Pathologizing the artist
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Max Nordau's Degeneration aims at being a literary nosology of the Decadent Movement, but it is completely discredited by its pseudo-erudition, its grossly positivist point of view, and its insincere moral tone."--Frank Kermode in the introduction to The Romantic Agony by Mario Praz |
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The period of fin de siècle saw the rise of the pathologization of the artist and the medicalization of creativity.
Cesare Lombroso with The Man of Genius (1889) and Max Nordau's Degeneration (1892) were the first efforts in the field.
Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) by Richard von Krafft-Ebing, while not about artists in essence, also has many remarks on the pathologies of artists.
Frank Kermode in the introduction to The Romantic Agony by Mario Praz writes:
- "Max Nordau's Degeneration aims at being a literary nosology of the Decadent Movement, but it is completely discredited by its pseudo-erudition, its grossly positivist point of view, and its insincere moral tone."
Sigmund Freud, in Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1915-17) held that "an artist is once more in rudiments an introvert, not far removed from neurosis. He is oppressed by excessively powerful instinctual needs. He desires to own honour, power, wealth, fame and the love of women, but he lacks the means for achieving these satisfactions. Consequently, like any other unsatisfied man, he turns away from reality and transfers all his interest, and his libido too, to the wishful construction of his life of phantasy, whence the path might lead to neurosis."
Literature
- Anti-Zolaism
- Creativity and madness
- Degenerate art
- Divine madness
- Mad genius
- Outside artist
- Psychobiography
- Pathography
- Tortured artist
