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Discussion of Dr. Rosenberger's Paper, on “The Woman's Role in Aggression”
Israel Psychoanalytic Society Meeting, July 28-30, 1970*
I have accepted the invitation to discuss Dr. Rosenberger's scholarly paper on women's destructiveness with hesitation. A direct debate on the problem in question would bring us to the fundamentals of psychoanalytic instinct theory, to the problem of sublimation, to the differences in the formation of super-ego, and above all, to the problem of female masochism which is completely avoided in Dr. Rosenberger's paper. As Dr. Rosenberger has described destructiveness in women, I take the liberty of bringing 3 examples of women devoted constructively to the peace effort.
I was especially interested in Dr. Rosenberger's question, “Why have women in the entire history of mankind never made an organized effort to prevent war?” I agree with her that the unorganized group outbursts under the domination of despair and rage so typical in social revolutions are not an argument against her statement. But modern history of the fight for peace carries the names of women fighting individually with different weapons against war. I go back to the noblest form of fighting for peace, connected with the name Nobel and his foundation. His name and his continuing service for peace were intimately associated with the name of a woman: Bertha von Suttner. His deep friendship and admiration for her made the previous manufacturer of the most terrible war-weapon, dynamite,