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Flight From Woman
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 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.
310 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 23, 2018
This book is immensely valuable especially if you are interested in psychoanalysis and the history of philosophy / ideas. With impeccable insight and analysis, we are treated to biographical sketches and psychological portraits of some of the greatest minds of Western thought and civilization, including the father of modern philosophy Descartes and his many intellectual heirs in the shapes and guises of Schopenhauer, Sartre and Kierkegaard. Karl Stern also examines the lives and works of Tolstoy and Goethe and even one of Ibsen’s characters / prototypes Hedda Gabler in detail.
The main observation here is that the world has and continues to become lopsided and is bent in direction of science and scientific thinking and knowledge, the traditionally and symbolically male elements of our building block as opposed to all that is ascribed to the feminine, namely poetic knowledge in the form of intuition and feeling. Particularly with the advent of Descartes and Newton, we have been focusing too much on the hard and exact sciences at the expense of our vital need for an imaginative and poetic view and interpretation of the world.
There is a lot of truth in Karl Stern’s observations and he insists that we need to have both elements and types of knowledge to be firmly grounded in our existence and to feel complete as a human being. In the case of a lack of balance, our life and world become restless and we cannot be at peace with ourselves. Science and technology in and of themselves are not evil per se, but when they usurp and manipulate nature and begin to control and dictate our lives, we become more and more enmeshed in their ever-growing cogs and bolts. We lose touch with Mother Nature, the eternal female and lose our spiritual connection to ourselves and to the world.
In fact, even though the book was written about half a century ago, it is even more valid today with the continuously expanding and absorbing consumer culture of ours. We not only swallow all forms of entertainment and modern convenience, but in turn we are swallowed by them. One may not agree with every detail in this book, but here is timely and highly relevant insight and advice much needed for our current society and lifestyle.
The main observation here is that the world has and continues to become lopsided and is bent in direction of science and scientific thinking and knowledge, the traditionally and symbolically male elements of our building block as opposed to all that is ascribed to the feminine, namely poetic knowledge in the form of intuition and feeling. Particularly with the advent of Descartes and Newton, we have been focusing too much on the hard and exact sciences at the expense of our vital need for an imaginative and poetic view and interpretation of the world.
There is a lot of truth in Karl Stern’s observations and he insists that we need to have both elements and types of knowledge to be firmly grounded in our existence and to feel complete as a human being. In the case of a lack of balance, our life and world become restless and we cannot be at peace with ourselves. Science and technology in and of themselves are not evil per se, but when they usurp and manipulate nature and begin to control and dictate our lives, we become more and more enmeshed in their ever-growing cogs and bolts. We lose touch with Mother Nature, the eternal female and lose our spiritual connection to ourselves and to the world.
In fact, even though the book was written about half a century ago, it is even more valid today with the continuously expanding and absorbing consumer culture of ours. We not only swallow all forms of entertainment and modern convenience, but in turn we are swallowed by them. One may not agree with every detail in this book, but here is timely and highly relevant insight and advice much needed for our current society and lifestyle.
February 28, 2019
Simply amazing. This is a book by a brilliant Jewish psychologist that fled Nazi Germany before the holocaust, and even converted to Christianity, Roman Catholicism, to be exact.
Anyway, it's a brilliant consideration of gender with some of the best of mid twentieth century psychology, and it's explicitly Christian--and he even quotes C.S. Lewis at the beginning and end of the book.
But it's more than that. It's a full-fledged critique of modernity as "in flight from woman." I normally hate "modernity is evil" narratives, but this one really isn't of the usual low caliber of that genre. Stern is basically critiquing scientism as a kind of over-masculinized hustling or curiosity. He also avoids critiquing society in general, but talks exclusively about the key minds of modernity, namely, Descartes, Schopenhauer, Sartre, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy (post-conversion), and Goethe. All troubled by women in some sense, all trying to put distance between themselves and the feminine, and failing miserably.
Anyway, this is a book I hope to re-read regularly, and I would commend it to someone looking for a good book on gender and on the entire modern world, particularly scientism. Some minor annoyances related to the virgin Mary (but even here he admits the paucity of historical evidence), but those are super easily forgiven.
Anyway, it's a brilliant consideration of gender with some of the best of mid twentieth century psychology, and it's explicitly Christian--and he even quotes C.S. Lewis at the beginning and end of the book.
But it's more than that. It's a full-fledged critique of modernity as "in flight from woman." I normally hate "modernity is evil" narratives, but this one really isn't of the usual low caliber of that genre. Stern is basically critiquing scientism as a kind of over-masculinized hustling or curiosity. He also avoids critiquing society in general, but talks exclusively about the key minds of modernity, namely, Descartes, Schopenhauer, Sartre, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy (post-conversion), and Goethe. All troubled by women in some sense, all trying to put distance between themselves and the feminine, and failing miserably.
Anyway, this is a book I hope to re-read regularly, and I would commend it to someone looking for a good book on gender and on the entire modern world, particularly scientism. Some minor annoyances related to the virgin Mary (but even here he admits the paucity of historical evidence), but those are super easily forgiven.
June 11, 2021
I only read this book because my brother gave it to me. I am not familiar with any of the philosophers or their work (I’ve heard of them.), so the book was a struggle for me to understand. That’s not the book’s fault. I haven’t finished yet, but what the chapters before the philosopher chapters say about women is malarkey. I‘ll add to this review if the conclusion is better. Finished. I have no idea what this book is about. I don’t think it is about women. It ends up talking about Christianity.
May 2, 2016
Two forms of knowing are commonly contrasted. On one hand is scientific, rational, discursive knowledge, the sort represented by the classical syllogism "All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal." On the other hand is intuitive or poetic knowledge, the sort represented by the "lightbulb" moment when an idea becomes crystal clear instantly. Scientific knowledge breaks down a thing into its parts and sees how it is put together from an objective viewpoint. Intuition takes in the thing as it is and immediately grasps one or more characteristics of the thing. The first knowing is typically considered masculine and the second feminine. Which is not to say that discursive reasoning is only done by men and intuition is only done by women. But that is how they are stereotypically identified. In the modern era, credit for "real" knowledge is given almost exclusively to discursive reasoning (especially for its basis in mathematics, a field with unquestioned objectivity). Intuition is considered unreliable and suspect.
Karl Stern argues in this book that the divide between the two is a fairly recent development in human history, starting from Descartes's distinction between the material (res extensa or extended things) and the spiritual (res cogitans or thinking things). Cartesians see the divide as unbridgeable and that the res extensa is the mathematically verifiable, sure knowledge. Stern gives a thorough examination of Descartes' writings and his life to show both that Descartes would probably disagree with his followers and that he gives poetic knowledge the same certainty even if it is subject to different criteria of estimation. Stern gives an extensive psychological analysis of Descartes that is informative and persuasive.
Stern examines the lives and the writings of many other famous figures after Descartes (Goethe, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Ibsen, and Sartre) to develop his theme further, namely that the divide between the two forms of knowing leads to problems. Those figures all have challenging interactions with women in their lives (sometimes mothers, sometimes wives and lovers, sometimes others) that have an impact on their work. By the time of Sartre, intuitive knowledge of things is a thing that leaves him with nausea.
Stern ultimately concludes that the conflict and the evaluation is false. Rather than being opposite or irreconcilable ways of knowing, Stern sees reason and intuition as complementary. They can come to the same truth in different ways and can fill in the weaknesses of each other. Intuition can grasp things that are beyond the scope of scientific reason, beyond the merely quantifiable. And they have equal validity (even if they do not share the same process of validation). Stern agrees that the rational/mathematical inclination is stronger in men and the intuitive inclination is stronger in women. But both sexes are capable of both ways of knowing and merely focusing on one way of knowing is limiting, if not harmful to the knower. Integrating the two is a way to greater personal harmony and happiness.
Stern writes from a psychoanalytical and phenomenological perspective. Thus his writing is sometimes technical. Keep a dictionary nearby. Also, he is well read in western literature and thought which also required occasional research on my part (I know about Faust and Don Juan but Ahasver and Hedda Gabler are new to me). The effort is well worth the rewarding insights found in this book.
Karl Stern argues in this book that the divide between the two is a fairly recent development in human history, starting from Descartes's distinction between the material (res extensa or extended things) and the spiritual (res cogitans or thinking things). Cartesians see the divide as unbridgeable and that the res extensa is the mathematically verifiable, sure knowledge. Stern gives a thorough examination of Descartes' writings and his life to show both that Descartes would probably disagree with his followers and that he gives poetic knowledge the same certainty even if it is subject to different criteria of estimation. Stern gives an extensive psychological analysis of Descartes that is informative and persuasive.
Stern examines the lives and the writings of many other famous figures after Descartes (Goethe, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Ibsen, and Sartre) to develop his theme further, namely that the divide between the two forms of knowing leads to problems. Those figures all have challenging interactions with women in their lives (sometimes mothers, sometimes wives and lovers, sometimes others) that have an impact on their work. By the time of Sartre, intuitive knowledge of things is a thing that leaves him with nausea.
Stern ultimately concludes that the conflict and the evaluation is false. Rather than being opposite or irreconcilable ways of knowing, Stern sees reason and intuition as complementary. They can come to the same truth in different ways and can fill in the weaknesses of each other. Intuition can grasp things that are beyond the scope of scientific reason, beyond the merely quantifiable. And they have equal validity (even if they do not share the same process of validation). Stern agrees that the rational/mathematical inclination is stronger in men and the intuitive inclination is stronger in women. But both sexes are capable of both ways of knowing and merely focusing on one way of knowing is limiting, if not harmful to the knower. Integrating the two is a way to greater personal harmony and happiness.
Stern writes from a psychoanalytical and phenomenological perspective. Thus his writing is sometimes technical. Keep a dictionary nearby. Also, he is well read in western literature and thought which also required occasional research on my part (I know about Faust and Don Juan but Ahasver and Hedda Gabler are new to me). The effort is well worth the rewarding insights found in this book.
July 6, 2015
William Johnston – The Still Point
"Karl Stern, following in the footsteps of the great psychologist [Carl Jung], has revived the picture of a defeminized, dehumanized West, rich in technology but desperately poor in intuition, poor in the wisdom called sophia. . ."
"love is inimical [hostile, in opposition to] to the slowness of discursive thinking, and if (even in human affairs) love flies straight to its object unencumbered by roundabout discourse, is it not understandable that the love of God will be intolerent of thinking and reasoning and cause a certain ligature [something used to bind or unite]."
A final quote about wisdom "In an age when enquiry is perceived as something aggressive that attacks the pit face of the unknown with the pick-axe of the intellect, or seeks to dissect the mysterious with the scapel of the analytical intelligence, it is surprising to find knowledge presented as feminine - intuitive, passive, receptive. . . wisdom is not a human accomplishment but a gift from God.”
Stern goes into much more ... but this is a taste.
"Karl Stern, following in the footsteps of the great psychologist [Carl Jung], has revived the picture of a defeminized, dehumanized West, rich in technology but desperately poor in intuition, poor in the wisdom called sophia. . ."
"love is inimical [hostile, in opposition to] to the slowness of discursive thinking, and if (even in human affairs) love flies straight to its object unencumbered by roundabout discourse, is it not understandable that the love of God will be intolerent of thinking and reasoning and cause a certain ligature [something used to bind or unite]."
A final quote about wisdom "In an age when enquiry is perceived as something aggressive that attacks the pit face of the unknown with the pick-axe of the intellect, or seeks to dissect the mysterious with the scapel of the analytical intelligence, it is surprising to find knowledge presented as feminine - intuitive, passive, receptive. . . wisdom is not a human accomplishment but a gift from God.”
Stern goes into much more ... but this is a taste.
September 27, 2022
Absolutely wonderful. Amazed this was published almost 60 years ago. It's prescience regarding the "fleshless ciphers" to come is astounding. I purchased a few months ago but held off reading; some nagging thought in my head that it would be a tad too polemical. But it's nothing of the sort. Really it's a history of the progression away from poetic knowledge to technique, moving through the works of Descartes, Schopenhauer, Ibsen, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Goethe... highly recommend.
September 27, 2010
The book starts off well enough with the division of epistemology into a analytical form with the author calls masculine and an intuitive form he calls feminine. He than tries to show the abandonment of the feminine form starting with the dualism of Desecrate to Schopenhauer but than gets side tracked from his theme by Sartre. I had to stop reading by the time he got to Goethe.
October 4, 2024
I’m no psychologist, nor am I a philosopher; but this book from the 1960s by German-Canadian Karl Stern is very fascinating and enriching for today’s world. This sparked many discussions with friends about poetic knowledge and scientific knowledge, and how we understand the world around us. It’s very textbook-ish, so not a light read by any stretch; but I certainly found it well worth the effort.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews