History, the good kind

Peter Watson's The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century is a brilliant book. I should start by erasing my other blog (fiction) and bringing its content here. Watson demonstrates many times how science and arts influence each other. In a way Watson's book is a sign that post-war generations have demolished Snow's notion of two cultures (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures).

The book has so many themes that let's just recap the last chapter. It is known that Freud's and Jung's thinking has largely been based on false premises -- fictional cases and cultural references that have been proven historically incorrect. Thus, it is not surprising that psychoanalysis has been in decline. What was news to me: sociology has been in decline, too. Watson cites Horowitz who says that the number of students graduating from sociology declined from ca 36 000 in 1973 to ca 14 000 in 1992. This is quite surprising given that issues of identity (that is, of course, a fiction, but a necessary fiction), group dynamics and inclusion are as topical now as they were in the 1970's. But maybe the popularity of sociology has risen again in 2000's.

Historical persons, all kinds of

This blog entry about J. Michinson, J. Lloyd: The Book of the Dead is somewhat related to the previous entry. Indeed, many of the people who appear in Michinson and Lloyd's book (Florence Nightingale, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud) have thoroughly changed our views of the world a là "real history". But they got to do so partially by coincidence or strange personal straits. Nightingale was a mystic, and bed-ridden. Freud was probably psychotic, and at some point a morphine addict. He was obsessed about Jung until they fell apart, and after that he though Jung wanted to harm him. It may be interesting to think how much of the theory of psychoanalysis has been some kind of projection of Freud's personal fears and desires.

Marx, of course, might never have been able to carry out his independent research without the financial help and encouragement of Engels. There, too, it is interesting to think what Marxism would have become if Marx carried out his research in a normal university.