Modernism and Madness
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff
Total Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Drawing from historical accounts and contemporary analysis, Dr. Leonard Peikoff illustrates the disturbing connections between mental disorders, specifically schizophrenia, and modern art. Peikoff indicates the parallels between cultural decline in the arts and the rise of mental illness.
Study Guide
This material is designed to help you digest the lecture content. You can also download a printable PDF version below.
| What is Peikoff’s explanation of the proper understanding of schizophrenia? |
| How does the schizophrenic characteristically approach metaphysical questions? |
| What role does the form/technique distinction play in modern art? |
| What are some of the characteristic thinking errors made by schizophrenics? |
| How does the modern philosophic approach commit the same errors? |
| What are some of the common characteristics of the schizophrenic and modern cultural leaders? |
| What are the philosophic essentials behind the modernist/schizophrenic approach? |
| What is the root cause of this transformation in philosophic orientation? |
Q&A Guide
Below is a list of questions from the audience taken from this lecture, along with (approximate) time stamps.
| 1:01:24 | What are your greatest, personal favorite works of art in history? |
| 1:03:25 | Where does one draw the line with modern art or modern philosophy, such as M.C. Escher with his art, which is realistic but at the same time modern? Where can you draw the line? |
| 1:05:05 | It has been described that there was a split in our country between the intellectuals and the average person, that most people don’t believe this garbage. Does that split still exist in our society? You describe in your book The Ominous Parallels that it did not exist in Germany. Does it still exist today and to what extent is it closing? |
| 1:07:11 | With regards to your reference about car chases in movies, I’m looking forward to one movie that won’t have any car chases and I was wondering if you had any information on the production of the movie Atlas Shrugged? |
| 1:09:17 | What do you know about the remake of The Fountainhead? |
| 1:10:18 | What in your opinion is the role and value of cooperation in society, and what in your opinion are the conditions for its success? |
| 1:14:37 | Do you believe that the issue of primacy of consciousness in a person exists on a continuum and that schizophrenia represents the extreme and that, in a given man, it can be mixed—that he can have certain premises, like “wishing makes it so,” but overall is not that kind of person? |
| 1:19:01 | You seem to have thrown into this basket of schizophrenia-oriented any kind of idealism. As a mathematician, we work in the realm of the mind when we try to solve an engineering problem… |
| 1:21:45 | There are many other non-Western philosophies that actually hold the primacy of consciousness and the irrational principles at its base. What is it about Kant’s philosophy in Western culture that made schizophrenia so prevalent? |
| 1:24:47 | What effect do you think the glorification of madness in our society has had upon social interaction in the cultural environment, in terms of people being able to look at each other with respect and in terms of being able to feel they can trust other people without really knowing them, like the “man on the street” type situation? Do you think it has had a profound effect on the cultural atmosphere? |
| 1:29:34 | I was here in early 1992 when you spoke and recommended that the members of the audience vote for President Clinton. Given the stated reason being “an imperative for change,” I was hoping you could articulate the Objectivist principle that would morally justify a vote for a perpetrator of force. Isn’t this pragmatic? |