No More Learning

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. So busy was he that it might seem
that he had abandoned all thought of suicide, at least tempo-
rarily. Yet a dark current was flowing through his life, and it is
apparent in his writing of this period. Sex and Character was
created, rapidly created, in a mood of self-destruction. And to
the observant onlooker his behavior showed that his mood
was sinister. He became restless and silent; he avoided others,
brooded, and was preoccupied with his own concerns. Ewald,
who saw much of him at that time, says: "There was now a
restless roaming in the border regions of the soul; a silent
struggle was going on against the demoniac forces in his mind.
When we were together there was something new between
us which I could not understand" (p. 67).
In spite of this troubled mood, Otto managed to concen-
trate on his work, to occupy himself feverishly. His manual
labor was so rapid that it might seem to have stemmed from
the inexorable energy of a maniac. He worked inexhaustibly.
His sister says: "During nights, many nights, most nights, he
worked by the light of a small candle, and beside him was a
glass of milk which in the evening I brought to his bare room"
(Letter XV).
He was absorbed in his work and on March 10, 1903, wrote
in a letter to Gerber: "About Coitulogy: The more there is of
love and the less of mere sexual excitement, the more decent
the child will be. . . . I do not think that the sexes differ as
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? 124 Crossing the Border
to the degree of 'excitement'; that depends upon the craving
for love, which again produces similarity between the sexes. "
To this positive statement he adds, "With regard to 'mother-
prostitute' I am again in doubt. . . . "
After many weeks of labor, the book was completed in final
form (Taschenbuch, p. 21; Der Fall, p. 8). It was accepted by
Braumuller at the end of March, 1903, after a scientific pub-
lishing house had declined to print it (Taschenbuch, p. 21).
Weininger wrote to Gerber: "Vienna, March 30, 1903. In a
streetcar. Braumuller is printing my book! It will be finished
by the end of May. Will you go with me on Friday to see
Duse playing Hedda Gabler? If you can, I shall reserve two
tickets. I shall also be busy day and night for a month"
(Taschenbuch, p. 91).
Even if Weininger was for the most part living within his
own thoughts, he thus still found time for worldly activities.
On a post card (not published before) he wrote to his sister
under the date 12/2/1902: "I wish you would read Rosmers-
holm. I should like very much to meet that girl Meyer. Please
tell me when and where I can do so at the earliest opportu-
nity, when she comes to you. "
This suggestion that his sister read Rosmersholm, like his
interest in the theater months later, shows that his external
activity was still in apparent harmony with his inner life. The
other matter he mentioned on the post card, making the ac-
quaintance of Miss Meyer, is peculiar in that it is the only
written proof from his own hand that he ever wanted to meet
a girl. It appears that Miss Meyer had often asked to meet
him, and that later he actually did meet her. His sister reports,
"she [Miss Meyer] spent one hour with him, and she wrote
me, 'I have been with Jesus Christ' " (Letter XX).
This interest in Miss Meyer brings up the question of
Otto's relations with women. It is surprising that so far no sys-
tematic investigation has been made as to whether or not
Weininger was ever in love with any woman. The inference
from the evidence is that there was certainly no love between
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? Crossing the Border 125
him and Miss Meyer. On only one other occasion did Otto
mention a woman in his correspondence. That was in a letter
to Gerber on August 17, 1902. "Did you really think," he
asked, "it would interest me to know with whom Miss K.
played tennis? " (Taschenbuch, p. 8. ) This Miss K. has not
been identified, nor do we know what the relation was be-
tween her and Weininger. It would be possible to imagine
that he had been in love with Miss K. and that she had re-
buffed him. His leaving Vienna to travel in Norway and Italy
might possibly be explained as the result of frustrated love,
but, as has already been said in discussing the motives for his
journey to Norway, his psychological state is sufficient expla-
nation, and there is no evidence for the theory that he left
Vienna because he was spurned in love.
The theory that he was disappointed in love is supported by
Gjellerup in his translation of Sex and Character (note in the
chapter "The Nature of Woman and Her Relation to the
Universe," p. 473): "All that was base in his own nature he
projected into woman, and he hated it there because he did
not have the moral courage to hate it in himself. . . . What
it was that he projected--the large share of brutal sensuality
in his nature--is shown beyond any doubt in his terrible,
shapeless, negroid mouth. It is regrettable that the publisher
did not wish to use the portrait I supplied. With its great
contradiction between the lower and the upper parts of his
face, it would be an interesting frontispiece, but it would at
the same time introduce us to the book as a very--a com-
pletely--disclosing hieroglyph. "
These words may be taken to mean that Otto was so ugly
that, if he were in love, he could make no impression on the
woman he loved. But apart from Gerber (Taschenbuch, p. 6),
the unanimous opinion of those who knew him was that
Weininger was handsome rather than ugly, and this sort of
_ reasoning is obviously not acceptable.
It is surprising that the closest associates of. this man, who
practically crusaded against women, did not know of his ever
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? 126
Crossing the Border
having had relations with any woman. Swoboda writes:
"Weininger had no unfortunate experiences in the sense of
being morbid, disappointed, rejected in love. A hopeless inner
desire would have been as much of a hindrance to him as to
any great man. " Neither here nor elsewhere does Swoboda or
anyone else say whether Weininger actually had an affair with
some woman or tell of a great and decisive sexual incident at
any period of his life.
Probst, however, had very strong convictions about Wei-
ninger's sexual life. "The contents of his books and information
from his friends leads me," he said, "to believe that Wein-
inger was very erotic from childhood" (Der Fall, pp. 6, 12). 1
Weininger's sister denied that his personal experiences with
women had influenced his opinions on sex problems. His fa-
ther, interestingly enough, believed that Otto first had sexual
intercourse when he was in his twenties, but adds, "He had
sexual intercourse with very few women" (Der Fall, p. 6).
There is a strong argument against admitting this last state-
ment in evidence: a son does not usually tell his father about
his sexual experiences and feelings. Even when the relation-
ship between father and son is ideal, a man's sexual life always
has dark spots which are not clear to the man himself and
certainly not to others.
The lack of evidence about his relations with women does
not mean that Weininger never was in love with a woman.
The question arises: In order to explain his attitude toward
women, must we assume that he was rejected by a woman he
loved? If he had no deep-going relation with a woman, it is
hard to understand how from time to time he could have
shown such deep psychological knowledge of the relationship
between man and woman and such understanding of wom-
an's nature. To this question Weininger fortunately gave the
answer himself. "When Weininger's father asked him how he
1 Similarly, Ragnar Vogt in his review of Sex and Character for Tidskrift for
den Norske Legeforening, 1904, p. 457, said, "His personality was marked by
vivid idealistic longing and strong sexual impulses. "
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? Crossing the Border 127
could with so little experience pass such a devastating judg-
ment upon women, he answered that it is a great mistake to
believe that experience would yield true understanding" (Der
Fall, p. 6).
As he contended, it is not necessary to believe that Wei-
ninger necessarily had some sexual relationship with a woman n
before he could understand anything of woman's nature. Nor '
is frustrated love essential to the explanation of his hatred for
women. The conflicts in his own narcissistic nature offer reasons
enough to explain his attitude both toward women and toward
the world around him.
At the time of his conversation with Miss Meyer he was, in
spite of his intense activity, deeply preoccupied and miserable;
he was moving on the borderlines between life and death, be-
tween the existent and the unknown, while his close friends
hoped that his mental condition would improve. He was busy
while Sex and Character was being printed. On April 23 he
wrote to Gerber: "I am still kept terribly busy. I am swim-
ming in an ocean of first, second, and third proofs. I no longer
write with blood--only with red ink (A contrast to Nietz-
sche! )" (Taschenbuch, p. 92). He did indeed put forth al-
most incredible effort in the writing and the printing of his
book, and many of his nights were spent in reading proof. At
last the book was finished, and the labor was done. On May
29, 1903, he brought the first copy to Gerber. Sex and Char-
acter was published.
While work on the book was going on, within Weininger a
great mental change was taking place. His moral self-scrutiny
had gone so far in March and April, 1903, that he ended by
devoting himself formally to the practice of chastity. This de-
cision marked a new step in his development. Yet sexual ab-
stinence was in deepest harmony with his whole personality,
that personality in which sexual craving, producing feelings of j
guilt and sin, was in constant struggle with his ideas of purity \
and sanctity.
It would be hard to overemphasize the importance of this
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? 128
Crossing the Border
turn to asceticism in the understanding of Weininger's devel-
opment. His own words on the general subject of asceticism in
Sex and Character (p. 458) express views that harmonize with
his whole nature. "Asceticism," he wrote, "which actually is
an expression of the desire for indecency, is in itself indecent
because as a criterion for the judgment of sin it takes an ac-
companying phenomenon, an external result of an action in-
stead of the state of mind; it is heteronomous. Man should
strive for pleasure. He is entitled to try to make life on this
earth as bright and cheerful as possible. But he must never on
that account violate any moral law. By asceticism man tries to
compel morality by tearing his own flesh to pieces; he wants
morality for a reason, as a reward for all that he has sacrificed.
We must therefore disapprove of asceticism both as a prin-
ciple and as a psychological disposition, because it ties virtue
to something other than its result, makes it an effect of a
cause, and does not strive for it as an immediate goal in itself.
Asceticism is a dangerous seducer. Many are those who fall
victim to its disappointments, because lust is the most fre-
quent reason for leaving the path of right, and the mistake is
so easy to make that if one chooses pain instead of asceticism,
one is sure to remain on the side of right. Lust in itself is nei-
ther moral nor immoral. A man is lost only when the desire
for pleasure conquers the will to achieve merit. "
Weininger did not approve of asceticism as such. In his
own words when he said, "A man is lost only when the desire
for pleasure conquers the will to achieve merit," we may find
a reason for his own sexual asceticism. Deep personal experi-
ence lay behind those words; it is reasonable to suppose that
Weininger was compelled to practice sexual abstinence be-
cause his sexual urge was so strong that it would conquer his
will to achieve merit. In a psychological sense, the statement
means that he had at the same time a strong sexual urge and
great idealism. He longed for sexual life and sexual experience,
but tendencies of hostility and fear opposed his longing. This
antinomic process was typically expressed when Weininger in
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? Crossing the Border
his last days wrote down his "Letzte Aphorismen" (Last
Aphorisms). There he speaks of the criminal, and we may un-
derstand that the criminal is himself: "Thus the criminal also
creates woman as a thought (he wants intercourse), but she
does not exist for him. He never finds the woman he is looking
for because he creates only an idea of a woman. He can feel
sexual desire for the absolute prostitute (an old woman) and
he can love a Madonna (if he wants to become pure), but he
finds a Madonna only when he is good; at that moment he
also creates a Madonna" (U. L. D. , p. 180).
Weininger's poem beginning, "Sieh mich gebeugt" tells us
that because of his sexual desire he went to women of the
streets, even though he wept when he returned. He certainly
did not regret his desire for fear of venereal disease; his re-
morse came only from the curse of the moral law--that is, be-
cause of his own strongly moral attitude. Weininger believed
that the woman was debased and used only as a means in sexual
intercourse and that, therefore, sexual intercourse was immoral.
This belief obviously had something to do with his forswear-
ing sex relations.
Weininger's sexual urge could not compromise with his
idealistic tendencies. A deep conflict was created in him. On
the one side was his personality, with his moral ego (super-
ego), on the other his sexual drive, which he feared as harmful
and hostile. A continual struggle took place between these
two forces. Probably the reason for much of his moral rigor--
in a characterological sense--may be found in this biological
circumstance.
An ascetic is usually defined as a man who feels
pleasure not in the satisfaction of his drives, but in disregard
of them. The warfare within Weininger's nature was bringing
him to the point of ascetic denial--in fact, to psychological
self-castration.
An argument might be advanced to oppose this view with a
contrary explanation. It might be held that Otto adopted a
sexually abstinent life with the violent energy characteristic of
his schizoid make-up, so that his self-denial became a question
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? 130 Crossing the Border
of will power. Given the personal energy he always demon-
strated, it is easy to picture his asceticism in this light. The
explanation is, however, not really satisfactory, for it only takes
us back to the more fundamental question: What was behind
his wish to become an ascetic?
There is no hint that he might have been forced into ab-
stinence by a venereal disease, and we know that he was in
the prime of life when in April, 1903, he decided to be sex-
ually abstinent. Therefore, it might be easy to jump to the
conclusion that Weininger was homosexual. The question
may be argued. He was unmarried, but that fact, of course,
gives no foundation for the conclusion that he was homo-
sexual; he was, after all, only twenty-three years old when he
decided to be continent. This was no time to be married, par-
ticularly in the case of a university student. Moreover, mar-
riage in itself would be no proof that he was not homosexual,
for many married men are. One fact which may support the
theory of homosexuality was his early sexual maturity. The
result of early puberty may be that the sexual urge is not di-
rected against any particular goal and may sometimes be di-
verted to homoerotic inclinations.
His interest in, and knowledge of, the traits and habits of
homosexuals appear clearly in the pages of Sex and Character.
In opposition to Kraepelin and Fere, he considered homosex-
uality as congenital. He was aware that men who feel sexually
attracted to other men have a feminine appearance. In the
chapter, "Homosexuality and Pederasty" he wrote (p. 53):
"No pure psychosexual hermaphroditism exists; men who feel
sexual attraction to other men are in their appearance femi-
nine men, and women who have sexual desire for other women
exhibit a masculine physical appearance. " His formulation of
the law of sexual attraction states that an individual who is
practically half-man and half-woman requires for his mate an-
other being who is half-woman and half-man. "That is the
reason," he said (p. 59), "why homosexuals practically always
exercise their kind of sexuality only among themselves, why
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? Crossing the Border 131
they hardly ever take into their circle anyone who does not
look for the same kind of sexual satisfaction. The sexual at-
traction is mutual and is the strong factor which makes homo-
sexuals always recognize each other so readily. " These state-
ments were made when Weininger was twenty-one or possibly
even younger. Were they based on personal experience? Did
his opinion result from personal experience? When he reached
the conclusion that "logically the right thing to do would be I
to let homosexuals find satisfaction where they look for it,
which is among themselves" (Sex and Character, p. 61), he
might be considered as defending his own growing homo-
sexual inclinations. Obviously, since his observations were ac-
curate, he must have known a great deal about the habits of
homosexuals. This accuracy may indicate that he was ac-
quainted with homosexuals and familiar with homosexual cir-
cles in Vienna.
At first glance the theory that he was homosexual might
seem to be supported by the fact that Weininger had very few
and carefully selected personal friends. It must, however, be
borne in mind that he was a shut-in, schizoid person, and such
individuals typically have very few, if any, intimate friends.
This peculiarity in Weininger does not, therefore, give any
real support to the theory that he was homosexual. Yet it is of
interest to note that he said in Sex and Character (p. 58):
"Nor is there any friendship between men which does not
have an element of sexuality, no matter how little the friend-
ship is characterized by it. Even though the sexual aspect is
alien to the thought of friendship, though it is quite contrary
to the very idea of friendship, the plain fact is that there can
never be friendship between men who have no physical attrac-
tion for each other, for without attraction they cannot ap-
proach each other. Much of the protection given by one friend
to another and much favoritism originate in such sexual rela-
tionships, which are often unconscious. " Again we may won-
der if personal experience did not dictate these ideas.
In connection with Weininger's Platonic and quite theoret-
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? 132 Crossing the Border
ical division into masculine and feminine substance, it should
be noted that Weininger found in himself traits that he con-
sidered feminine. This awareness--which was more or less
conscious--of having characteristics of the other sex may be
said to be typical of the homosexual. To be a man was, accord-
ing to Weininger, to conquer the passive resistance, to defeat
the feminine part of one's self (which Weininger thought of
symbolically as Ibsen's Boig) . 2 His attitude may be considered
as showing symptoms of homosexual inclinations.
Above all, his appalling and absurd ideas on women in Sex
and Character may hint at homosexual traits in himself. There
and at times in his letters he seems to be defending himself
against the charge that he is a woman. "Am I such a woman? "
he asks at one time, and quite irrelevantly, since the question
seems to have been as to whether or not he was jealous of a
"Miss K. " He is proud of not being seasick when "every
woman on board was seasick. " These remarks are revealing in
connection with his special theory of bisexuality, and they may
reflect some homosexual traits in himself.
It has already been said that Weininger attributed feminine
traits to the Jewish people. Would it be far-fetched to see a
possible symbolic connection between his antifeminism and
his anti-Semitism? Being of Jewish blood, he was loud in his
hatred of the Jews in order to show that he was not really dif-
ferent from other men. Being homosexual, he was loud in his
denunciation of women in order to show that he was not
really different from other men. The hatred of his mother-
religion, Judaism, should also probably be regarded as a sym-
bol of his hatred for his own mother. Even if such speculations
bring no sure answer, nevertheless Weininger did take an
2 John Landquist, "En kritik av Otto Weininger varldsaskadning," in Filoso-
fiske Essayer (Stockholm, 1916), p. 181. There is a theory that the endocrine
disturbances, which may be cause of the schizoid-schizophrenic constitution,
are in definite biological relation to the homosexual disposition. See Hermann
Hoffmann, Vererbung und Seelenleben: Einfiihrung in die psychiatrische Kon-
stitutions- und Vererbungslehre (Berlin, 1922), p. 226. Kretschmer has demon-
strated that we find the occurrence of sexual perversions disproportionately
more frequent in schizophrenic than in cyclophrenic individuals.
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? Crossing the Border 133
overcompensated masculine attitude in order to overcome
traces of femininity in himself, and that fact does indicate the
presence of homosexual traits in him.
Weininger's ascetic tendencies may show an interesting
parallel to the attitude of Plato toward sex. Some students of
Plato believe that he was forced into an ascetic philosophy by
his own tendency toward sexual perversion. We may possibly
see a similar process in Weininger.
His asceticism was to no small extent fostered by the close
intellectual and emotional relationship with his father, which
caused Otto, consciously or unconsciously, to adore the elder
Weininger. This feeling may have led to a kind of adoration
of virility, a phallic cult, through which he sought to realize
the masculine ideal. This phallic cult undoubtedly stressed his
homoerotic drive and was, in addition to the factors previously
mentioned, instrumental in creating his later asceticism.
We may conclude, then, that his deliberate sexual absti-
nence in the last six months of his life may be considered a
change, and in a sense a perversion, of his sexual nature. In
Sex and Character the same twisted shape appears, reflecting
contorted sexual feelings.
The question arises as to whether this ascetic turn was to
some extent constitutionally conditioned. No decisive answer
can be made, since we do not know where heredity starts and
environment ends. 3 This much seems to be fairly well estab-
lished: a person inherits certain materials which, given certain
situations and conditions, will call forth a particular charac-
teristic in his personality. Granting that everyone, including
Weininger, does inherit certain things, we may go on to say
that those things create a predisposition, a frame within which
the influences of his environment work. When we keep in
mind the personality make-up of Otto Weininger, when we
recall how he bent his efforts toward attaining the ideal life
of Jesus, how he ended by arriving not only at sexual asceti-
cism but also at complete unreality, and how under the influ-
8 David Abrahamsen, Crime and the Human Mind (New York, 1944), p. 56.
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? 154 Crossing the Border
ences of his environment he advanced steadily to that asceti-
cism, we may see how personality make-up and environment
worked together, hand in hand.
The one-sided fashion in which Weininger looked at the
sexual problem is worth noting, for it is in itself a symptom of
a schizoid nature. A man of the schizoid type tends to regard
questions with less than the normal breadth of attention, and
consequently his views are narrow and fixed. Weininger's
view of the sexual problem was certainly narrow and rigid be-
cause of the conflict between his strong sexual urge and the
growing repulsion for sexual life which became natural for him
( though morbid for a healthy man. The disturbances of his
^ sexual urge created in him a manifest perversion, compounded
of homosexual and ascetic elements.
The attraction which sexual life had for him seems at a cer-
tain period--from the summer of 1902 to April, 1903--to
have had some neurotic coloring. He tried to free himself by
suppressing of the sexual urge, by sublimation of it. Such
obsessional neurotic phenomena as appeared in him at this
time seem to have been furthered, at least to some extent, by
his abnormal sexual drive. Yet in spite of the fact that he
showed these signs for some time, we need not conclude that
he suffered from a neurosis as such. The decisive evidence to
show that it was not a neurosis is to be found in the fatal
symptoms of symbolism and mysticism, which appeared in
him at least as early as the spring of 1902 (see U. L. D. , p. 115)
and persisted until his death. These cannot be regarded as
anything but the first signs of schizophrenia. 4 The compulsory
neurotic phenomena he showed were the result of perversions,
which had been activated by his sadistic tendencies, as quite
often occurs in such cases.
Gerber, who followed Weininger's mental condition with
some care, thought that he was in more cheerful mood in the
* Ernst Spehr, Von Wesen der Neurose und ihren Erscheinungsformen (Leip-
zig, ! 938), P- 88-
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? Crossing the Border 135
summer of 1903 (Taschenbuch, p. 21), but that impression
must have been only an illusion. Weininger often spoke of his
criminal disposition, but in a more subdued way than formerly
--a change which led the observer to hope that his mental
crisis was passing. Yet he seems still to have been in a crisis
state, though controlling his moods with violent effort and
great mental struggle. Apparently he drew some comfort from
his work. Still it was not true that his crisis had ended. Quite
the contrary, as his later mental development was to prove.
Rappaport claimed (U. L. D. , p. xvii) that Weininger's suffer-
ing deepened shortly after Sex and Character was published.
The words used in the preface to the first edition of Vber die
letzten Dinge leave no doubt as to what Rappaport's estimate
of Otto's state of mind was. "When he had just completed his
first work, he said once to me: 'There are three possibilities for
me--the gallows, suicide, or a future so brilliant that I don't
dare to think of it! ' On the same day he entrusted to me his
last manuscript [probably an incomplete draft of Vber die
letzten Dinge] to publish in case he should not be able to do
so himself. From that day on his condition grew steadily
worse. "
His gloomy mood was also described by Lucka, who said,
"Weininger often made a sinister, uncomfortable impression
on me and others, but he might become quite cheerful again
later. " This description accords well with Lucka's statement
about Otto before Sex and Character was published--"He was
often quite lost in himself and hardly listened to our conversa-
tion. " And Ewald also gives us the same impression by saying,
"In intimate conversations he frequently hinted at terrible
trials by evil forces and mentioned that the idea of a violent
solution was not strange to him. "
Weininger's state of mind during the spring of 1903 was,
then, dark and serious, full of dread and doubt. He lived in
anticipation of a catastrophe. So deep was his skepticism, so
intense his search for what he believed to be truth, that he
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? 136 Crossing the Border
actually appeared to be languishing in despair. The tragic
strain may not have appeared on the surface, but his friends
suspected his condition.
The best expression of that state of mind is to be found in
parts of Sex and Character. He wrote, for instance (pp. 386--
87): "Since every man has some relation to . the idea of the
supreme good without really being part of it, there is no happy
man. Only women are happy. No man is happy; he is com-
mitted to liberty, while on earth he is always bound one way
or another. None but a completely passive creature, like the
<<. true woman, or a completely active being, like the Deity, can
be happy. Happiness is feeling of perfection, which no man
can ever enjoy, but there are women who fancy themselves
perfect. A man always has problems behind him and tasks
ahead of him. All problems have their roots in the past. The
future is the realm of the tasks. . . . Happiness for a man
would imply full and pure activity, complete freedom; but he
can never be free, and his guilt mounts as he moves away
from the idea of liberty. Life on earth is suffering for him, and
must be so, because human beings are passive in their percep-
tions. . . . Every man needs to make observations; even the
genius is nothing without that power, though he can fill his
observations with his own personality and has no need of com-
plete induction to be able to recognize the idea of a thing. "
Many quotations of this sort could be cited; they all go to
show that he was gravely unhappy. In any event his suicide
makes any other view impossible. Another passage in the book
(pp. 384-85) reads: "I can first recognize a sin when I am no
longer committing it. From the moment that I recognize it I
commit it no more. Therefore, I cannot understand life so
long as I am alive, and time is the great riddle which defies
me so long as I am living in it. . . . When I have conquered
time, then I shall be able to understand it; death alone can
teach me the meaning of life.