to be the type of the overwhelming majority of the
schizophrenic group, while the rather short, stout individual (pyknic) is thought
to be the usual type of those who suffer from manic-depressive disease. It must
be stressed, however, that this classification of morphological and physiological
features into different groups with their corresponding mental types disregards
the influence of environmental factors on the body structure.
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? OTTO WEININGER IN THE SPRING OF 1903
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? Genius and Insanity 163
nose straight and long, the Hps thick, the forehead high, the
chin projecting. The second picture, taken in the spring of
1903, was reproduced in the first edition of Sex and Character.
It shows him with glasses and a small mustache, and his face
has a certain tortured expression. The third picture is a bust
taken after his death. The two later pictures show the same
traits as the first
The impression which these photographs give us accords
well with the descriptions given by his contemporaries. He was
of slim stature, five feet eight inches in height, and he had no
special muscular strength. His face was originally rather pretty
and revealed a gleam of genius. All the pictures show him as
the intelligent young investigator with a searching glance, the
inflexible ascetic with a clenched fist. Weininger thus may be
classified in bodily as well as mental aspects as of the schizoid
type. The oddity of his mind was so marked that even an
admirer, Freiherr Wilhelm von Appel, noted Weininger's un-
realistic attitude and wrote in his review of Sex and Character:
"I hope many will read this book, but beware! Weininger's
realm is not of this world. " 11 The same general thought ap-
peared in Professor Jodl's recommendation to the publisher.
"Along with much that is really striking," he said, "there is
much that I think very fantastic--the theory of the henid, the
denial of soul in woman, the extension of the concept of the
nature of genius, the explanation of the ego and ego experi-
ences. Many of these subjects look strange in the author's
circle of thoughts, otherwise extremely realistic; there is a mys-
tical aspect to some ideas, though in general his views are
natural-scientific" (From stenographic notes of Margaret Jodl).
Weininger's schizoid make-up was that of a man whose in-
tellectual and emotional life was directed partially to the sur-
rounding world, but mostly toward his inner self. This sort of
dualism enables the schizoid to appear normal until his whole
character may seem suddenly reversed. We are back at the
11 "Ein grosses Buch von einem grossen Menschcn," Neue Bahnen /tir Kunst
und offentliches Leben, December, 1903, p. 613.
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? 164 Genius and Insanity
problem of distinguishing the normal from the abnormal
mind. It can be solved only on the basis of understanding that
abnormal mental phenomena are exaggerations or deviations,
varying from normal phenomena only in degree, not in type.
Normal and abnormal conduct have the same roots.
A person's social conduct depends upon his ability to adapt.
In healthy individuals ideas are accompanied by adequate
feelings, while in persons suffering from schizophrenia the as-
sociation between ideas and feelings is wanting. For the in-
dividual, social adaptation is, however, in reality a sublimated
sexual transference. After two persons have been together for
a certain period of time a positive or negative mental rapport
is established and expresses itself in feelings of sympathy or
antipathy. On such feelings of sympathy are friendship and
harmony based.
We may say that a man's social behavior corresponds to the
way he reacts to sexual stimuli. Therefore, one may find a man
easy-going or difficult of access, graceful or awkward in conduct,
showing more or less capacity to adjust, that is, capability for
transference. As to Weininger's personality make-up, he did
not, with his affects, belong to the gay type, because he did not
live in immediate contact with his environment. This failure
to establish contact arose from a failure of transference; he did
not have the proper capacity for transferring his libido to the
external world. He disliked and refrained from displaying any
feeling at all. His emotions and passions did not break through.
Since all transference can be traced back to sexuality, it is logi-
cal to conclude that Weininger's mental illness had destroyed
his capacity for sexual transference in particular and social
transference in general.
When a person turns away from the surrounding world, he
necessarily feels that he is alone, pitted against a world that is
hostile to him. Weininger acquired such a hostile attitude to
his environment. He developed feelings of isolation from the
external world--originally an autoerotic isolation--and, shut-
ting himself off from actuality, withdrew gradually into his
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? Genius and Insanity 165
own shell. The result was that he retreated into an idealized
world, where his real life took place. In this withdrawal he was
in good company, for many schizoid artists and schizophrenic
poets (such as Holderlin and Strindberg) are compelled to
take refuge in a world where their tender imaginations meet
no resistance.
Throughout his life Weininger demonstrated suppression
of his emotions by his cool manner and his lack of affects. The
disaster for him was that the distance between his ego and
actuality became greater and greater until at last there were no
connections left--a condition that indicates a schizophrenic
process.
A partial withdrawal from reality is a manifestation seen in
normal and in neurotic persons, but in them the withdrawal
is quite different from that of the schizophrenic. It is a turn
toward fantasy (introversion), and the person withdrawing
builds figures of fantasy from objects of childhood. The schizo-
phrenic individual, instead, abandons this interest in objects.
As Abraham 12 has pointed out, the difference between a
neurosis and a psychosis depends upon whether or not any ob-
ject representations are preserved in the process of withdrawal.
Weininger's apparent contact with his environment would
seem contrary to this theory of schizophrenia. Yet what oc-
curred in Otto is not uncommonly found in schizophrenics;
he tried to maintain contact with the surrounding world but
was able to do so only momentarily because the restitutive
powers in him were short-lived.
In Weininger the feeling of omnipotence was instigated by
his primary narcissism, which was clearly related to his pro-
nounced self-esteem. The result was that he developed a pe-
culiar brand of speculative metaphysics. For him all objects
gradually became concrete ego-qualities. His ego was pene-
trated by the world, and the world was penetrated by his ego.
This aspect of his mental development was expressed with
startling clarity in his constructive symbolism.
12 Karl Abraham, Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis (London, 1942), p. 77.
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? 166
Genius and Insanity
In the chapter "Metaphysics" in Vber die letzten Dinge he
wrote: "The thought came to me (in the spring of 1902) that
there must be a relationship between the deep ocean and crime,
and I believe I can maintain the same idea today. The depths
of the ocean have no share in light, the greatest symbol of the
highest life; any being that chooses to live theie must be crimi-
nal, afraid of light. An octopus, when it is symbolic, can be
seen only as a symbol of evil" (U. L. D. , p. 115). And he con-
tinues, "During the following summer and fall I developed
from this idea the plan--and I could fulfill only a very small
part of the tasks it involved--of writing an animal psychology
that would have quite a different meaning from any study that
had previously been done. "
It was thus in,the spring of 1902 that he first took up the
project of a general theory of symbolism, but he did not begin
to set it down on paper until August or September, 1903, when
he was staying in Italy. About the basic idea he wrote: "It is
founded on the theory of man as microcosmos. . . . Since
there is a relationship between the human being and every-
thing in the world, everything must be present in him in one
way or another. To the human the world system must be iden-
tical with the human system. . . . Every form of existence in
nature corresponds to some quality in man, every possibility in
man corresponds to something in nature. All that can be sensed
in nature is interpreted through the psychological categories in
man and confirmed as symbols" (U. L. D. , pp. 113-14).
This theory seems closely connected with the formula he
wrote down in Sex and Character, which is of interest here be-
cause of its symbolic content. He wrote (p. 161), "A man is
important in proportion to the importance he places upon
everything in his life. " There is no reason to doubt that the
idea of a general system of symbolism was continually in his
mind at that time (1902-3). It appears in his discussion of the
genius in Sex and Character, in which he is thinking of him-
self. According to his statement, the ego of the genius is uni-
versal comprehension (p. 220): "The great man contains the
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? Genius and Insanity 167
whole world within himself; genius is the living microcosmos
. . . it is everything. In him and through him all psychical
phenomena cohere and are real experiences, not an elaborate
piecework brought into the mind by science. The genius sees
nature and all existence as a whole--the relations of things
flash upon him intuitively; it is not necessary for him to bridge
the gaps. "
To Weininger facts became the symbols of a psychic rela-
tionship and had no objective reality. When he wrote that "the
scientist takes phenomena as they best fit his mind, while the
great man or genius takes them as what they are" (Sex and
Character, p. 220), he was undoubtedly applying the thought
to himself. In Taschenbuch he explained (p. 32) how the
genius (himself) has confidence in his intuition: "The genius
does not need the transcendental method, because there is suf-
ficient certainty in his intuition. . . . The justification of the
psychic method is to see things in God. " And through the sum-
mer of 1903 he continued to hold to the psychic method.
In discussing the genius, Weininger expounded his own
ideas of universal symbolism. "From the idea of universality,
which is always present in the genius, he can see the importance
of the parts. Everything within himself and beyond himself he
values according to the standard of this union. For this reason
alone evaluation does not represent a function of time to him;
it always represents the great and eternal idea. Thus genius is
also deep; only genius is depth, only depth is genius. Therefore
the opinions of the genius have greater value than the opinions
of others. He creates out of his world-comprising ego, while
other people never become conscious of this creative process.
To him everything is full of meaning, all things are symbols.
Breathing is something more than a mere physical process in
the thin walls of the capillaries; the blue of the sky means to
him more than just the partial polarization of diffused and re-
flected light; snakes are not simply limbless reptiles.
"The genius sees symbols in oceans and mountains, in light
and darkness, in cypresses and palms, in pigeons and swans; he
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? i68
Genius and Insanity
not only feels, he also recognizes, something deeper in them.
The ride of the Valkyries is not caused by disturbances in the
air. All this is evident to him only because the external world
is in the deepest and closest connection with his inner world,
because the external world is to him only one little aspect of his
inner world, because the world and the ego are one in him. He
does not have to put experiences together according to rules
and laws" (Sex and Character, p. 222).
Since Weininger's turn to the theory of symbolism took
place in the spring of 1902, it is natural to see a connection
between it and the moral scruples which afflicted him at that
time. That connection is confirmed in the chapter "Meta-
physics. " "If I may make a personal remark, I may say that I
went through a long period when I regarded the chief idea in
the theoretical philosophy of Kant--that psychic phenomena
are facts of the same order as physical phenomena--as one of
his greatest and most genius-packed thoughts. I became doubt-
ful later, mostly because of my moral theoretical discussions. "
Weininger claimed to be the first to create a concept of general
symbolism. "If it should not be possible for me to complete
this construction [of the system], I may still claim for myself,
apart from the specific results, recognition as having been the
first person to have visualized it theoretically" (U. L. D. , p. 114).
What was the origin of this symbolic view? We find the
answer in his personality make-up, which was marked by
strongly repressed biological drives and a temperament which
was at once hypersensitive and cool. In him there was a definite
ratio between increased hypersensitivity and mental aloofness.
It is said that all the phenomena of light affected him strongly
and that this sensitivity grew in the latter part of his life. "In
the last period," wrote Rappaport, "it had the strongest effect
on him when he could look out on the brightly illuminated
distance through a very narrow opening" (U. L. D. , p. ix).
His way of looking at phenomena, corresponding to the state
of his mind, changed after the first of his symbolizing appeared.
The signs grew more pronounced through the summer and
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? Genius and Insanity 169
autumn, taking shape in the chapter "Animal Psychology" in
Vber die letzten Dinge, which was a collection of symbols. In
the summer of 1903 his interest in symbolization rose to a
climax. Taschenbuch indicates this clearly. His ideas at the
time were, for the most part, then cast in the form of aphorisms.
"The stars no longer laugh, they no longer have relationship to
light, but only to decency and happiness. They lack physical
properties. All animals are criminals, even the horse and the
swan (beauty without purpose, it flies no more). One should
be afraid of the swan. . . . For a river the danger is becoming
a swamp, for the ocean the danger is whirling water. One possi-
bility in the ocean corresponds to insanity. . . . The plant is a
disease; here is singularity (no walls between the cells) but no
unity, because sense organs and motion are lost (intellect,
will). The plant is characterized as immobile, that is, it re-
mains fixed in its place, has become unfree in space" (Taschen-
buch, pp. 51-55).
Examples like these are numerous. His symbolization grew
and became more and more a delirium of symbols. Finally the
process reached its final, peculiar, and monstrous phase in
Taschenbuch and the "Letzte Aphorismen," in which all
material things appear as symbols. Rappaport says: "Every
single animal, every plant, every mineral, mountain and valley,
water and fire, light and heat, became symbols. Light became
his symbol of decency, fire a symbol of destruction, the well a
symbol of birth; the river is the Apollonian principle, the ocean
the Dionysian. Dogs, swine, and snakes are symbols of crime"
(U. L. D. , p. viii).
This sort of symbolism is characteristic of archaic thinking.
The symbol, unconsciously adopted, is a manifestation of re-
gression to an earlier stage of thinking. When, for instance,
Otto Weininger says that snakes are symbols of crime, he is
using the snake as a symbol to hide an unconscious idea which
he could not bear. Since the snake is a phallic symbol, it is
easy to see why it symbolized crime for Weininger. The male
sexual organ is the means for expressing the sexual drive--an
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? lyo Genius and Insanity
idea rejected by him--and it was therefore for him a symbol
of crime.
To Weininger universal symbolism seemed a means for
broadening knowledge of life: symbolism was an expansion of
existing life, a prolongation. In the symbol he felt that he
traced some of his own experiences, and thus symbolizing be-
came a projection. He often upheld the statement that was the
starting point of his symbolism, "The world is my idea. "
"This," he said, "is the ideal of all philosophy, and it reveals in
the clearest fashion how things are reflected through the ego of
the philosopher" (U. L. D.
