Physics Envy Part I: Einstein, Freud...and Dr. Coutinho

	‘In a MOLT minute’ ~ We dream of the day stopping war is as easy as stopping menstruation
Einstein working, 20^th century		PENIS ENVY: In Freudian theory, the repressed desire of females to possess a penis. Penis envy is also used generally to mean a supposed female envy of men. - The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002 PHYSICS ENVY: In Moltian theory, the repressed desire of social scientists to possess a generalized theory. Physics envy is also used generally to mean the supposed soft scientists’ envy of physicists. - MOLT

In the early 1930s, Albert Einstein, a physicist, and Sigmund Freud, a psychologist, entered into a brief correspondence.

Einstein explained to Freud that The League of Nations’ International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation had suggested he “invite a person, to be chosen by myself, to a frank exchange of views on any problem that I might select...”

The problem that Einstein selected was this: “Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?”

Freud’s lengthy response can be boiled down to one word: “no.” Freud wrote:

“The upshot of these observations, as bearing on the subject in hand, is that there is no likelihood of our being able to suppress humanity’s aggressive tendencies.”

It is intriguing that over 70 years ago, a correspondence was taking place that strangely anticipates the current menstrual suppression debate. First, we can express Einstein’s problem as a question: “Is War Obsolete?” – neatly paraphrasing the English title of Dr. Coutinho’s book: “Is Menstruation Obsolete?” Or we can express Einstein’s problem in Brazilian Portuguese, “Guerra, a Sangria Inútil” – “War, a Useless Bleeding” – again, neatly paraphrasing the title of Dr. Coutinho’s original work: “Menstruação, a Sangria Inútil,” or “Menstruation, a Useless Bleeding.”

As well, Freud casts the solution to war in terms of the “suppression” of “humanity’s aggressive tendencies.” In her forthcoming book, “Capitalizing on the Curse,” Elizabeth Kissling writes:

“...Beauvior wrote that the idea of the other is primordial as consciousness itself (p. xix); the duality of Self and Other is a fundamental category of human thought.”

Could it be that “suppression of the obsolete” is also a “fundamental category of human thought,” if not “primordial as consciousness itself,” at least primordial as the Industrial Revolution?

Einstein also observed: “...for all the zeal displayed, every attempt at its [the problem of war’s] solution has ended in lamentable breakdown.” One might conjecture, in true Freudian fashion, that menstrual suppressionists subconsciously transfer their ineffective antiwar zeal to the more promising issue of menstruation: “...if we can’t stop the useless bleeding of war, at least we can stop the useless bleeding of menstruation...”

Turning aside from these more general, if not ephemeral, considerations, we can now address the narrower question: Do the arguments put forth by menstrual suppressionists have more in common with those put forth by Freudian psychologists, or those of Einsteinian physicists?

Go to "Physics Envy: Reproducin' Relativity" Part II
Return to "Peony in a Coffee Cup: The Problem of Secondary Utility"
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