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About this quote

What does it mean?
Freud suggests that biological and anatomical differences fundamentally shape human destiny and social roles.
In plain terms
Your physical body determines your life path.
What can you take from it?
Biology heavily influences life outcomes.

Where it applies

  • gender studies
  • philosophy of science
  • psychoanalysis

Putting it to work

  • analyze gender expectations
  • review biological influences

Questions to consider

  • How much does biology determine your future?
  • Can culture override anatomical destiny?

Another view

This view overlooks social and cultural factors that shape destiny.

More from Sigmund Freud

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  2. Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average. His ego approximates to that of the psychotic in some part or other and to a greater or lesser ext…

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  3. Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.

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