Erratum

We have received the following communication from Dr. Henry Lowenfeld: "In his interesting review of Minutes of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, Volumes III and IV (This QUARTERLY, Vol. XLVI, No. 1. pp. 148-157) Dr. David Beres quotes a remark by Freud: 'The secret of women's physiological imbecility [sic] lies in its being a result of sexual repression. If they have been forbidden to think about what is most precious to them, then thinking in general has no value' (pp. 155-156). The editor of this volume, published after Nunberg's death, was probably not aware that here Freud quoted from the title of a book, at the time well known to psychiatrists and laymen. The book, Uber den physiologischen Schwachsinn des Weibes (About the Physiological Weakmindedness of Women) by P. J. Moebius, a famous Neurologist and Psychiatrist in Liepzig, was published in 1907. Because of its striking title, the expression became very popular at the time and for some years thereafter. Freud's use of this quotation was intended as a sharp criticism of Moebius' popular biological theory."