The genius is by
definition
a
man who understands more than the average man does.
man who understands more than the average man does.
Weininger - 1946 - Mind and Death of a Genius
Many fish make
prodigious journeys to breed, e. g. , salmon travel for months
from the open sea to the sources of the Rhine in order to spawn.
According to Weininger the law of sexual attraction shows
that, because of the gradations of sexuality, there always may
be found pairs of beings with the two members almost perfectly
adapted to one another. From this standpoint, according to
Weininger, marriage has its justification, and "free love" is to
be condemned. The healthiest offspring will result from unions
in which there is the maximum of sexual suitability.
The law of sexual attraction also explains sexual inclination
among members of the same sex. There is no such thing as gen-
uine psychosexual hermaphroditism. The men who are sexually
attracted by other men have outward marks of effeminacy, just
as women who are attracted to those of their own sex exhibit
male characters. In all cases of sexual inversion (inclination
toward one's own sex) there is invariably an anatomical approx-
imation to the opposite sex.
Sexual perversion is not a habit acquired by the individual
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? Sex and Character log
during the course of his life. Weininger points to many writers
(Kraepelin, for example) who believed that such abnormality
is induced by example. Weininger inquires, Who was the first
seducer? Did the god Hermaphroditos teach him? Just as a
normal man discovers for himself what a woman is, so also in
the case of a sexual pervert the attraction exercised on him by a
person of his own sex is a normal product of his development r
from birth. There is little reason to say that sexual inversion is ?
acquired, and there is just as little cause to regard it as inherited <
from parents or grandparents. Let those who regard sexual in-
version as pathological remember that there are to be found
various transitional stages from the most masculine to the most
effeminate male and so on through many gradations to the
feminine virgin.
No inverts are completely inverted sexually. In all of them
there is from the beginning an inclination to both sexes; they
are, in fact, bisexual. Weininger believes that what he is intro-
ducing is the view that homosexuality cannot be regarded as an
atavism or as due to incomplete differentiation of sex. Homo-
sexuality is merely the sexual condition of the intermediate sex- \
ual forms. That the rudiments of homosexuality, in however '
weak a form, exist in every human being is proved by the fact
that the tendency may be observed in adolescence, when there
is still a great deal of undifferentiated sexuality before the in-
ternal secretions have exerted their stimulating force. In this
connection Weininger points to the strong sexual aspect of
youthful friendship and to homosexuality among animals. Per-
verted sexual attraction is no exception to the law of sexual at-
traction but is merely a special example of it. To fulfill the work-
ing of the law an individual who is half-man and half-woman
requires as sexual complement a being similarly equipped with
a share of both sexes. This need, Weininger finds, is the reason
why homosexuals associate only with persons of similar char-
acter and rarely admit to intimacy those who are normal. The
sexual attraction is mutual, and this explains why one homo-
sexual so readily recognizes the abnormality of another.
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? 110
Sex and Character
The problem of sexual attraction carried Weininger into the
sphere of physiology, as he undertook the problems of the sci-
ence of character. Matter and mind correspond, and it is easy to
imagine the existence of a female mental type and a male men-
tal type. We cannot say that the character of a particular indi-
vidual is male or female. Instead, we must ask, How many parts
male and how many parts female are there in this person? When
that question is answered, we should be better able to describe
the individual definitely and arrive at a foundation for scien-
tific study of the problem of characterology (the science of
character). This discovery should also influence teaching meth-
ods.
Every human being oscillates between the maleness and the
femaleness of his constitution. These sexual oscillations are
regular or irregular, like the variations in the magnetism of the
earth. The regular forms are sometimes minute; for instance,
many men feel more masculine at night. The irregular oscilla-
tions probably depend chiefly upon the environment, as, for
instance, on the sexuality of the surrounding people. In short,
bisexuality cannot be properly observed in a single moment but
must be studied through successive periods of time.
From this point forward, theoretical analysis of the M con-
tent and the W content in the individual becomes one of
Weininger's main objectives, and he chooses the difficult
method, namely, synthetic creation of abstract "sexual types,"
the ideal mind of man and the ideal mind of woman.
Weininger argues that the cooperative functioning of the male
and female principles must be the basis of any rational study
of character. The science of character is related to psychology
in much the same way that anatomy is related to physiology.
The principle of sexually intermediate forms--and, still more
forcefully, the parallel between characterology and morphol-
ogy in their widest application--makes him look forward to a
time when physiognomy would take its honorable place among
the sciences. The problem of physiognomy is, for Weininger,
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? Sex and Character
111
the problem of the relation between the static mental forces
and the static body forces.
The reason, he says, why such sciences as physiognomy and
characterology have not yet been properly recognized lies in
the difficulty of investigation. This difficulty might be avoided,
if, instead of inquiring why a person prefers cats to dogs, one
asked instead, In what respects do lovers of cats and lovers of
dogs differ? The method of seeking the related differences
where one difference has been detected would, Weininger be-
lieves, prove extremely useful not only to pure morphology
and to the science of character but ultimately also to physiog-
nomy.
The chapter called "Emancipated Women" offers a prelim-
inary conclusion to Weininger's investigation. He maintains
that a woman's demand for emancipation and her qualifica-
tion for it are in direct proportion to the amount of maleness '
in her. All prominent women, from Sappho to George Eliot,
who have striven for real emancipation--and their efforts were
justifiable--always have revealed some of the anatomical char- |
acters of the male. Many of them were sexual perverts. Con-
cerning this maleness in women, which, by the way, he de-
scribed as woman's great endowment, we may say that it
causes them to be homosexually or bisexually inclined (George
Sand's affair with Alfred de Musset, for example). Only the
male element in emancipated women craves emancipation. 1
There is, then, Weininger believes, a stronger reason than has
been generally supposed for the familiar assumption of male
pseudonyms by women writers; using men's names is one |
mode of giving expression to the inherent maleness they feel.
As a further example of this aping of men, George Sand's
preference for men's clothing may be mentioned.
If it is true that the desire for freedom and equality with
man occurs only in masculine women, it follows by inductive
reasoning that the female principle is not conscious of any v
need for emancipation. Weininger claims that the greatest,
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? 112
Sex and Character
the one enemy of the emancipation of woman is woman her-
self. It is left to the second part of his book to prove that point.
The second and principal part is called "The Sexual Types. "
We may briefly examine its main outlines.
Before considering the main difference between the sexes
as to psychological content, Weininger makes a few psycho-
logical soundings and formulates a few conceptions. He points
out that in studying perception it is necessary to make a dis-
tinction rarely made by psychologists; the original vague per-
ception must be distinguished from the later clarified version.
All clear perceptions and all distinct ideas must, before they
can be put into words, pass through a stage of indistinctness.
So also before an association is formed there is a sort of vague,
generalized expectation of association. To Richard Avenarius's
separation of all psychical phenomena into elements and char-
acters Weininger added a new concept. There is a stage of
mental activity not included in Avenarius's classification, a
stage that precedes those he tested. At first all elements merge,
more or less clouded. The whole process of clarification may
be compared to the experience of seeing something at a dis-
tance and then recognizing it as it comes nearer. The first
moment of indistinctness is important. Just as the process of
"anticipation" takes place before a thought is clarified in the
mind of an individual, so does it occur in history. Definite
scientific concepts are preceded by anticipations. There were
among ancient Greek and later thinkers vague anticipations
of Darwin's theory. Many earlier men foreshadowed the con-
clusions of modern science, and a like development may be
found in every phase of art, in painting as well as in music.
The whole history of thought is a continuous clarification, a
more and more accurate description or recognition of details.
The process of clarification is important, and Weininger in-
troduces a special name for the psychological data at the ear-
liest stage, before clarification has begun. He calls the vague
perception the henid. It is an abstract conception and may
not occur in the absolute form; the very idea of a henid for-
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? Sex and Character
^3
bids its exact description. It is merely a something. Later,
identification may come with the complete articulation of
the contents of the henid. The henid is not the whole of this
detailed content and is distinguished from the completed per-
ception by a lower grade of consciousness--so to speak, by an
absence of relief, by a blending of the die and the impression,
by the lack of a central point in the field of vision. Weininger
claims that henids are as vital as elements and characters. Each
henid is individual and can be distinguished from all others.
Probably the mental experiences of early childhood (certainly
the first fourteen months) are all henids, though perhaps not
in the strictest sense, for throughout childhood data never go
far beyond the henid stage. In adults there is always a certain
process of development going on. According to Weininger,
the henid is the form of perception known to the lower types
of organism. In mankind development from the henid to the
completely differentiated form of perception and idea is pos-
sible.
Weininger thinks that the theory of henids can be applied
in investigating the psychology of the sexes. His question is,
What is the distinction between male and female in the
process of clarification?
Male and female must be considered only as types. In the
case of human beings it appears to be psychologically true that
an individual, at least at a stated moment, is part man and
part woman. Do we get a clear conception of an individual if
we can determine the exact point he occupies on the line be-
tween two extremes? We are here concerned with the problem
of individual existence. Characterology should meet that prob-
lem, should do more than indicate the motor and sensory
reactions of the individual. It should not sink to the low level
of the modern experimental psychologists, who do little more
than collect statistics of physical experiments. Weininger
thinks it lamentable testimony to the insufficiency of the
psychology of his time that distinguished men of science,
though discontent with their own studies of perception and
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? Sex and Character
association, have nevertheless surrendered to the arts the ex-
planation of such fundamental phenomena as heroism and
sacrifice, madness and crime.
No other science will, says Weininger, become shallow so
quickly as psychology if it deserts philosophy, for without phi-
losophy it becomes impotent. The modern empirical psychol-
ogists begin their research into development of character by
investigating touch and the other common sensations. Yet an
analysis of sensation is no more than part of the physiology of
sense; any attempt to relate it to the real problems of psychol-
ogy must fail. It is the misfortune of the reigning psychology
that it has been so deeply influenced by the physicists Fechner
and Helmholtz. True, the two most intelligent empirical psy-
chologists of recent times, William James and Richard Ave-
narius, have realized almost instinctively that psychology can-
not rest upon observation of the sensations of the skin and
muscles; yet the prevailing school of modern psychology does
depend solely upon the study of sensations.
Dilthey did not stress enough his argument that existing
psychology does not deal with the large problems that are
eminently psychological in kind--murder, friendship, loneli-
ness, and so forth. If any advance is to be made, there must be
a really psychological psychology, and the first battlecry must
be, "Away with the study of sensations! "
Characterology assumes that there is a permanent some-
thing that continues to exist despite fleeting changes. To un-
derstand this permanent existence, manifest at every moment
of psychological life, is the aim of characterology.
The character is not, however, seated behind the thoughts
and feelings of the individual; rather it reveals itself in every
thought and every feeling. Just as each cell bears within it all
the characteristics of the whole individual, so each psychical
manifestation involves not merely a few characteristic traits of
a man but his whole being, with one quality prominent at one
moment, another quality at another. Accepting this truth will
make possible for the first time a complete and real psychol-
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? Sex and Character 115
ogy. Then we will no longer fear that it may share the fate of
its sister sciences and remain a trivial subject, like physiognomy,
or a future art, like graphology.
What is the basic difference between M and W? We need
not, according to Weininger, hope that any woman will help
to supply the answer by giving us information on the nature
of woman, for no female psychologist ever existed. The abso-
lute woman cannot attain to objectivity either anatomically
or physically, because she is only sexual. Moreover her sensa-
tions are vague and undifferentiated. Only men have written
sound psychology, and they achieve understanding of woman
through the female element in themselves.
The statement that men have stronger sexual impulses than
women is false. So is the opposite assertion, that women have
stronger sexual impulses than men. The strength of the sexual
drive does not depend upon the proportion of masculinity or
femininity in an individual. Women are, however, sexually
more excitable (physiologically) than men. In a woman easy
sexual excitement may appear in the form of a desire for sexual
stimulation or in an irritable shyness when touched. She is un-
conscious of her own nature and is therefore restless and
readily stirred.
This excitement yields, according to Weininger, the su-
preme moments of a woman's life. Woman is devoted wholly
to sexual matters, that is to say, to the spheres of sexual inter-
course, begetting, reproduction. Her relations with husband
and children complete her life, whereas a man is something
more than sexual. In this respect, and not in the relative
strength of the sexual impulses, there is a real difference be-
tween the sexes. It is possible for a man to control his own
sexual drive and keep it out of his consciousness. This self-,
denial or self-mastery is impossible for women, simply because
they are entirely sexual. Thus we arrive once more at the dif-
ference in the process of clarification.
The male receives the same psychological data as the fe-
male, but in a more articulated form. Whereas she thinks
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? n6
Sex and Character
more or less in henids, he thinks more or less in clear and de-
tailed perceptions. According to Weininger, thinking and
feeling are for a woman identical, for a man separate. M has
a conscious life. W an unconscious one. Bringing into con-
sciousness what has hitherto been unconscious is the sexual
function of the typical man toward the typical woman.
Weininger then takes up the question of intellectual capac-
ity and talent. Since the woman lacks clarity and since her
thinking is vague, she is, according to Weininger, far more re-
moved from genius than is the man. Genius means the most
limpid clarity and an ability to distinguish. In order to depict
the behavior of a man you must understand him, and in order
to understand" him you must be similar to him, must have
some of his nature in yourself.
The genius is by definition a
man who understands more than the average man does. He is,
consequently, more composite and has a richer psychological
content. His consciousness is farthest removed from the henid
stage and has the greatest clarity. Thus the quality of genius is
a higher kind of masculinity, to which, necessarily, a female
cannot attain. Genius is also the highest and widest conscious-
ness; universality is its distinguishing mark.
Everything, therefore, means something to the genius, even
if only unconsciously. Impressions remain obstinately in his
memory, inextinguishable, although he mav not have taken
the smallest trouble to take note of the perceptions or experi-
ences when they occurred. When a woman, looking back over
her life, relives her experiences, no continuous, unbroken
stream flows through her mind; only a few scattered items
appear. According to Weininger, the female is concerned al-
together with one kind of recollections--those connected with
the sexual impulse and reproduction. Inasmuch as woman's
i psychical life is without continuity, there is in her no feeling
j of identity, no matter what the circumstances of life. The
( highest principle of the law of identity, which logic and ethics
offer is the proposition, A = A. When we are able to grasp
this proposition we do so through the phenomenon of mem-
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? Sex and Character 117
ory. We must remember the preceding moment in order to
connect it with the following; thus we are enabled to construct
the synthesis that is part of the law of identity and to recog-
nize that A is still A. Concerning the proposition A TM A one
may say that the formulation is the vanquisher of time.
Woman, therefore, is not able to think with logic.
By emphasizing memory as a logical and ethical phenom-
enon, Weininger arrives at a realization of the connection be-
tween logic and ethics, and he feels that he is touching on a
deeper connection between them. Truth, purity, fidelity, up-
rightness--these are the bases of the only conceivable ethics.
Wisdom is not to be listed with virtue among the duties and
tasks of mankind. Weininger quotes Goethe, "The highest
fortune of earth's children is always in their personality. "
Every human being is lonely in the world. To accept this
loneliness and respond to the law of the ego is morality. All
practical and realistic altruism can result only from theoretical
individualism. In order to regard another man as a personality,
one must himself have a personality. He who possesses an ego
can recognize the existence of an ego in his neighbor. And one
man honors another by that recognition and by refraining
from using the other as a means to an end.
It is because of his vision of the whole that the genius recog-
nizes the existence of the parts. The object of genius is uni-
versality. A man may be called a genius when he lives in con-
scious connection with the whole universe. A man of genius
must be conscious of his own ego. Therefore, it may be said
that genius itself is an inner imperative. It is a predominantly
moral phenomenon. Since the absolute female knows neither
logic nor the moral imperative, the inference is that she is 1
wanting in supersensual personality. The absolute female has 1
no ego and is therefore alogical and amoral. It is a man's per- 1
sonality that gives him value and makes him timeless. Other j
than belief in the changelessness of the thinking, acting ego
there is no reason for hope of immortality. Since the woman
does not possess that personality there is no reason to suppose
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? n8 Sex and Character
i that she will attain immortality. Therefore, the woman is
'- without soul, without morality, and without free will.
Woman to Weininger is only a sexual being. The two poles
of her character are represented by the mother and the pros-
titute. This argument is the foundation of a chapter in Wei-
ninger's book. These two types, he says, are direct opposites.
The absolute prostitute thinks only of the man; for her sexual
intercourse in itself is the end. The absolute mother thinks
only of the child; she would become a mother by any man.
Weininger says that the woman as mother--a type universally
admired--cannot actually lay claim to any ethical value; the
type is created by instinct. As an individual the mother means
nothing and has no sense of individuality. She exists only for
the preservation of the race and is the channel for the chain
of being that passes through her.
When a woman becomes a prostitute, she does so, accord-
ing to Weininger, because of an irresistible, inborn craving.
Unless there is an inclination to a certain course, it will not
be followed. Between the absolute mother and the absolute
prostitute there is a formal similarity. One accepts any pos-
sible man who can make her a mother, and once motherhood
is achieved she needs no more. Only on this basis is she mo-
nogamous. The other is ready to yield herself to any man who
stimulates her erotic desires; she has no further object. Woman
craves sexual union.
Even as a young girl a woman of the maternal type will be
motherly toward the man she loves, especially toward the man
who may afterward become the father of her child. In fact, in
a certain sense the man is her child. The mothers form the
enduring rootstock of the race. The permanence of the social
group gives the mother her courage and fearlessness, in con-
trast to the cowardice and the fear of the prostitute. The
mother is entirely devoted to serving the continuity of race;
the prostitute is completely outside it. The mother's purpose
is, according to Weininger, proved by evidence. For one
thing, the best of mothers has no real consideration for ani-
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? Sex and Character ng
mals whatever. For another, the mother's attitude is strikingly
exhibited in her care for food; she cannot bear to see food
wasted and takes delight in seeing her children eat and en-
couraging their appetites. The prostitute, on the contrary, is
lavish; after demanding quantities of food and drink, she will-
fully squanders those riches.
Every man has a certain resemblance to the prostitute, and
the leader who becomes "tribune of the people" has a strong
element of prostitution in his office. Examples are to be seen
in the great leaders--Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon.
Like the prostitute, an emperor does not reflect upon self; in-
stead he tries to escape from himself. Napoleon set out to
conquer the world in order to get away from his own personal-
ity. Between Cleopatra and Caesar there are several points of
resemblance.
Weininger makes a distinction in man between eroticism
and sexuality. Love is a phenomenon of projection. He who
loves does not feel the need of being with his beloved. The
only love that really exists is platonic love. The qualities la-
beled feminine modesty, pity, the eternal feminine, and the
like are only phenomena of projection created by man's long-
ing. If woman possesses them it is because she accepts the
evaluation imposed by man. Love in its core is, for that reason,
not ethical; man envelops himself in a lie and does not treat
woman according to her real nature. Yet, despite her desire
for sexual union, woman cannot rise to the real eroticism, even
though she may love the ethical qualities in man. Woman
demands from man what she herself lacks. Since this is true,
sexuality has no ethical importance. Woman as a sexual being
is only a means; man cannot treat her as a feeling, thinking,
self-determined being. The situation thus violates the severe
ethical law which Kant laid down and Weininger adopted,
that no human being should be used by another as the means
to an end.
In her relation to her environment (the universe) woman is
always passive. She is also suggestible, accepting and adopting
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? 120
Sex and Character
man's evaluations. Her receptivity is so great that she can even
deny what she is; in trying to make all the actions of the male
her own, she assumes a different nature, without realizing that
it is alien to her. In woman hysteria is ingrained, hysteria be-
ing, according to Weininger, an expression and a crisis in her
organic untruthfulness.
Weininger now arrives at the culminating formulation of
his problems, namely, the question of the importance of being
a man or a woman. His answer is that the relation between
man and woman is that of subject to object. Woman seeks her
consummation as the object. She is the plaything of husband
and child and is anxious to be no more than such a chattel.
Furthermore, this contrast between subject and object in the
theory of knowledge corresponds ontologically, Weininger be-
lieves, to the contrast between form and matter. He considers
woman significant as the material on which man acts. She is
matter, is nothing, and her importance lies in meaning noth-
/ ing. The abstract male is the image of God, the absolute some-
^ thing. The female (and the feminine element in the male) is
the symbol of nothing. Such is woman's place in the universe.
He adopts a like concept of the Jewish people. He believed
that even the most superior woman is immeasurably beneath
the most degraded man. This pattern is repeated in his con-
tention that Judaism at its best is immeasurably beneath even
degraded Christianity. In Judaism he sees a spiritual move-
ment, a psychic constitution, and he tries to prove its existence
by anti-Semitic arguments. He says that everyone who has
thought over the problem of woman and the problem of the
Jew must be astonished to discover the extent to which Juda-
ism is penetrated by femininity. As the soul is lacking in
woman, so is it lacking in the Jew. For this reason, Zionism is
without hope. The Jew, like the woman, has no ego. Both lack
greatness. Both live in the family and not as individuals. In
them sexuality is always present; woman and Jew are con-
cerned with mating. They also seek to make other humans
feel guilt. Ours is not only the most Jewish but also the most
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? Sex and Character
121
feminine of all eras. Modernity of the spirit is Jewish from
whatever viewpoint it is considered. Weininger asserts that
ours is the most anarchistic of all times; there is no sense of
state or of right; history has no meaning. The struggle in the
future will be between Judaism and Christianity, between
business and culture, between form and personality. These are
the two poles. There is no third alternative.
In his last chapter, "Woman and Mankind," Weininger
says that in coitus lies woman's greatest humiliation, in love
her supreme exaltation. Since woman desires coitus and not
love, it is obvious that she wishes to be humiliated, not wor-
shiped. The ultimate opponent of the emancipation of woman
is woman. Coitus is immoral, not because asceticism is a moral
duty, but because in coitus the woman becomes solely an
object. For woman the central problem is that of making her
will like that of the man in spirit and thereby attaining his
spiritual freedom and creative ability. Since woman has no
craving for this liberation, she has no ability to achieve it. If
she is to exist honestly, she must grasp the problem of exist-
ence, the idea of guilt. Is she capable of reaching that end?
The answer depends upon woman's relation to the categorical
imperative. Will woman accept the moral idea, the idea of
mankind? Only if she does, says Weininger, will the road be
open to the emancipation of woman.
The book was issued and attracted some interest. Weininger
was at the time known in the literary world of Vienna, and the
book was reviewed in newspapers and in journals. For the
most part the reception was sharply critical. Of the philosophi-
cal periodicals only a few gave space to a consideration of the
work at all. Noteworthy among the reviews that appeared was
the article by Wilhelm Stekel in Die Wage, a periodical which
included material on psychology, and Wilhelm Freiherr von
Appel's enthusiastic article, "Ein grosses Buch von einem
grossen Menschen" (A Great Book by a Great Man) in Neue
Bahnen filr Kunst und offentliches Leben.
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Sex and Character
Gradually Sex and Character gained wider attention in Aus-
tria and Germany, then throughout Europe. It was translated
into Danish in 1905 and into English in 1906 (when it was
also published in the United States). In 1921 it was published
in Polish. In the United States, however, Weininger's books
and the literature about him are scarce. The Library of Con-
gress, for example, has only the German, Polish, and English
editions of Sex and Character, the second and sixth editions
of Vber die letzten Dinge, and Lucka's book about Otto
Weininger.
Some of the interest given to the book came because of its
outspoken anti-Semitic views, which attracted some readers
who were already anti-Semitic in feeling. It may be of interest
to note that as late as 1939 I heard in Norway a radio broad-
cast beamed from Nazi Germany, which used some of Wei-
ninger's attacks upon the Jews.
Even if Sex and Character was from the start violently at-
tacked in most quarters, it gained one advocate of greater im-
portance than Stekel or Appel. August Strindberg raised his
voice in approval, writing in a letter to his translator on July
21, 1903 (published in Die Fackel, October 17, 1903): "Dr.
Otto Weininger has sent me from Vienna a copy of Sex and
Character, an awe-inspiring book, which has probably solved
the most difficult of all problems. He quotes Glaubiger, but
he ought to know Faderen (The Father) and Froken Julie
(Miss Julie). Would you send him these? I spelled the words,
but he put them together. " '
And among the effects of Weininger after his death there
was a letter which reads:
Doctor,
To be able, at last, to see the solution of the problem of woman
is a great relief to me. Therefore please accept my reverence and my
thanks.
August STRrNDBERG
Stockholm
July 1,1903
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? Crossing the
Border
V%/eininger's masterpiece was published. Into it he
T had poured labor and thought, all the immense ef-
fort of which he was capable. After that November night of
1902 he apparently recovered and occupied himself intensively
with work on the book.
prodigious journeys to breed, e. g. , salmon travel for months
from the open sea to the sources of the Rhine in order to spawn.
According to Weininger the law of sexual attraction shows
that, because of the gradations of sexuality, there always may
be found pairs of beings with the two members almost perfectly
adapted to one another. From this standpoint, according to
Weininger, marriage has its justification, and "free love" is to
be condemned. The healthiest offspring will result from unions
in which there is the maximum of sexual suitability.
The law of sexual attraction also explains sexual inclination
among members of the same sex. There is no such thing as gen-
uine psychosexual hermaphroditism. The men who are sexually
attracted by other men have outward marks of effeminacy, just
as women who are attracted to those of their own sex exhibit
male characters. In all cases of sexual inversion (inclination
toward one's own sex) there is invariably an anatomical approx-
imation to the opposite sex.
Sexual perversion is not a habit acquired by the individual
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? Sex and Character log
during the course of his life. Weininger points to many writers
(Kraepelin, for example) who believed that such abnormality
is induced by example. Weininger inquires, Who was the first
seducer? Did the god Hermaphroditos teach him? Just as a
normal man discovers for himself what a woman is, so also in
the case of a sexual pervert the attraction exercised on him by a
person of his own sex is a normal product of his development r
from birth. There is little reason to say that sexual inversion is ?
acquired, and there is just as little cause to regard it as inherited <
from parents or grandparents. Let those who regard sexual in-
version as pathological remember that there are to be found
various transitional stages from the most masculine to the most
effeminate male and so on through many gradations to the
feminine virgin.
No inverts are completely inverted sexually. In all of them
there is from the beginning an inclination to both sexes; they
are, in fact, bisexual. Weininger believes that what he is intro-
ducing is the view that homosexuality cannot be regarded as an
atavism or as due to incomplete differentiation of sex. Homo-
sexuality is merely the sexual condition of the intermediate sex- \
ual forms. That the rudiments of homosexuality, in however '
weak a form, exist in every human being is proved by the fact
that the tendency may be observed in adolescence, when there
is still a great deal of undifferentiated sexuality before the in-
ternal secretions have exerted their stimulating force. In this
connection Weininger points to the strong sexual aspect of
youthful friendship and to homosexuality among animals. Per-
verted sexual attraction is no exception to the law of sexual at-
traction but is merely a special example of it. To fulfill the work-
ing of the law an individual who is half-man and half-woman
requires as sexual complement a being similarly equipped with
a share of both sexes. This need, Weininger finds, is the reason
why homosexuals associate only with persons of similar char-
acter and rarely admit to intimacy those who are normal. The
sexual attraction is mutual, and this explains why one homo-
sexual so readily recognizes the abnormality of another.
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? 110
Sex and Character
The problem of sexual attraction carried Weininger into the
sphere of physiology, as he undertook the problems of the sci-
ence of character. Matter and mind correspond, and it is easy to
imagine the existence of a female mental type and a male men-
tal type. We cannot say that the character of a particular indi-
vidual is male or female. Instead, we must ask, How many parts
male and how many parts female are there in this person? When
that question is answered, we should be better able to describe
the individual definitely and arrive at a foundation for scien-
tific study of the problem of characterology (the science of
character). This discovery should also influence teaching meth-
ods.
Every human being oscillates between the maleness and the
femaleness of his constitution. These sexual oscillations are
regular or irregular, like the variations in the magnetism of the
earth. The regular forms are sometimes minute; for instance,
many men feel more masculine at night. The irregular oscilla-
tions probably depend chiefly upon the environment, as, for
instance, on the sexuality of the surrounding people. In short,
bisexuality cannot be properly observed in a single moment but
must be studied through successive periods of time.
From this point forward, theoretical analysis of the M con-
tent and the W content in the individual becomes one of
Weininger's main objectives, and he chooses the difficult
method, namely, synthetic creation of abstract "sexual types,"
the ideal mind of man and the ideal mind of woman.
Weininger argues that the cooperative functioning of the male
and female principles must be the basis of any rational study
of character. The science of character is related to psychology
in much the same way that anatomy is related to physiology.
The principle of sexually intermediate forms--and, still more
forcefully, the parallel between characterology and morphol-
ogy in their widest application--makes him look forward to a
time when physiognomy would take its honorable place among
the sciences. The problem of physiognomy is, for Weininger,
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? Sex and Character
111
the problem of the relation between the static mental forces
and the static body forces.
The reason, he says, why such sciences as physiognomy and
characterology have not yet been properly recognized lies in
the difficulty of investigation. This difficulty might be avoided,
if, instead of inquiring why a person prefers cats to dogs, one
asked instead, In what respects do lovers of cats and lovers of
dogs differ? The method of seeking the related differences
where one difference has been detected would, Weininger be-
lieves, prove extremely useful not only to pure morphology
and to the science of character but ultimately also to physiog-
nomy.
The chapter called "Emancipated Women" offers a prelim-
inary conclusion to Weininger's investigation. He maintains
that a woman's demand for emancipation and her qualifica-
tion for it are in direct proportion to the amount of maleness '
in her. All prominent women, from Sappho to George Eliot,
who have striven for real emancipation--and their efforts were
justifiable--always have revealed some of the anatomical char- |
acters of the male. Many of them were sexual perverts. Con-
cerning this maleness in women, which, by the way, he de-
scribed as woman's great endowment, we may say that it
causes them to be homosexually or bisexually inclined (George
Sand's affair with Alfred de Musset, for example). Only the
male element in emancipated women craves emancipation. 1
There is, then, Weininger believes, a stronger reason than has
been generally supposed for the familiar assumption of male
pseudonyms by women writers; using men's names is one |
mode of giving expression to the inherent maleness they feel.
As a further example of this aping of men, George Sand's
preference for men's clothing may be mentioned.
If it is true that the desire for freedom and equality with
man occurs only in masculine women, it follows by inductive
reasoning that the female principle is not conscious of any v
need for emancipation. Weininger claims that the greatest,
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? 112
Sex and Character
the one enemy of the emancipation of woman is woman her-
self. It is left to the second part of his book to prove that point.
The second and principal part is called "The Sexual Types. "
We may briefly examine its main outlines.
Before considering the main difference between the sexes
as to psychological content, Weininger makes a few psycho-
logical soundings and formulates a few conceptions. He points
out that in studying perception it is necessary to make a dis-
tinction rarely made by psychologists; the original vague per-
ception must be distinguished from the later clarified version.
All clear perceptions and all distinct ideas must, before they
can be put into words, pass through a stage of indistinctness.
So also before an association is formed there is a sort of vague,
generalized expectation of association. To Richard Avenarius's
separation of all psychical phenomena into elements and char-
acters Weininger added a new concept. There is a stage of
mental activity not included in Avenarius's classification, a
stage that precedes those he tested. At first all elements merge,
more or less clouded. The whole process of clarification may
be compared to the experience of seeing something at a dis-
tance and then recognizing it as it comes nearer. The first
moment of indistinctness is important. Just as the process of
"anticipation" takes place before a thought is clarified in the
mind of an individual, so does it occur in history. Definite
scientific concepts are preceded by anticipations. There were
among ancient Greek and later thinkers vague anticipations
of Darwin's theory. Many earlier men foreshadowed the con-
clusions of modern science, and a like development may be
found in every phase of art, in painting as well as in music.
The whole history of thought is a continuous clarification, a
more and more accurate description or recognition of details.
The process of clarification is important, and Weininger in-
troduces a special name for the psychological data at the ear-
liest stage, before clarification has begun. He calls the vague
perception the henid. It is an abstract conception and may
not occur in the absolute form; the very idea of a henid for-
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? Sex and Character
^3
bids its exact description. It is merely a something. Later,
identification may come with the complete articulation of
the contents of the henid. The henid is not the whole of this
detailed content and is distinguished from the completed per-
ception by a lower grade of consciousness--so to speak, by an
absence of relief, by a blending of the die and the impression,
by the lack of a central point in the field of vision. Weininger
claims that henids are as vital as elements and characters. Each
henid is individual and can be distinguished from all others.
Probably the mental experiences of early childhood (certainly
the first fourteen months) are all henids, though perhaps not
in the strictest sense, for throughout childhood data never go
far beyond the henid stage. In adults there is always a certain
process of development going on. According to Weininger,
the henid is the form of perception known to the lower types
of organism. In mankind development from the henid to the
completely differentiated form of perception and idea is pos-
sible.
Weininger thinks that the theory of henids can be applied
in investigating the psychology of the sexes. His question is,
What is the distinction between male and female in the
process of clarification?
Male and female must be considered only as types. In the
case of human beings it appears to be psychologically true that
an individual, at least at a stated moment, is part man and
part woman. Do we get a clear conception of an individual if
we can determine the exact point he occupies on the line be-
tween two extremes? We are here concerned with the problem
of individual existence. Characterology should meet that prob-
lem, should do more than indicate the motor and sensory
reactions of the individual. It should not sink to the low level
of the modern experimental psychologists, who do little more
than collect statistics of physical experiments. Weininger
thinks it lamentable testimony to the insufficiency of the
psychology of his time that distinguished men of science,
though discontent with their own studies of perception and
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? Sex and Character
association, have nevertheless surrendered to the arts the ex-
planation of such fundamental phenomena as heroism and
sacrifice, madness and crime.
No other science will, says Weininger, become shallow so
quickly as psychology if it deserts philosophy, for without phi-
losophy it becomes impotent. The modern empirical psychol-
ogists begin their research into development of character by
investigating touch and the other common sensations. Yet an
analysis of sensation is no more than part of the physiology of
sense; any attempt to relate it to the real problems of psychol-
ogy must fail. It is the misfortune of the reigning psychology
that it has been so deeply influenced by the physicists Fechner
and Helmholtz. True, the two most intelligent empirical psy-
chologists of recent times, William James and Richard Ave-
narius, have realized almost instinctively that psychology can-
not rest upon observation of the sensations of the skin and
muscles; yet the prevailing school of modern psychology does
depend solely upon the study of sensations.
Dilthey did not stress enough his argument that existing
psychology does not deal with the large problems that are
eminently psychological in kind--murder, friendship, loneli-
ness, and so forth. If any advance is to be made, there must be
a really psychological psychology, and the first battlecry must
be, "Away with the study of sensations! "
Characterology assumes that there is a permanent some-
thing that continues to exist despite fleeting changes. To un-
derstand this permanent existence, manifest at every moment
of psychological life, is the aim of characterology.
The character is not, however, seated behind the thoughts
and feelings of the individual; rather it reveals itself in every
thought and every feeling. Just as each cell bears within it all
the characteristics of the whole individual, so each psychical
manifestation involves not merely a few characteristic traits of
a man but his whole being, with one quality prominent at one
moment, another quality at another. Accepting this truth will
make possible for the first time a complete and real psychol-
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? Sex and Character 115
ogy. Then we will no longer fear that it may share the fate of
its sister sciences and remain a trivial subject, like physiognomy,
or a future art, like graphology.
What is the basic difference between M and W? We need
not, according to Weininger, hope that any woman will help
to supply the answer by giving us information on the nature
of woman, for no female psychologist ever existed. The abso-
lute woman cannot attain to objectivity either anatomically
or physically, because she is only sexual. Moreover her sensa-
tions are vague and undifferentiated. Only men have written
sound psychology, and they achieve understanding of woman
through the female element in themselves.
The statement that men have stronger sexual impulses than
women is false. So is the opposite assertion, that women have
stronger sexual impulses than men. The strength of the sexual
drive does not depend upon the proportion of masculinity or
femininity in an individual. Women are, however, sexually
more excitable (physiologically) than men. In a woman easy
sexual excitement may appear in the form of a desire for sexual
stimulation or in an irritable shyness when touched. She is un-
conscious of her own nature and is therefore restless and
readily stirred.
This excitement yields, according to Weininger, the su-
preme moments of a woman's life. Woman is devoted wholly
to sexual matters, that is to say, to the spheres of sexual inter-
course, begetting, reproduction. Her relations with husband
and children complete her life, whereas a man is something
more than sexual. In this respect, and not in the relative
strength of the sexual impulses, there is a real difference be-
tween the sexes. It is possible for a man to control his own
sexual drive and keep it out of his consciousness. This self-,
denial or self-mastery is impossible for women, simply because
they are entirely sexual. Thus we arrive once more at the dif-
ference in the process of clarification.
The male receives the same psychological data as the fe-
male, but in a more articulated form. Whereas she thinks
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? n6
Sex and Character
more or less in henids, he thinks more or less in clear and de-
tailed perceptions. According to Weininger, thinking and
feeling are for a woman identical, for a man separate. M has
a conscious life. W an unconscious one. Bringing into con-
sciousness what has hitherto been unconscious is the sexual
function of the typical man toward the typical woman.
Weininger then takes up the question of intellectual capac-
ity and talent. Since the woman lacks clarity and since her
thinking is vague, she is, according to Weininger, far more re-
moved from genius than is the man. Genius means the most
limpid clarity and an ability to distinguish. In order to depict
the behavior of a man you must understand him, and in order
to understand" him you must be similar to him, must have
some of his nature in yourself.
The genius is by definition a
man who understands more than the average man does. He is,
consequently, more composite and has a richer psychological
content. His consciousness is farthest removed from the henid
stage and has the greatest clarity. Thus the quality of genius is
a higher kind of masculinity, to which, necessarily, a female
cannot attain. Genius is also the highest and widest conscious-
ness; universality is its distinguishing mark.
Everything, therefore, means something to the genius, even
if only unconsciously. Impressions remain obstinately in his
memory, inextinguishable, although he mav not have taken
the smallest trouble to take note of the perceptions or experi-
ences when they occurred. When a woman, looking back over
her life, relives her experiences, no continuous, unbroken
stream flows through her mind; only a few scattered items
appear. According to Weininger, the female is concerned al-
together with one kind of recollections--those connected with
the sexual impulse and reproduction. Inasmuch as woman's
i psychical life is without continuity, there is in her no feeling
j of identity, no matter what the circumstances of life. The
( highest principle of the law of identity, which logic and ethics
offer is the proposition, A = A. When we are able to grasp
this proposition we do so through the phenomenon of mem-
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? Sex and Character 117
ory. We must remember the preceding moment in order to
connect it with the following; thus we are enabled to construct
the synthesis that is part of the law of identity and to recog-
nize that A is still A. Concerning the proposition A TM A one
may say that the formulation is the vanquisher of time.
Woman, therefore, is not able to think with logic.
By emphasizing memory as a logical and ethical phenom-
enon, Weininger arrives at a realization of the connection be-
tween logic and ethics, and he feels that he is touching on a
deeper connection between them. Truth, purity, fidelity, up-
rightness--these are the bases of the only conceivable ethics.
Wisdom is not to be listed with virtue among the duties and
tasks of mankind. Weininger quotes Goethe, "The highest
fortune of earth's children is always in their personality. "
Every human being is lonely in the world. To accept this
loneliness and respond to the law of the ego is morality. All
practical and realistic altruism can result only from theoretical
individualism. In order to regard another man as a personality,
one must himself have a personality. He who possesses an ego
can recognize the existence of an ego in his neighbor. And one
man honors another by that recognition and by refraining
from using the other as a means to an end.
It is because of his vision of the whole that the genius recog-
nizes the existence of the parts. The object of genius is uni-
versality. A man may be called a genius when he lives in con-
scious connection with the whole universe. A man of genius
must be conscious of his own ego. Therefore, it may be said
that genius itself is an inner imperative. It is a predominantly
moral phenomenon. Since the absolute female knows neither
logic nor the moral imperative, the inference is that she is 1
wanting in supersensual personality. The absolute female has 1
no ego and is therefore alogical and amoral. It is a man's per- 1
sonality that gives him value and makes him timeless. Other j
than belief in the changelessness of the thinking, acting ego
there is no reason for hope of immortality. Since the woman
does not possess that personality there is no reason to suppose
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? n8 Sex and Character
i that she will attain immortality. Therefore, the woman is
'- without soul, without morality, and without free will.
Woman to Weininger is only a sexual being. The two poles
of her character are represented by the mother and the pros-
titute. This argument is the foundation of a chapter in Wei-
ninger's book. These two types, he says, are direct opposites.
The absolute prostitute thinks only of the man; for her sexual
intercourse in itself is the end. The absolute mother thinks
only of the child; she would become a mother by any man.
Weininger says that the woman as mother--a type universally
admired--cannot actually lay claim to any ethical value; the
type is created by instinct. As an individual the mother means
nothing and has no sense of individuality. She exists only for
the preservation of the race and is the channel for the chain
of being that passes through her.
When a woman becomes a prostitute, she does so, accord-
ing to Weininger, because of an irresistible, inborn craving.
Unless there is an inclination to a certain course, it will not
be followed. Between the absolute mother and the absolute
prostitute there is a formal similarity. One accepts any pos-
sible man who can make her a mother, and once motherhood
is achieved she needs no more. Only on this basis is she mo-
nogamous. The other is ready to yield herself to any man who
stimulates her erotic desires; she has no further object. Woman
craves sexual union.
Even as a young girl a woman of the maternal type will be
motherly toward the man she loves, especially toward the man
who may afterward become the father of her child. In fact, in
a certain sense the man is her child. The mothers form the
enduring rootstock of the race. The permanence of the social
group gives the mother her courage and fearlessness, in con-
trast to the cowardice and the fear of the prostitute. The
mother is entirely devoted to serving the continuity of race;
the prostitute is completely outside it. The mother's purpose
is, according to Weininger, proved by evidence. For one
thing, the best of mothers has no real consideration for ani-
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? Sex and Character ng
mals whatever. For another, the mother's attitude is strikingly
exhibited in her care for food; she cannot bear to see food
wasted and takes delight in seeing her children eat and en-
couraging their appetites. The prostitute, on the contrary, is
lavish; after demanding quantities of food and drink, she will-
fully squanders those riches.
Every man has a certain resemblance to the prostitute, and
the leader who becomes "tribune of the people" has a strong
element of prostitution in his office. Examples are to be seen
in the great leaders--Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon.
Like the prostitute, an emperor does not reflect upon self; in-
stead he tries to escape from himself. Napoleon set out to
conquer the world in order to get away from his own personal-
ity. Between Cleopatra and Caesar there are several points of
resemblance.
Weininger makes a distinction in man between eroticism
and sexuality. Love is a phenomenon of projection. He who
loves does not feel the need of being with his beloved. The
only love that really exists is platonic love. The qualities la-
beled feminine modesty, pity, the eternal feminine, and the
like are only phenomena of projection created by man's long-
ing. If woman possesses them it is because she accepts the
evaluation imposed by man. Love in its core is, for that reason,
not ethical; man envelops himself in a lie and does not treat
woman according to her real nature. Yet, despite her desire
for sexual union, woman cannot rise to the real eroticism, even
though she may love the ethical qualities in man. Woman
demands from man what she herself lacks. Since this is true,
sexuality has no ethical importance. Woman as a sexual being
is only a means; man cannot treat her as a feeling, thinking,
self-determined being. The situation thus violates the severe
ethical law which Kant laid down and Weininger adopted,
that no human being should be used by another as the means
to an end.
In her relation to her environment (the universe) woman is
always passive. She is also suggestible, accepting and adopting
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? 120
Sex and Character
man's evaluations. Her receptivity is so great that she can even
deny what she is; in trying to make all the actions of the male
her own, she assumes a different nature, without realizing that
it is alien to her. In woman hysteria is ingrained, hysteria be-
ing, according to Weininger, an expression and a crisis in her
organic untruthfulness.
Weininger now arrives at the culminating formulation of
his problems, namely, the question of the importance of being
a man or a woman. His answer is that the relation between
man and woman is that of subject to object. Woman seeks her
consummation as the object. She is the plaything of husband
and child and is anxious to be no more than such a chattel.
Furthermore, this contrast between subject and object in the
theory of knowledge corresponds ontologically, Weininger be-
lieves, to the contrast between form and matter. He considers
woman significant as the material on which man acts. She is
matter, is nothing, and her importance lies in meaning noth-
/ ing. The abstract male is the image of God, the absolute some-
^ thing. The female (and the feminine element in the male) is
the symbol of nothing. Such is woman's place in the universe.
He adopts a like concept of the Jewish people. He believed
that even the most superior woman is immeasurably beneath
the most degraded man. This pattern is repeated in his con-
tention that Judaism at its best is immeasurably beneath even
degraded Christianity. In Judaism he sees a spiritual move-
ment, a psychic constitution, and he tries to prove its existence
by anti-Semitic arguments. He says that everyone who has
thought over the problem of woman and the problem of the
Jew must be astonished to discover the extent to which Juda-
ism is penetrated by femininity. As the soul is lacking in
woman, so is it lacking in the Jew. For this reason, Zionism is
without hope. The Jew, like the woman, has no ego. Both lack
greatness. Both live in the family and not as individuals. In
them sexuality is always present; woman and Jew are con-
cerned with mating. They also seek to make other humans
feel guilt. Ours is not only the most Jewish but also the most
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? Sex and Character
121
feminine of all eras. Modernity of the spirit is Jewish from
whatever viewpoint it is considered. Weininger asserts that
ours is the most anarchistic of all times; there is no sense of
state or of right; history has no meaning. The struggle in the
future will be between Judaism and Christianity, between
business and culture, between form and personality. These are
the two poles. There is no third alternative.
In his last chapter, "Woman and Mankind," Weininger
says that in coitus lies woman's greatest humiliation, in love
her supreme exaltation. Since woman desires coitus and not
love, it is obvious that she wishes to be humiliated, not wor-
shiped. The ultimate opponent of the emancipation of woman
is woman. Coitus is immoral, not because asceticism is a moral
duty, but because in coitus the woman becomes solely an
object. For woman the central problem is that of making her
will like that of the man in spirit and thereby attaining his
spiritual freedom and creative ability. Since woman has no
craving for this liberation, she has no ability to achieve it. If
she is to exist honestly, she must grasp the problem of exist-
ence, the idea of guilt. Is she capable of reaching that end?
The answer depends upon woman's relation to the categorical
imperative. Will woman accept the moral idea, the idea of
mankind? Only if she does, says Weininger, will the road be
open to the emancipation of woman.
The book was issued and attracted some interest. Weininger
was at the time known in the literary world of Vienna, and the
book was reviewed in newspapers and in journals. For the
most part the reception was sharply critical. Of the philosophi-
cal periodicals only a few gave space to a consideration of the
work at all. Noteworthy among the reviews that appeared was
the article by Wilhelm Stekel in Die Wage, a periodical which
included material on psychology, and Wilhelm Freiherr von
Appel's enthusiastic article, "Ein grosses Buch von einem
grossen Menschen" (A Great Book by a Great Man) in Neue
Bahnen filr Kunst und offentliches Leben.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 08:38 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/wu. 89038364857 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 122
Sex and Character
Gradually Sex and Character gained wider attention in Aus-
tria and Germany, then throughout Europe. It was translated
into Danish in 1905 and into English in 1906 (when it was
also published in the United States). In 1921 it was published
in Polish. In the United States, however, Weininger's books
and the literature about him are scarce. The Library of Con-
gress, for example, has only the German, Polish, and English
editions of Sex and Character, the second and sixth editions
of Vber die letzten Dinge, and Lucka's book about Otto
Weininger.
Some of the interest given to the book came because of its
outspoken anti-Semitic views, which attracted some readers
who were already anti-Semitic in feeling. It may be of interest
to note that as late as 1939 I heard in Norway a radio broad-
cast beamed from Nazi Germany, which used some of Wei-
ninger's attacks upon the Jews.
Even if Sex and Character was from the start violently at-
tacked in most quarters, it gained one advocate of greater im-
portance than Stekel or Appel. August Strindberg raised his
voice in approval, writing in a letter to his translator on July
21, 1903 (published in Die Fackel, October 17, 1903): "Dr.
Otto Weininger has sent me from Vienna a copy of Sex and
Character, an awe-inspiring book, which has probably solved
the most difficult of all problems. He quotes Glaubiger, but
he ought to know Faderen (The Father) and Froken Julie
(Miss Julie). Would you send him these? I spelled the words,
but he put them together. " '
And among the effects of Weininger after his death there
was a letter which reads:
Doctor,
To be able, at last, to see the solution of the problem of woman
is a great relief to me. Therefore please accept my reverence and my
thanks.
August STRrNDBERG
Stockholm
July 1,1903
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-08-19 08:38 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/wu. 89038364857 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? Crossing the
Border
V%/eininger's masterpiece was published. Into it he
T had poured labor and thought, all the immense ef-
fort of which he was capable. After that November night of
1902 he apparently recovered and occupied himself intensively
with work on the book.
