The Dogma of Christ by Erich Fromm

Author:Erich Fromm [Fromm, Erich]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781497693920
Publisher: Open Road Distribution
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

IV

Sex and Character

The thesis that between the two sexes there are innate differences which necessarily result in basic differences in character and fate is a very old one. The Old Testament makes it woman’s peculiarity and curse that her “desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee,” and man’s that he shall have to work in sweat and sorrow. But even the biblical report contains virtually the opposite thesis: man was created in God’s likeness, and only as punishment for man’s and woman’s original disobedience—they were treated as equals with regard to their moral responsibility—were they cursed with mutual conflict and eternal difference. Both these views, that of their basic difference and that of their basic identity, have been repeated through the centuries—one age or one philosophical school emphasizing the one, another, the opposite thesis.

The problem assumed increased significance in the philosophical and political discussions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Representatives of the Enlightenment philosophy took the position that there were no innate differences between the sexes (l’âme n’a pas de sexe); that whatever differences could be observed were conditioned by differences in education, were—as would be said today—cultural differences. Romantic philosophers of the early nineteenth century, on the other hand, stressed the very opposite point. They analyzed the characterological differences between men and women, and said that the fundamental differences were the result of innate biological and physiological differences. Their contention was that these differences in character would exist in any conceivable culture.

Regardless of the merits of the respective arguments—and the analysis of the Romantics was often profound—they both had a political implication. The philosophers of the Enlightenment, especially the French, wanted to make a point for the social and, to some extent, political equality of men and women. They emphasized the lack of innate differences as an argument for their case. The Romantics, who were political reactionaries, used their analysis of the essence (Wesen) of man’s nature as a proof of the necessity of political and social inequality. Although they attributed very admirable qualities to “the woman,” they insisted that her characteristics made her unfit to participate in social and political life on an equal footing with men.

The political struggle for woman’s equality did not end in the nineteenth century, nor did the theoretical discussion on the innate versus the cultural character of their differences. In modern psychology Freud became the most outspoken representative of the Romantics’ cause. Whereas the argument of the latter had been couched in philosophical language, Freud’s was based on the scientific observation of patients in the psychoanalytic procedure. He assumed that the anatomical difference between the sexes was the cause for unalterable characterological differences. “Anatomy is her fate,” he says of the woman, paraphrasing a sentence of Napoleon’s. His contention was that the little girl, when she discovers the fact that she lacks the male genital organ, is profoundly shocked and impressed by this discovery; that she feels something she ought to have is lacking; that she envies

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.