Otto Weininger - Sex and Character

[Scoob]

See the link below for a fascinating read:
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~davidquinn/sexcharh.html

It describes male/female gender differences. Weininger says that female consciousness is inherently different from male, because females think in terms of "henids" - vague half-formed impressions that are inseparable from sensations. Women lack a true ego, which Weininger describes as the male's intellectual orientation towards what he considers "The Good." Women are never truly alone, they conceive of themselves only in terms of other people.

This relates to what Agrippa posted regarding schizothymy and zyklothymy. Schizothymy would be to Weininger a male attribute: a split whereby experience/sensation is formed into abstract concepts in the male mind.

I think there is neurological evidence for this kind of thing. The "split" is the corpus callosum - which unites the two cerebral hemispheres. Women have a much stronger one than men. Their minds are more integrated. Their modes of thinking are therefore less differentiated, structurally.

Weininger mentions that maleness and femaleness are qualities possessed in varying degrees by people of both genders. He discusses this type of thing at length.

Weininger interprets this gender difference from the perspective that women are inferior. I consider women to be the backbone or foundation of the human species - without them Man cannot exist. But I also think that humanity in the sense of Homo Sapiens sapiens, achieves this essential quality most in men.

This also relates to Nietzsche's idea of Dionysian and Apollonian. The Dionysian has no ego - it is pure experience, appreciation of life in all its qualities, including destruction. The Apollonian postulates beautiful forms, tries to preserve them against decay and destruction - uses logic, reason, art, etc. Note the correspondence with what Weininger calls Feminine and Masculine, and what Kretschmer called Zyklothym and Schizothym.

I also know that the Nazis wrote about this. They considered Aryans to be Apollonian, and considered the Dionysian elements in Classical culture to be degenerate elements from the darker races of the East. Wilhelm Reich quoted some Nazi theoreticians in one of his books - possibly "The Mass Psychology of Fascism" - but I haven't seen this in years and don't have a copy I can refer to.

Anyway, see this very interesting link.

[Hellenic Eagle]

They considered Aryans to be Apollonian, and considered the Dionysian elements in Classical culture to be degenerate elements from the darker races of the East.

I believe this is just Germanic crap. Classical culture does not need to be judged by ignorant scholastic Germanics. Classical culture has shown the world what its worth and i guess the world appreciated it, that is why we are discussing it 2500 years after..

[Frans_Jozef]

I believe this is just Germanic crap. Classical culture does not need to be judged by ignorant scholastic Germanics. Classical culture has shown the world what its worth and i guess the world appreciated it, that is why we are discussing it 2500 years after..

Be glad that the ignorant Germanic dummies appreciated the Hellenic culture, studied it and opened it to the new generations on every corner of the world, where Europeans live,..the world(i.e., the primitives and traditional entities of other races) couldn't care less for and old and sepulchred cultures as the one of your forebearers;
their cultures, beliefs, customs and mentalility continues to live and challenges the talons of withering Time, while
in today's Greece what remains of the old glorious past are ruines photogenically luring like some street daisies, ready to be pasted on a piece of cardboard, off to small town, USA or Randstad, Holland....and fields of olives.

So, how do you feel being bashed and victim of disdain?
I do know the Greeks, fine people if you meet them, they keep open house and quite a dish that they offer you, and they're truely proud of their accomplishments and cultural merits in the Past, but even if their elogies verge on some fanfare-esk pomposity, they never slip into rabid denunciation of the Northern Europeans....
I was twice in South Italy and never heard a word of depreciation, althought they find us too silent, introspectice, sturdy and bit cold-tempered on the outside.
Well, that was the image they have of Belgians, but while we're indeed bit *closed* and stern in an initial meeting, once the ice broken, we're hailed as friendly and honest people, open-handed and a tee-bit too consumating in our joie-de-vivre.

Yes, old Greece build up magnificent temples and shrines when us, Barbarians, still lived in log cabins, but what really matters is what person you are....Hasn't George Orwell shown us in Down and Out in Paris and London that you can live but as a mere streetdog, but by night look up at the sky with awe and astonishment to the stars and name them one by one....

[Taras Bulba]

Of course men and women think differently. Good evidence of this fact is that all the major intellectual achievements and developments in European civilization(or any civilization for that matter) was accompished by men. Where are the female composers? Female philosophers? etc. etc. Whats interesting is that women supposedly have better abilities in language skills, yet men still dominated the world of literature.

[Siegfried]

Of course men and women think differently. Good evidence of this fact is that all the major intellectual achievements and developments in European civilization(or any civilization for that matter) was accompished by men. Where are the female composers? Female philosophers? etc. etc. Whats interesting is that women supposedly have better abilities in language skills, yet men still dominated the world of literature.

I agree with you on this one. In 'down-to-earth'-talk women may have better language skills though. The whole 'women are better at expressing their emotions' is crap, IMHO; it suggests men are 'emotionally retarded'.
Female emotions are simply different from those of men and they have different ways of dealing with them. Women are in no objective way 'better' at dealing with their feelings.

[Agrippa]

Kretschmer considered Schizophrenes being the pathological form of Schizothym and same for the relation of Manic-Depressives and Zyklothyms.

My idea about that is that he was partly right and there is some relation to Weininger in general

Schizophrenia is mainly characterized by a defect of perception, of hallucinations, phobias and anxiety.

I think it could be the consequence of degenerations of parts of the brain which lead to the lose of control of certain areas of the brain and a defective communication of the brain areas.

Thats in fact the reason for the Schizothymic normal constitution imo, that they can concentrate on certain areas and split emotions more or less from thinking and acting or in another case concentrate on single emotions.

So their might be a higher tendency for subdivisions and partial higher activities.
If this constitution degenerate it loses control like I said and what one part of the brain is thinking might be what the other part of the brain perceive as a "foreign voice".

For Zyklothyms its the other way around. They have a problem of using or concentrate on single emotions or areas. They have a strong communication of the whole brain and their emotions cant be split from thinking that easy.

If this constitution degenerate it lead to a defective "hyper communication" of the brain. Emotions can get high and influence the whole thinking may it be in the manic or depressive way.

So if you look at this basic conditions of cerebral communication its clear why this two constitutions are the antagonistic extremes and are known in daily life as well as in science.

Women have a higher communication between the to hemisphaeres of the brain and therefore you could assume a higher tendency toward Zyklothymie and that maybe the case.

But on the other hand you should always keep in mind that women thinking is different between male and female Schizothyms ore male/female Zyklothyms as well.

So sextype and constitional type in general are different but corresponding categories.

Male Zyklothyms think more open and emotional than the Schizothyms, but also more concentrated on different emotions.

So I would say, male and female Zyklothyms have both a higher brain area communication, but females still use their "personal-emotional" part more and concentrate on different emotions.

Zyklothym males have their male difference in hemisphaeric thinking but their male-oriented emotions are stronger bound together and communicate more than in Schizothyms.

Same with Schizothym women. They tend to concentrate more on certain emotions, aims and brain areas, but they also cant avoid their female brain communication which more concentrates on female related emotions.

But typical for both male and female Schizothyms is that they can concentrate so much on certain parts of their emotions that they can be formed, changed more by nurture in general.
But once formed in childhood mainly they dont change to much in later years.

Thats something which is totally different from Zyklothyms, both male and females. There emotions are just changeable by pathological degeneration and they will behave more situation-oriented.