Eternal Riddle

The study of woman is more than a man-sized task. Dr. Helene Deutsch, psychiatrist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, has been at it for 30 years, part of that time as a student with the late, great Sigmund Freud. Her conclusions are summed up in Psychology of Woman (Grune & Stratton; $4.50), a scholarly, technical, Freudian analysis, intended for professional medicos, but of great general interest. Sample findings:

P: The normal feminine woman is passive and masochistic (enjoys her own sufferering). Her activity is directed inward, not aggressively outward. If it is intense, she may become the domineering mother, or active in children's homes and nurseries, but she is always conservative, matriarchal.

P: A stronger aggressiveness leads to the masculinity complex, which often conceals a fear of the feminine functions, not a protest against them. In some women there is endless conflict and frustration between feminine and masculine--between home duties and a career, neither satisfying her. In still others the masculinity complex is sublimated as intellectuality.

Says Dr. Deutsch: "Woman's intellectuality is to a large extent paid for by the loss of valuable feminine qualities. . . . Everything relating to exploration and cognition, all the forms and kinds of human cultural aspiration that require a strictly objective approach, are with few exceptions the domain of the masculine intellect, or man's spiritual power, against which women can rarely compete. . . . The intellectual woman is masculinized; in her, warm intuitive knowledge has yielded to cold unproductive thinking."

P: The feminine woman is fundamentally monogamous. She may change her love objects frequently but during each relation she is "absolutely monogamous" and has a conservative need to continue the given relation as long as possible.

P: The war emergency opens up all the reservoirs of fear. The answer to fear is action. In some women it becomes an obsession, with a strong sense of guilt and the need to sacrifice themselves in the general cause. Their suffering and heroism may be intense. They seek jobs at the battlefronts, often try to forget their fear by drinking and sexual promiscuity. In other women the reaction is hysterical, involving rebellion against authority, especially against mothers. They are driven to seek experience, including sexual dangers.

P: Women's war activities, either in uniform or in overalls, are not necessarily signs of aggressiveness or masculinity. Instead they may express woman's passiveness and masochism, or merely her passive acceptance of the general mood of the times. To some women the uniform is a welcome protection against social prejudices.

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