This text argues that sexual difference has its own psychological and physiological reality, which must affect the way we write history. These essays deal with the nature of masculinity and femininity, the importance of the irrational and unconscious in history, the cultural impact of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, and the central role of magic and witchcraft in the psychic and emotional world of the early modern period. It aims to define a different route towards understanding the body, and its relationship to culture and subjectivity.