OCR Text |
Show (Munich Savant Writes Book That Stirs Debate CALLS HYSTERIA AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE Si Dr. Aub Decl ares Trail of Hysteria Is Over I All Modern Philosophy, Drama, l Art, Literature and Music. jjg By Basil Lambert u TTk ERIjIN", May J3. Frionrls of now Kjf E- movcmeuts iti philosophy, litcra- HK fl J i tiro ami arf. arc angrily miar- HI reling with u book issued by H!m Professor Ilormann Aub of Munich. mtM Aub is an universally recognized wKm& specialist in nervous licnHes, and the wHsi title o'l' his booh, "Hysteria in Men."' Ijfiw therefore at first excited no chal- I5fs lenRC-. It sets out, ostensibly to prove IMg the impartial thesis that men sutler ; iw from hysteria as well as women, f Sjjj But while atarlinir thus innocently, j HI J)r. Aub lets himself ko ferociously against practically the whole intcllec- g it tunl achievements of Europe during ffjj tho past century. Not brain, not in- Bm spiration, not mental travail is the H cause, he declares, of Europe's recent anj art. Hysteria, simple, unattractive fSS hysteria, is the fountain of all. W&u Astonishing Thesis. iI Tho path to this astonishing thesis mva is. paved with painful statistics as to the commonness of hysteria among men. Hysteria is no mere woman's M jj ailment. T.n France, it is estimated, J? B there is one male sufferer to every two m female; and there arc some ranks of svj ! 'French society where men sufferers arc l B in an actual majority. Even the S q working man is often a victim. & 4 The disease pervades armies, and HI 1 in war seizes whole bodies of soldiers, iii who, under privation and strain, see "on masse" visions of thincs which do not exist. Hysteria, as a fact, is an infectious disease, and therefore a I',modekrankllcit," a disease of fashion. fash-ion. 11 appeared as a mass disease in the middle ages in the shape of the Crusade mania, and now it lias revisited re-visited Europe in the shape of a mass disease of the h.ypcrinlellcctual. Hysteria got its rip upon modem philosophy by claiming as its victims vic-tims the two greatest leaders in this domain Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Uoth of these men suffered badly from hysteria, .and manifested los-tcrical los-tcrical tendencies in their writings. Nietzsche- spent the second part of his life in a madhouse, suffering from a complaint which was merely ordinary hysteria aggravated to psychosis. Nictxschc's original hvs-tcria hvs-tcria took the form of tho mania of greatness, a common form among the hysterical. Schopenhauer Affected." Schopenhauer's hysteria took an orpially common form the mania of persecution. Schopenhauer was a ''martyr of his own philosophy. " Before death finally overtook .him ho had died a thousand deaths. He lived in eternal dread of his destiny. His mania of persecution showed itself m his unceasing flights from eholcra, fropi poisoned tobacco, from newspapers; newspa-pers; and also in his practice of Jet ing his notes in English, Latin, or Greek to prevent others understanding understand-ing what he was about. When two such marked hysterical types gainod command of Europo's intellect, says Aub, it is inevitable that hysteria, being infectious, should crop up everywhere. "Nietzchc and Schopenhauer are the foundations upon which practically all modern literature, litera-ture, art and music arc built- Yet both these men had pathological natures; na-tures; how much more marked pathological, patho-logical, then, must be their' philosophy, the product of their diseased spirits. And it is on this utterly rotten foundation founda-tion that rest our intellectual achieve nieuts and our new mental culture." The resultant hysteria shows itself most plainly in the drama. "The pathological, the directly hysterical plavs a painfully great role in the dramatic productions of modern poets. The chief representative and protagonist prot-agonist of this tendency is JTcnrik Ibsen. In him varying hysterical tendencies are easy discerned." One such tendency, says Aub, is Ibsen's changeability of temper and trend, lie changed' continually. First ho was a romantic, then a realist, then a symbolist, and lastly a mystic. His plays arc thronged mainly with iu-snne, iu-snne, psychopathic or hysterical types. Ibsen owed his success to this very fact. Ho had a ready-made .hysterical audience, to whom by his very intellectual in-tellectual deficiencies he appealed. Hysteria and Skeptics. "How was it," askod Dr. Aub, "that the strange productions of a man of negation, of scepticism, of pessimism, a man who never' roso to real inspiration or noble pathos, nevertheless never-theless made a march of triumph across Europe? The answer is: because of HERMANN AUB. certain tendencies of the time, of certain cer-tain . movements which had their origin outside the domain of poetry; in other words, because of the hystericisation of our modern society." Tn Germany Aub finds that hysteria is the explanation of and origin of most modern art. " Ilauptniann 's specialty is the hysteria of the proletariat," pro-letariat," whereas his compatriot. Sudoi'mann, deals with the hysterical rottenness of the smart world. Wcdc-kind, Wcdc-kind, Strindberg. Maeterlinck and D 'AnnuiiJo all show hysterical traits. u painting, it. was England which led the way in hysteria. The prc-Raphaelites, prc-Raphaelites, and in particular Burue Jones and Kossotti, painted under "general, pathological hysteria." Their women types, in particular, show the malady in the form of "hyper-sensitivo "hyper-sensitivo impressionability, backed by dull sensuality and mixed with the intentionally mediaeval." Millet, Mounter and the post-impressionists, Gauguin- and van Gogh, arc marked hysteria sufferers. The great Boecklin was hysterical, as is shown .by the unnatural un-natural contrast between the lustv life of his fauns, nixies, naiads and sea monsters on one hand, and. on the oth':r the seclusion, meditation and death upon whirh he loved to harp. The Hungarian painter, Mnnkacsy, dealt in "religious mass hysteria " of the typical medincvnl kind. The specialty .of Josef Israels, Meissonier and Tneffncrt is "proletarian mass hysteria." In modern sculpture, Rodin is hysterical. But, the best typical, example of the hysterical in stone is Bartholomew's "Monument aux Morts," in the Parisian cemetery of Pore I jii Chaise. In Mimical World. In music. ' Wagner, Debussy and Richard Strauss aro classed together Bi victims of hysteria. Dr. Aub's diagnosis of Wagner closely accords with his diagnosis of Schopcnhauor. Wagner was over oscillating between intense work and nervous depression. Tho extraordinary music of Tticlmrd Strauss can be explained by nothing except nervous abnormality and the nervous abnormality of his audiences is the great cause of his success, AubV condemnation of modern society so-ciety is naturally awaking much opposition. op-position. Tt. is " comonrcd with Max Nordan's "Degeneration." But Aub has greater scientific qualifications than Nordau, and ho is more discriminating discrimi-nating and precise in his impeachment. impeach-ment. Tt is consoling to think that Aub does not hold that hysteria will keep its grip on modern civilization forever. TTc quotes 'Domoerifoifl to the effect, that "one fool is enough to make n wholo country of fools." The infoetious malady of hysteria spread, in fact, from one man to another until un-til it contaminated all society. But likewise, as with other epidemics, it may at any moment subside, and the world will t then be restored to its pristine sanity and joy. |