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The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century

Peter Watson

4.29 · Rating details · 951 ratings · 94 reviews

From Freud to Babbitt, from Animal Farm to Sartre to the Great Society, from the Theory of Relativity to counterculture to Kosovo, The Modern Mind is encyclopedic, covering the major writers, artists, scientists, and philosophers who produced the ideas by which we live. Peter Watson has produced a fluent and engaging narrative of the intellectual tradition of the twentieth ...more

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Paperback, 847 pages

Published July 23rd 2002 by Harper Perennial (first published 2000)

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Sep 28, 2007 Paul Bryant rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: giant-ongoing-reference-type-books

This is a splendid intellectual history of 20th century ideas but I'm wondering if there's any point in me finishing it as I believe my brain is actually full. I'm very concerned that every time I learn a new fact I have to forget an old one. And the one I forget might be something significant. I don't want to have to stop a policeman on the streets of Nottingham and say "Excuse me officer, could you please tell me where I live and perhaps take me back there? And on the way I'll tell you about S ...more

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Sep 11, 2020 Bryan Alkire rated it it was ok

Not really for me. It seemed overambitious and overly long. Some things were interesting, but most wasn’t. It didn’t help that most of it was so dry there was a good chance I nodded off at least once per reading session. As far as content went, it was mostly ok though the author was fond of stringing together lists of thinkers without saying anything about them. I’m not sure this book is worth buying. Still, although it’s not written as such, it might serve as a handy reference book to the intel ...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Marc rated it it was ok

Shelves: history

What a whopper of a book (more than 800 pages)! After 20 pages I thought I never would reach the end: this is an encyclopedic accumulation of known persons that made the 20th Century. But still I continued reading and after 3 months of toil, I have to say: hats off to the erudition of Watson! Especially the last part is meritorious, because it creates order in the cultural production of the last decades of that century.

Remains the justified criticism that there is no real line in the story. Wat ...more

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Nov 15, 2007 Todd N rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: anyone remotely interested in thought in the 20th century

This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. I am always curious about the history of ideas and how influential ideas can be so pervasive in our lives as to be almost invisible. This book starts with the discovery (and re-discovery in some instances) of the gene, quantum, and subconscious in 1900 and works its way through the century as people wrestle with Freud, Darwin, and Marx. Along the way, Watson identifies science, the free market, and mass media as the most important forces. ...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Loring Wirbel rated it it was amazing

One approaches a massive tome with big ambitions under the assumption that the author probably covered the territory rather well, but it's rare to find something as satisfying in multiple dimensions as 'The Modern Mind.' Jacket blurbs and some reviews suggest dipping into this work in encyclopedic fashion, in a manner similar to dabbling with 'The Autobiography of Mark Twain.' No way. The author is telling an important story of the 20th century, one that deserves a straightforward read, even if One approaches a massive tome with big ambitions under the assumption that the author probably covered the territory rather well, but it's rare to find something as satisfying in multiple dimensions as 'The Modern Mind.' Jacket blurbs and some reviews suggest dipping into this work in encyclopedic fashion, in a manner similar to dabbling with 'The Autobiography of Mark Twain.' No way. The author is telling an important story of the 20th century, one that deserves a straightforward read, even if such a read sounds daunting at 772 pages. When I give this five stars, it means five solid stars, one of the most fascinating nonfiction books I've ever read.

One of Watson's critical points is disclosed in the introduction. He charges the cultural-literati side of the intellectual elite with making itself obsolete by ignoring or at best passing over the achievements of science in the past century. In the conclusion, Watson expands upon this by saying the traditional philosophy and liberal-arts-studies intellectuals got so hung up with Marx and Freud, they forgot where the important work was coming from. When some in the 1990s complained there were no "public intellectuals" any longer, they didn't realize that this function was no longer served by the likes of Sartre and Daniel Bell, but by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Steven Jay Gould. In essence, the liberal-arts vanguard ceded this space to the scientists.

But don't think that Watson gives literature or traditional philosophy short shrift in his review of the 20th century. He gives all dimensions of intellectual pursuits equal opportunity. And he covers the important literature coming out of Africa, India, and the Middle East. But in so doing, he comes to an important and critical conclusion. Watson and his editors went out of their way to be multicultural along several fronts, only to find that most scientific, literary, philosophical "new ideas" of the 20th century did indeed come out of the realm of "dead white guys" - the Western world. Watson gives fair shakes to everyone from Noam Chomsky to Edward Said who criticize this outlook, but he still comes to the conclusion that the Western nations increased their lead in new ideas during the last century. The biggest factor influencing this, Watson says, is the role of religious fundamentalism, or even open-minded traditionalism of the Hindu or Confucian variety. Where emotional attachment to traditional faith endures, he says, new ideas wither on the vine. This is particularly true of Islam since the 1970s, he says, which is a shame. You don't have to fully subscribe to Samuel Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations' to realize that Islam has a problem with reinvention.

Watson's coverage of the early century and the post-WW1 period is exciting and refreshing, particularly in the way he looks to movements like Dada as deliberate infusions of primitivism into a culture that has been too hung up in its own self-examination. Watson does not go so far as to say barbarism is a nice antidote to too much classicism, though it's clear he likes the whimsical subversion of Dada, the Beats, situationism, punks, etc. Later in the book, he gently chides Allan Bloom for his book "Closing of the American Mind," for its assumption that rock music was a horrible dumb-downer for classical music, and that the cultural world of the Greeks and Romans represented a pinnacle that was never recovered. Watson doesn't poke direct fun of Bloom, but suggests he should hang out with the barbarians a little more.

For someone who thinks both Freud and Marx were stultifying time-wasters for the academic mainstream, Watson gives the psychoanalysts and class-analysts fair coverage throughout the book. He also gives existentialists and post-modernists proper due, though he clearly thinks they wasted a lot of time in the past century. Sometimes, Watson covers the likes of Hayek and Friedman enough to make one think he might be libertarian, though he makes clear in the conclusion that he is not a laissez-faire capitalist of the Austrian school. In that sense, my views are very close to Watson's. He says that Marx provided an interesting way of looking at inequality and exploitation, before Lenin and Stalin destroyed anything worthy in Marx's views. He says that Freud and Jung provided an interesting way of examining consciousness, though the 1990s studies of neural-networks and self-organizing sentience (not to mention the biochemical basis of mental disease), pretty much trashed most Freudian theory.

Watson provides a careful analysis of how modernist and post-modernist culture affected intellectual development in the last 40 years of the 20th century, without becoming one of those pessimistic hand-wringers who think television and the Internet have dumbed us down. His conclusion, 'The Positive Hour,' is downright optimistic in the face of the tough environmental and economic challenges our species faces in the 21st century. If the traditional cultural-literate academia would tone down the Foucault and Derrida a little bit and study their science and math, Watson suggests, we'd all be a little better off. In that sense, I could chide Watson for not covering enough 'science-centered fiction' among the authors that have done just what he suggested - Vonnegut, LeGuin,and Pynchon in the early years, followed by Stephenson, Gibson, Powers, Sterling, D.F. Wallace, etc. at century's end. If Watson would have covered a little more punk, cyberpunk, and future-nihilist literature-culture of the 1970s through 1990s, his conclusion might have been even more optimistic about our chances to continue our development as a species. The trick is to listen to the classicists a little less, and the barbarians a little more. I found myself so much in agreement with many of Watson's points, I almost hated to finish this marvelous, whimsical, and occasionally downright humorous review of intellectual pursuit.

...more

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Apr 29, 2014 Jan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 21st-century, nonfiction, history-of-ideas

Did you ever see a 10-foot pointillism painting by Seurat and not recognize the picture until you stepped way back from the canvass? Did you ever assemble one of those tile mosaic kits and not know if you did it right until you backed away?

Peter Watson is an intellectual historian at Cambridge and he summarized the works of the leading minds of the past century and tries to piece together a coherent narrative of the past century.

These fragments became part of a mosaic in his hands.
This is a his ...more

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Apr 05, 2020 Sally Morem rated it it was amazing

I loved it. All that great intellectual history, not just derived from philosophy and the arts, but from science, technology, politics, and the great disasters of the 20th century. A feast for any intellectual of any political persuasion.

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Feb 02, 2020 Boudewijn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, evolution, non-fiction, amazon-bought, economics, on-ereader, english, science, downloaded

A grand overview (more than 700 pages) overview of the developments in arts and science, starting from Freud to the modern time. Although not everything did resonate with me, it was well worth the effort.

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Dec 27, 2012 Philipp rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

It took me what, 7 months to read this book? It's a massive book trying to summarize the history of knowledge in the 20th century, ending with the rise of "pop-science-books" and starting with

The history of the 20th century is not easy and as such, this book is not really "bed-lecture" to be easily digested: it's not uncommon that the authors throws ten names at you in one paragraph. Sometimes the ideas are hard to comprehend, but Watson always does a good job to explain everything in laymen's ...more

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Oct 31, 2008 Jon rated it really liked it

This book serves two purposes. First, it provides a meta-narrative of 20th-century intellectual history that ties together the scientific, artistic, and socioeconomic trends of the last 100 years into an overarching story of increasing individualism and alienation. On that count, it satisfyingly explains over the course of 800 small-print pages what countless other authors have explored in-depth in 200 or 300 pages. Second, it gives the reader a jumping-off point for literally hundreds of possib ...more

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Aug 13, 2020 Lisajean rated it really liked it

Shelves: sociocultural, history

I enjoyed every page! Very engaging and well put together.

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Sep 04, 2009 Narendran rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I had finished this book long long time back and was looking at my library, and realized I haven't put note on this remarkable book.
I started Peter Watson with 'Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud' which is a seminal book on the ideas which shaped human culture, and this is another master piece on art, intellectual, scientific and technological history of 20th century. The narrative is brilliant, the content rich and thick, at the same time a pleasant, enriching read. ...more

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Oct 03, 2018 Jafar Isbarov rated it it was amazing

Shelves: politics, history, read-in-english, science, philosophy

20th century was...huge. It bore the most children ever; it killed the most soldiers ever. It wrote the most words ever; it burnt the most books ever. It unearthed the most history ever; it brushed aside the most traditions ever. Studying it, in proper sense of the word, is an ideal to strive for only if it is understood to be out of reach.

Few books make me feel as indebted to the author. The amount of dedication and hard work put into this years-long project is daunting; even more so, once you ...more

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Sep 14, 2008 Manderson rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

This compendium of modern thought and intellectual achievement is a remarkably breezy read, given that it could just as easily have been a dry and nauseating regurgitation of lists and names. Watson strings a tight narrative out of the history of modern man, providing a compelling perspective of the evolution in arts, sciences, and providing both caution and hope for future human achievement. Watson delves not only into humanity's heights of innovation, but also the stark and abject failures of ...more

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Nov 23, 2015 Marc rated it liked it · review of another edition

A real doorstopper, this is, and rather dense. After 20 pages I thought I would never get through it: it is an encyclopaedic accumulation of especially well-known names, without much line. But I persisted and after 3 months of toil, I have to say: hats off for the erudition of Watson! The last part in particular is brilliant, because it creates order in the cultural production of the last decades of the twentieth century.

The justified criticism remains that there is no real line in the story. I ...more

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Sep 06, 2009 Ed rated it it was amazing

Brilliant comprehensive and balanced intellectual history of the 20th century that complements his other volume that covers from the beginning to 1900: From Fire to Freud.

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Jun 21, 2014 Tso William rated it really liked it

Shelves: history, non-fiction, intellectual-history

Reading this book is like having a buffet. There is so many brilliant ideas to consume that you felt you are over-feeding yourself without knowing it.

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This article reviews two masterpieces of intellectual history: From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life (by Jacques Barzun) and The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century (by Peter Watson)

R ...more

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Nov 29, 2018 Stone rated it it was amazing

Shelves: connection

I am actually grateful that someone on this very planet has actually taken the time and effort to read and review all these important works and ideas, and collected, organised, compared then summarised them here in this book. This book has its unequalled weight and might not because it has made any major breakthrough in some areas that blew people's mind, but because it has critically looked at other contributions in a scientific, historical and philosophical way, comprehensively.

What I read wa ...more

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Jul 03, 2019 Kim Marshall rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, history, religion, psychology, philosophy, science, sociology, politics

This is a massive tome and an amazing achievement by it's author Peter Watson. It took me some weeks to devour it but the effort was rewarding. I must admit to being somewhat miffed that Watson has not gone back and added an addendum that would bring the book a bit up to date. In particular I miss a discussion of 9-11 or more the recent advent of science's ability to measure gravitational waves. Then of course there is the impact of cell-phones and social media on our lives and much more. But th This is a massive tome and an amazing achievement by it's author Peter Watson. It took me some weeks to devour it but the effort was rewarding. I must admit to being somewhat miffed that Watson has not gone back and added an addendum that would bring the book a bit up to date. In particular I miss a discussion of 9-11 or more the recent advent of science's ability to measure gravitational waves. Then of course there is the impact of cell-phones and social media on our lives and much more. But the book is, after all, about the 20th century and these do belong properly to the 21st. Still I miss them!

Being a scientist myself I must admit to be particularly pleased with Watson's rather through treatment of this subject in the past century. Still overall I came away from this reading with a bit of a hopeless feeling. This feeling is caused by the realization that though much has changed since 1900, very little that ails our world order has really improved. The ghosts of 1939 Germany seem to me to be haunting the world even today, particularly in the US.

In my mind probably the biggest event of the 20th century, with huge potential social impact, was man's first steps on the moon and our new ability to look back from space and see our planet, our only home, floating through the cold and lonely vacuum of space. On this blue watered oasis in space, one finds everyone you know, and or have ever heard of, and the billions you have not. All of these humans have lived and died or will die, here. But still we humans cannot find whatever it takes within us to put aside our differences and realize that no religious dogma, no tribal loyalty, no selfish focus, no dedication to whatever exclusive canon you may trust, will save us from ourselves. As this history of the 20th century points out again and again, we are all more alike than we are different. We ride through space with our brothers and our sisters, all. Still we are all doomed, and we will likely take much of the animal world with us, unless we accept the fact that we are all riding this same ball through space and what happens to our brothers and sisters will eventually impact us all. Getting along and taking care of our only ride through space and time is the only choice we have. That is at least if we choose to survive for much longer as a species.

From Watson's conclusion:
There is ... "an interesting absence (in this book) that readers may have noticed. I refer to the relative dearth of non-Western thinkers. When this book was conceived, it was my intention (and the publishers’) to make the text as international and multicultural as possible. The book would include not just European and North American – Western – ideas, but would delve into the major non-Western cultures to identify their important ideas and their important thinkers, be they philosophers, writers, scientists, or composers. I began to work my way through scholars who specialized in the major non-Western cultures: India, China, Japan, southern and central Africa, the Arab world. I was shocked (and that is not too strong a word) to find that they all (I am not exaggerating, there were no exceptions) came up with the same answer, that in the twentieth century, the non-Western cultures have produced no body of work that can compare with the ideas of the West. In view of the references throughout the book to racism, I should make it clear that a good proportion of these scholars were themselves members of those very non-Western cultures. More than one made the point that the chief intellectual effort of his or her own (non-Western) culture in the twentieth century has been a coming to terms with modernity, learning how to cope with or respond to Western ways and Western patterns of thought, chiefly democracy and science. "

Watson goes on to point out that:
"One person that may offer a clue to this discrepancy is Sir Vidia Naipaul. In 1981 Naipaul visited four Islamic societies – Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. ... (and) In all four places, he said, Islam drew its strength from a focus on the past that prevented development, and that very lack of development meant that the peoples of the Islamic nations could not cope in the West. The 'rage' and 'anarchy' induced by this kept them locked into the faith - and so the circle continues."

For me these observations, made as they were at the close of the 20th century, were a dark and prophetic warning of what the new century would harbor. This world would witness the results of this 'rage and 'anarchy' in only the second year of the new millennium with the attacks of September 11, 2001. And this is not to mention the reaction, or should I say over reaction, that these attacks would induced from the Western world. In my mind, we westerners have a tendency to lay the fault for these actions, as terrible as they were, at the feat of all non-white and non-Anglo Saxons. When in fact the cause is deeper. It is both cultural and intellectual or perhaps more accurately anti-intellectual. Clearly, we ignore the pain and angst that this modern world brings to diverse peoples at our own peril.

I must admit to being a bit shocked by this revelations. I, not being of a particularly religious bent, had never considered the psychological differences induced in the faithful by the various world religions. But in hindsight this observation is a potent one. Please believe me I am not intending to be anti-Islamic. But the truth remains these are many of the disenfranchise. And they wish to turn the clock back and push us back into a world of pre-20th century being, were they are or were more comfortable.

All of this and much more I gleaned from reading this "Intellectual History of the 20th Century". It is assuredly worth the effort to read it all. But to be truthful few are likely to do so. Such effort is not in the DNA of the many of us in this modern world. But if you read nothing else you should read the concluding and final chapter of this great book. I believe and hope it alone will teach you something that will make your life a bit more worth living. I know it did this for me. ...more

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Apr 24, 2010 Ahmed AlDulaijan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history-of-ideas

A truly fascinating book. Watson takes the reader into epic journey in the human intellect starting from 1900 all the way through the twentieth century, stopping at 2000. It is a concise chronological encyclopedia which works great as a guide for the evolution of many concepts we speak of daily such equality, beauty, economics, experiment, etc.

I only wish he had waited until 9/11, so we could've seen his take on the ideas that lead to this event. He may even have been forced to reconsider that o ...more

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Mar 09, 2008 Ananth Subramanian rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Ananth by: A Friend

Talks about the great thinkers and innovations of the 20th century.

It is heavy reading. However for any one one interested in learning about the ideas,innovations and thoughts that shaped the 20th century this is a authentic and good source.

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Jan 31, 2015 Vikas Datta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A veritable tour de force of concepts, thought and works that permeated the century... a must read for anyone who wants to chart the various tides of intellectual ferment and achievement it had... on the other hand, missed a few key ideas - liberation theology for one..

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Jul 27, 2010 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Chockful of information, but inevitably laborious. Read prudently and don't take a 6-month long break from it. ...more

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Dec 10, 2010 Richard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: from, c, 1900, world, history

superb tour through the ideas of the 20th century. every topic is treated with the same enthusiasm and verve. can become a bit overwhelming but damn it's a good book ...more

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Oct 24, 2018 ShawnLeeZX rated it it was amazing

Shelves: philosophy

If I would like to summarize the book in one sentence, it would be: after science gradually showed that human race is not more than a highly evolved wild animal, and the binding force of religion, and the collective survival press that build community faded away, how the race instinctively, and consciously sought a new order, which for now is elusive.

The information conveyed in the book is as strong as the ones from *From Dawn to Decadence* By Jacque, and the message --- for the modern part, sin If I would like to summarize the book in one sentence, it would be: after science gradually showed that human race is not more than a highly evolved wild animal, and the binding force of religion, and the collective survival press that build community faded away, how the race instinctively, and consciously sought a new order, which for now is elusive.

The information conveyed in the book is as strong as the ones from *From Dawn to Decadence* By Jacque, and the message --- for the modern part, since *Modern Mind* only discusses this part, which is in a much more detail than *Dawn --- agrees: that is, current era is the nadir of the Western civilization, where the liberty, rationality, passion, and morality, from the Reformation, Age of Reason, Age of Romantics, and Victoria periods, were torn down one by one by relativism, aesthetics, and the dark side of Darwin's discovery.

The answer, though how much tentative it may be, also in a large proportion agrees. In *Dawn*, Jacque envisions human society in the future would be run by technocracy, where the mathematical thinking is the new Latin. Though the projection is of longer term, where the future that the society is run by techies is described in a rather bleak tone, giving the feeling that no exciting future seems will come from this rational thinking. In certain sense, I feel this is true, for that is what I feel. However, the zen-like calmness is not because, at least for me, I do not find the future exciting, but I realize how hard and long term it would be for societies to change by the force of science and technology, accompanying corresponding philosophy, and how tiny the human race compared with the vast universe. In *Modern Mind*, the author looks at the problems that are in the near future, and still has the hope that the advance in the western societies can help the third world, while in *Dawn*, Jacque states in a disappointing tone that the advanced would let the third world die out of the passion for war, which I do not blame the author, since that feels like the attitude of the majority of the citizens of the developed states. The answer provided in *Modern Mind* is that science can gradually unravel the domain of arts, philosophy, literature, and scientists have the potential to be the next intellectuals (though this is the opinion of Johnsman mostly, the advocate of the *Third Culture*). The language of science would give a common ground for all societies, and let them communicate and build a larger confederation than the nationalism could provide. If human society could successfully operate without inducing the bloodshed happened in the two world war, which fueled by social Darwinism, Communism, Nationalism, the common ground that could provide by science is the the most promising answer.

The answer is at least not discouraging, which is also what I have in mind, though I do not want to describe it here, for the map has not been completely mapped out yet. In short, I believe things can be fixed, before the system failure, or it must be fixed.

Personally, the book gave me a relief, though not a big one. In a way, I have been hunted by ghosts in the part, the Confucianism, Communism, Liberalism, Libertarianism; the ghost from the classic age, and the ideology age. It is a comfort to know these ages are gone, and it tore away the distortion lens that were placed in front of my eyes, and dispelled many confusion, or questions. In some way, I have lived at an age that is blended by the thousands of years ago one, and the one hundred years ago one. The time has changed, for better, or for worse. Science has come to rescue in the past, so it is for now. Scientists may have a much large responsibility than they carried in the past ages, which were mainly done by the public intellectuals. It is not to say that intellectuals have been replaced by scientists, which is wrong in every way, since most scientists are professionals works for reputation, or bread, but that public intellectuals and scientists have merged, and it is up to the top ones to guide the earth spaceship.

The journey keeps going, for better, or for worse, but it is at least not nostalgia. ...more

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Mar 24, 2019 SecondMe80 rated it liked it

Shelves: 50_for_2019, nonfiction, modern-world-and-tech, feb19

I found the book strong and even entertaining in the paragraphs where it recounts specific discoveries and inventions. As an opus total, the work is rather disappointing, as it is no more than a collection of stories about brilliant minds, sometimes interspersed with criticism of ideas that did not turn out to be quite as brilliant.
However, I would have wished for a text that spans nearly 800 pages to take me, as its reader, more by the hand. Of course, Watson's style is directive in that he tel ...more

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Aug 30, 2020 Don Powers rated it it was amazing

What a terrific story! Watson describes the parade of ideas that have influenced human development since around 1900. He identifies the turning points when a sudden advance in understanding or a discovery alters dramatically the playing fields of science, the arts, philosophy, religion, culture. Obvious examples are "Evolution" and "Relativity" but their repercussions are multifarious and sometimes contradictory as Watson explicates them.
Important to note: this massive tome should not be intimi ...more

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May 02, 2018 Craigtator rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-rated, book-orphanage

Over 800 pages, he name drops probably close to a thousand thinkers and discusses several hundred topics. Along the way he establishes linkages between psychology, art, literature, physics, chemistry, biology and math.

It should have been called The Western Modern Mind. I have trouble believing that the Asians, Africans, and South Americans scant descriptions here reflect their contribution to twentieth century thought.

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Jul 27, 2020 Mike Eberhard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Extraordinary book. Schlorarly, thorough, complex in that it covers so much intellectual ground, brings a huge array of thoughts together and makes sense of their importance. Not a casual read. Hard to believe one person could have organized so much complexity in a single book. Masterful. It would take an educated person 6-8 months to read it cover to cover.

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Mar 26, 2019 David Small rated it it was amazing

This is really a wonderful one volume survey of twentieth century arts, culture, and science. Anyone interested in where we've been for the last one hundred years will find this book indispensable. I highly recommend it. ...more

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About Peter Watson

Peter Watson

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Peter Watson was educated at the universities of Durham, London and Rome, and was awarded scholarships in Italy and the United States.

After a stint as Deputy Editor of New Society magazine, he was for four years part of the Sunday Times ‘Insight’ team of investigative journalists. He wrote the daily Diary column of the London Times before becoming that paper’s New York correspondent. He returned t ...more

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“One of the many innovations of modernism was the new demands it placed on the audience. Music, painting, literature, even architecture, would never again be quite so 'easy' as they had been.” — 6 likes

“...for example, if Freud is wrong, as i and many others believe, where does that leave any number of novels and virtually the entire corpus of surrealism, Dada, and certain major forms of expressionism and abstraction, not to mention Richard Strauss' 'Freudian' operas such as Salome and Elektra, and the iconic novels of numerous writers such as D.H. Lawrence, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann and Virginia Woolf? It doesn't render these works less beautiful or pleasurable, necessarily, but it surely dilutes their meaning. They don't owe their entire existence to psychoanalysis. But if they are robbed of a large part of their meaning, can they retain their intellectual importance and validity? Or do they become period pieces? I stress the point because the novels, paintings and operas referred to above have helped to popularise and legitimise a certain view of human nature, one that is, all evidence to the contrary lacking, wrong.” — 5 likes

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The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century

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