“One of the most important books of our times, it seems to me. Dr. Stern reads like a poet, and uses his professional training in order to arrive at profound insights, instead of being hamstrung by it, as most Freudian literary critics are.”
–Caroline Gordon
“A Freudian psychiatrist of Jewish birth, a Roman Catholic and a man of letters–this is a unique and remarkable combination. Admirers of The Pillar of Fire and The Third Revolution will find even greater insight and compassion in Dr Stern’s new hook exploring the hidden sources of anti-feminist writing in Europe from Schopenhauer to Sartre.”
–Graham Greene
Dr. Stern’s The Flight from Woman is a study of the polarity of the sexes as reflected in the conflict between two modes of knowledge–scientific or rational, as contrasted with intuitive or poetic. In exploring this rich theme, he undertakes the psychological portraits of six representative figures whose thought and work have influenced modern man: Descartes, Goethe, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, and Sartre.
The scientific revolution of the last 300 years has yielded, in Dr. Stern’s view, a de-ferninization and de-humanization of society, in the sense that it is a rejection of the kind of wisdom, called sophia, that is comprehended intuitively. “If we equate the one-sidedly rational and technical with the masculine,” he states, “there arises the ghastly specter of a world impoverished of womanly values.”
A deeply original work, The Flight from Woman goes far beyond psychology in its analysis of the malaise of our time.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Womanhood
3. Scientific Knowledge and Poetic Knowledge
4. Psychoanalysis and Metaphysics
5. Descartes
6. Schopenhauer
7. Sartre
8. Hedda and Her Companions
9. Tolstoy
10. Kierkegaard
11. Goethe
12. Marginal Notes
Index
