The Mind and Death of a Genius: By David Abrahamsen, M.D. New York: Columbia University Press, 1946. 228 pp.

Writing in 1928 on the interrelation between genius, insanity and fame, Wilhelm Lange-Eichbaum1 made a cursory remark that the life and philosophy of Otto Weininger (1880–1903) 'deserves a new

psychoanalytic and psychiatric interpretation' (p. 431). This book by Dr. Abrahamsen is a new attempt to reinterpret the eccentric personality of the author of Geschlecht und Charakter.

It is now impossible to understand the storm of controversial discussions and heated polemics Weininger and his book produced. The enormous output of literature in defense and against his book, Sex and Character, which the author published at the age of 23, is a unique episode in cultural history of Europe. Judging by the diverse and polyglotic literature, the generation of Otto Weininger believed that a new planet had swum into the ken of psychology. That his name was soon forgotten, save for an esoteric group of faithful disciples who made attempts to keep his memory alive, is no wonder. The development of modern psychoanalytic psychology made Weininger's philosophy partly obsolete.

Whether he was a genius, and Freud thought he was (p. 51), or just a daring precocious mind with amazing erudition and excellent journalistic style—these are problems of keen interest to any psychologist and psychiatrist.

Abrahamsen interprets Weininger's life with much clinical acumen and in a very detached, almost academic fashion. He was fortunate to assemble new material concerning Weininger's family background, and he utilized it very skilfully in portraying the life of the young genius-scholar. The author grasped the significance of the spirit of Vienna in those years, without which the meteoric appearance of a Weininger is inexplicable. However, one regrets the omission of the beautiful autobiography by Stefan Zweig, which views in the most eloquent way with a certain retrospective nostalgia that very intellectual climate in which Weining