Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German EditionWeininger, Otto
Philosophy
Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German Edition
Weininger, Otto
Character; Sex; Sex (Psychology); Sexual ethics
If the rejecting ego were really their natural ego they could act in
opposition to the disturbing element which they say is foreign to them,
and be fully conscious of it, and differentiate and recognise it in
their memory. But the fraud is evident, because the rejecting ego is
only borrowed, and they lack the courage to look their own desire in the
face, although something seems to say that it is the real, inborn, and
only powerful one they have. Even the desire itself has no real
identity, for it is not seated in a real individual, and, as it is
suppressed, leaps, so to speak, from one part of the body to the other.
It may be that my attempt at an explanation will be thought fanciful,
but at least it appears to be true that the various forms of hysteria
are one and the same thing. This one thing is what the hysterical
patient will not admit is part of her, although it is what is pressing
on her. If she were able to ascribe it to herself and criticise it in
the way in which she admits trivial matters of another kind, she would
be in a measure outside and above her own experiences. The frantic rage
of hysterical women at what they say is imposed on them by some strange
will, whilst it in reality is their own will, shows that they are just
as much under the domination of sexuality as are non-hysterical women,
are just as subject to their destiny and incapable of averting it, since
they, too, are without any intelligible, free ego.
But it may be asked, with reason, why all women are not hysterical,
since all women are liars? This brings us to a necessary inquiry as to
the hysterical constitution. If my theory has been on the right lines,
it ought to be able to give an answer in accordance with facts.
According to it, the hysterical woman is one who has passively accepted
in entirety the masculine and conventional valuations instead of
allowing her own mental character its proper play. The woman who is not
to be led is the antithesis of the hysterical woman. I must not delay
over this point; it really belongs to special female characterology. The
hysterical woman is hysterical because she is servile; mentally she is
identical with the maid-servant. Her opposite (who does not really
exist) is the shrewish dame. So that women may be subdivided into the
maid who serves, and the woman who commands.[20]
[20] We may find the analogy to this in men: there are masculine
“servants” who are so by nature, and there is the masculine form of
the shrew--_e.g._, the policeman. It is a noticeable fact that a
policeman usually finds his sexual complement in the housemaid.
The servant is born and not made, and there are many women in good
circumstances who are “born servants,” although they never need to put
their rightful position to the test! The servant and the mistress are a
sort of “complete woman” when considered as a “whole.”[21]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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